AMERICAN LABOUR:

SUPPORT HARVARD WORKERS:

You know times are hard when the layoffs even reach the groves of Academe. Such is the case in the hallowed halls of Harvard University in Boston, and the anarchists of the Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement (BAAM) are organizing to give support to the embattled workers. Here's the story from the pages of the Anarkismo website.

@L@L@L@L@L@L@L

Support Harvard Workers: Calling All Anarchists
Come out to demand "No Layoffs!" at the world's richest university
Calling all Anti-Authoritarians and Anarchists:

The Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement is calling on our friends and comrades to join us at the rally for Harvard Workers, March 25, 5pm at the Holyoke Center, a Harvard Administration Building (1350 Mass. Ave, next to Au Bon Pain, steps from the Harvard T). This action is a part of an ongoing No Layoffs Campaign launched this summer, organized by various militant members of the Harvard unions. Anarchists have participated in the No Layoffs Campaign since the beginning, and have a good relationship with the campaign's organizers, who have asked us to come out in full force, and to bring out our colors.

Thus, we are calling for anti-authoritarians to come and walk the picket line with us. Bring your black flags, and wear your bandannas around your necks (please). These events have been peaceful so far, there is no need to dress in black bloc, but a clear demonstration that anti-authoritarians support the Harvard workers will send a nice message to the Harvard Corporation. We want to scare Harvard, not its workers. Another suggestion is to wear the clothes you'd wear to work; a small attempt to demystify ourselves in the eyes of our fellow workers (but really, wear what you want). BAAM will also bring fliers about why anarchists support Harvard workers against their management, which we can give to our fellow workers on the picket line to explain why we have the flags and whatnot. As for targeting passers-by with information about our ideas and our groups, in Harvard Square, that's just a waste of time.

“The No Layoffs Campaign is sticking to our clear demands: No layoffs, no furloughs, rehire the laid-off workers...Last year Harvard laid off hundreds of employees. Between the layoffs, and an early retirement “offer” made amid constant threats of job cuts, there are now 340 fewer workers in clerical union jobs than there were last year. Outsourced custodians have also been pushed out of their jobs. Dining service workers recently endured a January with virtually no salary or any unemployment benefits. Clerical workers face mandatory furloughs and the conversion of full-year positions into “seasonal” jobs, meaning summers off without pay, or any ability to collect unemployment.

With a still-massive endowment of $26 billion, Harvard does not need to make these hurtful cuts! Union activists call on Harvard to open its books and try to prove they are necessary. Recently five union members in the Sackler Museum were told they will be laid off July 1. This may be Harvard testing the waters to see if they can impose another mass layoff. Campus workers will not accept the loss of more union jobs!”

More info about No Layoffs Campaign: http://harvardnolayoffs.blogspot.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=731580069&ref=mf#!/event.php?eid=333146782863&ref=mf

More about BAAM: http://www.baamboston.org