Roona Ray on organizing
Sit-in asks, What is to be done?
See also
By Leslie
Feinberg
Harvard Yard
Cambridge, Mass.
Roona Ray was the outside organizer for the Harvard students
who sat in to demand a living wage for the lowest-paid
university workers. While the occupation was still going on,
she explained to Workers World that the apparatus functioned
"to make sure the kids inside are getting enough food, whatever
they need."
"It is our job to make sure that the sit-in is visible to
the world," she stressed.
This student campaign is about three years old, said Ray, a
third-year junior in biology and women's studies. When the
occupation began April 18, she recalled, "We anticipated this
being a week long, maybe." It lasted for three weeks.
She described the disciplined organizational structure that
was built from the ground up to support the sit-in.
The students who took over the administration building
divided themselves into three affinity groups to make
decisions. Each group had an outside liaison to keep in touch
and help meet the group's needs.
A centralized group of four to six people was around full
time to confer with three people at a time from inside the
occupied building. "Three people are all that fits at one time
leaning through a window," she pointed out. They discussed on a
daily basis "the non-logistical political part of what's going
on."
While decisions in many other areas of work were made by
consensus, this group had to be more centralized. "It's hard to
get everyone on the same page. And rumors start so easily that
it's hard to disseminate information."
People inside took on "a lot of organizing and made a lot of
the phone calls." A graphics designer inside made "the more
jazzy posters and e-mailed them to us. And he makes artistic
banners and lettering."
One person inside and another outside worried about nothing
but food. Everyone inside and hundreds of supporters outside
had plenty to eat. So much food was donated that "We've been
giving some to the homeless shelter across the street."
From pitching press
to pitching tents
The outside apparatus was impressive.
Each of the 12 undergraduate residence houses had one or two
house captains who organized postering and leafleting, dinner
discussions and teach-ins. They scheduled house vigils at 7:30
p.m. that then marched to a larger end-of-day vigil outside the
sit-in.
Ray described a growing base among the Harvard graduate
schools. The medical school and school of public health were
harder to reach because they are on satellite campuses more
than half an hour away. But, Ray added, "They have been pulled
in by their custodians, who are due to be out-sourced in
July."
Groups on campus--from Chicanos in La Raza to Black law
students to lesbian, gay, bi and trans youth--sponsored and
organized the daily rallies outside the sit-in.
Two event organizers kept track of what was going on:
rallies, events, schedules.
"Our rallies are in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole," she
said proudly. "And it also gives us a way to talk through the
windows with privacy. None of the cops or administrators has
knowledge of any of the languages of Brown people."
Three to four people on the press team "pitch the highlights
to the press. Now the press comes to us. Every day they cull
facts, set up interviews, make press packets."
One on-campus publicity person made posters every day,
printed up the daily schedule, reviewed all the literature on
the 24-hour-a-day information table and decided what new
literature was needed.
One person checked the e-mail and sent out daily updates
every day. "We've been getting e-mail from every corner of the
earth," Ray said. About nine people worked with a "webmaster"
to update the occupation Web site at www.livingwagenow.org
around the clock.
The tabling crew worked shifts day and night. The tables
were filled with literature and staffed to answer questions.
Huge easels near the table served as sign-up locations for
much-needed tasks. "At night," Ray stressed, "the tabling crew
serves as security. Especially early on we were afraid the
police could bust us up in the middle of the night."
Direct action teams dressed up to crash university events
with informational leaflets.
The literature committee translated all the information into
Spanish, Haitian Creole and Portuguese for the Harvard
workers.
The music people worried about the sound system and what
equipment the many musicians who entertained all hours of the
day and evening needed. Skits attracted crowds on Cambridge
streets and in the campus dining halls.
The tent department scouted for more housing and
equipment.
Who stepped forward to do all this work?
Ray thought about it for a moment. "We're heavy on women. It
has been a lot of Jewish and South Asian students. I'd say
everyone is kind of queer-identified. Maybe I'm exaggerating;
we have a strong contingent of queer-identified people on the
outside.
"It's honestly a diverse and talented community that's come
out of this," Ray concluded.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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