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In honor of May Day
May. 2nd, 2012 10:41 amI joined a union - the California Faculty Association to be exact.
I have been a temporary employee of San Jose State University for 14 years. Each term I must be rehired (the paperwork is irksome; they need a rehire form so three separate forms don't have to be processed every time I teach.)
I was happy to hear the unions were able to stop Occupy SF from shutting down the Golden Gate bridge. I think the Occupy movement has been great for media but less than useful for real progressive politics. My politics are traditional libertarian - social liberal, fiscal conservative - which means I am in total alignment with progressive groups who want to stop corporate bailouts. Let economic Darwinism prevail.
Zomblog had a scathing review of the Occupy the Farm - where Occupy activists have taken over a research farm tract owned by Berkeley. Here's a link to the article http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=1842
I can't imagine how the graduate students feel. Research (and ultimately graduation) delayed by six months to a year? The possibility of not getting program-sustaining grants. They are incredibly lucky a group of frustrated Ph.D. students didn't get a gun. I was in grad school for the Iowa Physics shootings of the early 1990s. Grad students, especially in competitive programs, are already on their last nerves.
What does this accomplish? The farm is now failing.
I have been a temporary employee of San Jose State University for 14 years. Each term I must be rehired (the paperwork is irksome; they need a rehire form so three separate forms don't have to be processed every time I teach.)
I was happy to hear the unions were able to stop Occupy SF from shutting down the Golden Gate bridge. I think the Occupy movement has been great for media but less than useful for real progressive politics. My politics are traditional libertarian - social liberal, fiscal conservative - which means I am in total alignment with progressive groups who want to stop corporate bailouts. Let economic Darwinism prevail.
Zomblog had a scathing review of the Occupy the Farm - where Occupy activists have taken over a research farm tract owned by Berkeley. Here's a link to the article http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=1842
I can't imagine how the graduate students feel. Research (and ultimately graduation) delayed by six months to a year? The possibility of not getting program-sustaining grants. They are incredibly lucky a group of frustrated Ph.D. students didn't get a gun. I was in grad school for the Iowa Physics shootings of the early 1990s. Grad students, especially in competitive programs, are already on their last nerves.
What does this accomplish? The farm is now failing.
