Category: living wage

It was the 8th of March yesterday and for the very first time since long, there was no 8th of March gathering to go to. Unsettling. Can’t think of a greater contrast with last year, when i had to decide whether to be in Belgium or in Istanbul for the 8th, and ended up being around for the preparations of Istanbul, and flying in to do 8th of March stuff in Leuven and Antwerpen. Can’t help thinking of the Belgian Women’s Day (11th of November) two years ago when María and i decided to take a break and not go (imagine, being able to make the decision not to go, yet another possibility in places where Women’s Day means something) where we got into the dream of coming to this place, and how disconnected i feel from that dream now.

But it ended up being sweet – Berna and Feza invited us to go to the screening of Darwin’s Nightmare with film-maker Hubert Sauper in the grand Del Mar cinema theater. Hubert just got back from the Academy Awards where those stupid penguins (of course the animals are not stupid, it’s the film) won instead of the fish. An impressive film about globalization, its big structural mechanism and its little agents who most often know well what they are doing, what is happening to them, but see little alternative. The images are still running around in my head, a film to be seen and digested slowly. Maybe i’ll write something more about it later.

There was a march on the 7th, Marcha Laboral – Custodians March for Justice. It was on campus at 6.30 pm, so custodians could join and we could we could march to the residence of the Chancellor, Denise Denton, to demand that the custodians’ wages are raised at least to the level of those in neighboring colleges (Cabrillo, Monterey) now – and then later we can go on to discuss living wages. There is no excuse, the financial scandals (of excessive spending on top wages) the university got itself involved makes it quite indecent not to do so. One custodian was talking about how she works on this campus since 15 years and earns only $ 4 more than when she started. And then everybody is hit by the high PG&E bills this winter – raising the wages now would amount to nothing more than very basic dignity.

Try to imagine how such a march looks like. A dark cold forest, for that is how campus looks like after 6 pm these days. There were more of us than last time, we were perhaps 80 (and yes, there are hundreds of students living in well-hidden residences all over campus, but most of them don’t come out for a march, that is how campus looks like these days). So there we marched through a dark cold forest, holding candles to light our way. And chanting for ourselves and for the ancient forest. El pueblo unido jamás será vencido never sounded more ghostly, and it so much more resembled some spiritual ritual instead of a political mobilization.

A great need to get my head around the difficulties (to think well, to write something that could make a difference, to do politics) and traps of campuses like these, and i take look at what Chris called the idiotic (and i think i agree) book of Baudrillard on America. Sadly enough his observation on the UCSC campus is not so far off:

“There is a science-fiction story in which a number of very rich people wake up one morning in their luxury villas in the mountains to find that they are encircled by a transparent and insuperable obstancle, a wall of glass that has appeared in the night. From the depths of their vitrified luxury, they can still just discern the outside world, the real universe from which they are cut off, which has suddenly become the ideal world. But it is too late. These rich people will die slowly in their aquarium like goldfish. Some of the university campuses here remind me of this.

Lost among the pine trees, the fields, and the riviers (it is an old ranch that was donated to the university), and made up of little blocks, each one out of sight of the others, like the people who live in them: this one is Santa Cruz. It’s a bit like the Bermuda Triangle (or Santa Barbara). Everything vanishes. Everthing gets sucked in. Total decentring, total community. After the ideal city of the future, the ideal cosy nook. Nothing converges on a single point, neither the traffic, nor the architecture, nor authority. But, by that very token, it also becomes impossible to hold a demonstation: where could you assembly? Demonstrations can only go round and round in the forest, where the participants alone can see them. Of all the Californian campuses, famous for their spaciousness and charm, this is the most idealized, the most naturalized. It is the epitome of all that is beautiful.”

Valentine has been all over the place ever since i arrived here in january. Red everywhere (mostly in shops of course), hearts, announcement of activities… i was sure i’d be ranting about love and capitalism and consumerism in this space today, but that was before we joined the Student Worker Coalition for Justice (SWCJ). Now i can write you about love and justice. SWCJ joined the AFSCEME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) union in a rally today to demand higher wages for the custodians cleaning and taking care of the campus. Where’s the love drew attention to the fact that wages of custodians on campus are less than in neighboring colleges, that these are not living wages at all, and that the university has a lot to account for with the scandal about manager’s wages and corruption plus the raise in tuition fees. (of course, the state and federal goverments also have a lot to account for, with the cuts in money for education – that wasn’t really mentioned). A big broken heart with messages from custodians and students was given to a representative of the Chancellor.

Where’s the love action. Got Valentine’s Love or Exploitation?
Did you know that UC custodians make two dollars less than custodians at Cabrillo college and Montery State?
And, UC custodians earn wages that could not meet basic needs for a single adult with a child.
Also, student fees have gone up by 8-10%.
And what is the Chancellor doing about the rampant corruption amongst UC administrators.
Let’s have a happy valentine’s day by demanding that the Chancellor start implementing some justice and start paying a living wage to the workers on campus.

Même s’il n’y avait pas beaucoup de monde, l’alliance entre les gardiens et les étudiants était beau et fort. N’empêche que une manif dans ce campus au milieu de la forêt m’a fait une drôle d’impression… Inevitablement j’ai du penser aux mots de Kristy – que cette université a été construit (avec le “mauvais example” de Berkeley en tête) de telle manière que la possibilité de révoltes soit reduite. Maria a fait un peu de recherche, et apparement c’est plus compliqué que ca, mais reste qu’il n’y ait pas vraiment de centre, pas de “coeur” au campus et que pour la manif on a marché de la bibliothèque jusqu’au batiment du recteur (un peu caché dans la forêt) avec seulement les redwoods comme nos témoins.