TOP STORY
Two stories about the recently announced commitments from the University of WA
RantWoman's advice: TAKE IT. Grab every bit of good news. OF COURSE it does not address every perspective being voiced but it VERY much speaks to a commitment to ongoing work. So take it. Celebrate. Live to struggle another day and another and another because unquestionably there is more struggle to come.
Next, From the River to the Sea, what say we, we QUAKERS?
Yeah. RantWoman KNOWS the phrase above is problematic, either racist or antisemitic or simultaneously both.
But "From the River to the Sea only Peace will set us free?"
RantWoman would LOVE It if Quakers can shepherd together a statement both about immediate response to the genocide level humanitarian disaster in #Gaza and about all parties working together to build community based on nonviolence and equality.
RantWoman mentioned the shepherd together a statement idea for two reasons.
1. RantWoman finds nothing on either the Faith Action Network website or the Church Council of Greater Seattle website.
2. A Jewish friend with a LONG history of activism was fuming about the statement issued by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.
RantWoman wishes a statement would come together but is shaky in her commitment to helping shepherd the process of creating one or even looking up such statements as may already exist through FCNL, AFSC, or FWCC.
A couple earlier links about the situation at the University of WA
A university president calling for a cease fire is a pretty major development.
Hostile graffiti spray painted all over campus buildings is GROSS no matter who it refers to.
Whether it's bomb threats in college when I helped organize speakers about Palestinians having rights or the LOUD clamor one time when someone wanted to PAY FOR ADS on metro buses in support of Palestinian rights, or some of the counter protestors at UW, certain voices seem to make a lot of noise.
There are plenty of ways to make one's protests known at commencement and I favor creative and ready to defuse crap from counter protestors.
Lessons from RantWoman's past.
RantWoman writes as someone who graduated from college on disciplinary probation because of an anti-apartheid protest. The protest was one of three RantWoman is aware of before and during her time as an undergrad at Princeton.
Previous protests had included:
--a takeover of the most boring administration building on campus a year or two before RantWoman arrived. RantWoman is unclear how that one ended except that of course it did not lead immediately to divestment.
--an all-night study-in about South Africa in the section of the library that served as a depository for both US government documents and UN documents. This was RantWoman's freshman year. RantWoman did not participate and does not remember how it ended except that participants were put on disciplinary probation for some period.
--A sequence of protests RantWoman's senior year. There was an encampment for a few days. RantWoman's memory is that it was before the umpteenth Board of Trustees meeting with some kind of divestment resolution on the agenda. By that time, over half the campus, both undergraduates and graduates had signed a petition calling for divestment. RantWoman's memory is that the encampment broke up before finals week. RantWlay also remembers that sleep is but a faint hope if there is a historic carillon that tolls every hour on the hour. The Board of Trustees held a meeting and the result got reported as freezing the conversation in a permanent No. At that point, even though it was finals week, even though RantWoman had a final at one pm the day of the sit-in, students blockaded EVERY entry to Nassau Hall, the building where there President's and other high level administrative offices were located.
All 89 people blockading the building were arrested in fairly short order and dispatched to the local police station for processing. People were released in time for RantWoman to go home, eat lunch and still arrive at her final on time.
Next came conversations with various lawyers and ultimately dropping of criminal charges but not university disciplinary proceedings.
The other kicker: RantMom came to campus for the first time for graduation. As RantWoman was offering RantMom a tour, a campus police officer recognized RantWoman and asked if she would mind delivering summonses for a disciplinary hearing to all of her housemates who also participated. RantWoman also dispatched RantMom to go do touristy things alone the afternoon of the disciplinary hearing.
The protest went very low key for graduation: 40 of the 89 who get arrested where graduating seniors. People carried black ballons and wore red armbands. RantWoman thinks she was not the only person who had no motivation to disrupt graduation.
A few months later, Princeton did announce divestment of a small sum compared to the total endowment from one company doing business in South Africa and it was several years later before apartheid fell apart, there was a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and elections.
And a couple more videos just for documentary purposes.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment