Affleck, Damon Join Campaign for Living Wage

Actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon blasted Harvard for not paying all its workers a living wage, returning to their hometown on Saturday to urge the University to fulfill its obligations to the community.

More than 400 people--ranging from labor activists to star-struck fans--jammed the green in front of Littauer Center to catch a glimpse of the Academy Award winners and to demand the University pay all of its workers a wage of at least $10.25 per hour.

The rally took place days after Harvard issued a report calling for increased benefits but denying a wage hike.

Damon, Class of 1992, who left Harvard to pursue an acting career, said the University's failure to enact a living wage embarrassed him "as a Harvard person."

"I'm afraid this is one of those painful moments when it is morally incumbent on the son to turn around and reproach his parents for not living up to their own moral standards," Damon said. "This is the richest university in the world, and the fact that the people who keep this machine running--who feed the students, look out for their safety and clean their bathrooms and hallways--are not given a living wage is demeaning to us all."

Affleck spoke of his family's experiences with Harvard as an employer--both his father and his stepmother had worked at the University--and called Harvard's actions "inexcusable."

"This is not a lark for these people, it is not 'casual' work, it is their life and their livelihood," he said.

The rally--by far the largest on campus this year--also featured Boston University historian Howard Zinn, Cambridge Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio, City Councillor Marjorie C. Decker and a string of students, workers, union leaders and community activists.

Zinn, a historian who has for decades agitated for labor causes and for civil rights, spoke immediately after Damon and Affleck.

"Can I really follow that?" he quipped to the crowd.

In his speech, Zinn called on Harvard to lead its students by example and treat its workers fairly.

"The University teaches more by how it behaves it the world than by what it says in the classroom," he said. "Harvard must teach compassion and caring for other people."

The Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM), the group responsible for the living wage campaign, organized Saturday's rally in response to Wednesday's report, authored by the University's Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies.

The 100-page document, which has been endorsed by Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine, recommended boosting benefits for workers--including health care, job training and greater access to Harvard's facilities--but rejected enacting a living wage.

While some PSLM members had initially praised the report's proposals as a step in the right direction, by Saturday most had come to oppose it as unresponsive and irrelevant.

Many of the speakers at Saturday's rally denounced the committee's finding.

Galluccio called on Harvard to follow the lead of the City Council, which unanimously passed a bill requiring all city employees to be paid a living wage.

"Show me the partnership, show me the hand, reach out to the city of Cambridge," Galluccio said. "We respected your committee process [but] we're here to say, Harvard University, you missed the point."

Decker said the University must increase the consumer power of its workers--something she said the report's recommendations would not.

"People cannot pay the rent with a GED course, with a library pass, with a museum pass," she said, referring to Harvard's plan to expand access to job training and campus facilities.

Affleck and Damon agreed to appear on Saturday at Decker's request, though the actors were already in Boston this weekend for an American Repertory Theatre event at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Both Decker and Damon graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in 1988, and Decker played Little League with Affleck, two years her junior.

She said the actors "jumped at the chance" to speak on behalf of the living wage campaign.

"Matt and Ben are very committed to this community," she said. "They see the effects of rising costs on their friends, neighbors and teachers."

In their speeches, the actors said Harvard's failure to enact a living wage has increased gentrification in Cambridge and made it a less desirable place to live.

"Within the Cambridge community, Harvard has long been viewed as some sort of amoral juggernaut, gobbling up real estate, intoxicated by its own power and thereby above the standards of simple human decency," Damon said. "Their resistance to a living wage does nothing to counter this characterization."

Affleck said rising costs have decreased the diversity of Cambridge, one of the city's great strengths.

"[In the future] it won't be the same kind of city I grew up in and want to come back to," he said. "I don't want to come back and [find] it's just a bunch of rich white people. That just doesn't sound like fun."

Both Damon and Affleck appeared well-informed about the labor situation on campus, discussing the findings of the ad hoc committee's report with reporters in detail.

Affleck called the recommendations "insulting."

"[Harvard should] make this school a place where you do not have to avert your eyes when you pass a janitor in the hallway," he said. "If someone's working as a janitor as a second job, you obviously don't have time to go to the Fogg to see the latest exhibit."

Both actors told the Crimson they planned to remain involved in the living wage campaign.

Damon said he hoped to use his celebrity status to draw attention to the plight of Harvard's workers.

"There's nothing more depressing than people using their celebrity and not following up on it," he said. "The only thing that can really rattle a university this powerful is bad P.R."

Affleck credited the members of PSLM for leading the campaign.

"Our job is the easiest thing in the world," he said. "All we do is show up and speak."

Hordes of female fans, many clutching pictures and autograph pens, greeted the actors as they attempted to leave Littauer.

A ring of Harvard University Police Department officers escorted the actors down the steps.

"Oh my God! I just touched Matt!," screamed a Damon fan, who was pulled away from the actor by a police officer.

Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow drove the getaway car--a dark blue Mercedes sports utility vehicle with tinted windows. She watched part of the proceedings from the sidelines, hidden by sunglasses and a hat.

"I'm just here for moral support," Paltrow told the Crimson. "I'm here as the chauffeur--that's what I do best."

Affleck and Damon did not confirm their Harvard appearance until late Wednesday night. PSLM blitzed the campus with posters Thursday and Friday.

On the morning of the rally, members donned sandwich boards and canvassed the Square and the Yard to attract participants from the crowds of Arts First revelers on campus.