PSLM Occupation Gains Support In Third Day

The occupation of Mass. Hall by the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) gained support yesterday from local and national leaders as the sit-in entered its third day-and attracted its largest crowds yet.

Nearly 250 people participated in a noon rally in support of the living wage-including for the first time, large numbers of graduate students and union workers. Five protesters also left the building yesterday, marking the first departures since the occupation began Wednesday.

"It's been a very powerful day for us," one protester said last night.

Forty-one protesters remain inside Mass. Hall refusing to leave until the University agrees to a "living wage" off $10.25 an hour for all its workers.

At an evening rally, U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 stopped by to lend his support to the cause.

Kennedy tried to enter the occupied building, but was stopped by Harvard police. He spoke briefly to the crowd, eliciting cheers when he announced his support of the sit-in and said that he would call University President Neil L. Rudenstine to ask for a living wage.

He noted that student activists were at the forefront of the civil rights movement and the Earth Day movement.

Similarly, AFL-CIO Union President John Sweeney called the supporters "courageous" in a phone call to the building-one of many union voices heard yesterday.

While members of the university's technical and clerical union and the dining hall workers' union continued to shuttle food to the protesters inside Mass. Hall, around 20 members of SEIU 254, the local union chapter for custodial staff, added their voices to those outside the building.

The workers, many wearing Harvard work jackets, each offered personal testimony to the need for a living wage in brief speeches translated into Spanish.

"We are hard workers and you treat us like garbage," one woman said, eliciting cheers from the crowd. "It's not right. It's time to listen to us."

PSLM member Amy C. Offner '01 said she was thrilled to see such visible support from Harvard employees who have traditionally been hesitant to speak up in such a public forum.

"It's always a risk for them," she said. "It's a dangerous thing to come out publicly and criticize the University."

In and Out

Five protesters left the building during the noon rally, 47 hours and 17 minutes after the protest began.

The departing protesters-a Tufts undergraduate, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, a Harvard graduate student and two Harvard undergraduates-said they plan to continue their protest outside.

"We're taking this occupation to Harvard Yard," shouted Paul E. Lachelier to the cheers of fellow protesters.

In a significant escalation of the occupation, several dozen students camped out in the Yard last night in eight tents spread out in front of Mass. Hall.

Although PSLM member Benjamin L. McKean '02 says PSLM is not "actively escalating" the situation within the building itself, HUPD officers and administrators say University workers inside Mass. Hall are feeling increasingly harassed by the protestors. After coming into work as normal yesterday, the Mass. Hall receptionist left yesterday afternoon after protestors made it impossible for her to continue her work.

One secretary was compared to a "Nazi" according to University Vice President Paul S. Grogan.

Meanwhile, first-year residents of Mass. Hall-part of a small counter-protest movement in the Yard-hung signs from their dorm windows urging PSLM to end the protest.

-Daniela J. Lamas contributed to the reporting of this article.

-Staff Writer Garrett M. Graff can be reached at ggraff@fas.harvard.edu.