The Un-Victory

The Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) sit-in ended last Tuesday on a triumphant note. PSLM leaders declared they had won a “victory” for Harvard workers and for the cause of a living wage.

Victory? What victory?

Councillor Kenneth Reeves ’72 told PSLM not to leave the building until they came out with $10.25 an hour for all Harvard workers. But PSLM left having gotten only a promise that we can go away for the summer knowing Harvard will be exactly the same when we get back.

Some of the supposed accomplishments of the sit-in, renegotiations of some workers’ contracts and a moratorium on out-sourcing, are things the University would have agreed to without the sit-in, especially since the moratorium doesn’t even apply to the entire University.

It’s like the University took some old toys they were keeping in the backyard, wrapped them up in paper and string and presented them to PSLM as Christmas presents. Then they unwrapped them in front of all of us on Tuesday, ooh-ing and ahh-ing until we were convinced they got exactly what they wanted.

“But wait,” you say, “we got a committee we can actually participate in—the University is finally taking us seriously!”

It’s exactly that “I just fell off the turnip-truck” mentality that makes the University treat us with great aplomb in front of our faces and great hilarity behind our backs at Faculty Club shindigs.

The new committee is being formed to re-examine the conclusions of the old committee. Everyone knows that Harvard committees have all the effectiveness of a sieve in a downpour, even when they weren’t formed to rehash the “work” of another committee. In other words: none. According to Harvard, committees are appointed to create a façade of action and to delay decisions.

This particular committee, led by Professor of Economics Lawrence Katz, may have student representation, but we’re more likely to see it do a kick-line at next year’s Pudding Show than make any radical recommendations.

Student representation, for one thing, doesn’t mean PSLM representation. The students chosen by the Undergraduate Council may not even support a living wage: The council roundly condemned the PSLM sit-in less than two weeks ago.

Just when you thought you’d heard the worst of it, you should know council members can’t resign fast enough to be considered for one of the two student spots. Let me get this straight: a group of students who can’t get us fried dough is going to get the living wage?

The worst thing about this new committee isn’t the fact that it is an exercise in redundancy or an excuse to twiddle our collective thumbs. The worst thing is that it will report to the next president of Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers. This was exactly what PSLM was trying to avoid when it decided to hold its protest during the waning days of the Rudenstine administration.

You’d think with all the Phi Beta Kappas in their midst PSLM would have been able to predict what will happen when Summers receives the committee’s report.

With a wave of his pudgy hand, the biggest man on campus will dismiss the recommendations of the Katz committee. “Out! Out with those arbitrary wage floors!” he’ll bellow. “We will have no market imperfections at this University!”

Then, when PSLM-ers try to re-occupy in a desperate re-enactment in order to rectify the situation, Summers will single-handedly block the entrance to Mass. Hall.

Alternatively, he’ll follow the example of his predecessor and receive the report with a smile and a handshake, promise to take it under the utmost consideration, and then bury it under all those letters to prospective donors.

Ending our little trip to the future, let’s get back to the present.

To give them credit, PSLM was courageous to take over Mass. Hall and insist on their demands. Not only did they get the attention of the University, they also got national recognition. Students around the country looked on as Harvard students demonstrated leadership in an area of global concern.

Still, it would be a mistake to judge the sit-in a victory. On the whole, Harvard students failed to rally behind the living wage. The concessions made by the University are temporary at best, and non-existent for the rest. At the end of the day, things only look bleaker for the living wage.

But it’s spring, and the next round of the game is about to begin. Right now the score is Harvard 1, PSLM 0.

Summers, you’re up.

Meredith B. Osborn ’02 is a social studies concentrator in Leverett House. Her column appears regularly.