A Unified Voice for Liberals

Since the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) vacated Mass. Hall last spring, Harvard’s liberal spirit has been noticeably splintered. While there has been a clamor of voices supporting a living wage, other liberal causes have languished on the sidelines. A broad, umbrella group to coordinate and reinforce existing liberal campus groups could be the spark they need to emerge from PSLM’s shadow.

The recently-proposed Progressive Alliance could go a long way towards fulfilling that function, and ultimately towards revitalizing and improving liberal activism at Harvard. Through the coordination and education, a Progressive Alliance could help independent organizations improve individually, and work together in furthering progressive causes. The Committee on College Life (CCL), which tabled the group’s proposal last Friday, should expeditiously approve a modified version of the organization at its next meeting once its concerns have been addressed.

The Alliance proposed a substantive mission statement that focused on coordination, education and advocacy among existing student activist groups.

The first goal, coordination, is perhaps the most important and fundamental way the Alliance could be effective. Some students pursuing relatively narrow causes feel isolated, while others may simply not be able to balance the schedules of the various issue groups about which they feel strongly. By coordinating event and meeting schedules, and by increasing partnerships in areas where groups overlap, the Progressive Alliance could be a valuable tool in helping liberal organizations create positive synergy.

The second part of the Alliance’s mission is education. By disseminating information and training students to be activists, the Progressive Alliance could be a resource for existing organizations wishing to expand their missions. Furthermore, the new coalition could also serve as a resource for students who are looking for internship experience by matching up students with groups that already have a multitude of connections.

However, the advocacy and action element of the new alliance could hurt the group’s ability to function effectively. The group will fail if it is hijacked by a single PSLM-like organization, whose tactics divide many who support its cause. The founders of the Alliance have expressed an interest in keeping such incidents from occurring, and they should actively prevent a possible homogenization of the alliance.

Several CCL members expressed concern that some student activist groups had not formally agreed to coordinate with the Progressive Alliance, though the Alliance’s prospective co-founders say they have been talking to at least 15 groups. Those discussions should continue, providing the alliance with a broad and legitimate backing when its application again comes before the CCL. And it is crucial that these existing activist groups define the activities of the Alliance—not the other way around.

The Progressive Alliance has the potential to substantially increase communication between existing progressive groups. These groups have nothing to lose, and a great deal to gain, from more effective coordination. Activist groups should embrace this chance to reunite and mobilize Harvard students under the big tent of progressivism, and the CCL should approve the Alliance’s application at its next meeting.

Dissent: A Progressive Straitjacket

The strength of progressive advocacy at Harvard comes in large part from the diversity of students’ viewpoints. Groups like the Harvard College Democrats, PSLM and the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance are essential precisely because they each put forward distinctive—and sometimes conflicting—agendas.

A group searching for the least common liberal denominator, like the proposed Progressive Alliance, will only conflate their unique causes and blur the distinctions that make these groups so valuable. Even worse, if one narrow interest were able to hijack control of the Alliance, it would risk weakening many of Harvard’s progressive groups all at once.

Furthermore, there is no need for an umbrella group to foster coordination among these groups; they already cooperate when they consider it advantageous.

However inspiring it may sound for liberals of the Harvard world to unite, the progressive agenda can only be weakened by forcing these varied groups under one tent.

—David M. DeBartolo ’03, Blake Jennelle ’04,

Jasmine J. Mahmoud ’04, Emma R. F. Nothmann ’04,

Paul C. Schultz ’04 and Jessica E. Vascellaro ’05