PSLM Makes Mockery of ‘Civil Disobedience’

To the editors:

When I think of civil disobedience, a few names spring to mind. Mohandas Gandhi. Martin Luther King, Jr. Nelson Mandela. These are the names of great heroes who will be remembered for a long time, heroes who fought for their peoples freedom against oppression and tyranny through non-violent protest and civil disobedience.

Contrast that with the so-called civil disobedience of which Ariel Z. Weisbard ’02-’03 writes in “Why Janitors Are Willing To Go To Jail” (Opinion, Feb 25). These janitors are not complaining of not having basic rights and freedoms; they are not protesting the injustice of being denied the right to vote or assemble or control their own fate. These janitors are protesting that their union’s negotiating team was not able to get them an additional $3 an hour pay raise in the midst of a recession.

What these janitors and students are doing is not civil disobedience. When Gandhi went to jail for protesting British imperialism and refused to eat for such a long time that he nearly died, that was civil disobedience. When Dr. King went to prison for fighting for civil rights and was regularly beaten by racist sheriffs, that was civil disobedience. When Nelson Mandela languished in his jail cell, that was civil disobedience. So when Harvard janitors march to protest that they are not getting a big enough pay raise, forgive me for not hailing them as martyrs.

When I read Weisbard declare that the janitors were “willing to make this sacrifice” of possibly being arrested because their unionized selves are not being paid as much as they think they deserve, I felt sick to my stomach. That was the first time that I was embarrassed to consider myself a liberal.

Jason L. Lurie '05

Feb. 25, 2002