Abbie Hoffman’s 1971 protest book “Steal This Book” could not have had the same effect with a title like “Steal This Book, But Please Return it When You’re Done.” It’s this understanding that last weekend’s lackluster student-worker protest didn’t grasp.
About 20 Associated Students UCLA student-employees blocked Westwood Boulevard on Saturday to raise a ruckus and draw attention to their cause during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
Their demonstration was meant to protest the lack of official support from the ASUCLA board of directors for a student-worker union.
Two weeks ago, the board issued a statement of neutrality on the matter, stating that it is legally bound to take no action on the topic of unionization.
The student-workers seemed to miss the point of “neutrality” in the board’s statement, and they have persisted in their efforts to protest the lack of rights afforded to them.
But while this effort may seem futile simply based on the fact that ASUCLA cannot and will not take any action on the matter, the student-workers’ actions since the issuing of the statement make it seem all the more unlikely that they will gain any support in general.
On the day of the board meeting, student-workers marched into the office of executive director Bob Williams, tampering with his belongings and writing “Bob Williams puts the AS in ASUCLA” on a whiteboard in his office.
This is just petty and unproductive. It is on par with students who wish to see changes made to UC policies who only proverbially shoot themselves in the foot by shouting hyperbolic chants outside Regents meetings, such as “UC Regents, I see racists.”
More recently, at the Saturday protest, student-workers sat in a circle in the middle of the street in order to inform the community of their position.
At least, for a few minutes anyway.
Soon after the sit-in began, the 20 or so participants were dispersed, after being warned by the police.
In response, Maricruz Cesena, a third-year sociology student and student organizer of the campaign, said protesters might possibly decide to hold protests and sit-ins where participants are arrested.
If this weak demonstration and farce of a response seem a little less than convincing to some, they should not feel like they are alone.
If student-workers want to elicit any change, they need to start taking themselves more seriously. They need to be strong in their convictions, and prepared to sit in on any given street until police drag them away by their heels.
This is not a call to encourage such forms of protests. There are certainly more effective means of building support for their cause, including actions already taken by the student-workers, such as obtaining support from Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, and Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles. The support from these individuals can be the building blocks for pro-union students to gain even more political support.
But half-hearted demonstrations in public view only take away from their cause. The student-workers know they have the first pieces to the huge puzzle of establishing a union, but their actions must be, at the very least, replete with sincerity.