Support NYU grads!

Here's something you can do right now to support the Grads on strike at NYU:

Sign the online petition initiated by professors Judith Butler, Frederic Jameson, Joan Scott, Gayatri Spivak, Paul Gilroy, Talal Asad, Donna Haraway, Slavoj Zizek, and Etienne Balibar, among others.

You don't have to be faculty to sign. And let's hope tomorrow there are no classes at NYU...

In other news Faculty Democracy has formed a committee to investigate individual threats to grad students, such as deportation for international GAs, blacklisting of grads who strike, and other lovely tactics to coerce grads to end the strike. Here is their letter:

In light of President Sexton's egregious threats of retaliation for striking graduate employees, and in light of numerous accounts of intimidation and threats toward graduate students across the university in recent weeks, a subcommittee of Faculty Democracy has formed to investigate, publicize, and seek redress for any acts of intimidation, coercion, or retaliation against graduate students for their union activities. The members of the committee are Harry Harootunian (History), Alan Sokal (Physics), Jeff Goodwin (Sociology) and Manu Goswami (History).

Most of the threats made by Sexton in his November 28, 2005 letter to graduate assistants would be illegal under the National Labor Relations Act. We believe that New York University should hold itself, at a minimum, to the same standard of conduct required of other employers under the law. We are also deeply concerned by the accounts of intimidation and coercion that graduate students in various departments have reported; we believe that such conduct has no place at a university. If these acts are true, the NYU administration must be held responsible for fostering an environment in which academic freedom is under attack.

Graduate students who have experienced intimidation, coercion,
threats, or retaliation for their union activities should contact the
committee. They will be free to discuss their concerns with us at
whatever level of confidentiality they desire.

To friends and colleagues at NYU-- good luck tomorrow!