-
Identifier
-
cxpj_201105
-
Title
-
Counter Point Journal (May 2011)
-
Date
-
May 2011
-
Creator
-
CxPJ Collective
-
extracted text
-
Counter Point Joar
May 2011
WWW .COUNTERPOINTJOURNAL.ORG
FREE
Public Sector Unions Under
Elizabeth Williamson
appears to have succeeded in slashAs hope of additional federal stimu- ing workers' rights in a state that
lus money fades and big corporations has had strong public sector reprefail to make new hires despite their sentation for more than 50 years, his
increasing profit margins, the full strategy is likely to be embraced by
weight of the recession has begun to other governors. Ohio's John Kasich,
fall on state governments. Looking for one, has been talking since 2009
for a scapegoat, politicians and busi- about his plan to "break the back of
ness leaders have settled on public organized labor in the schools."
sector unions, blaming workers for
But it's not just Republicans who
budget shortfalls.
are responsible for attacks on union
Public higher education has been workers; as former state representahit especially hard-state colleges tive Brendan Williams points out,
and universities are often described Obama signaled his tacit acceptance
as providing "non-essential" servic- of anti-government, anti-union polies-and workers aren't the only ones cies at the state level when he called
being targeted; through dramatical- for a wage freeze for all federal emly increased tuition fees, students are
essentially subsidizing the governStudents are essentially
ment's refusal to make the education
subsidizing the government's
of state residents a priority.
refusal to make the education
Attacks on public sector unions
are often couched in terms of mak- of state residents a priority
ing "collective sacrifices," even if a
disproportionate share of the finan- ployees.
cial burden is actually being put on
Long-term polling analysis by
working people. Soon after he took David Madland and Karla Walter of
office in January, Wisconsin governor the Center for American Progress
Scott Walker began formulating a has revealed a historical correlaplan to reduce bargaining rights and tion between Americans' opinion of
cut benefits for all state workers.
government, business and labor: all
"You are not going to hear me de- three drop simultaneously when unTens of thousands of people protested a bill eliminating public sector unions' right to collective bargaining inside and outside
grade state and local employees in employment rates skyrocket.
the Capitol building in Madison, WI in February
the public sector,'' Walker said, beYet 78% of respondents polled by
fore going on to pit workers against Hart Research in 2009 were in favor are being fueled by a conservative organizations like the Cato Founda- argues, "The private sector, having
one another, arguing that "we can oflegislation that would make it eas- media onslaught, which seeks to tion. Such rhetoric has successfully returned to massive profits after a
no longer live in a society where the ier for workers to bargain collectively connect union workers with per- normalized the idea of a zero-sum massive public bailout, is now depublic employees are the haves and with their employers. Previous Hart ceived excesses in government game, in which low-wage and unem- monizing public employees as the
the taxpayers who foot the bills are studies have suggested that most re- spending. More than half of the top ployed workers must somehow com- source of our economic woes, in an
the have-nots."
spondents would join a union if they hits in a Google search for "public pete with unionized workers for the attempt to further bust public emNow that Walker-backed by bil- felt they would not be penalized by sector unions" link to explicitly anti- wages they have rightfully earned.
ployee wages, health benefits, and
lionaires David and Charles Koch, if their employers.
union pieces written by columnists,
As Bill Lyne, president of the retirement benefits."
not by the voters who elected himUnions Cont. pg. 3
Attacks on public sector unions bloggers, and fellows of conservative United Faculty of Washington State,
Editorial Statement
At the root of the uprisings in Libya,
Egypt, and Wisconsin is an outcry
against declining living standards
and governments beholden to the
profit motive and rule by force. This
outcry ought to resonate in our
community.
Those of us in Olympia who depend upon state programs such as
Social Security and Temporacy Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
have seen these insufficient lifelines
drastically cut, despite popular
protest. Behind the surface appearance of a feckless student population, Olympia is the home of many
working-class people who will suffer deeper poverty because of massive cuts in rhe state's budget.
Students and their families face
foreclosure, unemployment, debt,
and insufficient (or wholly absent)
healthcare along with workers. The
Evergreen State College administration and Governor Gregoire, following the same ideology as Wisconsin
Governor Scott Walker, are weakening the political power and intensifying the economic uncertainty of
workers and students alike.
Governor's like Walker and Gregoire tell us that we are not in this
together, that struggles against tyranny and declining living standards
are not connected. That instead of
building upon the strength of our
shared experiences, we should seek
out someone among us to blame.
Walker proposes we blame public
workers, especially unionized public workers, who, he alleges, absorb
scarce public funds with their wages, healthcare and pension benefits.
All of which, the claim goes, they
won by association with "greedy"
unions.
In Arizona, racism and geography enable politicians co single
out immigrants as scapegoats for
a global economic crisis, when the
results of that crisis (along with a
history of colonization and US interference) in their home countries
forced them to migrate in the first
place.
The uprisings in North Africa,
the Near East, and Wisconsin demonstrate that the crude ideology of
blame simply does not suffice to answer widespread contradictions in
the capitalist system. Furthermore,
mass participation shows that
these rebellions are not the work of
self-proclaimed "radicals," but the
manifest aspirations and outrage
of whole populations, especially
workers.
In Egypt the realization of these
aspirations - democracy and better
living standards - are closer at hand
The uprisings in North Africa,
the Near East, and Wisconsin
demonstrate that the crude
ideology of blame simply
does not suffice to answer
widespread contradictions in
the capitalist system
with the ousting ofHosniMubarak,
but along way frotn becoming realitY. In Wisconsin, under the guise
of formal democracy, protesting
workers have other challenges to
overcome before their aspirations
can be realized. An obstacle to both
movements, however, comes in the
form of the group who remain absent in the streets of Egypt, Libya,
and Wisconsin: the rich.
From Egypt to Wisconsin, it's the
wealthiest members of society who
have the most to lose in the face of
democratic worker uprisings. Why
do the wealthy support a military
dictator like Mubarak or fund a
campaign like Walker's?
At heart, this question is about
ideology, not just economics. In a
capitalist world, where an impoverished ma.iorit}(lives in the shadow
of a powerful, rich minority, some
ideological justification is necessary. Especially as the cost of food
and housing climb out of reach
for more and more people, and we
read daily news of the intransigent
economic crisis, it is becoming increasingly difficult to validate capi•
talism, a system which, crisis or
no, rewards the world's billionaire
bankers and depresses the world's
workers.
The notion that workers should
make further "sacrifices" in order
to weather this economic storm is
designed to convince not only the
wealthy class, but workers themselves of their necessary subservience to capital. In Egypt, this subservience was maintained by overt
authorltadanism,secret police, intimidation and torture.
In our country, there is certainly
violence, intimidation, and torture
(most spectacularly in the service
of the "war on terror") but the jus-
tification for exploitation is more
subtle, couched in the language
and practkes of a formal democracy, which turns out to be less than
democratic in practice.
Because of violent opposition to
democracy, the aim of the Egyptian
and Libyan struggle is acceptable
to US ruling class interests. The
battle being waged in Wisconsin,
and now in Ohio, Indiana and our
state, seems less clear, muddled by
claims about national debt, state
budget shortfalls, and the appearance of democracy.
Supporting :Egyptian and Libyan
procesters against the brutality of
dictators is heralded as supporting democracy. Why is supporting
Wisconsin's protesting workers
not similarly democratic? Why are
economics allegedly at the heart
of demands upon US public workEditorial cont. pg. 4
Stories from
Madison
away in tax breaks to corporations
who had helped put him in office,.
This created a deficit, which was then
the reason given for the bill. I think
part of the reason for such a large response was that Wisconsin wasn't in
a recession four months ago.
It wasn't going to be facing the
cuts that most other states in the US
are facing, because we were inside
our state budget. So what's been
happening in other states for the last
three or four years, happened in WisWhat is Scott Walker's bill about and why consin in two months. Now we're
would so many people come out to protest it? facing as many cuts as other states,
but it's more sudden, which generTessa: It's called a budget repair ated a more powerful response.
bill and it's technically supposed to
repair any shortfalls in the budget Why would public sector workers oppose this
before the legislature actually pro- bill?
poses the budget for next year. HowTessa: Along with collective barever, the bill was around 140 pages
gaining rights, the bill took out aulong and only eight pages had anytomatic dues deductions from paything to do with finances.
checks. Unions fought very hard for
It attacked every group of people
this, to make sure people were payin Wisconsin. It sold off the coal
ing their dues and the union could
plants, it filled in marshlands and
function. So, coming out of this,
added toxins to farmland, it took out
public sector unions can still exist,
collective bargaining for unions, and
but they cannot collectively bargain
defunded school arts programs. All
for their members, and they personof these things subsidizing corpoally have to go out and collect all of
rations and selling off public assets
the dues.
to private corporations along with
It's going to take more person
stripping certain rights that come
power to collect all of the dues and
from the state.
the union's not going to be able to
It effectively created solidarity
do anything. Why would people pay
in our state because it attacked evdues to a union that isn't going to be
erybody - everybody had a differable to do anything?
ent reason, or multiple reasons, to
With that, there's the clear detebe against the bill. This was one of
rioration of the workplace because
the reasons for such a large turnout.
unions don't just bargain for wages
When they did pass it through, they
and benefits, it's also about safety,
took out the financial aspects of the
hours, and everything that goes into
bill, which totaled eight pages.
having a decent workplace.
Wisconsin had a million dollar
So public sector workers were probudget surplus in January. Within
his first month, Walker gave it all
Madison cont. pg. 4
What follows is an interview with
two community organizers in Madison, WI, who were involved in the
protests at the state capitol in Februaty.
Tessa de Wyllie Echevarria is an Evergreen graduate and member of the
socialist, feminist, anti-racist organization Solidarity. Connor Donnegan
is a graduate of the University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis and is also
a member of Solidarity.
May
2-Counter Point Journal
CxPJ
E11ergreen Still Not Taking a Stance Against Sexual
AssauIt •
Allyson Michaels
If you walk into a classroom in any
given college in the United States
and
see a group of twenty women
The Counterpoint Journal
who
are getting ready to graduate, it
(CxPJ) is a collective of Evergreen
would be fair to estimate that five of
students, staff, and alumni
them were raped at some point durwho publish an independent,
ing their college career. Chances are
alternative newspaper. The
that whether the women reported
paper is designed as a $Pace
the incident or not, nothing hapfor .voices, issues, and analysis
pened to their perpetrator.
silenced or marginalized by
In most cases, if a student who is
the victim of a sexual assault reports
tnaiustream media in out
it to the school judiciary system, the
• community. Originally a direct
response to questionable policies results of the investigation will be
inconclusive. They will probably say
at Eve~s campus newspaper,
something like, "Due to a lack of evithe CO()pet Point Joum2l (CPJ),
dence" or, "The fact is that it comes
d~ CxPJ has expanded its
down to her word against his," and
covetage and readership beyond
they will not hold that person ac:the college th.rough two years. of
countable.
quality joumalism.
Here at Evergreen, the Grievance
Officer is responsible for receiving
We accept submission of articles and responding to reports of any bethat tl,eal widl timely, relevant~ and. havior that breaks a rule in the student conduct code. That means that
1oal,,~ues. We specifically seek
the Grievance Officer's job is to resuborissions based on r ~ h
ceive
and read incident reports, unand aw include interviews with •
dergo an investigation (if she feels it
folks duectly affected by the issue is necessary), and ultimately decide if
being discussed. We also accept
the accused is guilty or not and what
photognphy, poetry, a.tt, and
their punishment should be.
other creative works.
A woman named Andrea SeabertOlsen currently holds this position.
In an interview, Andrea admitted,
"The victim is never really happy
with the outcome of the grievance
process." That is probably because
people are rarely held accountable
through the grievance process. According to Andrea Seabert, the point
of her job "is not to take care of perJ(
sonal needs. It is not based on compassion, but on pragmatic evidence."
p
"I work much differently than the
legal system. Our school's policy
is based on restorative justice. We
believe in a continuum of responsibility. Many cases are not black and
white.
People are not always simply
Submit otigiMl wor'k or to
, contact us with questions or
comments, email: tesc.countet.
point@gmail.com.
•
guilty or not guilty. Sexual assault is
always one of those challenging situations."
"In cases I have dealt with, responsibility i~ on a continuum. Some people are absolute pred!ltors who seek
vulnerable people and their acts are
much more premeditated. In other
cases I have seen, one person sought
consent and the other party gave
consent but because of drugs or alcohol they were not in a place to have
given it."
The most important and
urgent thing is the need for
our school to implement a
sexual assault policy
According to Washington State
law, if a person is incapacitated (such
as by alcohol or drugs), they cannot
give consent. To have sex with somebody ubder those conditions constitutes rape in the second degree. For
some reason, however, student conduct codes do not a1ways match up
with state laws.
According to Andrea, the newer
studentconductcodeisbetterand
does take incapacitation due to alcohol or drugs into consideration.
However, as far as I know it has not
yet been used. Until it is tested, it
is hard to know if it will really do a
better job of holding people accountable for violent actions.
The family of a woman named
Jeanned Clery, who had been tortured, sodomized, and raped in her
dorm room in Pennsylvania, started
a movement that eventually led to
the Clery Act. The Clery Act requires
institutions of higher education to
annually report crime statistics. This
act mandates that schools make public their on-campus crime statistics,
publicize prevention and actions designed to respond to crime, institute
crime logs, and demonstrate that the
Our school does not currently
rights of victims of sexual assault are have a sexual assault policy. As of
preserved.
last year, however, we do have a SexIn 2005, The National Institution ual Assault Response Team (SART)
of Justice studied schools across the thanks to the efforts of Talcott
country and their compliance with Broadhead, Coordinator of the Office
the act. This study found that most of Sexual Assault Prevention (OSAP)
schools comply with the require- at Evergreen.
ments to report crime but only about
Talcott feels that this new SART,
a third do so in a way that is consis- "is not only best practice for colleges,
but it is also generally victim-centent with federal laws.
Fewer than half the schools stud- tered and it is an important way for
ied informed students how to file the school to respond in a coordicriminal charges. Instead, accord- nated way and to ensure that all of
ing to Hava Aviv, sexual assault ad- the support services we can provide
vocate and tr_aining specialist with ar~ victim-centered. It is a check and
Washington Coalition of Sexual As- balance system. A team making decisault Programs, "Victims are rarely sions about how the response should
believed. In many cases they will be be."
Another great thing that our
blamed for wearing revealing clothing, acting flirtatiously, or being too school has recently taken up is
drunk."
mandatory consent workshops for
Although according to the Na- all incoming freshmen who live in
tional Institute of Justice (NIJ), one resident halls. These would not be
in five women will be raped during possible without the efforts of the
their college careers, schools are no Coalition Against Sexual Violence
better equipped at handling inci- (CASV), a student group here at Everdents of sexual assault than they green. They are the ones that fought
were in 1992 when the Clery Act was to make consent workshops mandatory. The group also conducts the
enacted.
According to the NIJ, to comply workshops throughout the year.
When I asked Talcott what usually
with Federal laws, every college and
university should have a sexual as- happened when a victim reported a
sault policy that includes the follow- sexual assault, she told me that, "If
ing: (1) a definition of sexual assault someone comes into my office and
that includes consent and complies reports a sexual assault but they do
with the state law's definitions, (2) a not wish to take any actions {police,
formal policy for responding to in- school judiciary system) I have to
cidents which includes who is to be grant them their privacy."
"If they do not wish to participate
Currently our .school
in an investigation or grievance promentions sexual assault
cess, that wish will be honored. I will
support each person to be involved
in a brief paragraph in the
in a formal college response at whatstudent conduct code
ever level they feel ready to be intrained to respond, (3) methods for volved."
However, according to Title IX, a
students to report assault, and (4)
prevention methods and resources
Sexual Assault cont. pg. 6
for victims.
tech talk installation
u$3rp4$$, rootcanal, and true rompler
The editorial collective .reserves
the-right to question, edit or
refuse any content it receives. The
collective will make every attempt
to consult the author(s) in regards
to any potential revisions.
The Counter Point Journal
is a4,o available online at
counterpointjournal.org.
CxPJ l?gos by Lamise Al-Sbawahin
2011
#include <Stdio.h>
#include <openssl/ssl.h>
If you fread0 our article in the last
issue of the CxPJ then you were told
that "the internet is the wild west"
and "that's how we like it''. This, in
reference to something about morality or power or whatever.
Bullshit, it was all bullshit. We
lied to you.Because the truth is that
the wild west looks like East Berlin
in 1980 or Downtown Manhattan
in 2002 compared to the internet.
There is no physical allegory for the
lawlessness of cyberspace.
Yet within this Anarchist paradise do we witness the gestation of
the most brilliant feats of human
collaboration. Consider wikipedia,
the most exhaustive (true_rompler:
exhausting) encyclopedia of all
time; or face_book, a glorified form
of email, the single most comprehensive communication tool since
email; or email, the fastest means
of information dissemination since
regular mail; or lemonparty.org, the
most important political movement
of our generation. All of these significantly multi-authored applications could only find form in the
nutrient-rich sludge of non-hierarchical, knowledge-equals-power
power dynamics - the power structure of the internet.
Yet like all anarchist paradises*,
the internet is also an anarchist
dystopia. Child molesters are everywhere, as evidenced by that tv show,
and they're using the internet to
find other child molesters pretending to be sex-starved pre-teens.
Credit card theft is at an all time
high, probably. Free services such as
gmail and facebook are being used
to racially profile users, and to store
all their dirty secrets for all eternity on server Sergey Brin's laundry
room (true_rompler: cuz he needs
1:
Sec ur-e Yer Bits
to cle3:11 all ~r dir~ _bits).
Basically its shit 1s fucked.
And what's worse, you're fucked
too if you don't know what's what!
"Wat?" you say.
That's right, *your* shit is fucked.
You of all people are hella susceptible to attacks, all because you are
ignorant stoolies, fools with no
damn sense and not knowing what
is going on.
Ignorance is bliss, but your ignorance is making life more difficult
for everyone else by the transitive
see this because they employ their
fastest hand to draw and redraw
your screen.
At this point you might be asking yourself, "Where are all the womens, huh?" Unfortunately, computer "science" is unequivocally the
science which womens find least
interesting: less than 10% of new
American Computer Science undergraduates identify as female, down
from 20% in 1990. However, this
could be entirely due to the proliferation of radical identity politics
Art by Croft
property of being dumb. Also it
makes life more difficult for you
too, asshole. So sit yer asses down
so we can learn you something.
The story goes like this:
Inside each computer lives a
small tribe of men with strips of
paper and tiny little pens. When
you type at your keyboard, these
men work furiously to transcribe
all the things you write on to the
strips of paper and then to pass
them around so they're filed in the
right drawer. Of course, you don't
in mainstream America and the
subsequent cultural re-conception
of gender and body.
Oh wait that never happened.
At any rate, tiny men write down
everything you type and there's
a tiny man inside the mouse who
watches what you click on and
writes that down and then sends it
through the mouse cable (which is
actually one of those vaccuum tubes
at bank drive-thrus) to the men inside the computer proper so they
can have fasthands draw what you
want to see next.
Good Enough.
But what happens whc;n you
want to see something from the
Internet, say, the wikipedia article
about Anarcho-syndicalism? Well,
that article is written down on a
strip of paper inside of a computer
miles and miles away from yours.
In fact, your computer doesn't even
know what computer it's on.
But the tribe inside your computer is very charming: they've
worked out a deal with a Local Area
tribe who will help you see what is
on those strips you want at Wikipedia. And so, either via super fast
bank vacuum tubes or telepathy,
your people are put in contact with
their people.
And great, you can be like "yo
computer, lemme get that som'
that facebook once" and your little
men are just like "yo local Area
tribe, our person wants to see [that
som' that facebook], can you show
us it?" and they do and fasthands
draws it real quick on the screen
and you're like 'dope.'
Ok! That's exactly how the computers and the internets work.
What's this got to do with security?
Well, so now when you want to
buy something like MF Grimm's
new Le Tigre meets Young Jeezy
mashup mixtape from Amazondot you're faced with a form where
you gotta pay. So you enter your
Tulip Credit Union Debit Visa card
number and click enter and your
little guys write all that shit down
on a strip of paper and send it
over to the Local Area tribe. (true_
rompler: I spent like 30 mins looking for this mixtape, if you find it
let me know...)
Then God knows what happens
Yer Bits cont. pg. 6
t-
May2011
Unions cont. from pg.1
Public sector unions have only
existed in the United States since
the 1960s, but they currently represent almost 40% of public sector
workers, whereas unionization
rates in the private sector are below 7%. Most Americans have never had a chance to join a union, and
therefore have a limited understanding of what it would mean to
Reducing the salaries of state
workers won't bring back jobs
or stimulate growth
be a part of one.
What they do know is that
unions work to increase wages for
their workers and for the most part
have been successful in doing so,
even as anti-union regulations and
the outsourcing of jobs have made
it increasingly difficult to organize.
Counter Point Journal
ivia Mitchell calls "pension envy."
Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota's former
governor, calls union workers "exploiters," claiming that their goldplated pension plans are hurting
taxpayers. But these plans only
become unsustainable when legislators-as in the case of Illinois
and California-fail to adequately
fund them, creating unmanageable costs that are passed on to taxpayers all at once.
As Peter Kardas, former director
of Evergreen's Labor Center puts it,
"The problem isn't that the public
sector is highly unionized, it's that
the rest of society isn't." American
workers used to .be able to take certain features of full employment
for granted, including defined benefit pensions, health care coverage
with modest co-pays, annual costof-living pay increases. Now these
basic benefits are seen as "frills"
t
ioniz d em lo
'
Worker's Rally at the Capitol building in Olympia
in February. Photo by Lin Nelson.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that median weekly wages
for full-time union workers were
$917 in 2010, whereas the median
for non-union workers was $717.
This disparity only proves the
point that allowing workers to
bargain collectively increases their
chances of earning a greater share
of the profits of their labor. But
opponents of public sector unions
often argue that such increases
in worker compensation are unsustainable. In fact, there is no
correlation between states whose
employees have bargaining rights
and states with big deficits.
Robert Reich has recently pointed out that some states that deny
their employees the right to form
unions-Nevada, North Carolina,
and Arizona, for example-are
running deficits of over 30 percent,
while many that do give employees the right to bargain-Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Montana-have small deficits of less
than 10 percent.
Opponents also claim that public employees earn far more than
private-sector workers, but economics professors Keith Bender
and John Heywood have shown
that when you account for training and expertise, these diffe rences disappear - most government
employees still earn less than their
private sector counterparts with
similar educations.
Public sector workers, especially
those who are unionized, do tend
to have more generous pension
and health care benefits, resulting
State lawmakers across the
country are relentlessly
redefining public university
education as a private good
that should be paid for by
"consumers," i.e. students
in what Wharton professor 01-
empts workers who make less than
$30,000 a year. Unfortunately, lawmakers-who earn more than the
median household income for no
more than part-time work-have
ignored Gregoire's request that
they, too, "share in the sacrifice."
The unions have also agreed to
increase worker's contributions to
their health care premiums, a concession which equates to a permanent pay cut. But Joe Zarelli, the
ranking Republican on the Senate
Ways and Means Committee, is-unimpressed with the concessions the
unions have made, arguing that
employees should agree to work
the same number of hours for less
pay, and to accept both the health
care and the salary cuts as permanent regardless of whether or not
the state's economy recovers.
"You are either reducing pay
or you are not," he said. "You're
hortin the cit"
·n." His
of their funding from the state;
in Gregoire's most recent budget,
that support has been reduced to
30%, even lower than the current
percentages for the notoriously
3
regressive tax policies, a reduction
in workers' buying power will only
mean a further reduction in state
revenue, while increasing the gap
between the haves and the havenots.
There is no correlation between
According to John Nichols, corstates whose employees have
respondent for The Nation, unions
"have been the primary advocates in
bargaining rights and states
the United States, for the better part
with big deficits
of 30 years, for public sector spending and for public education. If you
underfunded California state university system. Only in Governor
weaken these unions, you really
Jerry Brown's most recent budget
do weaken the public sphere. And
frankly, that's something that a lot
proposal did state subsidies for the
California system drop below 50%;
of right-wing think tanks in WashWashington State was at 50% fundington would like to see happen."
ing two years ago.
Reducing bargaining rights and
cutting benefits will not only deState lawmakers across the country are relentlessly redefining pubcrease the quality of life for existing
lic university education as a private
union members, it will decrease the
good that should be paid for by
possibility that other workers will
"consumers," i.e. students. "Why,"
have the chance to stand up for their
Gregoire mused, in her State of
own rights on the job. Public emthe State Speech, "do we assume all
ployees in Wisconsin weren't about
taxpayers should pay for programs
to let that happen; they flooded the
that benefit a few?"
state capitol for nearly a week to
protest Walker's legislation.
Washington's universities are
Here in Washington grassroots
among the worst funded in the
country and yet among the most
groups like POWER (Parents Orgahighly rated, with the best gradunizing for Welfare and Economic
ation rates of any state in the counRights) are beginning to resist the
try. But the government-drownlogic that pits union members
against non-unionized workers; all
ing in debt and under constant
pressure from the business lobbyof us deserve a living wage for the
wants employees to do more work
work we do and access to governfor lower funding levels, while putment services.
ting an increasing burden on stuUnions are in the unique position
of being able to bargain their own
dents, just as cuts to Basic Health
and other social services are putwages and working conditions, and
ting a disproportion burden on the
they can provide a much-needed
elderly, working families, and other
structure for building change from
groups already hit hard by the rethe ground up. But the broader goal
of organized labor is one shared by
cession.
The problem is not unionized
working people across the country:
workers' salaries and benefits; the
to make life more livable, for all of
problem is anti-government rhetous.
ric and the policy decisions that go
with it. Nearly 10%of Washington
Elizabeth Williamson is a member
residents are unemployed, but reof the United Faculty of Evergreen
ducing the salaries of state workers
(AFT/WEA). Workers at TESC are
won't bring back jobs or stimulate
also represented by AFSCME Local
growth. In fact, given the state's
443 and ILWU Local 5.
.
able to access.
There is no question that state
governments, including our own,
are facing a genuine budget crisis.
Nationwide, this crisis has been exacerbated by the derailing of heal th
care reform, meaning that employers and employees must continue
to wrangle over ballooning health
care costs. Here in Washington, the
failure of initiative 1098-which
would have levied an income tax
on individuals making more than
$200,000 a year while actually lowering property taxes-has further
worsened the situation, prompt-
comments, like those of Walker
and Pawlenty, serve to pit workers
• C.V. Rotondo
against one another, rather than
acknowledging the corporate in- In the winter of 2008, Evergreen es- test at the port. But, pefore the ran..
tablished a Disappearing Task Force cor against Evergreen fully subsided,
terests who are truly getting the
(DTF) to revise the Student Condu<;t another, more spontaneous student
most out of the economic recession.
According to a recent bill sum- Code. 'I'be Code describes the college's uprising put the public relations
expectations of students from academ- team back to work.
mary from the Senate, the De, ic honesty to assault. It outlines where ,Outside a concert in the College
cember agreement states "Elected
and wlten the Code applies, who will .Recreation Centerfeatutinghil)'-hop
officials, State Troopers, and .t he
a4"mini~~rit, arbitration SY$tems an4;; attists dead prez on Valen~tne's: Day
employees of institutions of highpossibli::;punishments.
InJune',2.010, ~os, concertgoers ,responded to
er education, the State Printer, and
theDTfsenta revised.code to TheVice what they saw as a racist detainment
the Marine Division of the DepartPreside~t for Student Affairs (Vl'SA), by.Evergreen officer AptilMeyers.
ment of Transportation are exempt
Art Costantino.
She detained a young Black man
from the reduction"-although
An
email
sent
over
Evergreen's
listfor
a fight that bad taken place in~
Gregoire has urged lawmakers to
serv, te$Cttier, in late October set out
take the same cut they are asking
that the DTF will convene "general "To lump all of the poteotial
Most government employees
from other state employees.
foru,ms>?on the code-and hold a public ' violations under that one
still earn less than their private
Evergreen employees-many of
hearing ~re tnaking another rec~ ,. standard is inappropriate.
sector counterparts with similar whom are organized-would thus
• ,amm
(}Jl, 'I'bis te£ommen~
. A,potential cost tq
.ents
not
be
affected
by
the
agreement.
educations
eo£twopropo~ls:,$Ub,
. •.. t·t
;;. t"
And yet, the hundreds of work. •«en, which, if
SJUS oo grca
ing deep cuts to social services and
ers in Evergreen's classified union,
to
by
'.en
i;>resident
Les
Pur
the concett. Finding fierse-lf and
education.
who are represented by AFSCME
will
the
new
code
effective
ju.fy
.
her
car
surrounded by folks'~hant-'
For the most part, Gregoire has
Local 443, have been asked to take
been less aggressive than her counthe salary cut as part of their con- 1, 2.()tt, Ot'J)OStpone re-visingthe code'f ing, ~J:,et him got" Meyers called
for further consideration. Muth has for backup, and the same Olympia
terparts in other states when it
tract negotiations. Talks are curhappen.edsincethezoo7-2008school
Po.lice Department (OPD) that in
comes to blaming organized labor.
rently at an impasse due to the
year
wit;b.
ramifications
for
the
StuNovember
pepper-sprayed;charged,
Her most recent approach has been
management team's rejection of a
dent
Conduct
Code.
and
truncheoned
their way through
to work with the unions to create
"me-too" clause, which asked nonFor two weeks during Novemb<lr ,pott protestors, responded.
widespread furlough and pay reunionized staff earning more than.
2007, Evergreen st:u.dents and .fa.cul~ ~. This time, the OPD literally came
ductions in order to temporarily
$25,000 to take the same 3%cut.
along with communicy meml>ers '
·t;1.ging, preceded by in4l$erirtliw
avoid further job cuts.
It is important to note that alfrom.Olympia, Tacoma and Seattle
te clouds of pepper spray that even
The agreement she reached in
though Evergreen's decision to
converged on the port of Olympia to b1i.Iided Meyers as she attempted to
December with representatives
reduce the wages of its unionized
oppose the continuing occupations of release the detained man ftom the
of the Washington Federation of
workers was voluntary, other cuts
Iraq
and Afghanistan. Aship carrying back of her car. After hospitalizing
State Employees, Service Employhave been mandatory. State agenStryker
vehicles, armored personnel one student and traumatizing many
ees International Union 1199 and
cies across the board have already
caniers deployed to the occupations others, the OPD retreated, leaving
the Teamsters-which includes
quietly passed on a greater share of
from .n earby Fort Lewis (now Joint behind an immobilized Thurston
a 3% across the board pay cut
health care costs to all employees.
;
Base.
l.e'Ms McCho.rd), had arrived in ,countrSheriff'svehicle. Thecatwas
through unpaid furloughs-will
My own monthly payments have
unloaditscargo.
,,. tlip~anddamagedt,ythecn:>wd.
affect about 48,000 state workers,
gone up by 40% since December
the
port
risked
arr
grking closely with loi;al ponce,
more than half the government
due to costs passed on by thc_insur1.1 by b
,
een admini$
,, gan
workforce. "This agreement again
ance companies. They would have
,\!ith ph .
. . ..
ation desi . .
¢xaet
asks our employees to share in
gone up 116% in the next biennium
,, . . ,Cl.tbooJcs to p~vennhe+,,r
for t h e ~ vehicle
the sacrifice," Gregoire said. "I'm
due to decreased contributions
unloadediStrykers ftom getting to-';;;by punishing the students involved,
proud to say they are answering
from the state if it had not been for
the
b~e. Public debate, regrettably, and restoring Evergreen's allegedly
that call and doing their part to
my union, who bargained the govstaged
on the editorial pages of Thcf' corroded image.
move Washington through the
ernor down to 25%.
Oly,mpian, was primarily a diatribe
Anyone wtth video footage of the
worst budget shortfall we've ever
But the overall budget numagainst
tpe
college.
The
Evergreen
event
was encouraged to nrrnit:in to
seen."
bers are even more shocking. PubTo the credit of both negotilic colleges and universities in
admi
·. )u.·sttatt•·
•.·· · .·.on tt.~ . public relations
<;.•. and stu.dents were identified
tha1lf!t\g~ allegedly o-eated,
ppnisheil~ most notably
ating teams, the agreement exWashington used to receive 70%
tud' n, ~.
s "'"
f~l~ill~olved .'
e
t
Jtlt,&
May
4-Counter Point Journal
~
Editorial cont. from pg.1
ers but not a major element, in the
media's portrayal (with a few choice
exceptions), of recent uprisings in
the Middle East?
In fact, "democracy" is on the US
agenda in Libya, just as it is for occupied countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, but an empty "democracy" devoid of economic equality.
"Democracy" for US workers is similarly being redefined by politicians
like Walker and his wealthy benefactors, who want to destroy the
democratic possibilities of powerful workers' unions.
After celebrating their victory,
the Egyptian people find themselves facing military control and
the frustration of their demands.
There are even tough« battles
ahead for them as they construct
$edemocracy they fought and sacrificed so much for. Still threatened
by'the instabilities of the global
market and the political maneuvering of the US and NATO, the Egyp-
To be successful, we must
begin addressing the true
causes of the problems 11
constantly re-created by
capitalists and re-narrated
by politicians
1
on both fronts.
The public workers of Wisconsin are just the recently visible
targets for displacing-capitalism's
crises. Workers, organized or no,
public or private, are similarly under the gun, even if their struggles
are not national news. While the
global economic crisis continues,
politicians, along with capitalists
all over the world, will be looking
to displace its effects onto other
populations and away from themselves.
What about the non-unionized,
the unemployed, immigrants, and
the working poor? Every one of
them already bears the burden of
capitalism's failures privately and
the media only provides occasional
and crude glhnpses of thdr daily 1
suffering and resistance.
The current battle is one among
many for workers. and to be successful, we must begin addressing
the true causes of the problems
constantly re-created by capitalists and re-narrated by politicians. •
What does it mean for public
workets in Wisconsin to have more
democracy, more <;ontrQJ oyer the
nature andresults of thcit work?
It's not about wages. but about
power; it's about control over work
Tessa: Well, m Walker's own words,
he is Ronald Reagan, and this is the
Professional Air Traffic Controllers
Organization (PATCO) st rike that
Reagan broke in l98l. He's actually really good at pushing the conservative
agenda, familiar to people across the
country, es~ecially in places like Indiana and Ohio.
Here, he managed to get control of
the senate and the house. And in the
house, a fourth of the new people
el~cted are fro1:11 the Tea Party: rightwmgers who will follow Walker's lead.
It's th e way Walker has gone about
politics ever since he was elected Milwaukee ~oun~ Executive in_ 20~2. He
cut p~bhc services t~ere, which is w~y
the Milwaukee pubhc school system is
so much worse off than the rest of the
state - he completely slashed their
budget.
It's neoliberal policies that we've
been implementing in Third World
~ToR ___
ffi61E
.............
2011
It brings up the question of consciousness, class-consciousness, and
education, because as someone who's
been politicized for a long time and
spends time thinking about strategy
and politics, I was faced with the fact
that not everyone does.
Some people don't have a strong
grasp on what's happening, don't
put it in a broader context, and are
responding to an attack. It limits
their strategy and tactics. Everyone is
sitting back and reflecting at the end
of the day, trying to put everything
together. When I reflect, I think: we
need more education.
How do you plan on participating in that
education?
Connor: In .Minneapolis, we have
what we call "experimental college."
The one time I left Madison during
all of this was to teach a course on
.....
...,__.__
and the disbursement of public
money and services. What about
an extension to all workers of the
tians are in a precarious situation.
The miliury might of the US
right to define their work, how
and its allies is historically virulent
their senrices, resources and prodin unde,nnining, through overt or
ucts are distributed? The momen- .
undllrc9ver operations, the demo-: ; tum generated fro111 th~ fight qn
craij.c and socialist aspiration~ o(" ' be channeled intn moridemands,
peoples1 especially in places like wz "' m o r e ~ and the pom'bUthe Middle East and Latin America.
ity of a different set of economic
In the upcoming months of the /j
values. Oemocracy in iu truest
Egyptians' struggle, democracy
sense cannot be realized without
and economics will be intertwined,
pushing at least that far, and beand any solution, if it is to achieve
yond.
the protestors stated aims, must address both.
For workers in Wisconsin, Washington, an~ across the US, the
struggle must, similarly, be fought +
lessons in Being Green:
Biomass and Participation at
Evergreen
C. V. Rotondo
In October 2010, the Counter Point
Journal published an extensive story
about Evergreen's biomass gasification project. A biomass gasification
facility was proposed as a way to reduce the college's dependence upon
natural gas for heating buildings
and water and support the campus'
Climate Action Plan (CAP), a major
component of which is carbon neutrality by 2020.
Though the project had been underway since the fall of 2009, when
the Clean Energy Committee (CEC)
voted to commit student funds to a
feasibility study, the beginning of
the 2010 - 2011 school year saw open
conflict between opponents of the
project and the college administrators and staff working to make biomass a reality.
Opponents of the project claimed
victory on April 1, after Steve Trotter,
Chair of the Sustainability Council
and Executive Director of Operational Planning and Budget, sent an
email to Evergreen.staff, faculty, and
the campus listserv, TescCrier, stating that the biomass project was not
moving forward.
Much has occurred between our
October story and the announcement of the project's termination,
and it's important that the events
surrounding Evergreen's bid for biomass be recounted. Hopefully the
tale of biomass will lend lessons to
the future pursuit of alternative energy systems at Evergreen.
According to Dani Madrone, an
Evergreen senior, intern at the Center for Community-Based Learning
and Action, and recent co-author and
editor of a biomass study produced
by the program: Applied Research:
Biomass, Energy, and Environmental Justice, co~munity engagement
Madison cont. from pg. t
testing because it's their workplace.
Students and parents were protesting because the bill would defund the
public schools and create a horrible
work environment for teachers and
particularly teacher's aids, who ~ere
cut most in this bill, along with special
programs. The cuts would increase
class.sizes and the amount of classroom materials would go down.
This bill also affects anyone who
uses public services in this state, such
as the bus. A third of the transportation systems in Madison are funded
by federal aid. The federal aid requires
that workers have collective bargaining rights, which means we're losing
a third of the funding for our bus systerns in Madison and a good deal elsewhere in the state. It will be drastically
cutting service to areas where people
can't afford to have cars plus cutting
'
about the biomass project has been
fraught from the beginning. "In the
fall quarter, I had talked to the Counter Point about my vision for how
this process should go: a community-based learning environment, in
which the school learned along with
the community," Madrone explained
during a recent interview.
"Over the summer (2010 ), I had
done a lot of outreach. People were
confused as to why Evergreen was
pursuing this and some were convinced that it was a really bad idea,"
she continued. However, reflecting
on an initial student forum held
in October, Madrone was hopeful.
"That was a pretty good experience,
not to say there was any agreement
reached, but there were at least connections made and more understanding between the varied perspectives."
Following this forum, Madrone
organized a successful presentation
by Dr. Mark Harmon, a faculty at
Oregon State University ·and a renowned carbon forest cycle expert.
Harmon lectured in two programs
and presented a community lecture
that included the Masters in Environmental Science program. "What
he brought to the table is the reality
of the challenge of managing a carbon cycle. It's such a complex topic,
evety single day we learn something
new that could lead to serious accounting errors," explained Madrone.
According to Madrone, the ongoing research into biomass was enhanced by Harmon's insights. "The
question got so much bigger after
he came - as it should have. Had
he come with a simple answer, he
wouldn't have contributed to the
Biomass cont. pg. 8
Art by Croft
a lot of jobs.
countries for a long tiin , now being the economic c.i:isis. It's a free co -
implemented in the states, which is munity course, anyone can take it,
th· th t h b
• " and anyone can teach courses.
Whatdoeswhathappenedheremeanforpeo- som~ mg a as een commg 1 or
ie across the countrv, especial/u the working a while.
There's also a study group that
~J .
'J
Solidarity organizes and other groups,
P
class?
What does Walkerreally get out ofthis? What Wisconsin Wave and Wisconsin Resists,
Connor: It means a lot for two rea- does his ideal world look like?
are putting on an educational event,
sons. First it's part of a coordinated aspopular education style, on neolibsault against state workers and social
Tessa: Well, Walker gets richer eralism. It's just a basic concept that
programs afthe state level. The best throu~h t~e corporations t~at sup- people don't know.
article I've seen so far was in the Huff- port him, hke Koch InduStries. They
N eoliberalism is basically the
ingron Post. It talked about ALEC: ba- are in power plants, and our public political response that the ruling
sically a very low profile, high power, plants g~t pr~vatized, 0~so~d to P~iva:e class ca~e u~ ~i:h during the last
conservative lobbying group that ~o~pames, m Walkers bill. Pnvatlz- economic cnsis m the 1970s. The
many Fortune 500 corporations have mg mcreases the profits of people who idea was to solve the crisis by both
a stake in.
are able to buy public goods cheap and pushing down wages, which meant
They write legislation that will sup- ~eap ~ig profits. But to_m~, a lot of it destroying the unions, and opening
port industries who are paying them, is desi~ned_to bre~ uniomzed labor. up the Third World to more intense
such as legislation that the prison in- Gettmg nd of unions means Walker exploitation.
dustry wrote in Arizona, which is all and th e state government wouldn't
This goes hand-in-hand with
about locking up immigrants. They have to worry abo~t wages and safety them taking a lot more power
buy off politicians with fancy trips.
a~d all ~f the thmg~ that go along through the state, and using it to
But they're not technically a Politi- with havmg an orgamzed labor force. break working class power. It also
cal Action Committee (PAC), so they're
.
.
meant propagating right-wing ideas,
hard to track down. walker has also What kind ofalternative woul~ you propose to such as lowering wages and creating
been coordinating with other new Re- Walker's plans? Was there an alternative pro- more competition.
publican governors. Very similar legis- posed during the protests?
!ation showed up across_the Midwest, Connor: Here, people proposed tax- Whatendeduphappeningw~enth~usandsof
m New Jersey and Flonda, all at the ing the rich and that's exactly what peopleshowedupatthecap1tol?D1dagroup
same time. It was a really concerted at- needs to happen. There wasn't a bud- take control? Ho"". did people decide whatto
tack against public sector workers.
get crisis, it was fabricated, and there do and how to do 1t?
The second thing is that Obama's are tons of corporations that aren't
Tessa: That was one of the amazbudget is doing the same thing as taxed at all. Taxing corporations has ing things and one of the downfalls
Wa~ker's: implementing harsh aus- become another common demand of the rallies and protests. Nobody
tenty measures that are completely here. Wisconsin has some of the low- expected tens of thousands of people
u_nwarranted. Walker cut tons of_so- est corporate tax rates in the country. to show up at the capitol.
cial programs so that ~e could giv,e Verizon, for example, pays $0 in taxes
I was there on the first day, and
tax breaks to corp~r~ttons._O~ama s to this state.
there were about 300 of us. It was a
budget looks very similar, ~it~ J_ust as
At the same time, the broader eco- typical thing and we thought, a lot
many t~ _cuts for w~th~ md1V1duals nomic crisis is not going away - it's of people turned out, that was aweand families as cuts m social progr~s. not a rhetorical point. Taxing the rich, some. We went back out and a couple
People can look at the w_ay_we resist- while it isn't going to hurt the econo- hundred had shown up. Then there
ed her~ as a model for resistmg_these my, isn't enough to address the nation- were a couple thousand and people
austerity measures elsewhere i~ the al and global economic crisis, which is just kept coming. Eventually there
country. It has to_ happen at a national a much bigger problem. A federal jobs were 8,000 people and then 10,000
scale. I~s spreadmg ~d t~e only way program would lessen the pain that and finally around 70,000 people
to stop it from spreadmg is to mount the crisis is causing.
here.
a strong enough resistance that politiThere was no concept that that
ci~ wil_l ~udge it to be a bad idea for What does being in a socialist organization was going to happen before hand,
theu polmcal future.
have to do with this?
on either side. Most of the organizWh
ldWi Ike d th" 7 h
ldh
Connor:Forme,itmeansthatyou ing,planning,andS t rategizingwere
!YWOU
a r o IS.W!YWOU eae- putthi'si'nli'ghtofabroaderstruggle happe_n ingdaybyday.Oneofthe
ate a recession situation then create a bill that
attacksunionstofixit?
and a more long-term movement. firS t mghts at ~:oo pm, t~ere was a
I've been forced to think about this. finance committee meetmg about
+
Counter Point Journal - 5
and all of a sudden people
e, "Hey, you going to spend
tin the capitol?" "Maybe I'll
1ight in the capitol." "Can we
'"Maybe we can do that.'' And
LSt got their sleeping bags and
ive for weeks.
usly, as that went along orgabegan to form out of it. The
1al groups that claim hierarthese things began to emerge:
llS, the labor beauracrats. They
o-anizing for the ends they
"They wanted collective barrights restored and a tomati
i that was it
u
c
:here was th~ Student United
which is the student govern~t connects all the diff rent
ity of Wisconsin cam;uses
ipuses were a large part of
the bill proposed to separate
lison from the rest of the uniand start to privatize it So
; were very involved, beca~e
ition was going to go up 20
iextyear
groups ·tried to curtail the
the protest. They said: "Actumly want these things. In fact,
ike all the concessions you
! just want collective bargaine original chant was "Kill the
people changed the chant to
Whole Bill" because e ere
'
w w
Whatlessonsdoyoutakeawayfromthisexperitheir politics, to recognize that they're ence?
It really forces anyon·e, no matter
Gateways for
Incarcerated Youth
not in control. For most people, you're
.
.
not going to be in control and the pro- T~sa: Some th10 g 1 learned m th e
cess is going to be democratic, as much capit~l was th at 1 need to be m?re
as a spontaneous action can be demo- oudtgoalmkag. _Peop_lehwho wlerehouckint?oi~g
cratic.
an t
ttve wit peop e, c e
gm
and chatting, really brought people
What happens now that the bill has been together. At a protest, I have the menpassed? How do people move forward, what tality th at 1 take care of myself and my
affinity group, or the people I'm there
areyou working on?
with,
to things turn.
.
.
.because I'm used
.
Tessa: Walker signed the bill and mg violent very quickly.
~ut it on the ?ooks, d~p~te a restrain- I was_very much in that minds~t i_n
mg order agamst the bill m the courts. the capitol. If stuff goes down, this 1s
Nobody really knows what that means who I need to watch out for and this
yet. That might just piss off the courts is who I'll leave the building with. I
to some extent. But right now the Su- didn't relax and take the time to actupreme Court is very conservative.
ally have more radical conversations
I'm getting more into my comfort with people and bring them together .
~one wi~h organizin~, which is fight- so the! ~ould feel more c?mfort~ble
unteerstablingforGatewaysoutsidethe Evergreen library. Photo y roft.
mg agamst somethmg that already orgamzmg rather than bemg solitary. What follows is an interview with is scheduled for June 2.011. What it
exists, rather than trying to prevent There were a lot of people there from Oscar Overlund-Pettos, College Sup- means for the program is that we're
something from passing. I felt like the across the state who didn't know any- port Coordinator with the Gateways going to have to close our relationprotests were a stalling tactic- ~alker ?ne else in th~ capitol. ~e~ could've for Incarcerated Youth Prograni
ship with Maple Lane very shortly.
alwa~s had _the votes, h~ was gomg to been brou?ht m and theu ~01ces heard. Ttllusyoarltisto,ywidlGatewa]s.
Winter 2011 will be the last quarter
pass 1t. We Just stalled 1t for a month, The umons fucked shit up for evfor the College Class and support for
which i~ important in its ow~ way, b~t erybo~y. Not rank-and-file w~rkers, I was a student in the Gateways pro- the Culture Groups at Maple Lane.
ev~~mg was very symboltc up until the uruon b:'1urac~ats. I went mto so ~ under professor Tony Zaragoza The Academic Mentoring Program
this pomt.
.
.
many meetm~s with the state heads ~ th~ 2.008 - 2.009 school year. I stud- will continue going to Maple Lane
The way I see 1t, the ~ost important ~f SEIU \Service Employees Inte_rna- ted with anywhere_from ~-2.0 youth at until all the youth we are working
struggles now are gomg to be work- t10nal U~10n), the AFL-CIO (Amencan 1Maple Lane Juveru1e tnsotution with with no longer reside there.
place struggles: -:vor~ stoppag~s ~nd Feder_at1on of ~ab?r - Congress of In- the ~vergreen college elass students. What it means for Green Hill is
slowdowns, ~?mmg m ~ate, bwl<:l~ng dustn~ Orgamzat~ons), and AFSCME Dur10g this time, our class helped that we're experiencing major staff
up to·the ab1hty for umons to strike. (American Federat10n of State, County, .raise over $8,000 for the program.
changes, 50 there's a Jot of tension
None of the unions here are really or- and Municipal Employees), and they
My second year in Gateways (2.009- out there. You have Maple lane st.aff
ganized enough to call a strike. They were horrible. They were just like the 2.010) I was a volunteer, developing with seniority entering Green Hill
~ople who have the
haven't had a strike in so long, only Democratic Party, asking: "How do we materials for the African-American which pushes the short time staff out.
1ization and the money a few people in the unions have ever get these people to do what we want, Culture Group at Green Hill and The youth are feeling it too because
gone on strike or know how to orga- then go home?"
Maple lane. Then I was recruited to the culture groups can't meet as of:tually become the
nize
one.
It's
hard
to
build
awareness
of
this
be
an intern and as which I attended ten as they'd like.
rs because they have
Also, the union membership isn't kind of thing with people at a protest. weekly African-American Culture
icrophones and the
politicized enough to go on strike. So I It's hard to tell people that the people Group Meetings, Gateways staff meet'- Howis~ ..... wit6dN!srdHl,ges?
:ers
think the important thing now is edu- who are on that microphone are not lings, and, helped wJtb,various office
;duties. After a few quarters of men- We're ex
!10 funding ftOm
0 fight against people claim- cation in the unions and working on actually looking out for you at all.
ership of the movement when small actions that build up to actually
How to deal with the Democrats is toting a group of anywhere from 10-2.0 Evergreen
W,itton for _the incarally wasn't leadership of the having strikes.
.
something I don't do well. They were youth, I applied for the Gateways staff cerated youth we work with in the
.
Particularly now that a lot of the able to co-opt a lot of the energy and Position as a senior at Evergreen and College Class, which we've had for
-~~ a small group of eight uni~ns are witho~t contra~~' they funnel ~t towards,~he Democratic Par- thankfully got the position.
two years.
11,1ho were staying in the capi- don t have ~ollecttve bar~ammg or ty. The_1dea was, oh, the Democrats
,
,roke up into small gro ps to d!.!-es collectlon-they don t have the are saymg no. The Democrats are the Wftatdoyo,,dofo,Ciatawlys.
Wflat flots it mean for dtf Gateways Effl'·
upi·tol
moneyorthepowertostrike.Itwould
people'sgovernment."Theybecame
C
ti
th
Coll
gmnprogrom?
Utwhywecametotheca
, b
lik
iki
•
h
• h
"all h t
urren Y, 1 am e
ege 5upport
.vin would look like, why we he m?re ledsbtr n~ to g~t a un10n eroesD mt e stateh, esflpedc1 Y t e our- Coordinator. I help Chico Herbison
The class has two to four faculty
t it was an important place to t ~n It wou
ea umon gomg out on teen emocrats w O e •
(Faculty Lead of Gateways) with the
iY group had a corrections of- stn}<e·
.
. .
There ere so man.Y. chants about -0'8•rGlaM!Nl!IN.,.,._!.fflliellfffi:tt already in place for future classes.
w was there because his union 1 I ~e beehn foc~mlg my enhe~g1~ smce them: the "Fabulous Fourteen." I kept Juvenile Institution. With the help go1~nclffig
agnywfllfh'te~r·ercottbecaeguseect1·tas1S.salifunl'lteavmg t e cap1to on pus mg issues trying to point out to people that we
•e dissolved if the bill passed, fh
h bill " .
d
h
h
d"d
,
of
a
college
class
student,
we
hold
time,
high
demand class. The issue
·ly woman from a Nati e res o ow t e
1s gomg to ,Ulect peop1e ma e t em 1eave, t ey I n t 1eave
d
.
k
. h
•
v
- of co1or and raismg
• • c1ass consc10us•
b ecause th ey wanted to, th ey rea1·1zed stu Ygroups. twice
a
wee
to
assist
t
e
we
face
is
tuition
waivers/funds and
h
.h
l Up north Who Was undergo 11ege c1ass wit how we can locate them r.or the (in
1
•
•
•
h
h
d
if h
h
young
men
m
t
e
co
iotherapy and "Badger Care,, ness. A ot of people were saymg this 1s t ey a to t ey wanted any c ance
di
..
d
u·
•
. heal h
h ' killing the "middle class" of America of being reelected
rea ng, wrmng, an st0 ryte mg.
carcerated) guys who put m their
:onsm
t care.system t at
•
•
I
al
•
•
th
&
k
·
Groups I'm a part of are saying this
Really people should have been doso mtemew you
wor on work to try and earn coJlege credit.
h er Kemo, was gomg to be cut. .
.
.
.
.
.
individual
writing
proJ·
ects with ex- B t
t
d
th
p
·11
all
.
d. if h 1s an attack on working class people mg more organ1zmg m the workplace
u res assure , e rogram wi
v~ctu h Y:otng to ie t e -we're not middle class Americans rather than focusing so much energy tremely dedicated youth• 1 also help be around in some fashion. There's
r_d ou: •T e~ewerealso two Most of the people who are really go: on the capitol. Though! think the cap- coo rd1 nate t~e fo~r Culture Groups a huge waitlist for the class, and alu s an a teac er.
.
b aff
db h. b .
k .
.
.
at Green Hill with the honorable ways has been.
11 of those people wanted dif- ~ng to e ecte y t 1s 111 are wor - 1to1 was a very important centerpiece .help of four volunteer group mentors.
aings and a win looked differ- i~g class and poor people. So educa- for the rest of the country and state_to There's an African American group,
.. ,.,_. .,
ch of them So 1-t was very hard t10n has been really helpful.
be able to see. I heard countless stones Ch"
-"-'"1~-" -......:..:-Island
What'sdteblltJOfl ~
•
•
I'
l
ki
b
fr
l •
h d
tcano group,~...... r: '""""
er
iize people, even just get the
. m a so _wor ng on oy~ott cam- om peop e m towns up nort an group, and Native American group
In the past, Gateways students,
; of food, bedding, and health- paigns aedgaiWnalstkthepcorplorattons t~at e~t abo~thhow they ~ereha?le ~~ kebep who meet as often as possible to work volunteers, and community memsupport
er. eop e are s ~ g gomg ~It protests m t err cities e- on culturally relevant activities (sweat bers have helped put on fundraiscrs
! end it was the people who to put together that Walker got mto cause of what was happemng at the lod
.
.
to raise money for tuition and books
office and can do what he's doing be- capitol.
gralseceredmomes,) group semmars, si·nce the youth don't have fund:
trol of the logistics who ended
h , b k db h
.
s b Or1 11 .
.
mu , an more .
ming the police liaisons, and cause_ es ac e Y t_ ese giant corym
~ Y, it '!'as very unporta~t,
ing to pay for their own tuition and
tp controlling the movement porattons. So, along with Walker, we but strategically, m the long haul, 1t How does
fit. dlt
books it's on us to figure that out.
he capitol, because they were shou~d be targeting the corporations didn't get us further ~n the work? your
lntO
CiatewoysPro- Th;ideais thatiftheyleaveprison
ople went to with questions fundmg ~alker becau~e he can be re- ~laces wh_e~ workers_ stt!l had collec- gram
.
with college experience and credit,
ood or bedding. So they be- placed. Its the ~orporat1ons who really nve bargammg. We d1dn t get that far
The College Class Program 1s one they are more likely to attend higher
pokes people. That was pre- benefit from th_1s.
.
becaus~ everyone ~oured energy and aspect of Gateways. currently, there education and get accepted into col.ntly Organized Council and
I als~ got a Job wo_rkin,g on repre- mo~ey mto the capitol~ a lot of people are three main components of the pro- lege than if they didn't have that ex.ed Labor because they had the s~ntattve re~alls, which I m not pa,r- b~heved they were gomg to stop the ~am: The_College Class, The Academ- perience and credit. Currently, two
!Sand the money to be able to t1c~arly_exc1ted a?out beca~se I don t bill. ~e should have done more com- 1c Mentonng Program, and support credits at Evergreen costs $407_20
gs to people.
~hink this figh,t will be won m the ~eg- mun1ty work.
for the Culture Groups. In the past, and is rising with budget cuts.
s what happens when you ~slature. I don t have ~ery much faith
we've had other programs such as an
tve an organized protest: the m the sy~ten:i, espec1~1ly the De_moonlineclass, but due to budget cuts we Howdoptapleplugin,howcantheyhelp?
vho have the organization and crats, ~h1ch ts who will run against
had to stop those progranis.
On Sunday, June 5th, we are hav1ey will actually become the Repubh_cans.
.
Whatelfectsdobudgeccuts lt,weonGateways? ing our 3rd Annual Co-Ed Kickball
because they have the micro- One important thmg that recall
Tournament to raise funds for the
md the speakers.
does is empower people to realize that
Maple
lane
is
closing.
It
was
schedprogram. It is one of the most popey can create a list of speakers ~h~y can actua~ly change government
uled to close in 2013 but it looks like ular events on campus and draws
.pitol and all talk the same line if Its not working ~or them: Th~t s~rt
the close was expedited, so the close 150 people. It is family friendly and
ryone will think that's what ev- of empo~erment 1s the thm~ I m mopen to the public. It starts at 10:00
:lse is thinking. It's a very easy rerested m a lot of people gettmg. Oh
am, rain or shine! Registration is $10
ontrol a crowd that's not orga- wait, if you really piss me off, I can reper person. Teams have to be 8-12.
call you.
people and co-ed. Get your registraI think that's a small step in the dition packets at the Gateways Office
participating in the protest changed rection of figuring out that you need
at Sem 2. E2.12.6 or online at: gateways.
to make the government do what you
evergreen.edu. Seeyou there!
want, rather than just listening to the
or: What's happened has been government. A big thing we've seen in
nteresting because no one's the last month is the mass radicalizacontrol of it. That's a really tion of people who don't then know
t situation then I'm used to as what to do with it.
ist. No one's really in control, Small wins, like recalls, are really
just happen as they happen. important for people recently radical1tegize with a small group of ized, to continue to push the envelope
vho are around for what you're and do more, instead of getting disilJ do in the next hour, maybe lusioned and fed up.
: morning. It's totally different.
Oscar Overlund-Petros. Photo by Croft.
Aa
1
•
won
• -
May
6-Counter Point Journal
2011
Assault cont. from pg. 2
the health and safety of the victim, I would go to a call and I'd be able cate students preemptively. All
Policy which includes important definitions from the Washington State RCW,
federal law, once a college knows or and the investigation. They are not to get witness statements that oth- students should be aware of the
facts about sexual violence, services
reasonably should know of possible in charge of the judiciary process ers weren't able to get. I realized processes that police as well as
available to victims, procedures for resexual harassment of students, it that occurs afterwards. I feel com- that there are a lot of things about schools take when they receive
porting rape to police and the school,
must take "immediate and appropri- pletely confident referring victims Domestic Violence and other forms a report.
ate steps to investigate or otherwise to them, partly because whenever of Sexual Violence that you need to
Advocates are trained to in- as well as many other helpful pieces of
information concerning sexual violence.
determine what occurred and take they get a report, they call me. They know. It can be very complicated and form victims of information
+o view the current student conduct
prompt and effective steps reason- do not wait for a victim to invoke there are all sorts of dynamics that regarding services and legal
ably calculated to end any harass- their own rights and ask for an advo- you must be able to understand in processes. Advocates are avail- code, visit Evergreen's website.
I strongly urge you to contact me if .
ment, eliminate a hostile environ- cate. They recognize that this person order to be helpful."
able through the school as well
you, too, are concerned with our schools
ment if one has been created, and is experiencing trauma and that all
When I asked her if there was as through Safeplace. Talcott
policy in regards to sexual violence, and
prevent harassment from occurring victims deserve that support."
anything that she wanted to say to Broadhead is a paid advocate
if you are interested in collaborating to
again," regardless of whether the
"Much more of my experience victims she said, "It is important for the Evergreen State College
design a sexual assault policy and work
student who has been harassed com- with TESC police has been about to get a report made as soon as pos- who is on call 24 hours a day to
plains of the harassment or asks the DV (domestic violence), harassment, sible. If you can get to a hospital and support victims. In addition, to get it approved by the administration.
college to act.
stalking, etc. And again, they are at- get a rape kit done that evidence is there are several students on
Allyson can be reached at: AllysonSexual assault is an extreme form tuned to the complex and dynamic there and the report has been made campus who are certified advo- michaels@gmail.com
of sexual harassment, and any un- social influences that affect these in case you want to go forward with cates, including myself. All adwanted contact of a sexual nature crimes and never question the valid- things. If you do not wish to do any- vocates provide services free of
must be investigated by our school. ity of the person reporting. They also thing other than report, that is pos- charge and will accompany you
Because of this federal obligation have some officers that specialize in sible. You can make a report and throughout your process includ- Part II: Resign
and obligation to victims, OSAP will DV and sexual assault response."
say you want to press charges but ing, but not limited to, initial
report incidents disclosed within
One of those officers is Pamela then change your mind anytime you support, accompanying you to I was on the mall that day
the office to the sexual assault re- Garland. She has been to a lot of spe- want."
the hospital to collect evidence, when this young man took the oath
sponse team for a civil rights inves- cialized trainings and was part of the
"It is just so important that you
and supporting you throughout · with all the ladies ram rod straight
tigation, but will ensure victim pri- committee in Thurston County that have that stuff there in case you want legal proceedings.
in their formal hats and coats.
vacy, meaning sensitive information established the protocol for how to to move forward with things. It is
Despite all of these people
will only be shared to the team on a
.
.
.
.
. .
who are working hard to make My vote was for Cynthia
need-to-know basis.
The dasappearmg task force responsible for making rev1s1ons to sure that victims are supported, but I wanted to be
since Talcott has been working at the student conduct code has recommended changes that would there are also a lot of things that in a place where Black celebrated
Evergreen (three years), there have benefit victims, but the policy is still not thorough enough
need to be done. I think that its historic victory.
been 17 reports of sexual assault. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - the most important and urgent
Most people who report to her do handle reports of sexual violence. possible to convict someone without thing is the need for our school The crowd was impressive,
not report to the police. According Garland told me that, "When I was any physical evidence but it is much to implement a sexual assault a million strong
to Talcott, "The two that I am aware growing up I had friends in DV re- less likely. There is no guarantee policy.
as it stood in silent hope
of, oneofwhichihave been active in lationships but at the time I just that there will be prosecution, but
Currently our school men- that a page had been turned
responding to, went through police· thoughtthat the guys were jerks."
sometimes just reporting is putting tions sexual assault in a brief and change had come
jurisdiction."
"I once knew a woman who was a a name on someone and will maybe paragraph in the student con- to a nation on a suicidal rope.
"The one that the Evergreen po- mail order bride from Trinidad. Her be enough to scare them and make duct code, which does not cover
lice responded to I was not actually husband was a real jerk and very ma- them leave."
procedures to follow if you have I waited like all the rest
involved in. I started working after nipulative. One day she came to my
"One other important thing to been assaulted, services avail- for any indication
the incident occurred, but while door because her husband had run know about the Evergreen Police is able to victims, or definitions that this man and his team were more
supporting the victim later on, the her over with his pickup truck."
that we are unbiased. Although we of terms that are used, such as than just another financial creation.
victim said nothing but good things
"I took some pictures and she work with the school, we aren't con- "consent."
about the way that The Evergreen returned to her husband because cerned with their reputation. We
The disappearing task force, Now, I'm a white boy with
State College Police responded."
she felt she had no other options. have no motivation to protect it like which was responsible for an Irish Catholic fixation
"Do I think that if someone report- Soon after she totally disappeared. I the school judiciary system. If police making revisions to the cur- but this regime has been a train wreck
ed to the Evergreen Police that they looked into her husband and found get involved, we can act regardless of rent student conduct code, has for my working class nation.
would have a top-notch response? out that he had had another mail or- how the school handles it if you also recommended some changes
Yes, I do. Do I think that the person der bride years before who also dis- reported it to the school."
that would benefit victims but Yes, President Obama,
who assaulted them will necessarily appeared. I thought to myself that
Thinking about all of these op- the policy is still not thorough I pledge to be
get convicted? No. The Evergreen he must have killed her but I didn't tions can be very difficult when you enough.
as competitive as a Chinese slave
Police deal with the initial response, · know what to do."
have just had a traumatic event occur.
I worked last Spring to de- in a Hunan factory?
"When I became a police officer That is why it is important to edu- velop a separate Sexual Assault
ier Bits cont. from pg. 2
us, your huthbte/byper-intelligent AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH.; edge <;>£anarchy is cold and brtt3 It's true
, or the next several hundredths of a secu,rity narrators.
HHHHI
tal and nobody cares to enumet""J The right can't stand his colored face
second but you don't. You're just all
But when the good folks at UC
(cue Teenage Wasteland)
ate to you the ways that your bits'i and attack him daily
"do da la la la la Ia." Eventually your Berkeley built the first social netOne day Bob was all like "Alice lot lives are in danger; be afraid for with Fox News setting the pace.
Local Area people send you a thing work between themselves and these i <3 u lets form babby" and Alice was yer bits- not just coz there could
from Amazon that's like "Order Con- little tribesmen back in the '6os all like "pfft stfu imma grfo" and she be some loltroll on the other end But his identity
fizirmed"andyou'relike"word"and (true_rompler: alt.usenet.smoke- tookhertribetoUofMichigan.Bob of the vacuum, but coz who- Ain't good enough for me
in a few days you get ur mixtape and weed), they didn't plan to give them was devastated but fer some stupid ever's listening can do whatever and I won't stay silent
it gets you laid. And you don't give a all their big secrets to be written reason figured that he should just they feels like with all your mon- in the face of this travesty.
!fucJ.< cuz you're like "lolz i got laid" dofn by those little hands. Back write her sappy love letters to win etacy unitS and compromising
and everything looks on the up and then the main plan was_tojustgetall her back. Since the Dirt Devil had datas.
ij I knew you wanted to kill Afghans
up so whatever.
the 'missile systems in the U.S. of A. hooked allthese tribes up,Bob could
ln 2009 54 billion moneys ~ to show you're not George Bush;
* ~eltt bank statement time, shaking hands about who they were
just put at the top of his letter'hey were stolen from unsuspectingi but then you killed Pakistanis
though, you're not so laid cuz ur like pointing at.
send this mess to Alice over at u of m' Evergreen students and other with predator drones
'1olz i don't remember buying $70
Back then, everyone who might and all the tribes in between would identity-theft enablers. In 2008, deep in the Hindu Kush.
worth of cell phone ring tones. WTF be using the internet knew everyone be like
tWice as much. At this rate, 10 •
the fuck!"
else who was online - by first name.
' I gt>tthis no prblm' and get it to years ago more money than even Oh yes, the intelligent President
Someone's been up in ur shit. was It wasn't until 198o, when the British, her. But one time one of the tribes existed will have been stolen. how comparatively wonderful you sound
jt the little guys over at the Amazon umler the handle "Tim Bemers-Lee", that had been forwarding these let- And next year is supposed to be as you bomb and strafe civitians
on yet another foreign ground.
tdbe, the ones who are in charge of
ters from Bob to Alice, named .Eve, worse!
handling the slips of paper that repHow do you Sleep with
was all like 'wtf the fuck this kid
However, there is a solution:
esent money in this mall/church/
yourself at night knowing
is writing SQme lots some shit and
Wrap up your shit.,.
With summers and Geithner
p>untry we live in? Doubtful, it's in
the te"ors to which you are never getting nothing back for?' so , 1n an ssl layer....
, t you signaled your economic stance
fhe best interest of the Amazon corsubjecting yer bits thereof?
she Started (eading the letters before
We don't have time to ed as the rest of us lost our homes and jobs
porate-ovedords to keep their little
sending them on to Alice.
>plain to you wat this means • thanks to the bankers you finance.
guys on lock.
went public with their 'World Wide
'I'he lulz that resulted in teading beacause we wasted all our ad
So you're like "Yo wtf local area Web' project that these inter-net- all Bob's bullshit sap were endless space writing that nonsensical We know you love the Arabs.
tribe you stole my bits." But they're worked machines started being the for Eve. She lul'd on into the night story above, so google SSL, fig- It's just that their land is an exception.
like "naw bull, we just sent them hiveminddatabaseofthefuturethat and beyond, and Bob was none ure that shit out and USE IT! If Israel wants to settle it,
bitches on down the line." And they are today.
t'wiser, for once he sent them bits on Or lose it. In the parlance of our you veto its protection.
you're all "wat linel" because u didn't
Ok, let's tak:e this shit back to the down the line that shit was out of his time "READ THE FUCKING
Then there are the Saudis
know tbere was a line.
beginning beginning:
hands.
MANUAL."
Dumb!
In the beginning, as we all know,
Bob's is a space-age-old story, one
We leave you with one simple a friend most fundamental
See, during those several hun- Al Gore created the first internet: Al- that you and your bits have likely question:
' who occupy Bahrain
dreths of a second when God knew ice and Bob. Alice and Bob were two been in before. Let us be clear: Every
How do you sleep with youri cuz with our 5th fleet, it's elemental.
what was going on itwas because His computers who, for the first time time you use an unsecure wireless self at night knowing the terrors ~
Noodly Appendage guided your bits ever, learned how to read and write
to which you are subjecting yer Now Japan is all radiated
from tribe to tribe across teh vast in- a language that they i:ould call their
This anachronism of the
bits thereof? heretofore?
with the type of nukes you back
·tertubalvacuum.Asitwouldhappen, own together. Because of this. Al
western edge of anarchy is
This is u$3r/pa$$, rootcana1 are you really fucking serious?
your Local Area tr.ibe has no idea who Gore connected a vacuum tube from
cold and brutal
and true_rompler, logging off you pathetic GE hack_.
Amazon even is.
one to the other so they could be all
and walking off from the front
You made us all nervous
They just assumptionlessly pass like 'lol sup'.
network you subject yer bits, even lines of the underground.
ur bits downstream to the comAs word spread of the miracle of Al private oqes, to interception - espe*List of Anarchist Paradises/ when you renewed indefinite detention,
but Guantanamo's promised ~losure,
cast Tribe, who performs the give Gore's creation. more tribes wanted clally on The local S1ate College's Dystopias:
r_nd take needed for all those tribal to get in on the lulz.And so Eureka network.
he-Franco Spain After The egads, you forgot to even mention.
tits to be tatted. Which is to say that was like 'Eureka!' and started maEvery ti.me you send infonna- M~natchy
p,mcastJustpassesthatshitontoo kin'awbolelottasomevacuumund tion to a website that isn't using
Cuba
But,allyourhope,
ltrue_rompler: although not so as- connecting them up like some kinda SSL (secure socket layer) or other
The San Francisco Stre-et Bal•,. all your change quotations
umptionlessly, see '"Bandwidth some post-modern-monem. Eisen- similar protocols, yer bits are almost ery Dumpster
evaporated for me
pu-ottling").
howerian supcrHighway. Now all definitely intercepted. Some times
Australia during Mad Max
when you stripped Private Bradley ManNow why anyone would think it tribes could share in the 1ulz and on you're deceived and what looks and
ThatpartofJapanfromAnirne ning
would be a good idea to leave some- that day nota fuck was given.
feels like a website you truSt is actUof his humanity.
fbing so big as a bank account in the
(put on dark stUnuz)
ally a website you shouldn't trust.
Silent cont. pg. 7
hands of people so small is beyond
YEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
11\is anachronism of the western
Silent No Longer
Counter Poi(lt Journal -7
May2011
Silent cont. from pg. 6
You cited the Pentagon's ''basic standards"
to dismiss P.J. Crowley's claim
but you failed to mention their origin
where Abu Ghraib made its name.
I want you to resign
like LBJ did that day
when he tofcl Americans sick of war
the political game he wouldn't play.
There were a hundred thousand
in Madison just the other day
and even though you ignored it
they ain't going away.
You're too young to remember
why capital made a pact
there was industrial warfare
and labor was on the attack.
Now your Republican allies
are reversing all state protection
but these short sighted losers
don't even see the connection.
It wasn't for labor
that capital made the deal
many of these protections were
aimed to calm
the working class' zeal.
Now, there are new leaders out there
and they will make us proud
when we tell them to step up and lead
our newly politicized crowd.
There is no doubt about it
the right wing will eat itself
but you are no alternative
just a never-been on the shelf.
DanLeahy
was never clear. Ifie nearness of both
the Olympia port protests and the
dead prez concert, coupled with allegations, on campus and off, that SDS
orchestrated both, led the group to
claim the suspension was politically
motivated.
In response, SDS and its supporters
occupied the hallway leading to Art
Costantino's temporary office in the
Seminar I building. They demanded
the reinstatement of SDS and a new
student group discipline policy, ereated by students. The occupation and
subsequent negotiations lasted until
the night before graduation in June
2008, when the occupiers were granted their demands.
The 2008-2009 school year was a
time of heightened tension, always
present at Evergreen, between critics of Israel's occupation of Palestine,
and apologists for Israel's policies.
Siia Shalom, a now defunct student
group, which Phan Nguyen called
a "little Israeli lobby," in a Counterpoint Journal article, was created on
campus.
The debate between the newly created group and long-standing Palestinian liberation organizers on campus took center stage in the Cooper
Point Journal (CPJ), the college's only
newspaper at the time. The polemics
grew in hostility, incorporating defamation of individuals and falsified
quotes from Martin Luther King Jr.
Attempts to redress both the defamation and false quotations were
met with intransigence by the CPJ
staff. After several meetings, the paper announced a decision to stop
publishing any pieces about the
Israel-Palestine conflict because, allegedly, anything more would only
further erode civil dialogue. With the
college's official print media closed to
them, artists, organizers, and writers
employed other means to engage the
issue.
Student artists in particular decided to take the issue directly to the college community with a bit of political
theater. One spring morning in 2009,
--------------------
the Evergreen adm1mstratton, the
CooperPointJournalstaffand their
student, faculty, and staff supporters, set about creating and maintaining a particular image of the college.
Students (and faculty) became the
targets of what was deemed a "witch
hunt" following the dead prez concert and the sharp curtailment of
their free speech rights.
The silence, in the name of civility, of the college's "official" media
seemed to sanction these actions.
This image of Evergreen was tailored to legislators, local, state and
national publics (the port protests
made national and international
news). This image is worryingly similar to that corporate-leaning, docile
university that Wolach's statement
rallied against.
We currently face an incarnation
of this allegedly "apolitical" rhetoric
from the college administration on
last spring's student vote to divest,
or revoke college money, from Israeli
The revised code is still
very much a refinement
of the traditional punitive
model found at Brand X
College
companies and those that do business with Israel. A Student Conduct
Code created in this time of volatile
politics and shifting public sentiment must be considered carefully. I
sat down with Evergreen constitutional law professor Jose Gomez to
do just that.
Gomez has direct experience
with the proposed revisions to the
conduct code. In May 2010, DTF
members visited his program to
solicit feedback from students. The
students' criticisms, noted in Appendix C of the DTF's report (available
on their website) focused on standard of proof and a requirement that
students report if they witness violations of the code.
The proposed code uses the standard "more likely than not," to
guilt,
w hi Ch
Gomez
thinks
too low a
standard,
especially
for more
serious
offences,
such as
those resulting in
expulsion
from the
college or ·
that could
lead to
criminal
charges
off campus. "If a
student
is found
guilty, using a very low standard, of a charge
that could potentially carry criminal
charges, it could serve as a bridge between the college and law enforcement in ways that may not be appropriate," Gomez explains.
Violations that may result in suspension or expulsion, which Gomez's students likened to "the death
penalty of academia," "just cry out
for a higher standard of evidence,
like beyond a reasonable doubt," he
says. In their final report, the DTF
claimed that incorporating different
standards of proof for different offences "could be counterproductive
when dealing with some misconduct such as sexual assault, because
it may discourage survivors from
making a complaint.''
They go on to say it's impractical to switch standards of proof
because it's not always clear "what
the ultimate sanction may be for alleged misconduct," and "multiple
standards of proof suggest a more
legalistic approach," undesirable for
a college conduct code that is allegedly based on restorative justice.
CC)N
~lJUCT
Art by Croft
Conduct cont. from pg 3
coaches. The punishments included
suspension from college sports along
with criminal charges and the attendant costs of laWYers and court fees.
At an infamous public forum following the "Valentine's Day Riot," Evergreen president Les Purce ingratiatingly offered students, faculty, and
staff an anecdote about a party mishap during his childhood for which
he'd been punished, concluding with
the admonishment that we needed to
"clean up our house.''
Until we did, we were collectively
punished, on top of the ongoing
"investigation," by a "concert ban,"
which prohibited concerts on campus until a new policy was drawn up.
Students, especially those engaged
in overt political activity, quickly
learned what kind of political tool the
ban could be.
The spring of 2008 saw the suspension of a student group, Students for
a Democratic Society (SDS), for allegedly violating the concert ban, or Student Activities procedure, or both. It
students, faculty, and staff found
their way onto Red Square blockaded
by a section of concrete wall and folks
in fatigues, apparently armed, aggressively demanding identification.
All morning, the college was witness to this mock Israeli checkpoint,
a tame glimpse into the world of Palestinians, and Israelis for that matter,
under occupation. Complaints from
staff, students, and campus police became allegations and threats of sanetion against the students involved.
At a public forum organized by the
artists and their supporters, primarily the student group Mid-East Solidarity Project (MSP), adjunct faculty
David Wolach read a prepared statement defending not only this particular political theater, but political
theater in general, warning that a corporate-leaning, anesthetized university was a threat to critical education.
His statement, along with articles
on the street theater and free speech,
were published in the newly created
CounterpointJournal.
During the events and public dialogues of these years, members of
"0mform1ty of standards of ev1- by the SCCA is unsatisfactory to the
dence would be easy; it's the easy way accused student, that student can
out. But to lump all of the potential appeal.
violations under that one standard
When this happens, a lot rests
is inappropriate. The potential cost on the VPSA. The board designed
to students is just too great," says to hear appeals is made up of three
Gomez. Responding to the DTF's students, one staff, and one faculty
concern that the "ultimate sanction" member. The code grants the faculty
wouldn't be known ahead of time, agenda committee the right to desGomez says, "It should be possible ignate their representative. Students
to say that those violations with the and staff allegedly have no such bodpotential to result in suspension or ies. In the name of expediency, the
expulsion require a higher standard choosing of student and staff memof evidence."
bers is put in the hands of the VPSA,
Regarding the DTF's claim that to be done through "an open selec"more likely than not" is the standard tion process established by the Vice
for conduct codes at college's across President."
the country, Gomez responds, "Ever- "So what does it mean that the
green has been known to lead the way student and staff members of the
on certain things and this [a higher board will be designated by an open
standard of proof] might be one.'' selection process?" asks Gomez. The
Gomez then considered the revised student filing an appeal may request
language of a section also criticized the removal of board members, but
by his students last spring: failing to this comes after the fact, once the
assist in the application of the Code. members have already been desigln response to criticisms of this sec- nated. "They've already been chorion, the DTF changed the language. sen; they're there. They think they're
It now reads: "failing to intervene going to serve and that puts a much
with conduct that constitutes damage heavier burden on the person objectto property or a danger to the health ing to someone on the panel," ex~
or personal safety of an individual." plains Gomez. He had an alternative
"By narrowing it to those things that idea.
are really serious, that any reasonable "One way to fix this is to have a
person would be concerned about, pool of students at the beginning
they've taken care of the snitching of each year or each quarter who've
thing," responds Gomez.
agreed to serve on an appeal board.
He continues, "There are certain You'd have a pool of students who
things that you can report to authori- are potential panel members, who
ties that don't take on the quality of are then selected by the panel, not
snitching. It expects a certain amount the VPSA. Each side would be able
of responsibility from community to designate [students) and each side
members for the community that would have the right to veto somewe're a part of." Another place where one or object.'' Gomez had broader
specifics would be helpful is the Ian- ideas about the code as well, ideas
guage prohibiting "realistic replica" based on restorative justice.
weapons.
"It's clear that providing an inforThe code sites "the possession or mal resolution option in the revised
use of any instrument designed to student conduct code recognizes the
cause harm, or realistic replica of such desirability of providing alternative
instrument, which might reasonably approaches to the traditional punithreaten or cause fear or alarm to tive justice model," Gomez begins.
others." Though the pen is allegedly "That seems to open the door a crack
mightier than the sword, student art- to alternative responses to wrongdoists used realistic replicas in political ing, but the revised code is still very
•n-dle--spring--of--zoo9-whe
clrnetlnement of'tlre"tl'aCl.lrioffa
the college's newspaper disavowed punitive model found at Brand X
their words.
College.''
Though Evergreen is lauded as an
What he envisions is a conduct
alternative institution, the once un- code in which "restorative justice
armed campus security has evolved is the rule, not the exception." This
into an armed police force. Gomez ad- would require "a major cultural
dressed the issue carefully and in the shift away from punishment as the
context of "many tragic active shooter answer to disciplinary problems," he
incidents at schools and colleges over says, and could be accomplished by
the past several years." "I do not think creating systems of "peer mediation,
it unreasonable to prohibit such rep- dispute resolution, peer decisions
licas generally," he says. "However, I about restitution, and peer counselthink that the prohibition is unrea- ing."
sonably broad. There should be an
In his final comment on what a
exception that allows the use of such student conduct code for Evergreen
replicas in performances, whether on could be, Gomez echoes his response
stage or in street theatre." In consid- to the Task Force's intransigence on
ering the design of an appeal board, standards of proof. "As an alternative
specificity was also central.
school that prides itself on innovaWhile the primary focus of the tion, we need to do more to develop
grievance process is "informal resolu- effective models for addressing mistion," there is the option, at the Stu- conduct.''
dent Conduct Code Administrator's
(SCCA) discretion, to impose formal
resolutions. If a resolution decided
The editors would like to extend our deepest
thanks to our supporters, including those who
made this issue possible:
Jean Eberhardt
Peter Kardas and Lin Nelson
Dan Leahy
Larry Mosqueda
Ellen Shortt-Sanchez
Suzanne Simons
Sandy Yannone
lf you read the Counter Point, ha\'e picked it up, been a part of any of our
stoties, ot know anyone who~ worked hard (and pro bono) to produce it,
please consider contributing anything you can. If you haven't had the opportunity to read our paper or be part of ou.r stories, your donation can keep the
possibility of both alive.
You can make checks payable to The Counter Point Journal and place them
in Elizabeth Williamson's campus mailbox in Seminar II A2117 or send them
to 303 Tho.mas St. NW Olympia, WA 985oz. Please feel free to contact us with
questions at tesc.counter.point@gmail.com
8-Counter Point Journal
Biomass cont. from pg. 4
inquisitiveness of academics. The conversations that needed to take place
started to happen." Harmon's insights
weren't.enough, however, to mend fissures in the communication between
the college and the surrounding community.
"Evergreen received a 3.7 million
dollar grant from the Department of
Commerce to proceed with the biomass gasification facility. I learned that
they received the grant and I insisted
that someone tell the public about this
news. The people should hear it from
Evergreen rather than find out some
other way. They ended up finding out
some other way. I don't know if this
lack of transparency was intentional.
Maybe they didn't want to let people
know about the grant for fear they
would freak out. Maybe there was just
no specific person delegated that task.
Either way, it was a definite flaw in the
process."
After news of the grant got out, Madrone organized a public dialogue on
carbon neutrality as a follow-up to
the lecture by Mark Harmon. At the
forum, the group identified the objectives, constraints, and stakeholders for
the task of replacing Evergreen's heating system as a step toward the college's goal of carbon neutrality.
Evergreen officials formally announced the grant from the Department of Commerce and two economists from the community presented
the economic challenges of biomass
at Evergreen. According to Madrone,
"There was really great representation
at the dialogue: there were students,
faculty, staff and administrators of the
college. There were also a few community members, some opposed and
some ambivalent.
We identified the problem: the
problem is not that Evergreen needs
a biomass gasifier; the, problem is
that Evergreen is burning natural
gas, which is contributing to climate
change. We also talked about the biomass process and there was even a pivotal time during the conve.r sation in
which everyone agreed on something
regarding the decision-making process.
There was specific language that
was agreed upon to ensure that people
who participated in the community
engagement were not wasting their
time. That was a big step towards
building trust and relationships so
that we could continue the dialogue
on ·this issue.'' Unfortunately, indicative of events to follow, what was
agreed upon never actually happened.
Soon after the dialogue, John Hurley, Vice President of Finance and
Adrninistration, testified to the state
about the 3.7 million dollar grant
from the Department of Commerce
the school had received. In a testimony to the House Capital Budget Committee on December 9, 2010, he said:
"We will begin our permitting process
shortly and this facility is expected to
start construction in the summer of
2011 ."
This was a validation of Madrone's
warning to the college and a blow to
the project's community engagement.
"Of course, people freaked out at that.
It was a big lack of transparency on
the part of Evergreen." In light of the
fact that the Sustainability Council
was telling people no decision had
...
May
2011
been made and research was ongoing, dations to the Sustainability Council something be done to create a policy ing the college accountable, the CEC
a meeting was organized with Hurley (SC). I expressed the need to halt the on public participation, and that the responded by writing a letter to Les
about his testimony. "John wrote a let- current process because of the dam- students get back the $125,000 from Purce stating that something went
ter to the Council, stating that he mis- aged relationship with the community. the Clean Energy Committee (CEC) wrong with this project. There was
represented their work, but, he had to Also, we couldn't make a good deci- that was put towards the research.'' not enough student participation.
do it because that's the nature of the sion because there were too many un- The response seemed to indicate a pat- They told Purce they were going to
game for finance and administration." answered questions and not enough tern.
vote on whether or not they would
Despite Hurley's explanation, this lack time for research.
"I actually met with Les, but I'm not revoke the grant.
of transparency was the beginning of With a lack of consensus in the sci- sure what came from the conversation. The CEC also offered "some opthe end of Madrone's official involve- entific community, it is important to It was the same response: he will make portunity for amelioration," by
ment in the project.
allow time for the analysis to devel- a decision by the deadline for the De- asking for three things. First, a Dis"It got to a point where what I was op. We needed to save the human re- partment of Commerce (end of March). appearing Task Force (DTF) on redoing was no longer welcome at Ev- sources that were being dumped into My response: we need to decide soon- newable energy- a component of the
ergreen, because, as it was said to me, this project and improve our relations er because our relationship with the campus' CAP. Second, a DTF on pubI kept stirring up people who were with the community." Community en- community is degrading day by day as lie participation, so "there's some
upset about the issue. My view was gagement wasn't just part of the for- this process continues.''
kind of process set up or at least
that I was trying to engage people to mula for Madrone. For her, there are
While the project has officially come guidelines for a process to address isparticipate so we could have a more bigger questions about how sustain- to a close, at least temporarily, and sues of controversy. According to Maconsensus-building process, but that ability really works.
though some of Madrone's demands drone, "So students and community
was not working with the timeline of "You can't force sustainability onto a have been met, the underlying ques- members have a way to be involved
financing the project. The college had community. People have a fragmented tions of process, student participation, when they're affected by the actions
to let the Department of Commerce vision of where society needs to go to and communication with the sur- of the college." Finally, they asked
know by the end of March whether ensure a future on this planet. It's im- rounding community continue to go that Purce honor the biomass moraor not they were going to accept the portant that we work on building con- unanswered.
tori um.
funding and, well, consensus building sensus around these issues so that we
The biomass moratorium is being "He responded with a report from
takes time, patience, and stakeholder can work together on the solutions.'' adhered to because of the project's Joho Hurley, and his understanding
involvement." Lack of transparency "If you try to force sustainability closure as stated in a letter to the cam- was that the plan was to spend the
and college administrators' unwill- onto the world, by saying 'we're going pus community from Steve Trotter student money last all along, and
ingness to participate in community to do this for your own good,' you start on April 1, "The moratorium not only that there was at least $125,000 left
engagement led her to officially with- to develop enemies. As resources be- leaves us unable to proceed for nearly in the budget. He also said, with the
draw from the process in January.
come more and more scarce, we need a year (a significant reason we declined budget crisis, he cannot commit to
"I expressed my opposition to the to get along, not fight with each other. the Commerce grant), but it also leaves any more work for next year, includprocess because of a document that
ing additional DTFs." So the stuEvergreen submitted to the Thur- .
dents' money would be returned, but
ston County Commissioners during
not in the manner that Madrone had
their briefing on the biomass mora- •
hoped. "It wasn't a situation of justorium.'' In a document submitted
tice, where someone acknowledges
to the County, titled Shared Values,
that something went wrong and the
Healthier Community, Environment
students' money shouldn't go to that
and Future, there is a timeline that depurpose. It was more a loss of power
scribes Madrone's work to engage the
in this situation."
public over the summer, stating that
Despite this, Madrone still holds
it was "supported by Evergreen's Susthe return of the money as a victory.
tainability Council and Sustainability
"I am really glad that the students'
Coordinator."
money did not fund this project, and
According to Madrone, "It made
I think it would have had it passed
me angry because my work was only
unnoticed. I'm still pursuing the
well-supported when it suited everyother demands and I also need to acone and I was the one taking the brunt
knowledge that the budget cuts are
of the force of opposition in the comvery real. The staff, faculty and admunity. I made promises of collaboraministration are stretched thin and
tion and transparency. But as soon as
!!IIJ!•■■liia.if we need to take a step back from
my work started impeding the process l!!!r-""' .
. .
.· ·
.
.
sustainability goals to get through
of funding the project., it was no Ion- Biomass protest at Olympic Region Clean Air Agency (ORCAA) in Olympia
the budget then thM_dialogue
ger supported.'' Despite withdrawing, We fight wars over resources." Despite the status of future codes and permit- should be on the table."
Madrone continued the work of edu- her best efforts, the lin~ of demarca- ting related to biomass too uncer- Madrone continues her pursuit
eating students and the public about tion between certain college adminis- tain to pursue the project.'' Madrone of education and dialogue around
the project, and pushing for more trators and members of the communi- doesn't see this as the real reason Ev- sustainability in the form of an intransparency.
ty looked more like that war than the ergreen halted the biomass project. "If dependent learning contract. "I'm
"Not only did I continue to speak accord Madrone hoped would achieve the biomass moratorium had been the working on a project this quarter to
to the community about the progress real solutions.
deciding factor to not proceed with evaluate case studies of public particof the project, but I also continued to
With this framework in mind, Ma- the project, they would have said so ipation and governance at Evergreen.
receive their input and deliver their drone continued to pursue transpar- when the moratorium went into place I hope to evaluate some of the procomments to the College. One person ency and genuine dialogue about the in February."
cesses that have taken place, includfrom the community requested that biomass project. "The response I got
The issue of fuel supply, raised at ing biomass. I'm trying to give the
Evergreen follow the process of the from the SC was: 'We've been given a the very outset by proponents and college some recommendations and
State Environmental Policy Act for charge by the Vice Presidents to ful- critics alike, remains complicated. resources for a process that can be
the CAP. I looked into this request by fill a process, and this process has a "The SC has recommended the school centered on consensus building and
reading the CAP more in depth, and deadline. We're just doing our jobs.' use Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) justice. I want to leave this informawhat I discovered shocked me. Ever- At one point during the meeting, they certified wood, but there's not yet an tion with the Evergreen community
green wasn't even following its own said they couldn't make any progress existing fuel stream that meets that when I go."
plan for reaching carbon neutrality." because of the looping conversation standard. Also, the carbon balance of
In an effort to share the wisdom of
Indeed, the document that is in- about how the process isn't working. the project is still unknown."
her experience, Madrone leaves us
tended to bring Evergreen to the fore- I suggested that the process needed to
,
.
.
.
.
with some comments about student
front of the sustainability movement change." So Madrone took her recom- It wasn ta situation of Justice, involvement in governance at Evreads that, in 2011, a "Renewable Ener- mendations to the next level.
where someone acknowledges ergreen. "There are few options for
gy disappearing task force is required "I delivered the same recommenda- that something went wrong
students to effect change on campus,
t? study current ren_ewable en~rgy op- tions to the_ Vice P~esidents. I asked and the students' money
and you must be incredibly persist10ns and best practices, effecnve com- them to rescmd their charge to the SC.
,
tent to be involved in the available
munity engagement, acquire commu- No response. I went and talked with shouldn t go to that purpose.
processes.''
nity opinions, and recommend future Art Costantino, Vice President of Stu- It was more a loss of power in
"It can be very discouraging to
action steps pertaining to on-site en- dent Affairs, in person. He seemed to this situation
have your concerns go overlooked,
ergy generation." Should biomass be understand the issue. He recalled the - - - - - - - - - - - - - - but if you share your story you will
chosen through this process, it would time that Evergreen wanted to con- "Is FSC certified forestry balanced know that you have support. That
be pursued in the 2013-15 biennium. struct a roundabout at the entrance to enough to say that biomass is carbon will make the difference." This may
"I ended up withdrawing from the the school.
neutral? Another element that has be valuable advice in the near future,
process after giving my recommen- First they made a decision without been ignored in the evaluation of this even around issues of biomass.
consulting the community. There was project is the social impact. Is a project "It's not over for biomass. The origserious backlash, so they decided to re- such as this acceptable to the campus inal objective has not been fulfilled.
_new the process with community en- or the community? What can be done Evergreen contributes to global
gagement. Though not everyone was to educate people about the challenges warming, as we all do through our
completely satisfied with the result of renewable energy?" Despite unan- habits of transportation, consumerthere was more understanding about swered concerns about process and ism, and needs for comfort. Biomass
the issue. He received my comments carbon neutrality, there have been has been put on hold. Many have
and said that he would bring them to certain victories thanks to Madrone's asked for my final verdict on the isthe table when they received the re- efforts.
sue, and the jury is still out.'' Simiport back from the SC. I told him that "I had been asking that the the larly, in terms of sustainability, "it's
I thought'it would be 100 late to wait $125,000 of student money that came not over."
until then." When the Vice Presidents from the CEC be returned. I asked the "There are two schools of thought
did not respond to her requests, Ma- SC, the VPs, and then the president on the issues of energy in society: we
drone went to the top, so to speak. "I of the college, but this request was need to replace our consumption of
wrote a letter to Les Purce, president overlooked. So I went to the CEC and fossil fuels or we need to start a deof the College.''
submitted a proposal requesting that scent from high energy consump"I had the letter endorsed by many they revoke this grant because of a lack tion. Business as usual versus a radimembers of the campus and local of student participation and a lack of cal paradigm. My guess is they will
community. I asked for the same transparency, two things that were meet in the middle. The unanswered
things: that we honor the moratorium, identified in the award letter."
question is: where?"
follow the Climate Action Plan, that
Unlike her other venues for hold-
1~-
cxpj_201105.pdf