Please forward widely to all UC Grad students, parents of grad students.
UC-wide BDS vote on Dec 4, the effort to oppose it, and how you can help:
by Jonathan Kummerfeld
From Informed Grads, a UC-wide student group
Graduate
students across the state will be voting next Thursday, Dec 4, on
whether their union should join the BDS movement. If passed, it would
make them the first labor union in the US to join, and make the
political activities of the BDS movement a part of their standard
activist platform (alongside issues like reducing class sizes and
fighting discrimination on campus). Since announcing the vote, some of
the things union leaders have done are:
- Encouraged TAs to advocate BDS politics in the classes they teach
- Participated in and endorsed the Block the Boat protests in Oakland
- Spent several thousand from member dues on bringing BDS leaders to speak on campus in support
- Rejected a proposal to endorse Jewish self-determination (in July they made a statement that included support for Palestinian self-determination)
Informed Grads (informedgrads.org)
is a student group that has organized to fight the proposal. Since the
vote is state-wide and any graduate student, including law, medical and
MBA students, can vote, we have a real chance of defeating the proposal,
but only if we can get the word out (most grads don't even know it's
happening). This is where we would appreciate all the help we can get. You can help right now by:
- Telling grads you know that this is happening and they should go vote
- Asking undergrads and grads to help put up posters and leave flyers around campus (even a single hour can make a big difference), they should get in touch at informedgrads@gmail.com
- Tell friends and family and ask them to spread the word
- Like the Informed Grads facebook page, facebook.com/informedgrads and encourage others to do so too
There will also be an event on campus on Monday, Dec 1st:
Prof.
Russell Berman on "Scholars against Scholarship: The Boycott as an
Infringement of Academic Culture", his contribution to the new
book, "The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel"
It is open to all, please encourage grads and undergrads to attend and have them sign up here:
1 comment:
let it pass. the regents will not honor it and many alumni will be forced to cut their donations
let the uc system eat itself
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