UC-wide BDS vote on Dec 4, the effort to oppose it, and how you can help

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:

Eventbrite or Facebook