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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=lduncan@igc.org href="mailto:lduncan@igc.org">Larry Duncan</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=lduncan@igc.org href="mailto:lduncan@igc.org">Larry
Duncan</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, January 02, 2013 4:13 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> from S.O.: Campus Wide Strike at Indiana
University</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
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<H1 style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 6px; MARGIN: 0px"><A
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title=(http://socialistorganizer.org)
href="http://socialistorganizer.org/">New from Socialist Organizer: Campus
Wide Strike at Indiana University</A></H1></TD>
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<P style="MARGIN: 1em 0px 3px"><A
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href="http://socialistorganizer.org/campus-strike-indiana-university/"
name=1>Campus Wide Strike at Indiana University</A></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18px; MARGIN: 9px 0px 3px; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(85,85,85)"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span size=3><A
href="http://socialistorganizer.org/campus-strike-indiana-university/">http://socialistorganizer.org/campus-strike-indiana-university/</A></FONT></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18px; MARGIN: 9px 0px 3px; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(85,85,85)"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span size=3><SPAN>Posted:</SPAN> 02 Jan 2013 12:37
AM PST</FONT></P>
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class=Apple-style-span size=3><BR></FONT></P>
<P><B><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=3>Students at Indiana University
call for a Campus Wide Strike</FONT></B></P>
<P><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=3>Students at Indiana University of
Bloomington are calling on students, faculty and staff for an Indiana
University wide strike on all campuses.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=3>Around 100 students from IU Student
Power met in early December to discuss, plan and organize for the strike.
The strike is planned for April 11-12, 2013, to coincide with the IU Board
of Trustees Meeting.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=3>The strike is being called for and
organized by a new student group called IU Student Power. IU Student Power
is closely linked with the Industrial Workers’ of the World (IWW). The
students are calling for a strike in response to the austerity measures
being imposed upon education in Indiana that is reflective of the
austerity measures that are being implemented by the ruling class
nationwide and worldwide in response to the current crisis of world
capitalism. In particular, IU Student Power is striking because of
increased tuition, reduction in public funding of IU, cuts to major
educational programs, unfair raises for administrators, environmentally
unfriendly practices in supplying power to campuses and rising student
debt. The strike proposal also cites as an important issue that the recent
cuts have particularly targeted people of color, and that efforts towards
campus diversity is being diverted for more ‘profitable’
investments.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=3>Not everyone in organized labor,
however, is supportive of this strike, and IU Student Power and the IWW
are no doubt facing resistance from the labor bureaucracy. According to
Peter Kaczmarczyk, president of the Communications Workers of America
Local 4730, “While we support attempts to get the university to take a
more progressive stance on issues, to better pay its staff, better treat
its students, and to focus on education rather than the financial bottom
line, we (support staff) are prohibited from striking or discussion (of)
or planning a strike.”</FONT></P>
<P><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=3>Students, teachers and faculty at
IU as well as throughout the state of Indiana have good reason to want to
strike. According to the strike proposal, drafted by IU Student Power,
student tuition pays for 51% of the universities budget, while state
funding accounts for only 18%, down from 50% state funding in the 1990’s.
Across all of the IU campuses, adjunct teachers and faculty face longer
hours and lower pay, resulting in lower quality classes for students who
attend them. And the forecast for students, teachers and faculty at IU are
looking even more bleak. According to IU President Micheal McRobbie, who
according to Wikipedia makes a base salary of a little under $500,000, by
2020 state funding for Indiana University will make up only 10% of IU’s
budget. All of this points towards a dangerous trend of the
privatization of education, in which students are treated as consumers and
where the university becomes a marketplace.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=3>Students of color are particularly
victimized by these cuts. Despite promises by administration to increase
campus diversity, the percentage of black students currently enrolled at
IU Bloomington (main campus) is currently at only 4.1%, at its lowest
since 1976.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=3>IU Student Power also has raised
grievances about IU’s Energy Master Plan, which prioritizes
“cost-effectiveness” over environmental concerns, making for an energy
plan that contributes further to the climate crisis wrought by world
capitalism.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT class=Apple-style-span size=3>Students at IU Bloomington are
responding to the austerity that is being imposed on them, and are
preparing to fight for their right to quality public education, as well as
for the better pay, treatment and working conditions for the teachers and
staff who work there. These actions are no doubt inspired by and in
solidarity with the recent radicalization of teachers, as evidenced by the
Chicago teachers strike last month. These developments are also important
towards the necessity for a nationwide student union, exemplified by the
efforts of students in California to organize a statewide students union.
The efforts of IU Student Power reflect the struggle that is now dire to
stop the capitalist austerity assault on public education, as well as the
linking of the student struggle with that of organized
labor.</FONT></P></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><IMG
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