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In the fall of 1964 the leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee made a visit to West Africa. At the time SNCC was one of the most prominent civil rights organizations in the United States, and its leaders were among the country’s most capable black activists.
Traveling to Africa from Jim Crow America was a shock for these young people. At one point on the trip, as the group boarded an airplane, SNCC communications director Julian Bond noticed that the pilot was black. He turned to a friend and, only half joking, said “I hope this guy knows what he’s doing.”
Forty-five years ago one of America’s strongest advocates of racial equality wasn’t quite sure that he trusted a black man to fly a plane. Today at noon, a black man will be sworn in as president of the United States of America.
How quickly did this happen? How fast did we move from then to now?
Here’s how quickly. Here’s how fast.
When Julian Bond stepped onto that airplane, America’s first black president was three years old.
The three units of CUPE Local 3903 are voting at this moment on York University’s most recent contract proposal.
See yesterday’s post for an overview of the strike, now in its 75th day.
Voting will continue until 7 pm tonight, and from 9 am to 7 pm tomorrow, with lunch breaks each day from 1 pm to 3 pm. (Union members can check here for information on where and how to vote.)
In other York strike news, the Canadian Federation of Students, Canada’s national student organization, has come out in support of the CUPE strikers.
“If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all the youthful vim and vigor, then there is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come on college campuses, the better world for tomorrow.”
–William Allen White, April 8, 1932.
The York University strike is coming to a head.
For two and a half months, Canada’s third-largest university has been closed by a strike of CUPE local 3903, representing teaching assistants, graduate assistants, and adjunct faculty. The university has invoked a provision of Ontario labor law to force a one-time vote by the union membership on York’s latest proposal, and that vote will take place this Monday and Tuesday.
If all three units of the local approve the proposal in majority votes, the strike will end immediately and classes may resume as soon as the end of this week. If one or more units reject it, the strike will continue.
The two sides are wrangling over pay increases and job security, but some observers believe that the length of the new contract may be the crucial sticking point. Labor agreements at half a dozen other major Canadian universities expire in 2010, and the two-year deal CUPE is pushing for would allow them to join a multi-campus strike that year, should one develop. (The university is insisting on a three-year contract.)
There has been speculation that the provincial government may attempt to end the strike with back-to-work legislation, but the legislature is in recess until mid-February. The longer the strike goes, the more likely it is that an entire semester will have to be canceled, costing the university millions in lost tuition payments and throwing students’ progress toward degrees into disarray.
Voting begins tomorrow morning, and continues through early evening on Tuesday. Results will likely be announced that night. Check back here for more updates as the story continues to unfold.
January 20 Update: CUPE’s membership rejected the York offer by a decisive margin.
In 1964 students at the State University of New York at Buffalo pulled off an extraordinary prank.
While cramming for a botany final in late 1963, one student stumbled across the phrase “the thallus of Marchantia,” referring to a stem-like structure on a moss-like plant. Deciding that the phrase sounded like an Arab title of royalty, this student and his friends decided to send the local paper a press release telling them that the Thallus of Marchantia was coming to Buffalo on a state visit.
The prank snowballed from there, and by the time it was over the organizers had sent a student to New York City, flown him back to Buffalo dressed as the fictional potentate, staged a massive protest upon his arrival at the airport, and secured a limo and a police escort to take him to a meeting with the mayor.
The full story of this bizarre escapade can be found here.
studentactivism.net 
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