October Newsletter
Updates from across the CUNY system, with a focus on social justice unionism and rank and file organizing.
RAFA is happy to present the second edition of the RAFA Dispatch - a monthly newsletter highlighting the work of PSC members and students across the CUNY system as we fight for a more just, anti-racist and inclusive university.
What's inside this month's issue:
Spotlight on the "Resolution on Resolutions" at the PSC-CUNY Delegate Assembly.
Recap of the the Cross-Campus Strike Authorization Vote Committee event on October 12th to discuss the importance of open bargaining - where all union members have direct access to contract negotiations - in creating a more democratic, transparent and accountable union structure.
Recap of the Cross CUNY Working Group Against Racism and Colonialism series of events centered around the recent PSC resolution in support of the Palestinian people.
Student-speak out event and Bronx Hostos Action Committee Organizing.
Keep your eyes on this space for the monthly newsletter and get in touch with your campus RAFA contact if you'd like to get more involved!
The Resolution on Resolutions
In recent weeks, DA attention has mostly been turned to a recent “resolution on resolutions” (as it has come to be known) which is a clear reaction against the Resolution in Solidarity with the Palestinian people that was passed overwhelmingly by the Delegate Assembly in June. Over a hundred Zionists have exited the union since that vote, throwing the Principal Officers into a tailspin. While we are facing urgent issues (adjunct layoffs, health and safety, workplace bullying), it’s telling that the principal officers seem most concerned with erecting roadblocks to intra-union democracy.
The frustratingly meta and obfuscatory ‘resolution on resolutions’—which ended up being tabled at the October DA, perhaps to be resurrected at a later time—creates a mechanism by which resolutions will be subject to a month-long “pause” before assembly debate and vote. Its proponents including the Executive Council claim that this serves the interest of engaging more members in the work and decision-making policies of the DA, which we all agree is a worthy goal. But in practice, it will make it much harder for our union to pass resolutions in solidarity with racial justice causes across the globe and indeed to pass resolutions in general. A supermajority vote of 2/3 is needed to deem a resolution “urgent” enough that it can be debated and voted on right away. It remains unclear how we will know to vote as a bloc when an issue is ‘urgent’ enough. In fact, according to the logic of its proponents, the charge of urgency obviates the mandate to spend time in discussion with members.
Before the resolution was tabled, an amendment submitted by the Cross-Campus Antiracist and Anticolonial Working Group resolved that all PSC members be informed of resolutions submitted to the DA via email and website promotion within three days. While we at RAFA don’t believe in “resolutionary” change, this amendment would allow interested members to plug in to DA proceedings more easily and know whom to contact for further information and engagement.
Forming committees on anti-racism does not make us an anti-racist union any more than teaching majority BIPOC students makes us an anti-racist university. We need to turn the lens on ourselves to scrutinize the ways in which our own proceedings, strategies, and policies of inclusion and representation create roadblocks to true union-wide mobilization and liberation for all. We should not forget that the original resolution in support of Palestinian people, drafted and endorsed by three member-led committees in the PSC, did not even make it to the floor of the DA for discussion because the EC submitted a watered-down substitute resolution which took precedent. We don’t know how substitute resolutions will be treated under the new policy.
We also should not fool ourselves into thinking that any resolution can substitute for actual rank-and-file democracy and mobilization. Communicating with members, pursuing open bargaining policies, organizing within the union without cumbersome bureaucratic hurdles or cautionary blockages from leadership, taking job and strike actions seriously as viable tactics, and educating ourselves continually about the interwoven nature of ‘bread-and-butter’ issues and ‘social justice unionism’: this is what will save us.
Teach-ins on Democratizing the Bargaining Process
On October 12, the Cross-Campus Committee for Strike Readiness organized two teach-ins on democratizing the bargaining process. The teach-ins were hosted by the Graduate Center chapter of the PSC, with sponsorship from the PSC Committee on Adjuncts and Part-timers. The noon and evening session each featured leaders of faculty and staff unions at Oregon State University and University Massachusetts Boston. Our guests described the advantages of open bargaining, including building a more powerful union, engaged membership, and leverage at the bargaining table. United Academics at Oregon State is a new union that implemented open bargaining where all members are invited to bargaining sessions and all proposals are posted to the union website within 24 hours. For United Academics, open bargaining is just bargaining; it is part of their culture of union democracy.
Faculty Staff Union at UMass Boston had bargaining by a small team behind closed doors for years. They had to fight to open up their bargaining process, conducting popular education for members, and eventually pushing through a new policy at the general assembly of the union. Today, they have 30 slots in addition to the core bargaining team for members who want to participate in any given session, and use caucusing time during bargaining to get feedback from members and strategize. Administration at both universities fought against open bargaining - showing that they think it is a disadvantage for their side.
PSC members who attended the teach-ins discussed what more democratic bargaining might look like in the PSC, and how we might get there from our current closed process that emphasizes not sharing meaningful details bargaining proceedings with the members. If you missed the teach-in, recordings of both sessions are available to watch here.
September Symposium and Teach-in Series
Following the PSC-CUNY Delegate Assembly's passage on June 10 of the resolution in Solidarity with People of Palestine, the Cross CUNY Working Group Against Racism and Colonialism—a collective of conscientious PSC union members, CUNY staff, faculty, students, and committed activists, including members and leaders of the PSC Anti-Racism Committee, International Committee, and Academic Freedom Committee as well as several RAFA members—decided to plan a series of symposiums and teach-ins on the struggle against racism and colonialism at CUNY and beyond. The working group met throughout the summer in order to organize these public events in anticipation of chapter discussions on BDS in Fall, as called for by the resolution. Although the union leadership ignored our requests to share information about the events via PSC communication platforms, we still managed to reach a wide audience, with nearly 750 people participating in these important discussions.
Events included: Sept. 2 two-panel symposium, Reckoning with Colonialism: Anti-Racist Struggle at CUNY & Beyond, Sept. 9 teach-in, Decolonizing Higher Education: Pedagogy, Curriculum, and Organizing, Sept. 23 teach-in, Policing, Surveillance, and CUNY's Relations with Institutions of Organized Violence, and a Sept. 30 teach-in, The Role of Unions in Resisting Settler Colonialism and Racism. All four videos can be found here. In addition to supporting and building our Palestine solidarity work, we hope they can be used as pedagogical tools for decolonial and anti-racist teaching across CUNY. Our work resisting racism and colonialism continues! If you are interested in getting involved, email us at NoRacismCUNY@protonmail.com.
Student Speak-Out at Hostos
The Bronx Hostos Action Committee continues to organize students and workers in the Bronx. Our latest event was a student speak-out and demonstration against CUNY’s racist mismanagement of the Fall semester, especially the disastrous roll-out of the vaccine mandate that has seen hundreds of students withdrawn from their classes and unfairly financially punished. In typical fashion, CUNY’s policy has changed during the semester and been poorly communicated. At our event we heard from a number of students, including including one young woman who was vaccinated but was still removed from her class by security guards because she didn’t have the document properly uploaded. As we said at our event, it’s not about vaccination, it’s about mismanagement. The Bronx Times covered the speak-out; read the article here. Any readers in the Bronx who would like to get involved, please contact us at hostosactioncommittee68@gmail.com. You can also follow us on Instagram @bronxhostosactioncommittee.