'60s Style Teach-In Meets the Digital Age in Live Stream Webcast
Local Campus Events on more than 180 Campuses Nationally
Frances Fox Piven (professor, CUNY Graduate Center) and Cornel West (professor, Princeton University) of America, hosted a national webcast teach-in addressing the roots of the current economic crisis and what people are doing to fight back this Tuesday, April 5, 2011.
Some 100 plus students and faculty at Sacramento State participated in the Teach In. the video quality did not work well, but the audio reports worked.
In the Local Strategy Sessions, the group planned for the demonstrations on April 13, for the CSU Days of Action sponsored by California Faculty Association and Students for Quality Education, the Progressive Alliance and others.
Professors West and Piven, each Chairs of Democratic Socialists of America, were joined by the Honorable Gustavo Rivera, New York State Senator from the 33rd District in the Bronx who will moderate the teach-in. Also joining the live-stream teach-in were economist Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia University); public policy analyst Heather McGhee (Demos); President Richard Trumka (AFL-CIO).
In addition, the teach-in featured activists from around the country: Beth Huang, Student Leader from Wisconsin (United Students Against Sweatshops), Anthony Klug, Public Education Activist (UFT Wadleigh High Chapter) and Sergio Cuevas, Housing Activist (National People’s Action).
The Teach In materials, and eventually the videos, are available at www.fightbackteachin.org. The resources section here provides excellent materials.
But the fight is just beginning – and we have more to say. Today SLAP was proud to be participating in a national teach-in lead by Francis Fox Piven and Cornel West called: “Fight Back USA!” that discussed austerity, debt, and corporate greed and how we as young people can fight back. Over 200 events were held around the country as young people set the frame of the debate moving forward into the 2012 elections.
And after today more will be happening. The United States Student Association Board of Directors, composed of students from around the country, have declared April a month of action. We will be fighting every day to make higher education a priority, workers’ rights mandatory and scale back the corporate greed that is trying to take over our country.
It is in this struggle that all members of our communities – elderly and young, working and unemployed – share the same interests. The fight happening right now is simply “public need verses corporate greed.” It is time for us to set our priorities as neighborhoods, communities, cities, states and a country.
Chris Hicks is Student Labor Action Project Coordinator
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