Cross-class coalition-building at Columbia University

    What does it take to organize across class lines? Students and workers at college campuses are increasingly having to find out.

    What does it take to organize across class lines? In the context of a nationwide revival of both labor struggles and student movements, students and workers at college campuses are increasingly having to find out. At Columbia University, students recently started to back a group of Faculty House workers who are fighting for a new contract. But what does solidarity mean at a university where students pay up to $60,000 a year, while campus workers can barely make ends meet? We hear from Osmond Cousin, who has been working as a chef at Columbia for the past 18 years, as well as Jane Brennan, an anthropology student who is one of the main organizers of the student-worker solidarity group. Cousin and Brennan share insights into how both groups have been building alliances in order to increase pressure on the university.



    Recent Stories

    • Feature

    Can Extinction Rebellion’s surprise success in the Netherlands be replicated?

    December 8, 2023

    As the COP 28 talks flounder, European movements are shifting their strategy in an attempt to emulate a major Dutch victory against fossil fuel subsidies.

    • Q&A

    Inside the youth-led fight for a demilitarized future

    December 6, 2023

    A UMass Dissenters organizer discusses the growing youth-led antiwar movement and how they are organizing against weapons manufacturers and the war in Gaza.

    • Review

    Uncovering Americans’ long history of hostility to conscription

    December 1, 2023

    A comprehensive new book by Vietnam War draft resister Jerry Elmer documents over a century of U.S. opposition to war and the military draft.