Next Left Notes Is A News Magazine Devoted To Direct Action
17 Students Arrested At Univ of Virginia Sit-In
By Kelsey Atwood with Dan Keyserling
One of the 17 students arrested for demanding a living wage
Photo Credit: www.uvalivingwage.net
At 7:00 p.m. on April 15th, 17 students of the University of Virginia were arrested as they protested on behalf of a living wage. Police dragged the students into vans before a horrified audience of peers -- ending a 4-day sit-in occupying the offices of University President, John Casteen.
Hundreds of students joined professors to support the students' demands. History professor Julian Bond, who also serves as the chairman of the NAACP, spoke at a rally on behalf of the tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience in the history of American social progress.
Julian Bond, NAACP Chair, spoke in defense of CD
Image Credit: New Left Tarot
The campaign seeks to raise University workers' wages to a more "livable" $10.72 minimum wage. In Charlottesville, Virginia, for a family of four (two parents and two children), each adult must make an annual income of $22,296 to be making a livable wage. Currently, the lowest starting salary for full-time staff at the University is $8.88 per hour which amounts to an annual income of $18,468, falling short by $7,656 of the amount necessary for basic needs.
The time has come to say, with one voice, that the unconscionable positions of Casteen and the University administration will no longer be tolerated. Martin Luther King believed, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Likewise, a victory at the University of Virginia serves as a victory for those fighting social injustice everywhere. Sign petitions. Organize rallies. Do everything possible to remind the 17 prisoners that their struggle has not been, nor will it ever be, in vain.
www.uvalivingwage.net
Filed by Kelsey Atwood, SDS, and Dan Keyserling, a student of the University of Virginia.
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