"Students, Workers and Alumni for Justice!" at UCSC Reunion Weekend Luncheon

** PLEASE SEE THE FIRST SET OF PHOTOS AND THE TEXT OF A FLYER AT:

Alumni Luncheon Interruption to Demand Fair Wages for UCSC Workers
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/04/26/18495256.php


"Students, Workers and Alumni for Justice!"

Two awards were given out. One to a faculty member and one to a UCSC staff member. Stephen Gliessman, Alfred E. Heller Professor of Agroecology, received the Distinguished Teaching Award; Bob Hastings, director of Current Students in the Division of Graduate Studies, received the Outstanding Staff Award.

Steve Gliessman accepted his award following the interruption and advised the administration and alumni that they should "listen to students."

Another speaker, David Sackman, told his fellow alumni that the interruption was an example of why he went to school at UC Santa Cruz. An L.A. native, J. David Sackman tries to reconcile the two Jewish traditions in his family (Orthodox and Anarchist) through his job as an attorney for workers, unions and union trust funds, enforcing the commandment of Deuteronomy 24:14-15.

On April 25, 2008, the day before the All-Alumni Reunion Luncheon, an opinion piece by Sackman appeared at JewishJournal.com called, "Black-Jewish Passover not about blame." People should read the entire piece and challenge themselves to work for social justice by standing up to oppression everywhere it exists. The essay was originally posted on April 12th as a comment on The God Blog by Brad A. Greenberg. The following is an excerpt from Sackman's essay:

Black-Jewish Passover not about blame
By J. David Sackman

"Why was I commanded to tell the story of Passover to my children? I do not believe it is to exchange blame, as I see being done today. No. I believe it is to remember that his ancestors, on both sides, suffered from oppression, and must oppose oppression whenever they see it again. It is my duty, which I must pass on to him, to stand up against such oppression today, whether against my own people or others.

"I will tell my son of one of my own heroes. Not Moses or Jesus or the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but someone very few people ever heard of: Sigismund Danielewicz.

"Danielewicz was a Jewish barber from Poland who became one of the most prominent leaders and organizers of California Labor in the 1880s. His downfall came at the convention called in 1885, which was the forerunner to the current California Federation of Labor. The main issue on the table was a resolution to drive the Chinese from the state within 60 days, by force if necessary. Danielewicz alone spoke out against the resolution. He pointed out that he was a member of a race still persecuted, and challenged each group there to say whether the persecution of the Chinese was more justifiable than the persecution they had suffered themselves. His call for unity among labor was jeered, and he was declared out of order. The resolution passed, and was the justification for a virtual pogrom of deadly violence against the Chinese in the months that followed.

"Danielewicz sank into obscurity. He was last seen homeless and on foot toward the East Coast in 1910. Why then do I idolize a man who was driven from the podium and doomed to obscurity? Because he had the chutzpah to stand up against oppression, no matter what the cost, simply because it was the right thing to do."