I’ll be on strike on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. I’m sure that the bourgeoisie are making plans to flee the country and that their lackeys in the capitalist press will be uttering their denunciations … but I don’t care.
Actually, I feel duty bound to participate because I’m a member of the union, and the ballot went in favour of a strike. But since “the union”:http://www.aut.org.uk/ is possibly the feeblest one in the TUC, has no ideas for how to get money into higher education, is challenging a deal that every other campus union has signed up to already and is most famous for marching under the stirring banner “Rectify the Anomaly!”:http://web.bham.ac.uk/J.C.Duffy/prentice.htm , I hold out no hope of success. The BBC has “some”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3508209.stm “details”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3507137.stm on the dispute, as does “the Guardian”:http://education.guardian.co.uk/specialreports/lecturerspay/story/0,5500,1153895,00.html , but most of the newsmedia have so far chosen to ignore the strike completely.
Comrades! To the barricades!
{ 19 comments }
Ophelia Benson 02.23.04 at 2:08 pm
Rectify the Anomaly! I love that! How I wish I could march under a banner like that.
Says so much, really…
harry 02.23.04 at 2:14 pm
Come on Ophelia, not as good as
“Anomolize the Rectitude!”, surely?
Barry 02.23.04 at 2:36 pm
Good luck, Chris!
Domenico G. 02.23.04 at 2:41 pm
Intellectuals have a tendency to overanalize.
Patrick 02.23.04 at 3:02 pm
I never would have though that teacher salaries would be higher in the US.
Looks like we do one thing right, anyway.
Good Luck!
Harry Powell 02.23.04 at 3:34 pm
If anyone can bring the government to its knees the lecturers can! C’mon, whom is this strike going to hurt, other than the students who don’t matter anyway. Your strike wont cost the vice chancellors a day’s revenue, will create zero media interest, and will embarrass no one except those academics self-aware enough to see the futility of this kind of demonstration politics. But hey, have fun.
A.M.B. 02.23.04 at 3:35 pm
Good Luck!
Ophelia Benson 02.23.04 at 4:03 pm
Well I’m the strait-laced type, the boringly conventional type. I much prefer to rectify the anomaly. I do it all day long – going to and fro on the earth, and walking up and down in it, rectifying all the anomalies I see. Full time job, I can tell you.
Matt Weiner 02.23.04 at 4:22 pm
“We are in a state of extreme annoyance”? That’s not very stirring. Anyway, good luck.
Cryptic Ned 02.23.04 at 4:31 pm
“Whada we want?”
MORE EQUITABLE TREATMENT AT THE HANDS OF MANAGEMENT!
“Whenda we want it?”
SOON!
Simstim 02.23.04 at 4:38 pm
“What do we want?”
“Gradual Change!”
“When do we want it?”
“In due course!”
Nasi Lemak 02.23.04 at 5:23 pm
Well, not that I’d want to appear all optimistic or anything, but don’t you think there’s some sign that the AUT is (finally!) getting it’s sh*t together? A week of action rather than the odd day, followed by an indefinite boycott of assessment, seems like a pretty big deal. And the vote in favour of the strike (65%) was pretty overwhelming (with a further 16% supporting disruption short of strikes)…
Ophelia Benson 02.23.04 at 5:25 pm
Fight fiercely Harvard
Fight fight fight –
Impress them with our prowess, do.
Won’t it be peachy if we win the game? Oh goody!
Etc.
Ancient Tom Lehrer song. State of Extreme Annoyance reminded me of it.
I could be governor of that state. I’d be damn good at it.
Jean Valjean 02.23.04 at 5:59 pm
WOMAN ONE
Did you see them
Going off to fight?
WOMAN TWO
Children of the barricade
Who didn’t last the night?
WOMAN THREE
Did you see them
Lying where they died?
Someone used to cradle them
And kiss them when they cried.
WOMAN FOUR
Did you see them lying side by side?
WOMAN FIVE
Who will wake them?
WOMAN SIX
No one ever will.
WOMAN TWO
No one ever told them
That a summer day can kill.
WOMAN SEVEN
They were schoolboys
Never held a gun…
Fighting for a new world
That would rise up like the sun.
WOMAN THREE
Where’s that new world now the fighting’s done?
WOMAN FOUR
Nothing changes.
WOMAN SEVEN
Nothing ever will.
Matt Weiner 02.23.04 at 7:06 pm
Ophelia, I intend to contest that election vigorously. I foresee a negative campaign, full of snippy remarks, hurt looks, and cold silences. In fact, I’m kicking off my campaign by being Extremely Annoyed that you thought of that joke first.
sidereal 02.23.04 at 7:10 pm
Rectify the Anomaly!
Normalize the Parameters!
Eschew obfuscation!
Ophelia Benson 02.23.04 at 7:42 pm
“In fact, I’m kicking off my campaign by being Extremely Annoyed that you thought of that joke first.”
Very well then, Matt. If you want to be that way about it. If you’re not even going to wait until election night to start with the snippy remarks. Fine. No problem. Fine. Suits me. Perfect.
My platform of Sulks, Snits and Pouts will withstand any Annoyance you can muster, buster.
agitpropre 02.24.04 at 1:50 am
Yes, its an entertaining set of circumstances, all right. Not as enjoyable, perhaps, as actually working in British academe. But then, what could be nicer than a crap job in an underfunded university where the government says you are part of the problem as you fill out your Quality Assessment paperwork which will have no effect whatsoever on improving your situation? Quite right, Chris! No hope of success! That’s what makes Britian great! Give up now!
Jonathan Dresner 02.25.04 at 2:58 am
Que se vayan todos! [Throw them all out!]
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