Patriarchy is fucking our movement...again!

I write this as a male-identified radical who has witnessed a number of his female-bodied friends leave or consider leaving many of the organizations I have been a part of. There is nothing new about this - since I started seriously organizing with Students for a Democratic Society over two years ago I have seen many women leave. In many ways this post is long overdue, but I hope by writing it that we can begin to create positive change within SDS and the broader community of youth and student radicals.

No profound insights here - I'm always skeptical of privileged folks who read a zine or a blog post and think they're the shit when it comes to fighting patriarchy, racism, classism, etc. In fact, I think all of us who consider ourselves anti-sexists would do well to keep in mind that we cannot grade ourselves on how good of allies we are to those who do not have privilege. We will know we are doing something right when women stop leaving organizing and social spaces they share with us because they're sick of being talked over, disrespected, attacked, etc.

In a way, I think starting the process of fighting patriarchy is both incredibly easy and ridiculously difficult. I think it starts by taking seriously the fact that there's a problem with patriarchy within SDS, and that problem is the result of our actions and the actions of our fellow male organizers. This is a problem that can make attending meetings, planning and participating in actions, being in social spaces, etc. actively uncomfortable for female-bodied folks, and out of this we see people (male and female-bodied) leaving our groups en masse. Few people want to be in an organizing or social space which makes them feel unpleasant - those who do put up with it often don't put up for long. This is an immediate problem in our organizing - I would call it an emergency - and those with male privilege need to do their part to step up and change things before we find ourselves with the same empty shell of a group that the previous SDS ended up with.

I don't know about you all, but I'm tired of seeing my friends leaving SDS because the men in this group can't treat them like equal human beings. I want to see us get serious about fighting patriarchy at the upcoming NE SDS Convention, because I think we as a collective body can create a radically different world if we put our backs into it. If you're planning on coming, I would strongly suggest checking out the following links and definitely participating in any activities around gender!

Dan the Dude - Do's and Dont's for the Dudely Organizer

SDS Womyn's Caucus blog

Onwards!

How can we struggle against student loans?

Hey all - pardon the long absence, but things here have been rather intense. The housing establishment in Rhode Island, my employer included, have been busy selling us down the river, but that's another post...

A few weeks ago the Providence Journal ran a front page article on student loans and how students are getting reamed by the rising costs of higher education. Apparently the average cost of a private, 4 year college is now $34,132 (which is 3K less than what I was paying my first year of college, good times). And the number of students both public and private who are going into debt to afford higher education continues to grow. And with a deep recession in full swing, defaults on student loans are skyrocketing.

I believe a natural way to resist student debt is on the student side - fighting for lower and frozen tuition rates as well as more financial aid for students. Many chapters of Students for a Democratic Society have been at the forefront of demanding tuition-related changes (among other things) as part of the Student Power for Accessible Education Campaign.

But as the demands of the SPfAE campaign state, just like SDS itself, this isn't just about people currently in school. Goal #3 is debt cancellation for ALL student loans. Yet as far as I am aware there has been little collective struggle by college graduate to push for mass debt cancellation or for anything else student debt-related. This is a huge struggle, but a necessary one. We also have the opportunity to create radical change in the world! Student debt organizing seems a lot like foreclosure organizing:
-A LOT of people are affected by student debt. Not just students, but families of students as well
-There isn't a lot of sympathy for the bad guys in this situation - banks and lenders are getting massive bailouts with our money
-The problems affecting people are very serious, with a big impact on status of living. A huge student debt burden can make even renting impossible and take a big part of someone's paycheck
-The government is doing very little to solve the problem!

Of course, there are challenges as well. For example, much like the banks and lenders foreclosing on homes, student loan holders can be hard to target. While some people get loans from groups like Bank of America or Wells Fargo, there are companies like Nelnet working specifically in student loans that have few or no local offices. While there are many people dealing with the burden of student debt, they tend to be more scattered than people in the same neighborhood losing their homes while, like those struggling with foreclosure, they are dealing with a variety of different institutions. And unlike foreclosure resistance, the consequences for direct resistance (in this case, nonpayment) has the potential for more serious consequences than simply not moving from a home. Finally, there is a serious stigma against debtors in this country. Unlike the credit card crisis, student loans are not held by as many people in the US and as a result the tendency to "blame the victim" appears to be stronger.

So, how can we move forward on this? This is a work in progress, so I'm trying to think more about it. Thoughts?