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[Xmca-l] Re: ZeroHours professor dies in poverty

Jenna

I find your reaction depressing: so are you for the unionisation of 'adjuncts' or not? Do you see the sympathies of these outraged middle class (presumably contemptible) colleagues progressive (whether self interested and middle class or not) and potentially transformative or not? Do we require colleagues to hold perfect moral positions on all questions before we welcome them to the cause of unionisation? (if it had been so, we would never have had unions - they are of course essentially bourgeois institutions).

I read the two positions posted and I don't see how the truth can be somewhere 'between' the two.. On the contrary They both tell the same story. The university says there were many kindnesses shown by its staff (im sure there were) and the case is being used for ulterior purposes (i certainly hope it is) ... but the unionist said only that she should have had some minimal rights (I'm guessing health and pension support) and the adjuncts need to unionise to fight for such rights and against exploitation, (right?).

I just don't see how there is a truth somewhere in the middle here: it seems so simple. Based on the two links, but maybe you know something different.

Which side of this fight are we on, exploiters or exploited.. Surely it's that basic.

Julian


Ps I just love the idea i could join a steelworkers union...  Unfortunately we don't have any of those left here - they we're all more or less closed down some time ago.






On 21 Sep 2013, at 14:48, "Jenna McWilliams" <jennamcjenna@gmail.com> wrote:

> I've seen this article make the rounds through Facebook and Twitter this week. My academic friends are particularly outraged...as if "this" (poverty, homelessness, death by poverty) shouldn't happen to "us" (academics rooted firmly in the middle class). 
> 
> I imagine the truth of this story, if a truth can be located, is somewhere between the two stories that Bruce and Martin sent out. I also think it takes a particular kind of hubris to get up in arms about poverty only (especially) when it hits "one of our own." Where is the general outrage about poverty, homelessness, and death by poverty when it attacks the people it more typically attacks--the ones who we assume to be different from "us" in ways that keep "us" safe from "their" fate?
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> Jenna McWilliams
> Cultural-Historical Research SIG Communications Chair
> Learning Sciences Program, Indiana University
> 
> ~
> jenmcwil@indiana.edu
> jennamcjenna@gmail.com
> 
> 
> 
> On Sep 21, 2013, at 9:21 AM, Martin John Packer wrote:
> 
>> Bruce,
>> 
>> I don't know this case personally, and I do think that adjuncts are treated poorly, but the university has responded to some of the specific claims made in the article you linked to.
>> 
>> <http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/duquesne-disputes-claims-over-death-of-adjunct-professor-704143/>
>> 
>> Martin
>> 
>> On Sep 21, 2013, at 4:58 AM, Bruce Robinson <bruce@brucerob.eu> wrote:
>> 
>>> Union Solidarity Int (@USILive) tweeted at 2:18pm - 19 Sep 13: 
>>> 
>>> Death of an adjunct post-gazette.com/stories/opinio… < powerful story via @DrDonnaYates: #ZeroHours professor dies in poverty @MahmoonaShah (https://twitter.com/USILive/status/381355561293332482)
>>> 
>>> Alternative link: https://t.co/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FXIw32rqlcy&sig=19807c98edb2246f68730727d01a897b7b95fadc&uid=90759395&iid=80557aab-cde7-4aeb-a08d-c78c45dad949&nid=12+300+20130919&t=1
>>> 
>>> Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Sent from Kaiten Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
>>> 
>> 
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>> 
>