"...to make the international mass movements we need to abolish capitalism and build socialism, to take democratic control of society and the economy, to stop the threat of climate collapse." - Steven Lazaroff

Ten organizing principles for graduate workers

1. We need to make the university into a problem–ortransform the problem so that folks see the chains of causation that actuallydetermine our lives, e.g. that the university is a credential factory wantingto present itself as a vaunted location of knowledge production.

Unsurprisingly, our workers report very high rates ofanxiety and depression related to financial difficulties in general and an everydayinability to pay for rent, food, or healthcare. It is hard to study and do ourbest work when we are put in such constant danger and fear. Backing this up,our undergraduate paper The Vidette published interviews with graduate studentsbased on astudy from Frontiers in Neuroscience that shows “68%displayed symptoms of anxiety and 50% displayed symptoms of depression.”Unsurprisingly, the graduate students interviewed also happened to be graduateworkers and members of the ISU Graduate Workers Union. Even more damningly, ourmembers clarified the sources of their hardships and psychological distress:
   
   - 70 percent student fees
   - 60 percent paying rent
   - 50 percent paying for/securing food
   - 48 percent obtaining healthcare
   - 45 percent paying for utilities

Revolutionary graduate worker unionism - Tempest (tempestmag.org)

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Revolutionary graduate worker unionism

Steven Lazaroff

A graduate student union organizer describes describes the victorious campaign at Illinois State University and ...
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