Usually, you think that peace and justice studies majors would praise activism, not chastise it for being "aggressive" and "nervy." Yet, in his Feb. column, "Stuff Tufts People Like: Unnecessary activisim," Will Ehrenfeld believes otherwise, decrying the atrocious "excessive" activism found rampant on Tufts' campus. I tend to disagree.
Ehrenfeld acknowledges that there are major social justice issues that need to be addressed, proof that his peace and justice studies major has taught him at least a little. Yet it seems he feels problems as vast as affordable housing, poverty and public safety can just be tackled head-on, as if we can just say, "Alright, I'm gonna go out there and destroy poverty." Yet the fact of the matter is that major issues are solved through a coalescence of smaller movements, each of which have that specific major issue as one component of their mission. A good example would be DividedWeFail.org, a coalition of groups from across the spectrum, including unions, senior citizen groups and community organizations whose aim is to develop a comprehensive, equitable health care system for America and ensure financial security for all Americans. While this task is way too gargantuan for any one of the individual member groups to take on, together, as the coalition DividedWeFail.org, they can take some meaningful steps forward to address these issues. However, without the member groups, who focus on smaller issues individually, there would be no coalition to focus on the larger issue.
There were also complaints in Ehrenfeld's "Stuff Tufts People Like" column about those pesky, over-energetic student activists. Apparently, Ehrenfeld still needs to learn about a key word of social justice: mobilization. Many movements start out small, with few people, and those people tend to be the active, pesky ones. The way these movements start picking up momentum is by targeting the "average" population (i.e. the masses) and building constituents out of people who, on their own, may not have gotten involved. It is only with the participation of your everyday person that a movement can hope to be successful.
People are also very busy in their day-to-day lives, and I'm sure most Tufts students can attest to that. We can get so busy that we can lose track of what goes on outside of our own lives. This is where the role of the activists comes in: They serve to take us out of the distraction of our busy schedules to show us a way that we can help the world be a better place. So, while some may complain that they're being held up an extra minute before dining on the exquisite offerings of Dewick, the petition they just signed could play a pivotal role in changing an administrator's mind about some important issue at Tufts.
Let's take a look at some of the examples Ehrenfeld mentions. He proudly declares his apathy to bottled water usage, declaring it rather trivial in comparison to other social justice issues. Hopefully, Ehrenfeld will agree with me that the upcoming water scarcity issue that our world faces, as outlined the 2006 Second United Nations World Water Development Report, is not so trivial. Yet these two issues are related. With increased water scarcity, bottled water puts a greater demand on pure, drinkable water. This increase in demand makes it harder for those in impoverished villages and other areas dealing with water scarcity to have access to clean water. As noted by the Think Outside the Bottle campaign, clean, drinkable water is primarily a right guaranteed to all people and only secondarily should be considered a commodity to be bought and sold. If the former is put into jeopardy, water's latter role should be eliminated.
Bottled water usage can also be tied into class disparity in our country. The rising popularity of bottled water has arguably attacked our nation's faith in our public water system. With less and less people using the public water supply, opting for costlier, "purer" bottled water instead, concern over making sure public water is safe and of good quality dwindles. Yet there are those who depend solely upon public water, lacking the money to buy costly bottled or spring water. These people are then left with a less accountable and potentially unhealthy -- even dangerous -- drinking source while the wealthier parts of society enjoy luxury water. This disparity in access to clean water further exacerbates class divides in our country. So while plastic bottles by themselves are not cause for too much fuss, when you open your eyes a bit, it's easy to see how they play into a larger picture of social inequity.
Ehrenfeld also decides to pick on the Jumbo Janitor Alliance (JJA) toward the end of his article, citing it as one of those activist hubs that needs to "work on real problems, [not] construct new ones." Yet JJA has had one of the quickest growth rates for a student organization, sprouting from nothing a year ago into a group that has over 300 members on its e-list and around 20 active participants showing up for weekly meetings. Clearly, the desire exists at Tufts for this type of group.
In terms of "real issues," the language and culture barrier that exists between students and janitors can lead to a rift between the two groups, in which students leave messes wherever they are (since many believe that's simply what janitors "are paid to do") and janitors harbor resentment toward students for these messes. Yet, through a group such as JJA, Tufts is able to work on eliminating this tension and start building a stronger community in which everyone is respected, a goal that I hope our skeptical Ehrenfeld can see at least a little good in. The JJA also played a role in securing a better work contract for Tufts' janitors, one that offers them better pay and benefits (which, believe it or not, actually helps to combat other important issues like poverty and health care). Part of that campaign involved actively pestering over 1,300 Tufts students, who might not have done so otherwise, to sign a petition of support for the janitors that the group then delivered to University President Lawrence Bacow.
In "Stuff Tufts People Like," Ehrenfeld seems to raise two major complaints: that social justice groups at Tufts focus on trivial issues compared to the larger issues facing our world and that activists in these groups can be quite annoying and rude in garnering support for their cause. The big issues that we face today, such as water scarcity, will not be solved head-on; rather, they will be addressed through combined contributions of groups that focus primarily on smaller issues, such as bottled water usage, but whose issues, in turn, tie into these bigger issues. In response to the claim regarding the audacity of Tufts activists, I admit that it can be an inconvenience to hear about child soldiers in some far-off country as I rush to finish some paper that's due in an hour. But it is this activism that keeps my eyes open to the disparities that exist around the world, mostly outside my personal life, and disparities which, on my own, I could very easily overlook. Activism is alive and well at Tufts University and I am very proud of it.
--
Kevin Dillon is a senior majoring in sociology and quantitative economics. He is the founder of the Jumbo Janitor Alliance.
