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LWAC explores the Lone Star State!
Jan 8, 2005
In
early December, Jack and I spent a week in the large
state of Texas with awesome folks at three schools:
Texas A&M, Baylor and UT-Austin. The Texas
A&M Living Wage Coalition had organized “Beat
the Hell Outta Poverty” week and we were invited
to run some workshops and teach-ins. They have a small
but dedicated group of students, professors and community
members. One of the highlights was the documentary that
they made capturing the voices and stories of the workers
on their campus (watch the film at New
Spark Media). After a meeting with the president
last spring, he implemented a one dollar raise for all
workers, which was a good step but is still a long way
from a living wage in College Station.
After College Station, Jack and I went up for an informal
meeting with the students organizing a living wage campaign
at Baylor University in Waco (check out their
site). We talked about the Georgetown campaign and
then got into some great discussions about strategy
for their campaign. They organized a successful concert
in the fall to raise awareness about the need for a
living wage at Baylor and are planning more education
events and actions for the spring.
The next morning we were off to the state capital,
Austin. We were lucky to meet up with some of the veteran
activists at UT-Austin who had been involved in various
campaigns throughout the years and are now doing solidarity
work with the transportation workers in the city. LWAC
was also on the air on KVRX, a UT student and community
radio station with some of the student activists we
met. Overall being in Texas was amazing; I was really
inspired by the folks organizing solidarity campaigns
in one of the most anti-worker areas of the country.
- diane!
diane(at)livingwageaction.org |