28 October 2014

National Adjunct Walkout Day (NAWD) is on the tip of many adjuncts’ tongues, as well it should be. Such an action is long overdue. On Twitter, FaceBook, listservs, and the new NAWD discussion board, adjuncts are sharing ways in which all of us can participate, from more traditional rallies, marches, and teach-ins to amazingly creative ideas for those who can’t participate in more conventional ways. The whole idea seems to be to show your disagreement with things as they are in whatever way you can.

National Adjunct

National Adjunct Walkout Day is February 25th, 2015

But along with these many and varied positive responses has come some hand-wringing in which old worries and concerns pop up in comments sections and listservs. Some have doubted that adjuncts can do this on our own and put out calls for hierarchical organization. Others worry there isn’t enough time to organize by February 25th, and so we must put off the walkout until the unions and national organizations can coordinate us. I can appreciate people being curious and hesitant to embrace a call to action from out of nowhere, but in light of the overwhelmingly favorable response from not only adjuncts but full timers and sympathizers outside higher ed and the country, such handwringing is like an outing with Debbie Downer.

Debbie Downer Wah-wah

While some concerns are good – like potential legal ramifications and adjuncts in outlier and right to work states – NAWD isn’t really a containable entity. That’s because it is what we make it. While the handwringers are few, like Debbie Downer they can misdirect discussion. Meanwhile, just like Debbie’s colleagues, we are free to carry on with what we’re doing.

One key to participating in whatever way we choose may be to know what NAWD isn’t. National Adjunct Walkout Day isn’t any one group. It isn’t the unions or any national advocacy group. It isn’t a state advocacy group, either. It’s not even a regional or city group. No, NAWD is grassroots, as laid out by an anonymous adjunct who is part of the call to action:

[T]he walkout day doesn’t have a central organizing committee, and…it will look different on different campuses. Groups might highlight the “educational or administrative issues impacting adjuncts within that particular campus, across the country, or [the] plights of individual adjuncts”…but the central idea of the movement is that “no adjunct or campus must face these shared issues alone.”

 grassroots.organizing

Being a grassroots movement, it would seem that the best thing for unions and advocacy groups to do is embrace NAWD as is. Take it at face value. Union leaders and advocacy groups can show support by joining rather than leading walkout activities. And, for good measure, demonstrate your conviction to adjunct suffrage by supporting the call to action.

by Marnie Webster

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3 Replies to “National Adjunct Walkout Day Is Everyone’s Plan”

  1. Ana M. Fores Tamayo

    Dear Marnie,

    As adjunct faculty from an outlier state, where it is hard to organize and hard to stand alone, I totally agree with you that this must be done by all of us from the ground up, grassroots, engaging all of us together. If we see friends and colleagues engaging in action, one campus to the next, we will want to join because we will want to be part of that action.

    In whatever ways we want to uphold this NAWD day, then, I salute you for calling this for what it really is: adjunct suffrage!

    YES! Let’s keep going and supporting adjunct suffrage! (Petition: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/better-pay-for-adjuncts)

    Besos, not borders,

    Ana M. Fores Tamayo, Adjunct Justice

  2. Akim Smith

    Would the national adjunct walk out day incorporate police brutality and the injustice against black people at the hands of some bad police officers. But not all cops are bad or are racist and hate blacks but there are bad police officers and district attorneys are to close with police departments. There is a real problem within police departments and among some police officers and some district attorneys that must be addressed. Eric garner Michael brown trayvon Martin and Tamar rice and many other black men who have been killed unnecessarily based by their race. It’s all about the truth.

  3. Marnie Weigle

    Thanks for your insights, Akim. I too see a connection between the reasons for #BlackLivesMatter and the reasons for #NAWD, the biggest intersection being privatization, which manifests itself not only in targeting the poor and POC, but in creating and maintaining a pathway for the School-to-Prison Pipeline (for one example, see: Black Lives Matter — In School, Too: http://www.thenation.com/article/195321/black-lives-matter-school-too). Adjuncts are white collar examples of the part-timization of the workforce, a huge factor in the austerity measures being imposed on citizens everywhere.

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