Duke Vigil, Tape 5
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | It is a distinct honor and pleasure in presenting | 0:03 |
Mr Pete Seeger. | 0:06 | |
(applauding) | 0:08 | |
- | Mr. President it's for me to thank you | 0:13 |
for asking me down here. | 0:15 | |
I had a good time singing with some of you | 0:18 | |
a month ago, and I'm very happy to be back. | 0:20 | |
Folk music I will do. | 0:23 | |
(instrumental folk music) | 0:27 | |
All these young men help me | 1:38 | |
to move the microphone back and forth | 1:40 | |
from guitar to my voice. | 1:43 | |
You know, you and I are very lucky to be here (mumbling) | 1:48 | |
because we're seeing history in progress | 1:53 | |
instead of simply staying back home | 1:56 | |
and reading about it second hand and third hand | 1:59 | |
and fourth hand. | 2:02 | |
You're all making history right here. | 2:04 | |
Now | 2:08 | |
history comes about in many different ways | 2:11 | |
so I'll do a little song about history. | 2:14 | |
Hold that mic down near the guitar for a sec. | 2:16 | |
(instrumental acoustic guitar) | 2:21 | |
♪ You know this language that we speak ♪ | 2:44 | |
♪ Part German, part Latin and part Greek ♪ | 2:47 | |
♪ With some some Celtic and Arabic all in a heap ♪ | 2:51 | |
♪ Well amended by the man in the street ♪ | 2:54 | |
♪ Choctaw gave us the word okay ♪ | 2:58 | |
♪ Vamoose is a word from Mexico way ♪ | 3:00 | |
♪ And all of this is a hint, I suspect ♪ | 3:03 | |
♪ Of what comes next ♪ | 3:06 | |
♪ I think that this whole world ♪ | 3:09 | |
♪ Will soon depart from my whole wide world ♪ | 3:10 | |
♪ Soon depart from my whole world ♪ | 3:13 | |
♪ Soon depart from the Captain's son ♪ | 3:15 | |
♪ You know what ♪ | 3:20 | |
♪ For my own protection ♪ | 3:22 | |
♪ Help me out ♪ | 3:29 | |
♪ Far from my whole world ♪ | 3:33 | |
♪ Soon my my my whole world ♪ | 3:34 | |
♪ Soon (mumbling) of my whole world ♪ | 3:36 | |
♪ Singing about it gets me drunk ♪ | 3:40 | |
♪ I like Polish sausage, I like Spanish rice ♪ | 3:45 | |
♪ Pizza pie is also nice ♪ | 3:49 | |
♪ Corn and beans from the Indians here ♪ | 3:51 | |
♪ All washed down with some German beer ♪ | 3:54 | |
♪ Marco Polo traveled by camel and pony ♪ | 3:57 | |
♪ Brought to Italy the first macaroni ♪ | 4:01 | |
♪ And you and I as well as we're able ♪ | 4:03 | |
♪ Put it all on the table ♪ | 4:06 | |
♪ I think that this whole world ♪ | 4:09 | |
♪ I think that this whole wide world ♪ | 4:10 | |
♪ (Mumbles) my whole world ♪ | 4:13 | |
♪ Soon we're going to be so mixed up ♪ | 4:15 | |
♪ My whole world ♪ | 4:29 | |
♪ Soon a part of my whole wide world ♪ | 4:30 | |
♪ Soon a part of my whole world ♪ | 4:34 | |
♪ Soon a part of my whole wide world ♪ | 4:37 | |
♪ There were no redheaded Irishmen ♪ | 4:41 | |
♪ Before the Vikings landed in Ireland ♪ | 4:44 | |
♪ How many Romans had dark curly hair ♪ | 4:49 | |
♪ Before they brought slaves from Africa ♪ | 4:52 | |
♪ No race of men is completely pure ♪ | 4:55 | |
♪ Nor is any man's mind, and that's for sure ♪ | 4:58 | |
♪ The winds mix the dust of every land ♪ | 5:01 | |
♪ And so will man ♪ | 5:04 | |
♪ I think that this whole world ♪ | 5:07 | |
♪ I think that this whole wide world ♪ | 5:09 | |
♪ Soon got to my whole world ♪ | 5:11 | |
♪ Soon gonna be get mixed up ♪ | 5:14 | |
♪ This doesn't mean let's all be the same ♪ | 5:19 | |
♪ We'll have different faces and different names ♪ | 5:21 | |
♪ Long live many different kinds of races ♪ | 5:24 | |
♪ And difference of opinion that makes horse races ♪ | 5:28 | |
♪ Just remember the rule about rules, brother ♪ | 5:32 | |
♪ What's right with one and wrong with another ♪ | 5:35 | |
♪ And take a tip from La Belle France ♪ | 5:38 | |
♪ Vive la difference ♪ | 5:41 | |
♪ The whole world ♪ | 5:44 | |
♪ Rocking my whole wide world ♪ | 5:45 | |
♪ Rocking my whole world ♪ | 5:48 | |
♪ Again! ♪ | 5:53 | |
♪ Rocking my whole world ♪ | 5:55 | |
♪ Soon rocking my whole wide world ♪ | 5:56 | |
♪ Rocking my whole world ♪ | 5:59 | |
♪ Soon rocking the whole wide world ♪ | 6:01 | |
I feel I want to remind you, | 6:10 | |
all of you, as I have to remind myself | 6:12 | |
of this deep distrust in which we are held by so much | 6:15 | |
of the rest of the world. | 6:22 | |
So much of the rest of the world | 6:25 | |
with darker skinned faces especially, | 6:27 | |
not just living in these continental parts in North America | 6:29 | |
but all around. | 6:37 | |
It's a distrust born of years of ultimately | 6:39 | |
hoping that the best of America would come out | 6:44 | |
and then having these hopes dashed | 6:47 | |
to find the worst of America is what actually did come out. | 6:50 | |
My own ancestors up in Massachusetts | 6:59 | |
hadn't been here more than 12 years | 7:02 | |
before they passed a ruling in Massachusetts | 7:05 | |
state colony said we must exterminate the Pequot race. | 7:08 | |
Exterminate the entire race, | 7:15 | |
and they did it. | 7:17 | |
Several thousand of them. | 7:18 | |
Old people, women and children, | 7:20 | |
whole villages were surrounded and burnt, | 7:22 | |
and the people within them were not allowed | 7:25 | |
to escape and they burnt them alive. | 7:27 | |
It was the year of 1634. | 7:31 | |
Genocide is not something that happened only in Germany. | 7:36 | |
It happened here right in the USA. | 7:40 | |
Now, you and I, if we had been there, | 7:45 | |
what would we have done? | 7:48 | |
I don't think most of us would have been | 7:50 | |
setting the torch to those wigwams. | 7:53 | |
But what would we have done? | 7:57 | |
Would we have wanted to risk our lives | 7:59 | |
to prevent other people from doing it? | 8:01 | |
And this is why people like I, | 8:07 | |
people like me, people like you, | 8:10 | |
are regarded with such distrust. | 8:14 | |
So much so that many people with dark skins in this | 8:23 | |
country, Indians, Mexicans as well as Afro-Americans | 8:26 | |
are ready to chuck up the whole dream of America. | 8:33 | |
You know, Malcolm X once debated another black man | 8:39 | |
as well as they could even call themselves Americans. | 8:43 | |
Malcolm said I'm not an American, | 8:46 | |
why do you think you are? | 8:48 | |
The other man said well, I'm an American | 8:49 | |
because I was born here. | 8:52 | |
Malcolm said well you can put a shoe | 8:56 | |
in an oven, it wouldn't make it a biscuit. | 8:57 | |
(laughing) | 9:00 | |
I'm afraid I have no such choice. | 9:05 | |
My own ancestors with their light skins participated | 9:10 | |
in all the good and bad decisions which this country | 9:13 | |
has made. | 9:16 | |
I had an uncle once who wrote a poem saying I have a | 9:21 | |
rendezvous with death at midnight in some flaming town. | 9:25 | |
So I tried taking a phrase from his poem and I made up | 9:33 | |
a little song. | 9:37 | |
I really hadn't set in my mind | 9:39 | |
that this isn't exactly a tune but, | 9:40 | |
it's only the second time I ever recited it | 9:43 | |
to anybody. | 9:47 | |
- | But unfortunately I didn't get Mr Seeger's | 9:50 |
poem There. | 9:52 | |
I remember him doing it, but I didn't get it | 9:54 | |
on the tape. | 9:55 | |
In between his songs and talking to us and what have you, | 9:56 | |
other people spoke, and I've got some of that | 10:00 | |
on tape, and that's coming up next. | 10:03 | |
- | 29th, 7:30. | 10:07 |
- | Collective bargaining becomes a reality in order to have | 10:09 |
the right and the dignity of the individual workers | 10:13 | |
and the workers as a collective group, | 10:18 | |
will be protected and maintained. | 10:21 | |
And so, what I would like to ask from all of you | 10:24 | |
is that we continue this very difficult political battle | 10:28 | |
in an attempt to gain for all of the non-academic employers | 10:35 | |
at this university, the rights as individuals, | 10:40 | |
and as a group to be protected from harassment and to be | 10:44 | |
protected from want, that all of us remember | 10:48 | |
that Mr. Harvey and his fellow workers, | 10:53 | |
have relied from time to time upon you out there tonight | 11:00 | |
and your predecessors at this university, | 11:05 | |
and that he and his group of fellow workers will continue | 11:08 | |
to need your support. | 11:13 | |
And the struggle is long. | 11:15 | |
Mr. Harvey's been at it a long, long time. | 11:18 | |
When anybody talks about staying power | 11:21 | |
certainly is one who has stayed around here | 11:23 | |
under a lot of adverse conditions. | 11:26 | |
He survived, is one way to put it, | 11:29 | |
as well as stayed. | 11:31 | |
And I think that I know that I have watched | 11:34 | |
with fascination and great interest, as we have rallied | 11:39 | |
support over the 10 years that I have been semi-involved | 11:43 | |
with the struggle. | 11:48 | |
And I hope that it won't take 10 more years odd, | 11:50 | |
but I do think that everybody needs to recognize | 11:53 | |
how long we've been working at it, | 11:58 | |
and what the difficulties are in bringing this about. | 12:00 | |
Now we would like to have those people | 12:05 | |
who can deliver a board of trustee vote | 12:08 | |
to come forward and also meet on the chapel steps tonight. | 12:12 | |
If you can deliver a board of trustee vote, please see me | 12:16 | |
immediately after this speech. | 12:20 | |
- | I'd like to make one comment here | 12:26 |
to make a point to you. | 12:31 | |
- | Mr Harvey was the original organizer and starter | 12:33 |
of Local 77. | 12:36 | |
And he worked quite a few years getting things going | 12:39 | |
as Dr. Strange was just pointing out | 12:42 | |
and he's a very wonderful man. | 12:45 | |
Everyone is really very impressed by him | 12:48 | |
and thinks a great deal of him. | 12:51 | |
- | People are meant to defend it | 12:53 |
and so Dr. Strange could be here today. | 12:57 | |
The two things I was in school | 13:02 | |
he was talking to us one day and he said that | 13:08 | |
the school that we have you don't have | 13:12 | |
(mumbling) but what you have you ain't forget. | 13:14 | |
Get it? | 13:18 | |
Get me (mumbling). | 13:21 | |
And what you get there, use what you have learned. | 13:24 | |
It isn't like the dimensions points of | 13:30 | |
(mumbling) you've got to fight, | 13:33 | |
and it's know to think about fighting | 13:37 | |
it's about a man that | 13:40 | |
he ripped so many people that | 13:43 | |
that they were afraid to fight him. | 13:44 | |
A man came up to him one day | 13:48 | |
says I'm tired of you shredding people around | 13:50 | |
and everybody stand around he was really used to this, | 13:53 | |
I'm no quitter he says I'll fight you. | 13:57 | |
And so he go to the gym, | 14:01 | |
had his (mumbling) and this man could not | 14:02 | |
knock this (mumbling) off his feet. | 14:06 | |
So he met there to fight a few days, | 14:09 | |
round the strong man said to him to look. | 14:11 | |
I'm tired now, just wait, just compromise. | 14:16 | |
And you haven't won the battle, | 14:20 | |
you haven't lost. | 14:23 | |
So he says well, that's rich, you fool. | 14:25 | |
(mumbling) said no, no, | 14:30 | |
my job is to fight. | 14:32 | |
Win or lose. | 14:36 | |
Fight. | 14:37 | |
And if I lose I'm coming back twice, | 14:39 | |
and I'll lose again or else I'll win. | 14:41 | |
Now my point in sharing this briefly is that | 14:44 | |
when we fought it out to accomplish | 14:49 | |
and achieve our goals. | 14:54 | |
He knew very well that we had a rich, strong, | 14:57 | |
rich people that don't care anything | 15:06 | |
about white people, black, red, yellow, brown. | 15:09 | |
And that is the people what you call trustees. | 15:14 | |
(laughing) | 15:17 | |
(applauding) | ||
This is what I first did listening to my fellow employee. | 15:23 | |
I stay with you and you've got to fight | 15:28 | |
(mumbling) assume that they will red carpet is red | 15:30 | |
and yes we're that, we're well yes | 15:34 | |
we have accomplished something. | 15:35 | |
(mumbling) each other | 15:37 | |
and (mumbling) work for each other. | 15:40 | |
And I want to let you know | 15:46 | |
that we were not born for your looks. | 15:47 | |
(mumbling) | 15:48 | |
The worst thing in the world is the thought of | 15:52 | |
the coward scares people is white. | 15:54 | |
(mumbling) people you've got trouble on your hands. | 15:57 | |
(mumbling) | 16:00 | |
Waking up them people has just been apprehensive | 16:03 | |
and afraid all their lives. | 16:06 | |
And the trouble is you've got them all coming at you | 16:08 | |
and see you until you got (mumbling) | 16:10 | |
he's made it to (mumbling) | 16:14 | |
he's probly thinking he can trust. | 16:15 | |
So that's what has happened here. | 16:21 | |
Thank you very much. | 16:23 | |
Oh, (mumbling) I want to ask you, if you don't mind | 16:24 | |
if you imagine too much | 16:31 | |
asking just one thing. | 16:33 | |
Elect to have no pickets on his council. | 16:36 | |
I have a special reason for this. | 16:38 | |
If I have more students | 16:43 | |
have pickets on his council, | 16:45 | |
it might have word something that | 16:47 | |
probly will happen. | 16:50 | |
I won't say it now but | 16:52 | |
(mumbling) more pickets on his council. | 16:55 | |
Thank you for everyone (mumbling). | 16:58 | |
(cheering) | 17:01 | |
- | I never did quite figure out what Mr. Harvey | 17:04 |
was referring to there, since he didn't say | 17:06 | |
and I didn't ask him | 17:08 | |
concerning what specifically he was afraid of | 17:10 | |
and why he wanted more pickets. | 17:14 | |
There are several possibilities. | 17:15 | |
Of course, having more pickets was just good to have them | 17:17 | |
to show strength and there weren't very many | 17:20 | |
on the East Campus. | 17:22 | |
I went over there the next day and | 17:22 | |
checked the situation out and there were | 17:25 | |
very very few pickets over on East Campus, | 17:26 | |
although they picked up during the day. | 17:30 | |
I was over there in the morning, | 17:32 | |
they picked up during the day as a result of | 17:34 | |
his request. | 17:36 | |
A couple of possibilities are that | 17:37 | |
he was afraid, perhaps of since there were only | 17:39 | |
a few pickets over there that someone might | 17:43 | |
try to cause some trouble or the police might try | 17:46 | |
to arrest a few of them or what have you and that | 17:48 | |
having students there would keep that from happening. | 17:51 | |
One thing which did happen all through the Vigil | 17:54 | |
and all through the picket was that | 17:57 | |
we discovered that students had, | 18:02 | |
and of course, we knew this to begin with, | 18:07 | |
a great deal more influence over people | 18:08 | |
breaking the picket lines and what have you | 18:10 | |
than did the workers. | 18:13 | |
Unfortunately in our society as it is | 18:14 | |
the workers weren't really paid much attention to. | 18:17 | |
Guys would walk right through the lines to go to eat | 18:21 | |
and they wouldn't even pay much attention to them. | 18:24 | |
So, we had to | 18:29 | |
have more students on those lines. | 18:31 | |
And one little thing we discovered | 18:32 | |
which was very effective, which worked to keep the | 18:35 | |
students from going into the Union and eating | 18:38 | |
more than anything else. | 18:41 | |
This was on West Campus, so it was mostly guys | 18:42 | |
was to have girls at the door. | 18:44 | |
We discovered that by placing at least two | 18:46 | |
or more girls at each door going into the Union | 18:49 | |
that it was much more effective that way | 18:52 | |
than having guys or workers there, | 18:54 | |
for obvious reasons of course. | 18:56 | |
And we did that all through the strike, | 19:01 | |
and it worked pretty well. | 19:05 | |
OK, pick up the tape again. | 19:08 | |
- | I'm in kind of a funny mood right now. | 19:11 |
I was very much moved by a couple of the things | 19:15 | |
that both Mr. Beecher and | 19:17 | |
Pete Seeger said tonight. | 19:20 | |
Pete Seeger was talking about how NBC and ABC | 19:24 | |
and the other big television networks wouldn't | 19:28 | |
come down and take pictures of the Vigil and | 19:30 | |
show it on television or anything because | 19:35 | |
there wasn't any violence and he said | 19:38 | |
that was the reason he had come | 19:39 | |
because they hadn't done anything about it. | 19:40 | |
And he said it was a crime. | 19:43 | |
He's right. | 19:45 | |
It is a crime. | 19:48 | |
Mr. Beecher's poem, of course, | 19:50 | |
powerful, the way he delivers them | 19:52 | |
always moves me. | 19:55 | |
Especially the one about Tanie, | 19:58 | |
the old Negro woman who killed a white man | 20:00 | |
because he was going to rape her and then | 20:03 | |
she was put on a chain gang for 25 years. | 20:04 | |
Really moved. | 20:11 | |
Sometimes things really stir me. | 20:16 | |
But the last couple of days | 20:20 | |
maybe was kind of the culmination of the thing. | 20:23 | |
The sit down strike in the jail in Raleigh | 20:27 | |
and five guys were killed today, and 80 wounded. | 20:29 | |
Inmates were having a hunger strike | 20:35 | |
because of the lousy situation in the jails | 20:38 | |
and so they just opened up on them, | 20:40 | |
killed five of them. | 20:42 | |
- | It's Buddy. | 20:46 |
15 minutes until one o'clock. | 20:49 | |
Things are continuing more or less as usual. | 20:51 | |
- | I want to make another note here. | 20:55 |
I got kind of messed up on the tapes about this time, | 20:57 | |
and managed to get them switched around. | 20:59 | |
So, I have some more of Pete Seeger's songs | 21:03 | |
further on along on this tape, | 21:06 | |
actually on the other side, | 21:09 | |
which we'll be getting to in a little bit. | 21:10 | |
- | The several | 21:14 |
unions came over yesterday and supported Local 77 | 21:19 | |
in their picket lines. | 21:21 | |
We had quite a few people here. | 21:22 | |
It was really, really great. | 21:25 | |
There were five, or at least I got the names of five | 21:28 | |
unions that came over. | 21:32 | |
Two of the Harvey brothers came with them. | 21:34 | |
They're big ANVL CIO organizers around here. | 21:38 | |
Well, OK, | 21:42 | |
I'll just name them off here. | 21:43 | |
Illinois Glass Company, Local 42. | 21:45 | |
L&M Tobacco Company, Local 176 of TWIU. | 21:48 | |
American Tobacco Company, Local 183 of TWIU. | 21:53 | |
City Union of Durham, Local 1194 of AFS C&E. | 21:57 | |
And Durham Central Labor Union. | 22:03 | |
It was kind of a walking rally, if you like. | 22:05 | |
All around the axis mundi, along the roads | 22:10 | |
and around the bus stop and up here | 22:14 | |
along the sidewalk by the microphone. | 22:16 | |
It was really really impressive to see | 22:18 | |
all those people out there | 22:20 | |
together and organize. | 22:22 | |
And it really helped the spirit of the thing. | 22:23 | |
But today things are back to normal. | 22:26 | |
Students going to and from classes, eating on the quad. | 22:33 | |
'Course people still are going into the dining halls | 22:36 | |
and eating, although we're still hurting them pretty well. | 22:38 | |
There's a lot of discussion going on now about | 22:43 | |
what we're going to do Sunday at seven o'clock | 22:46 | |
when the moratorium is up. | 22:48 | |
We haven't heard anything more from the trustees since | 22:51 | |
their very | 22:54 | |
meaningless statement came out. | 22:58 | |
Although, we've heard rumors that there'll be | 23:01 | |
further statements from the committee they set up | 23:03 | |
to discuss and consider the problems here today. | 23:05 | |
So, that's still just a rumor. | 23:10 | |
We don't know if they're really going to | 23:12 | |
say anything or not, we'll just have to | 23:13 | |
wait and find out. | 23:14 | |
But the discussions concerning | 23:15 | |
what's going to happen on Sunday go kinda like this, | 23:19 | |
and that is that we'll go back out on the main quad | 23:22 | |
in force | 23:25 | |
and hope that this will force the trustees | 23:27 | |
to shut the university down for a week. | 23:32 | |
Which will get them into all sorts of problems. | 23:34 | |
That's still just in the works, no one's really | 23:37 | |
made a decision on it. | 23:40 | |
It's just kind of an idea. | 23:41 | |
And we'll just have to wait and see what happens. | 23:43 | |
Friday night, 10:35. | 23:45 | |
Just got out of a strategy committee meeting, | 23:50 | |
and we discussed again a lot of our ideas | 23:52 | |
for escalation and what have you. | 23:54 | |
We had a report from Dr. Blackburn, | 23:56 | |
which said that. | 23:58 | |
- | Dr. Blackburn is the head of the academic council | 24:03 |
and faculty committee | 24:06 | |
who is discussing and negotiating with the special committee | 24:08 | |
of the trustees, which was set up to | 24:13 | |
deal with the Vigil and the strike. | 24:16 | |
The special committee of the trustees | 24:19 | |
consisted, I think of six. | 24:21 | |
No. | 24:24 | |
Yeah, I think six trustees and three administrators. | 24:26 | |
The chairman of that committee is I think | 24:31 | |
the President of Burlington Mills, | 24:35 | |
which is a non-unionized textile mill | 24:37 | |
here in North Carolina. | 24:39 | |
Several people in there have interests in | 24:43 | |
textile mills and what have you which are non-unionized. | 24:46 | |
This made things very difficult, | 24:49 | |
and of course it's still difficult even now because | 24:52 | |
with the chairman being very much against unions | 24:55 | |
and not being able to afford to allow collective bargaining | 24:59 | |
to be passed through his committee because of the | 25:02 | |
repercussions it would have in his company, | 25:05 | |
put us in a very bad and no doubt him too, | 25:07 | |
in a very bad position. | 25:10 | |
So, people were very suspicious | 25:11 | |
of the trustee committee and of course still are. | 25:13 | |
One of the things, however, that happened, | 25:17 | |
or at least was reported to us by | 25:20 | |
the faculty committee and the student committee | 25:22 | |
and also the workers was that some of the | 25:27 | |
members of that committee, four of them, | 25:30 | |
trustees, were seen to be very favorable toward us, | 25:32 | |
seem to be very much on our side. | 25:37 | |
Or at least more or less on our side. | 25:38 | |
So this gave us some hope. | 25:41 | |
The suspicion, however, has been raised, | 25:43 | |
that since these men, all of them, | 25:45 | |
are familiar with unions, familiar with dealing with them | 25:47 | |
and the problems involved, | 25:50 | |
it could have been very much of a setup. | 25:52 | |
That they just made it look like | 25:54 | |
there were four of them on our side | 25:56 | |
to give us confidence to put us off for three weeks | 25:58 | |
and thus to set us into a timetable, which, | 26:00 | |
coming into the three weeks which will be | 26:03 | |
this coming Sunday. | 26:06 | |
At a very bad time to do anything because | 26:08 | |
students are finishing up courses | 26:10 | |
and getting ready to take exams and what have you. | 26:12 | |
But that remains still to be seen | 26:15 | |
and we don't know yet. | 26:17 | |
OK back to the tape. | 26:18 | |
- | They really couldn't say anything | 26:21 |
about what the trustees were going to do | 26:22 | |
until after tomorrow, | 26:24 | |
when they'll talk to the trustees. | 26:26 | |
And they talk to them I believe at four o'clock | 26:30 | |
tomorrow afternoon. | 26:32 | |
The trustee committee, that is. | 26:33 | |
And then if we see what their attitude is | 26:35 | |
perhaps we can decide a little better | 26:37 | |
what sort of move we're going to make | 26:39 | |
Sunday night or Monday morning. | 26:41 | |
We also | 26:45 | |
reaffirmed the fact we would have a | 26:47 | |
Vigil Sunday at two and probably some kind of | 26:49 | |
rally Sunday night. | 26:52 | |
The members of Dr. Blackburn's committee | 26:55 | |
suggested that we do things which would not be | 26:59 | |
of a destructive sort. | 27:02 | |
By destructive, they meant | 27:06 | |
faculty members resigning, | 27:08 | |
students being kicked out or resigning or whatever. | 27:12 | |
And they also suggested that we do things like | 27:16 | |
go to work in the hospital and dining halls | 27:18 | |
so that the workers could get more holidays. | 27:21 | |
This sort of thing. | 27:24 | |
In short, not escalatory moves, but rather | 27:25 | |
sacrifice moves. | 27:30 | |
The only trouble is that none of these things | 27:32 | |
will lead to collective bargaining. | 27:34 | |
It's pretty well thunk in the group | 27:36 | |
that the only way to get collective bargaining | 27:38 | |
is through pressure. | 27:40 | |
And Dr. Blackburn's committee | 27:42 | |
is, at this point anyway, | 27:45 | |
very much against using pressure. | 27:47 | |
They don't feel that that would be productive | 27:49 | |
and perhaps they're right. | 27:51 | |
But nevertheless, we're pretty well sure | 27:53 | |
this is the only way it's going to come about. | 27:54 | |
Dr. Krantz talked to me full escalation, | 27:57 | |
going from one step to the next slowly, | 28:00 | |
putting more and more pressure upon the trustees, | 28:02 | |
which sounds like a good idea to me, | 28:07 | |
although nothing specific was said. | 28:09 | |
We'll just have to see how things go on that. | 28:12 | |
He also pointed out to us that 100 members or so | 28:15 | |
of the concerned faculty group | 28:19 | |
are going to wait 'til Sunday night, | 28:21 | |
'til the seven o'clock moratorium. | 28:24 | |
If an acceptable move is not made by the trustees | 28:26 | |
at that time, that they will be with us | 28:28 | |
all the way. | 28:30 | |
Even, as he put it, most of them to the point of | 28:32 | |
resigning from the university. | 28:34 | |
So at least we have 80 or 90 or so | 28:37 | |
faculty members strongly on our side | 28:41 | |
with whatever we decide to do | 28:43 | |
as long as we don't cop out, | 28:45 | |
which is very encouraging. | 28:47 | |
Of course, there are 600 faculty members | 28:49 | |
in the university. | 28:52 | |
And that's only 1/6, but nevertheless, | 28:53 | |
it is significant because some of them | 28:56 | |
are very powerful. | 28:58 | |
After the general meeting broke up, | 29:01 | |
we had a smaller meeting. | 29:02 | |
This general meeting was open to all comers, | 29:05 | |
by the way, and there were some people | 29:07 | |
outside the university there. | 29:09 | |
The smaller meeting, | 29:11 | |
Dick Latterman spoke to talked about | 29:14 | |
the prison reform petition, which is on the quad. | 29:16 | |
It was decided that indeed, I would be able | 29:20 | |
to announce it over the microphone and that Huck | 29:23 | |
would be outside to discuss it with people. | 29:26 | |
I had a trial run of announcing it over the mic | 29:29 | |
yesterday and within 30 seconds I had | 29:32 | |
three or four people on my neck about it | 29:35 | |
'cause they didn't think it should get | 29:37 | |
associated with the Vigil. | 29:39 | |
We all agree that it should be, | 29:40 | |
that it's exceptionally important | 29:41 | |
because this is a movement for the poor whites, | 29:43 | |
and of course there is black support for it, too. | 29:45 | |
But mostly poor whites | 29:48 | |
and this is exceptionally important | 29:49 | |
as a stepping stone to a black-white coalition. | 29:51 | |
Have poor people, so that we will support it and | 29:54 | |
we will talk about it Sunday night | 29:59 | |
or afternoon or whenever the rally is | 30:01 | |
to the people in the hope of engendering support | 30:03 | |
for the Tuesday march and also for signing the petition. | 30:06 | |
Also Dick and Mr. Overby both are going to get | 30:09 | |
more information for us, so we'll be able | 30:12 | |
to present a little better case | 30:14 | |
to students when they come by to sign the petition. | 30:16 | |
I kind of messed up my tapes here. | 30:22 | |
Got things a little bit mixed up, but anyway | 30:24 | |
I do have the tape recordings | 30:27 | |
of one of Mr. Beecher's poems | 30:29 | |
and several of Mr. Seeger's songs | 30:30 | |
on the other side of this tape | 30:34 | |
on the first part. | 30:39 | |
There's a poem by Mr. Beecher | 30:40 | |
followed by three songs by Pete Seeger. | 30:47 | |
- | Poem by Mr. Beecher. | 30:53 |
Little note on him. | 30:54 | |
He's a poet, I think a very good one. | 30:56 | |
Has a very impressive delivery. | 30:59 | |
He's been around North Carolina | 31:01 | |
and many other parts of the country for | 31:03 | |
years doing things, working in the civil rights movement | 31:05 | |
and all sorts of poverty-related type things. | 31:09 | |
He was eventually elected the Poet Laureate | 31:14 | |
of the Vigil. | 31:17 | |
And he has a poem here, which I think is particularly good. | 31:21 | |
- | Dream of people all together singing. | 31:28 |
Each singing his way who's fell | 31:34 | |
to arms on arms within. | 31:37 | |
All singing their way | 31:41 | |
on out of self. | 31:44 | |
Singing through to unity, | 31:48 | |
kindling into playing of common purpose. | 31:51 | |
Coming all together, singing. | 31:55 | |
Such singing, once I heard | 31:59 | |
where black children sang the chants of work | 32:02 | |
and slavery. | 32:07 | |
Of hope for life at last and justice | 32:09 | |
beyond the spaded unmarked grave, | 32:12 | |
the platform dignitaries of master race | 32:15 | |
stooping for the occasion | 32:20 | |
were suddenly changed and shaken | 32:23 | |
by these fierce and singing children | 32:27 | |
chanting out their stormy hunger | 32:30 | |
for freeborn rights | 32:33 | |
still wickedly denied. | 32:36 | |
Again, once | 32:40 | |
impacts and stifling union hall | 32:42 | |
where miners gathered and their women folk. | 32:45 | |
I heard such singing | 32:49 | |
while outside on the listening street. | 32:51 | |
Man stood uneasy and shivering beneath | 32:55 | |
their heavy uniforms | 32:59 | |
or powerful whipped their guns. | 33:00 | |
Though unarmed with a singer | 33:04 | |
save for the weapon of song. | 33:06 | |
And once again, work powers | 33:11 | |
of the ripening crops. | 33:14 | |
The long have fought relentless valley, | 33:15 | |
hands by (mumbling) eyes | 33:18 | |
of High Sierras. | 33:20 | |
Square danced with riotous peak, | 33:22 | |
upstanding middle squeak | 33:25 | |
and banjos kiddie jingled. | 33:28 | |
There came a quiet. | 33:30 | |
And from the quiet burst altogether singing, | 33:33 | |
yearning back to lands whence these were grown. | 33:37 | |
The known and homely acres | 33:41 | |
then lusting forward to their richness | 33:43 | |
of unending roles and binds and robes. | 33:47 | |
The pleasure handed only | 33:51 | |
but someday to be taken and be rightly used. | 33:53 | |
The prophecy sang forth. | 33:59 | |
(applauding) | 34:06 | |
(country instrumental music) | 34:09 | |
♪ Oh Henry was a little baby ♪ | 34:23 | |
♪ You could hold him in the palm of your hand ♪ | 34:26 | |
♪ He picked up a hammer and a little piece of steel ♪ | 34:30 | |
♪ And he said, this hammer be the death of me, Lord, Lord ♪ | 34:35 | |
♪ This hammer be the death of me. ♪ | 34:38 | |
♪ Well, the captain said it to John Henry ♪ | 34:55 | |
♪ I'm gonna bring me a steam drill round ♪ | 34:58 | |
♪ I'm gonna bring a steam drill around on the job ♪ | 35:01 | |
♪ Gonna whop that steel on down, down, down ♪ | 35:05 | |
♪ Henry he said to his captain ♪ | 35:13 | |
♪ Guess a man's gotta act like a man ♪ | 35:16 | |
♪ Before that steam drill comes to bother me ♪ | 35:20 | |
♪ Guess I'll die with a hammer in my hand, Lord, Lord ♪ | 35:23 | |
♪ I'll die with a hammer in my hand ♪ | 35:26 | |
♪ Oh, the man that invented the steam drill ♪ | 35:47 | |
♪ He thought that he was mighty fine ♪ | 35:50 | |
♪ But John Henry drove his steel 15 feet ♪ | 35:53 | |
♪ And the steam drill only gave nine ♪ | 35:57 | |
♪ And the steam drill drove only gave nine ♪ | 36:00 | |
♪ John Henry kept hammerin' on the mountain ♪ | 36:04 | |
♪ And the hammer was lightnin' in his eye ♪ | 36:07 | |
♪ He workin' so hard that he broke his poor heart ♪ | 36:10 | |
♪ He laid down his hammer and he died ♪ | 36:13 | |
♪ He laid down his hammer and he died ♪ | 36:17 | |
♪ Yeah he laid down his hammer and he died ♪ | 36:20 | |
♪ Laid down his hammer and he died ♪ | 36:23 | |
♪ Oh Henry had a little woman ♪ | 36:27 | |
♪ Her name was Polly Anne ♪ | 36:29 | |
♪ John Henry took sick and went to his bed ♪ | 36:33 | |
♪ Polly Ann drove steel like a man, Lord, Lord ♪ | 36:36 | |
♪ Polly Ann drove steel like a man ♪ | 36:39 | |
♪ Polly Ann drove steel like a man ♪ | 36:43 | |
♪ Well, every Monday morning ♪ | 36:46 | |
♪ When the bluebirds begin to sing ♪ | 36:49 | |
♪ You can hear John Henry a mile or more ♪ | 36:53 | |
♪ You can hear John Henry's hammer ring ♪ | 36:57 | |
♪ You can hear John Henry's hammer ring ♪ | 37:00 | |
♪ You can hear John Henry's hammer ring ♪ | 37:02 | |
(applauding) | 37:07 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 37:12 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 37:15 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 37:17 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 37:18 | |
♪ Ooh ♪ | 37:23 | |
♪ Ooh ♪ | 37:28 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 37:29 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 37:40 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 37:48 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 37:57 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 38:02 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 38:03 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 38:04 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 38:06 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 38:10 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 38:12 | |
♪ Oh ♪ | 38:13 | |
(applauding) | 38:21 | |
(instrumental folk music) | 38:26 | |
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪ | 38:35 | |
♪ Which side are you on ♪ | 38:37 | |
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪ | 38:40 | |
♪ Which side are you on ♪ | 38:43 | |
So it's claimed that | 38:48 | |
these words were written from an old | 38:49 | |
hard shell (mumbling). | 38:51 | |
Mrs. Florance Reese, the wife of a | 38:54 | |
rank and file organizer | 38:58 | |
made up the words one day after the company sheriff, | 39:01 | |
J.H. Blair had visited her home | 39:07 | |
with shotguns and all the deputies. | 39:10 | |
Her two little girls, aged eight and 11 started crying. | 39:13 | |
One of the men says, "What are you crying for? | 39:17 | |
"We ain't after you, | 39:20 | |
"we're just asking your old man." | 39:21 | |
Sam reasoned and warned in time and escaped. | 39:25 | |
After the deputy sheriffs left, Mrs. Reeves | 39:30 | |
felt so outraged and ashamed and | 39:34 | |
she tore a calendar off the wall, she told me. | 39:37 | |
She put these verses on the back. | 39:41 | |
♪ Come all you good workers ♪ | 39:45 | |
♪ Good news to you I'll tell ♪ | 39:48 | |
♪ Of how the good old union ♪ | 39:51 | |
♪ Has come in here to dwell ♪ | 39:54 | |
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪ | 39:57 | |
♪ Which side are you on ♪ | 40:01 | |
♪ Which side are you on boys ♪ | 40:04 | |
♪ Which side are you on ♪ | 40:07 | |
♪ They say in Harlan County ♪ | 40:10 | |
♪ No neutrals ♪ | 40:13 | |
♪ You'll find no neutrals there ♪ | 40:16 | |
♪ You'll either be a union man ♪ | 40:19 | |
♪ Or a thug for J.H. Blair ♪ | 40:23 | |
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪ | 40:26 | |
♪ Which side are you on ♪ | 40:29 | |
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪ | 40:33 | |
♪ Which side are you on ♪ | 40:36 | |
♪ My daddy was a miner ♪ | 40:41 | |
♪ He's now in the air and sun ♪ | 40:44 | |
♪ He'll be with you fellow workers ♪ | 40:47 | |
♪ Until this battle's won ♪ | 40:52 | |
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪ | 40:55 | |
♪ Which side are you on ♪ | 40:59 | |
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪ | 41:02 | |
♪ Which side are you on ♪ | 41:05 | |
♪ Don't scab for the bosses ♪ | 41:08 | |
♪ Don't listen to their lies ♪ | 41:11 | |
(cheering) Alright! | 41:14 | |
♪ Us workers never had a chance ♪ | 41:19 | |
♪ Unless we organize ♪ | 41:21 | |
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪ | 41:24 | |
♪ Which side are you on ♪ | 41:28 | |
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪ | 41:31 | |
♪ Which side are you on ♪ | 41:34 | |
♪ Come all you good workers ♪ | 41:46 | |
♪ Good news to you I'll tell ♪ | 41:48 | |
♪ Of how the good old union ♪ | 41:50 | |
♪ Has come in here to dwell ♪ | 41:54 | |
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪ | 41:57 | |
♪ Which side are you on ♪ | 42:00 | |
♪ Which side are you on, boys ♪ | 42:03 | |
♪ Which side are you on ♪ | 42:07 | |
- | It's now approximately five minutes 'til nine. | 42:12 |
We've been in a meeting for about an hour or so. | 42:16 | |
Been talking about a statement that was | 42:19 | |
forthcoming from the board of trustees, | 42:21 | |
and which I'll read in just a minute and | 42:23 | |
the reactions on the part of the workers, | 42:26 | |
the faculty and the students. | 42:28 | |
We talked to them today. | 42:30 | |
"Statement of special committee. | 42:31 | |
"Today the special trustee administrative committee | 42:33 | |
"was pleased to receive the cooperation and help | 42:36 | |
"of the faculty through the executive committee | 42:38 | |
"of the academic council and the Blackburn committee. | 42:41 | |
"the elected offices of student organizations | 42:44 | |
"and employee representatives of non-academic workers. | 42:46 | |
"The focus of all was to discover and develop | 42:49 | |
"a mechanism which will ensure the continued | 42:52 | |
"improvement of relations with non-academic employees | 42:54 | |
"at a team are mutually desired objectives." | 42:57 | |
Which is not stated specifically, | 43:00 | |
but it is kind of cycling around collective bargaining, | 43:03 | |
although it's not real clear cut yet. | 43:07 | |
- | That statement, I think, | 43:10 |
came out on the Saturday night | 43:12 | |
before the Sunday moratorium was up. | 43:15 | |
I believe that's correct. | 43:19 | |
- | No, sir. | 43:22 |
That last statement was my own. | 43:23 | |
OK, I'll continue reading. | 43:25 | |
"The special committee will continue to work | 43:27 | |
"in all speed with these cooperating representatives | 43:29 | |
"in seeking solutions to the concerns | 43:31 | |
"of non-academic employees, | 43:33 | |
"including a sense of dignity and participation. | 43:35 | |
"It is clear that inadequacies in the relationship | 43:38 | |
"of the university and its non-academic employees | 43:42 | |
"do exist and we intend to work as rapidly as possible | 43:44 | |
"to remedy them. | 43:47 | |
"As to the important matter of wages, | 43:49 | |
"the special committee will recommend | 43:51 | |
"to the board of trustees that | 43:53 | |
"on May 6th, 1968, the minimum wage | 43:55 | |
"for non-academic employees will be increased | 43:57 | |
"to $1.45 per hour. | 44:00 | |
"Effective July 3rd, 1968, | 44:02 | |
"additional appropriated adjustments | 44:05 | |
"within each wage classification | 44:07 | |
"will be made for employees presently | 44:09 | |
"earning more than $1.34 per hour. | 44:12 | |
"As previously announced, we will be at the $1.60 | 44:15 | |
"minimum hourly rate by July 1st, 1969." | 44:18 | |
Dated April 20th, 1968. | 44:22 | |
The reaction on the part of the faculty was favorable. | 44:25 | |
They thought that the response of the | 44:30 | |
trustee committee, trustee administrative committee | 44:33 | |
I should say, was favorable, | 44:37 | |
and an agreement would be reached. | 44:39 | |
Plus we'd still have to wait for that agreement. | 44:41 | |
The reaction of the workers was that | 44:44 | |
they were surprised that they had received | 44:47 | |
so much cooperation, | 44:50 | |
and that a week ago they would never have believed | 44:51 | |
that things would have worked out, to this point anyway, | 44:53 | |
so well. | 44:56 | |
The reaction on the part of the students | 44:57 | |
was not quite as good. | 44:58 | |
Of course, they met with the trustees last | 45:00 | |
and late in the afternoon, everyone is tired. | 45:03 | |
The chairman of the board was quite brusk with them. | 45:05 | |
But some of the member of the boards | 45:08 | |
were very much for them, and really were trying | 45:10 | |
to work with them. | 45:12 | |
And the general attitude on the part of the students | 45:14 | |
is that the majority of the board is | 45:17 | |
more or less on our side and that our demands | 45:18 | |
will be met. | 45:20 | |
OK, we are now going into a meeting. | 45:22 | |
Most of the faculty have left except for | 45:26 | |
Dr. Clarence and our other activists | 45:28 | |
who are with us. | 45:31 | |
And we will try to determine what sort of | 45:34 | |
action we'll take for the next week or so | 45:37 | |
until further word comes from the board of trustees | 45:39 | |
and from the entire trustee board | 45:43 | |
as to whether or not this decision, | 45:47 | |
which I just read you, will be accepted | 45:50 | |
by the entire board. | 45:52 | |
Thank you. | 45:55 | |
- | This statement, the one that I was just | 45:57 |
talking about there | 46:00 | |
changed a lot of the problems in thinking | 46:02 | |
that we were having. | 46:07 | |
As I mentioned, this was the Saturday, | 46:08 | |
Saturday night before the Sunday, | 46:10 | |
which was the end of the moratorium. | 46:13 | |
Earlier, as you remember, I was talking about | 46:15 | |
what we were going to do at that time | 46:18 | |
if nothing had happened. | 46:20 | |
And everybody was very unsure as to | 46:22 | |
what could be done and what should be done. | 46:25 | |
And when this statement came out, that changed everything. | 46:28 | |
As I mentioned, the faculty, the workers and the students | 46:31 | |
were very favorably impressed by it, | 46:34 | |
and we decided that we weren't going to | 46:37 | |
take any aggressive action at that time, | 46:40 | |
but rather that we were going to de-escalate and | 46:43 | |
I think I probably talk about this | 46:46 | |
a little later on in the tape, but | 46:49 | |
the de-escalation involved the workers going | 46:51 | |
back to work, and the strike being called off, | 46:53 | |
in other words, the boycott being called off. | 46:58 | |
Everything went back to normal and we decided | 47:00 | |
to wait period of three weeks | 47:03 | |
until, | 47:04 | |
well three Sundays, actually, a three week period, | 47:07 | |
which is almost up now. | 47:10 | |
It will be up this coming Sunday, | 47:12 | |
which is in a few days, | 47:13 | |
to see what the trustees could work out | 47:15 | |
and whether they would honor this agreement | 47:17 | |
they had made. | 47:19 | |
And of course, that still remains to be seen. | 47:20 | |
Now for the rest of the tape. | 47:23 | |
- | OK it's now 10:40. | 47:25 |
We've come to the end of the strategy committee meeting. | 47:29 | |
We had, first of all, reports from the | 47:32 | |
graduate student association now | 47:33 | |
and the spokesman. | 47:35 | |
They are gonna support the employees | 47:39 | |
in any way they can, | 47:42 | |
and still work them any way they can | 47:44 | |
toward gaining collective bargaining | 47:46 | |
and of course, so will we. | 47:48 | |
We agreed on that. | 47:49 | |
I just see that they'll go home during the summer, | 47:50 | |
so therefore they can be the main core, | 47:52 | |
if you like, of the summer operation. | 47:55 | |
And with particular importance placed on this fall, | 47:58 | |
that we have some kind of thing going then, | 48:01 | |
rally or organization, whatever, to make sure that the | 48:04 | |
employees don't get dumped on at that time | 48:07 | |
when they all come back to work. | 48:10 | |
OK, then we have a statement from the concerned faculty | 48:12 | |
meeting, from | 48:15 | |
Dr. Krantz. | 48:20 | |
The basic feeling, that is that they | 48:21 | |
support collective bargaining | 48:23 | |
and they will support the students in any | 48:24 | |
reasonable action they take | 48:27 | |
of an escalatory fashion or whatever | 48:29 | |
concerned with collective bargaining | 48:31 | |
or anything else that comes along | 48:33 | |
to do with the non-academic employees. | 48:36 | |
Which would include threatening to transfer | 48:38 | |
to other school | 48:40 | |
(mumbling) course of activities. | 48:41 | |
It could also include a faculty strike, | 48:43 | |
a national resignation that it came to that. | 48:46 | |
Then we considered alternative actions | 48:48 | |
that the employees in strike. | 48:51 | |
Later on we voted on a lot of those. | 48:53 | |
Right up in equity is done by administration. | 48:57 | |
Bring legal candidates and other speakers to campus. | 49:00 | |
Have a rally with North Carolina College, | 49:03 | |
continue the fundraising committee to work with | 49:06 | |
Mr. Harvey on what problems he may come up with. | 49:08 | |
Organizing benefits, | 49:11 | |
work day to help clean up the campus, | 49:14 | |
the organization to help write up | 49:17 | |
the document to be sent out to | 49:19 | |
foundations, other campuses and the like. | 49:21 | |
Stay on the strike, | 49:24 | |
we're gonna have to organize our picket lines | 49:26 | |
much better. | 49:29 | |
They need more people out there | 49:30 | |
to continue fundraising and the NCC rally thing, | 49:31 | |
the (mumbling) committee with Mr. Harvey | 49:35 | |
that benefits the document to go out to | 49:38 | |
other campuses and other fundraising people and | 49:41 | |
foundations, of course. | 49:48 | |
And of course, it was also suggested that we | 49:50 | |
picket the building sites to put a little more pressure | 49:52 | |
on the trustees. | 49:55 | |
The rally tomorrow will be held at seven. | 49:57 | |
The North Carolina Justice Committee will be | 49:59 | |
spoken about by Dr. Rainey at that time, | 50:01 | |
and of course, all these things will be talked about then. | 50:03 | |
We'll have another meeting tomorrow at four o'clock. | 50:05 | |
We just talked to a few people about prison reform. | 50:08 | |
Mr. Owls, | 50:11 | |
Dick Latterman was here. | 50:14 | |
Mr. Overby and Mrs. Overby weren't here this time, | 50:15 | |
but we are indeed going to support it | 50:17 | |
and try to turn some people out for that demonstration | 50:19 | |
Tuesday and it will be talked about tomorrow night | 50:22 | |
at the rally. | 50:26 | |
That concludes my notes from Saturday night | 50:27 | |
strategy meeting. | 50:30 | |
This evening's strategy meeting | 50:33 | |
ran along a little different line. | 50:35 | |
We tried to set up some long range | 50:43 | |
sorts of things to do to keep the Vigil going. | 50:45 | |
Like dealing with the poor people in the community, | 50:49 | |
dealing with the community in general. | 50:53 | |
Dealing with the university and what goes in there | 50:55 | |
and dealing with the union. | 50:59 | |
We set up four, those four specific areas of concern. | 51:01 | |
We'll have one person running each one, | 51:06 | |
and then a coordinator | 51:09 | |
for a Vigil organization. | 51:11 | |
Later on, when we found out this evening that the | 51:17 | |
workers have decided to go back to work, | 51:20 | |
so there isn't a whole lot we can do now. | 51:25 | |
But, I for one, and a lot of us will be supporting | 51:29 | |
the North Carolina Justice Committee in their | 51:33 | |
work in the next week or so, | 51:35 | |
and so we're really working on that. | 51:37 | |
We got a tape, an interview. | 51:40 | |
One of the inmates in North Carolina prison tonight | 51:44 | |
that was very revealing as to | 51:47 | |
some of the practices in the prisons. | 51:49 | |
My only concern is | 51:53 | |
not assure yet that the trustees are playing fair with us. | 51:55 | |
They could very well just be leading us | 51:59 | |
down a garden path, but, | 52:02 | |
we've committed ourselves | 52:04 | |
to going back to work now, | 52:06 | |
and the workers and students alike, and | 52:09 | |
we're just going to wait, give them three weeks | 52:13 | |
to see if they'll come through. | 52:16 | |
If they don't come through, | 52:17 | |
then we've also committed ourselves | 52:18 | |
to going back on a general strike | 52:20 | |
and shutting this entire university down. | 52:22 | |
And I just hope they know that. | 52:25 | |
Hope they understand that we will indeed | 52:27 | |
shut this place down if they don't come through. | 52:30 | |
So we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed | 52:32 | |
and hope they deal with us in good faith. | 52:35 | |
If so, everything will be fine. | 52:36 | |
If not, well it's gonna be worse than it ever was | 52:38 | |
at any other point. | 52:41 | |
Robert Lowell spoke to us this evening, | 52:42 | |
a famous poet. | 52:45 | |
I wasn't really very impressed by him. | 52:47 | |
I think I find Mr. Beecher a lot better. | 52:49 | |
But perhaps I'm prejudice. | 52:52 | |
Rich Beecher was elected Poet Laureate of the Vigil. | 52:54 | |
- | OK that's the end of that. | 53:00 |
That's the end of all the tapes | 53:03 | |
that I got on the Vigil. | 53:04 | |
That was two weeks and five, | 53:06 | |
yeah, five days ago. | 53:08 | |
At that time, I was pretty confident | 53:10 | |
as you noticed, from the tape that | 53:12 | |
if the trustees didn't come through | 53:16 | |
that we would be in a very good position | 53:19 | |
for taking some, I think what you'd call, | 53:21 | |
for Duke University anyway, very aggressive action. | 53:25 | |
I.e. shutting the university down | 53:27 | |
by boycotting classes, things of that nature. | 53:30 | |
I'm not so sure now. | 53:33 | |
I've been away from the university a little bit and | 53:34 | |
in the last couple of days, I've been kind of | 53:37 | |
wandering around, sitting in the dope shop | 53:40 | |
and what have you, listening to people talk, | 53:42 | |
asking people questions and what have you. | 53:44 | |
At this time, I'm really not very confident at all | 53:47 | |
that we're gonna be able to do that. | 53:52 | |
Because I think that the wool has been pulled over our eyes. | 53:55 | |
As far as I know, the trustees have met twice | 54:00 | |
since that Sunday moratorium was up | 54:04 | |
and since we gave them three more weeks. | 54:07 | |
It seems to me that they haven't met enough | 54:09 | |
and as far as I know, they haven't met at all | 54:15 | |
with faculty or workers or students. | 54:19 | |
I don't think they really are in any position | 54:22 | |
to come out with a studied statement | 54:25 | |
on collective bargaining. | 54:28 | |
I just don't think they've met or consulted | 54:29 | |
with us enough to do that. | 54:31 | |
So I'm pretty sure that what they're going to do | 54:32 | |
is come up with some sort of conciliatory statement, | 54:35 | |
which means essentially nothing, | 54:38 | |
and hope that that's going to put us off | 54:41 | |
and that we'll sit back on our hocks and forget about it. | 54:43 | |
Which I'm not so sure that they're wrong. | 54:48 | |
I think that might really happen, | 54:52 | |
and this is what I'm worried about now. | 54:53 | |
Students are getting into exams | 54:55 | |
and I personally think it was planned this way. | 54:58 | |
They're going to be in no real position | 55:02 | |
to go onto another strike or shut the university down | 55:06 | |
or anything else | 55:09 | |
if they want to finish this semester out. | 55:10 | |
If they do that, that means that this semester's | 55:13 | |
gonna be completely shot for most of them, not all of them. | 55:15 | |
It depends on how long it would go on. | 55:18 | |
One more day of boycotts would wipe out | 55:20 | |
a goodly number of people. | 55:23 | |
Three days would wipe out maybe half the university, | 55:25 | |
and a week would probly do the whole university. | 55:28 | |
That would mean that everybody would have to go to | 55:30 | |
summer school, otherwise come next semester | 55:33 | |
or a year from now. | 55:36 | |
There'd be an awful lot of Duke undergraduates | 55:37 | |
who'd be drafted because of the new draft law that | 55:39 | |
you have to finish 25% of your | 55:43 | |
work every year. | 55:47 | |
And I know the trustees know that. | 55:49 | |
It's just speculating and I think this is | 55:51 | |
one of the things they're betting on. | 55:54 | |
That people are aware of this and they're | 55:56 | |
not going to take that chance. | 55:58 | |
'Cause you're really playing with fire | 56:00 | |
when you start playing with the draft, | 56:01 | |
as I well know. | 56:03 | |
So, I think we're in a pretty bad position right now. | 56:04 | |
I don't know, of course, and we'll have to wait | 56:06 | |
'til either Saturday night or Sunday | 56:09 | |
to find out on that, see what the trustees | 56:12 | |
will have to say. | 56:15 | |
I'm sure they'll come out with something there. | 56:16 | |
They will say something, I'm sure. | 56:18 | |
They might surprise us and they might come through | 56:20 | |
with really what we want | 56:23 | |
or a reasonable statement, something that we could | 56:26 | |
in good faith go along with. | 56:31 | |
But then again, I don't think they're going to do that | 56:33 | |
because they could have done that weeks ago. | 56:36 | |
Probably, I'm sure they could have. | 56:38 | |
The other thing, of course, that | 56:42 | |
I was pretty sure would happen is that. | 56:45 | |
Or at least, I should have been pretty sure | 56:47 | |
would happen is that a lot of students | 56:50 | |
now feel vindicated. | 56:52 | |
They feel they've done their thing, | 56:54 | |
they've done their bid, | 56:57 | |
and that they can now mosey along with their usual | 56:59 | |
everyday form of work. | 57:03 | |
It's not quite that bad, of course. | 57:05 | |
They've learned a lot, most of them. | 57:07 | |
They realize a lot of things they didn't realize before | 57:09 | |
and they're more interested and concerned with | 57:13 | |
what goes on in the country and what happens to | 57:15 | |
black people and poor white people and what have you. | 57:17 | |
But I think a lot of people are satisfied | 57:20 | |
with the accomplishments that they have come up with. | 57:22 | |
And they've accomplished a lot. | 57:26 | |
Comparing the present Duke University | 57:28 | |
and what's happened in this last month | 57:30 | |
to what Duke University was when I first | 57:32 | |
came to it two and a half or almost three years ago now. | 57:34 | |
A tremendous achievement has been realized. | 57:37 | |
The university is now out of its deep sleep, | 57:41 | |
if you like. | 57:45 | |
It's not fully awake yet, but it's getting there. | 57:46 | |
I think people, and a lot of students | 57:49 | |
and no doubt a lot of faculty | 57:51 | |
are satisfied with this, but I know the workers aren't. | 57:53 | |
And I know that some of us are not satisfied with it. | 57:56 | |
It is simply not enough. | 58:00 | |
In any fight you need concrete gains | 58:01 | |
and in this fight it's the same thing. | 58:04 | |
People are living poor lives, | 58:06 | |
they're not enjoying the benefits of the | 58:11 | |
society in which we live in, | 58:14 | |
which by all rights should be available to everyone. | 58:15 | |
There are good reasons why they're not benefiting | 58:18 | |
from those and there's good things | 58:20 | |
that could be done to change that. | 58:22 | |
And I think that | 58:24 | |
it's paramount to the | 58:26 | |
well being of every citizen in the United States | 58:28 | |
and for the rest of the world, | 58:32 | |
since the United States affects the rest of the world | 58:34 | |
that these things be dealt with in good faith | 58:37 | |
and we get on with it. | 58:39 | |
But unfortunately, a lot of people don't understand that | 58:41 | |
and I don't think the trustees really understand that. | 58:43 | |
I don't think they realize how serious this situation is. | 58:46 | |
And I think a lot of students have forgotten | 58:50 | |
just how serious the situation is. | 58:52 | |
It's no doubt in my mind and no doubt in | 58:56 | |
most of my associates' minds who've been working | 58:59 | |
with black people and other poor people | 59:02 | |
for the last couple of years that | 59:04 | |
this summer is going to be a very hot one. | 59:06 | |
There are going to be a lot of people killed, | 59:08 | |
there are going to be a lot of destruction. | 59:10 | |
But there are damned good reasons for it. | 59:11 | |
And not only is this going to happen in the big cities | 59:14 | |
in the north and some of the big cities in the south | 59:17 | |
as it has in the last couple of years, | 59:19 | |
but it is probably going to happen in Durham, too. | 59:21 | |
And I just hope that people are going to realize this, | 59:23 | |
but I don't think they are. | 59:27 | |
And I think this is one of the reasons | 59:29 | |
that some complacency has set in. | 59:31 | |
Our job now, I think, is to | 59:33 | |
get people fired back up again. | 59:36 | |
To get them to realize, again, the seriousness | 59:38 | |
of what they're doing, if they never did before. | 59:41 | |
And I don't think a lot of them ever did before | 59:44 | |
realize the seriousness of what they were doing. | 59:45 | |
And it's gonna be a difficult fight, I think. | 59:47 | |
We may really lose this one this time. | 59:51 | |
It's beginning to look that way. | 59:53 | |
But I know that there are a lot of people on campus | 59:55 | |
that are old time activists who are really | 59:57 | |
serious about carrying the fight on | 1:00:01 | |
and we'll just have to see what happens here | 1:00:04 | |
in the next few days. | 1:00:06 |
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