Takeaway: Our first Freedom School is coming up on Thursday, November 12, at 7 p.m. with featured speaker Annelise Orleck. Click here to get the Zoom link and say you’re going on Facebook. Share on social media and subscribe to the new Freedom School-Rutgers AAUP-AFT YouTube channel.
Dear colleague,
This Thursday, our union will hold the first session of a new initiative we’ve been working on for months. In the tradition of Ella Baker, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the 1960s civil rights movement, we are setting up a Freedom School for political education and outreach.
The pandemic has disrupted both our ordinary lives and how we connect to each other as union members. To speak to this need, Freedom School will be a virtual classroom and discussion space for union members, students, and the broader communities that Rutgers serves, with the goal of developing leadership and political consciousness for a new generation.
Join us for Thursday-night discussions (7 to 8:30 p.m.) every few weeks, featuring speakers from the labor and social movements, as well as from our Coalition unions and the larger Rutgers community. We are launching Freedom School not only to build solidarity among our own members but across the Coalition of Rutgers Unions by creating a space for discussion, exchange, and mutual learning. The themes we discuss will inform our current struggles for social, economic, and racial justice.
Our first session is coming up this Thursday, November 12, at 7 p.m. The featured speaker is activist scholar and Dartmouth History Professor Annelise Orleck; her topic will be “We Are All Fast-Food Workers Now”: The Global Uprising against Poverty Wages. Annelise will be discussing how this urgent theme connects to and informs our struggles at Rutgers and beyond.
We urge you to join us Thursday night, and bring your family and friends, too. You can click here to get the Zoom link. You can say you’re going on Facebook as well; please share the event on social media. And subscribe to the new Freedom School-Rutgers AAUP-AFT YouTube channel.
We’re also interested to hear what kinds of themes or speakers would interest you most for Freedom School. If you have an idea for a session, please reach out and let Donna know at donnamurch1968@gmail.com.
We hope to see you Thursday night at Freedom School!
In solidarity,
Donna, Todd, and Becky
Donna Murch, Executive Council Member and People of Color Caucus Co-chair, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Todd Wolfson, President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Rebecca Givan, Vice President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
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