[lbo-talk] Student protests in the U.S. starting to escalate

[Julio Huato]

Arianna Huffington, on her web site (the Huffington Post) has been
coming up with various initiatives to kick off grassroots movements.
One prompts people to boycott the big banks and switch their accounts
to credit unions, etc.  Doug Henwood criticized this one.  While I
agree in principle with the limitations of such a movement as argued
by Doug, I think one thing is to assess its plausibility to address
the ultimate courses of the crisis (zero) and its validity as a source
of popular motion (a small positive number, given the discontent with
the big banks).

More recently (and perhaps more to our liking), she invited students
to blog on their protests against tuition hikes, student loan issues,
etc.   This apparently started in California, where things have been
coming to a head.  We may have heard about the recent riot in
Berkeley.  There's now a scheduled national Day of Action.  This seems
promising.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/04/day-of-action-dawns-with_n_485299.html

On a related matter, I was yesterday at a public hearing with the NYC
public advocate (De Blasio) on parental involvement in public school
issues.  It was at the Brooklyn boro hall, well attended.  One could
feel the discontent with the status quo, way beyond strict school
issues.   I made a 2-minute speech, in which I told De Blasio, "You
asked for ideas [on how to resolve the issues of school closings,
budget cuts].  I'm ready to march on Washington" -- which got me a big
applause. We want this energy to get organized and focused.
Initiatives like those A. Huffington is coming up with are welcome, I
think.