The Case for a Boycott – pay us more ucsc

The case for the UC Boycott, in which prospective visiting speakers refuse to give guest lectures or provide public speeches, either remotely or in person, at the University of California. Read more about the call for a UC Boycott.

A boycott is a natural extension of a strike in that it strategically withholds labor until certain reasonable demands are met. It is a natural way to spread the strike and stiffen the resolve of colleagues at UC who are wavering in their support.

A boycott represents a PR nightmare for the UC administration. As the budget is set by UCOP (UC Office of the President), any solution to the current impasse will have to be UC-wide given that graduate workers on multiple UC campuses are currently striking for a COLA.

A boycott is a powerful way for non-UC supporters – especially those with more academic privilege – to declare that they will not cross the picket line. In so doing, it will help students and faculty at UC build solidarity with related struggles nationally and internationally (i.e. the UCU strike). As supporters of the boycott, we also commit to supporting graduate student workers at our own institutions and to stand against austerity education in all its forms.

A boycott sends a clear message: in times of new forms of academic “restructuring,” we will not allow the summary dismissal of graduate workers to go unnoticed. This is especially crucial in the current moment, when the shift to teaching online next quarter risks normalizing worker movements across the UCs.

The boycott – which includes an express call to build robust critical departments – seeks not to “stifle free exchange” but to encourage discussion and debate around some of the most important issues of our time. These include the use of technology for surveillance purposes, widespread precarity, and police brutality on campuses. Indeed, there are numerous historical precedents for boycott campaigns: the civil rights movement, the grape boycott called by the United Farm Workers, and the opposition to apartheid South Africa. One could also mention the current BDS movement and the boycotts aimed at states that have passed anti-LGBTQ laws.

Mission

We are TAs, GSIs, Tutors, Readers, Student Researchers, Fellows, Postdocs, and Academic Researchers at UCSC. We are represented by our union, UAW 4811 (Formerly UAW 2865 and UAW 5810). In 2019/2020, workers at UCSC withheld labor for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), and in 2022, our statewide union struck for 6 weeks over a COLA, arguing for a 54k base wage for all academic workers with the goal of raising the living conditions of academic workers across the state. Now, we are on strike for Divestment, Disclosure, Transitional funding for researchers, & Amnesty for all protestors.