Thursday, June 12, 2008

Reclaiming the Ivory Tower: An Interview with Joe Berry

I recently finished Joe Berry’s book Reclaiming the Ivory Tower.  It was a great piece of writing, and it was all about my favorite subject: adjuncts.  Unlike most books about adjuncts, Joe’s offers practical advice to adjuncts for action and activism.  I wanted to know more and sought an interview with Joe.  Fortunately, he agreed.

In Reclaiming the Ivory Tower, you indicate that the number one hurdle that keeps adjuncts from organizing is fear.  After pointing this out, you urge adjuncts to overcome their fear and be active, to work towards building their union.  What have you found to be the most effective arguments to convince people to step past their fear and get active?

The single biggest factor in helping people (me included) in overcoming fear is the observed presence of others doing the same thing and winning something, or at least surviving to fight another day.  This also helps to fight fear’s evil twin, fatalism, which is very strong these days in the absence of a strong obvious mass movement.  Seeing real life struggle by someone you know is much more useful than any magic bullet of what one activist can say to a fearful potential recruit.

It also means that who talks to a person matters a lot because they can …

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