This "Call to Action" was drafted at a board meeting/retreat of the University Conversion Project that took place in Nyack, New York on February 18, 1995. The final text was completed 5 days later.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 95 09:03:07 EST
From: Rich Cowan <kowan@ai.mit.edu>
To: 187-l@cmsa.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: CONTRACT WITH AMERICA CALL TO ACTION 3/29


2/23/95, 8:00 a.m.

Dear Friends:

Here it is at last, the polished, completed March 29 Call to Action.
22 campuses have already informed us of their organizing plans!

All we ask is that you circulate, print out, and endorse this call;
as soon as we have a reasonable number of endorsers, we will release
this document to the media with phone numbers of all endorsing
organizations. Please see the end of the call for an endorsement form.
Thanks for all of your input and edits on this!
-rich (kowan@ai.mit.edu)

FORMAL CALL FOR A NATIONAL DAY OF CAMPUS ACTION ON
MARCH 29, 1995 AGAINST THE PROPOSED "CONTRACT WITH AMERICA"

I. The Call

The "Contract With America" currently under consideration in Congress
purports to advance economic opportunity and make government more
accountable and responsible to the people. After learning about the
details of the Contract, we question the sincerity of these goals. In
recent weeks we have heard about proposals which would:

+ deny many young people the opportunity to attend college
+ punish the poorest people for their economic status
+ undo decades of efforts to reduce racism and other forms of
discrimination, and
+ allow big business to evade social and environmental responsibility.

Congressional forces who won the last election claim to be acting on
these measures IN OUR NAME.

However, this slim electoral victory is no automatic mandate to enact
mean-spirited laws that were disguised during the election campaign.

We must make it clear that if these measures are enacted, it will be
WITHOUT OUR CONSENT.

A Contract we never signed is not a Contract with America; it is a
Contract *ON* America.

We, the undersigned, therefore call for a National Day of Campus Action
Against the "Contract With America" on March 29, 1995.

We call for students, faculty, and staff organize forums, rallies,
pickets, teach-ins, direct action or other activities on March 29 to
educate their campuses and communities, and to build resistance to the
reactionary agenda of social inequality and environmental disregard
proposed in the Contract.


II. Call for Solidarity

Communities across the country are now mobilizing to stop portions of
the Contract which would eliminate popular government programs and
protections.

While local actions may focus on one or two key issues, we are also
acting on March 29 to show solidarity with people resisting other parts
of the Contract, including those working to:

1. Save student aid and increase funding for education: Newt Gingrich
has said that Pell Grants insult students by insinuating that they are
too lazy to pay for their college education (Boston Globe, 2/3/94, p.
21). It is estimated that proposed cuts would affect 6 million students
and shove as many as 2 million students out of higher education. The
Alliance to Save Student Aid (including US Student Association), Student
Aid Action of Antioch College, and the National Association of Graduate
and Professional Students are building resistance to these measures, and
there is a new email discussion focusing on this threat to Education
Rights (send email to canet@pencil.cs.missouri.edu, body "sub can-er
firstname lastname"). We call for March 29 actions to save our
education.

2. Preserve pro-environmental regulations: The fine print in the "Job
Creation and Wage Enhancement Act" will gut environmental protections.
In response, the Public Interest Research Groups are holding an
emergency "Free the Planet" conference from February 24-26 at University
of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. On March 29, speak out for the
environment.

3. Protect and extend women's rights: The fine print in the "Taking
Back our Streets Act" would repeal the Violence Against Women Act, and
while the Contract With America sought to avoid mentioning the divisive
abortion issue, Republicans attempted to take funding for the defense of
abortion clinics out of the proposed Crime Bill. The National
Organization for Women and other women's groups are moving to stop this
legislation with a National March on Washington on April 9, 1995. On
March 29, rally on your campus for women's rights.

4. Defend the rights of poor people and end poverty: The "Personal
Responsibility Act" would impose punitive government restrictions on
poor women and their children, as well as recipients of any form of
government assistance, by freezing additional benefits for children born
on welfare or to mothers under 18, and reducing benefits if paternity
is not established. National coalition building by welfare and Civil
Rights groups, such as the National Welfare Rights Union, is the leading
edge of the resistance to these measures. We call for March 29 actions
to stop the attack on welfare mothers, their children, and America's
poor.

5. Prevent the scapegoating of immigrants: Proposition 187 in
California has already cut off thousands of immigrants from basic
survival measures. Proposals contained in the fine print of the
"Personal Responsibility Act" would also deny government benefits to
"documented" immigrants. An anti-187 movement with participation from
hundreds of campuses has sprung up, with coordination coming from the
Four Winds Student Movement centered in California and the Swarthmore
Coalition Against Xenophobia in Pennsylvania. Hundreds of students are
communicating about this organizing. (send email to
listserv@csma.berkeley.edu, body "sub 187-l firstname lastname") On
March 29, rally against growing racism and nativism.

6. Resist the attacks on gays, lesbians, and bisexuals: Although the
Right has attempted to tone down its antigay rhetoric during the first
100 days of Republican power in Congress, there is no denying the use of
bigotry by those who stand behind the Contract With America. Many
candidates who signed the Contract circulated anti-gay videos as part of
their campaign, supported anti-gay referenda in places like Colorado and
Oregon, and advocated stiff criminal penalties for "homosexual
behavior." The National Gay and Lesbian Task force is organizing to
challenge these attacks. On March 29, expose the Right's anti-gay
agenda.

III. The Time to Act is Now

We must begin immediately to organize and mobilize in our campuses and
our communities to build opposition to the right's agenda. The CCO has
prepared a detailed organizing packet for more detailed suggestions and
information on this National Day of Campus Action Against the Contract
With America.

Joining with others acting simultaneously to resist the Contract will
increase national visibility and strengthen our movement of opposition.
For schools who cannot act March 29, we are calling for action on March
23. City University of New York, Harvard, MIT, Brown and Univ. of
Hawaii plan to act on this date.

We advocate a long-term perspective. Because the Right is well-
organized to even use a defeat of the Contract to its advantage on the
election, it will be necessary for us to do more than try to stop
specific bills from passing. It will be necessary to use this debate to
inform the public about the anti-democratic nature of the Right's
agenda, and about the alliance between big business and fundamentalist
religious groups working to seize political power.

If your group chooses to participate in this action, please return the
endorsement form below to CCO by email or regular mail.

As the initiator of this call, the Center for Campus Organizing's
University Conversion Project will play a facilitative role to promote
local organizing. We will encourage regional meetings on the March 29
day of action at all regional and local conferences in the next 35
days. A followup meeting to strategize future organizing efforts will
be held on Sunday, April 9, before the NOW march, location TBA.

Our latest organizing packet will be obtainable by sending email to
the address cwa@pencil.cs.missouri.edu. All decisions about local
events or regional coordination are left up to individual campuses.
All we ask is that you inform CCO of your plans at least one week in
advance, so that we can alert national media and other schools.

The real action depends on YOU!

-------------------- please return to ucp@igc.apc.org -------------------
ENDORSEMENT OF MARCH 29 DAY OF CAMPUS ACTION
AGAINST CONTRACT ON AMERICA

Name of Group:___________________________________ Nat'l or local?_______

Contact Person:_______________________ Student, faculty, staff?__________

School:____________________________ Tel.________________________________

Issue Focus: ___Student Aid ___Women's Rights ___Civil Rights
___Immigrant Rights ___Environmental ___Gay/Les/Bi ___Anti-Poverty
___Coalition of all of the above ____Multi-issue Group ____Other:

OK to list your group's name with 20 or more other groups (Y/N)?__________

Please provide your us-mail address if you want to be on the mailing
list for flyers or organizing packets:

Feel free to provide action suggestions or comments here: