Appleton SDS

BE SURE TO COME OUT & DEMAND JUSTICE!

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of bell hooks (1952 -2021). bell hooks was an amazing writer, revolutionary thinker, activist, and feminist. Her contributions to Black feminism, conversations regarding love, and methods of resistance to our white supremacist patriarchal society are extremely thought provoking and essential in laying the groundwork that we build upon today. She purposefully chose to not capitalize her name to emphasize the substance of her texts and ideas rather than her persona/ personal qualities. bell hooks’ understanding and teachings on love are so transformative. We recommend everyone reads some of her books, articles, and watches her interviews!

Thank you, hooks, for all the work you have done and the powerful seeds you have planted in all of us around the world. Rest in Power and Peace bell hooks

❗️Join Appleton SDS and Sunrise Fox Valley in front of Warch Campus Center for the Fight For 15 Rally this upcoming Friday (November 12th) at 5:30pm❗️

It is undeniable that student workers are essential in ensuring that our campus operates smoothly. Appleton SDS wants to emphasize the importance of working with our peers. To unify and mobilize our student body towards creating an equitable and sustainable Lawrence campus is extremely powerful. We urge Lawrentians to actively engage and build connections with members of both the Lawrence and Appleton community. How can we work to create an interdependent support network of students? How can we unify in ways that will improve the lives of those in our community? The issues impacting our classmates, roommates, and friends are concerns that also impact the self; their wellbeing, safety, and liberation is also our own well-being, safety, and liberation. As a collective working class, those who exploit our labor will never be scrutinized if we continue to remain divide amongst ourselves. If we stay on the sidelines, passively wishing for a change, none of our circumstances will improve. If we dare to struggle, we dare to win!

Support our organizing by reposting our content on social media, signing our petition for raising the minimum wage, engaging in conversations about wages with your co-workers, and attending the Fight for 15 rally this Friday!!!

Hello, everyone! Please sign this petition to express your support for our "Fight for $15" campaign!

Fight for $15 at Lawrence We appreciate your support of the campaign

Our organization would like to thank everyone who attended the "Fight for $15" rally yesterday! Together, we will ensure that a living wage is brought to Lawrence University. Wealth redistribution at this institution is feasible—even though our administrators make it appear impossible! Appleton SDS, Sunrise Fox Valley and student workers will continue to organize and actualize the demands of this campaign!

If you dare to struggle, you dare to win!

Photo Credits: Adam Fleischer

JOIN APPLETON SDS AND SUNRISE FOX VALLEY ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 25TH AT 5 P.M. TO FIGHT FOR A LIVING WAGE ON CAMPUS!

IF YOU DARE TO STRUGGLE, YOU DARE TO WIN!

THE FIGHT FOR $15 CAMPAIGN: During Spring Term of 2021, a coalition of international students unified to demand for a $15 student minimum wage on campus. Their grievances delineated the discrepancy between the cost of living at Lawrence University and the low wages provided by this institution, while simultaneously highlighting international students’ inability to work off-campus (due to visa stipulations). Due to these initial grievances, more of the student body including Appleton SDS and Sunrise Fox Valley members also spoke out about the campus wages sparking the “Fight for $15” —a campaign to raise the student-worker minimum wage to $15 an hour. It is unethical for Lawrence University to continue to undercompensate its student-workers with an unlivable, $7.25 wage. Student-workers provide this institution with indispensable forms of labor—from working at the front desk, to giving prospective students tours of our campus. It is self-evident that our labor power is essential to the functioning of this university. Knowing this, the Lawrence administration must begin to fairly redistribute much of the revenue it siphons off of its student body. The MIT calculator in Appleton denotes that the minimal, living wage within this area is $13.93 per hour at 40 hours/week. If students were paid this amount—which would still not cover the total costs at Lawrence—they would earn roughly $3 million in annual revenue. However, since the majority of us are given a $7.25 wage, our total earnings amount to only $1.6 million, meaning that the Lawrence administration is profiteering a difference of roughly $1.5 million from the poverty wages they impose upon us. We have mentioned this $13 wage to solely demonstrate how absurd and inhumane a $7.25 rate of compensation is. When taking into account the desired $15 wage, however, we must realize that Lawrence is actually pocketing roughly $1,7 million—an estimated $230,000 increase from the aforementioned $1.6 million. In essence, we want to emphasize that student workers at Lawrence University are not being paid the true value of their labor. We are being actively exploited by the administration. Although many reactionaries will contend that students should simply work off-campus to earn a living wage, one must consider two points: (1) downtown Appleton is unsafe for those of us with marginalized identities, and (2), off-campus employment is difficult to attain for those with accessibility needs.
It is also important to acknowledge that much of the financial information provided above was difficult to attain. This is a deliberate measure on the part of our university. Lawrence administrators want to prevent student workers from organizing and gaining class consciousness. It is time for us to rise up and fight back to take what we deserve. We have nothing to lose but our chains; we have a university to win.

Caption written by: Terrence Freeman, Gustavo Zuniga, Audari Tamayo

!!! Happy Indigenous People’s Day !!!

Today is a day of celebration of the many cultures, languages, individuals, dances, prayers, spiritualities, languages, and traditions that make up the Indigenous community. Today we honor the sovereignty of Indigenous lives while simultaneously honoring the resilience of the Native American ancestors who came before us.

Appleton SDS denounces Christopher Columbus and the blatant white washing of American history taught by our education system. We denounce the colonialism and the forced assimilation, humiliation, objectification, and horrific genocide of Indigenous peoples.

We all need to support, acknowledge, honor, and uplift the voices of Native American people every day. Fellow Lawrentians and overall Appleton Community, please remember throughout your day to day lives that we are on the sovereign, ancestral homelands of the Menominee and Ho-Chunk people. Remember that The Land Back Movement is our concern, The Murdered and Missing Women Movement is our concern, and the lack of accessibility to education and healthcare, poor quality housing, etc that impact many Indigenous individuals throughout the U.S. and Canada are issues we need to advocate for. Remember that environmental racism and climate activism spheres should always uplift the voice of Native American activists, incorporate Indigenous wisdoms, acknowledge land sovereignty, and work directly with communities to support what the community states they need.

Appleton SDS also wants to highlight and thank the important work being done by LUNA (Lawrence University Native American Organization)! We urge Lawrentians to be more involved with LUNA.

Hi beautiful people! Today we will be having our first meeting of the term with our returning members as well as new members of Appleton Students for a Democratic Society. Join us this evening (Sept 20th) at Diversity Center at 6pm if you are interested in learning more about the work we do in this organization. We are so excited to see you there!