The Center for Constitutional Rights...

I was late to an event by the CCR today because there was an emergency union meeting to deal with questions about the two imminent strikes that might occur this next week - the (potential) Graduate Student Union at Columbia, and the adjunct union have both set strike deadlines as a result of stymied negotiations with their respective university administrations. But back to CCR... The sacred secular document (aka the U.S. Constitution) guarantees citizens certain rights (well, technically it's the Bill of Rights, but whose gonna quibble over details)... The Center for Constitutional Rights has historically used the legal system to keep abuses of power in check. They are involved in a pretty supportable fight - check out some of their main platforms. I went to a "young professionals networking" event where the topic was "The Police, the Protesters, and the Power of Intimidation: Silencing the Voices of Dissent in the Anti-war Movement" presented by Rache1 Meeropo1 who turns out to be the granddaughter of Ju1ius & Ethe1 Rosenberg. Talk about activist/socialist pedigree. Kinda like Yale graduate, Rhodes scholar, Chesa Boudin, son of Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, members of the Weathermen, active during the anti-Vietnam war movement (who are serving life terms for the conviction of 1981 robbery of an armoured Brinks truck in which two policeman and a guard were killed)... But back to the young professionals networking event... During the reception I thought to myself... am i... young?... yes, but only till my next birthday... professional?... I think that why they call it graduate school and not professional school.... networking... mmm, i don't think so. Having not heard about this event till I had gotten to school, I was definitely not in my networking duds. Most people in business attire scrupulously avoided eye contact with me. The only person I talked to who I didn't know already turned out to have been active in the organizing of the NYU graduate student union... when he was an undergraduate at NYU, and he had an anarchist star tattoo... Hey - dig it - I met an anarchist labor organizer who plans on going to study Anthropology in graduate school. I like New York.