------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 17, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- TENT CITY: SOLIDARITY NEVER SLEEPS By Leslie Feinberg Tent City, Harvard Yard Cambridge, Mass. [Day 17 of the occupation] It's a solidarity squat. A militant bivouac. A bustling Tent City surrounded on all sides by towering brick edifices of power and old money. When students took over Massachusetts Hall in Harvard Yard to demand a living wage for Harvard's lowest-paid workers, 10 tents sprouted like mushrooms in support. Today more than 80 colorful tents, large and small, are pitched all over Harvard Yard. The lawn is divided into geometric shapes by walkways. Thousands of protest leaflets hang from virtually every inch of low twine fences that border each patch of lawn. Pink chalk identifies the asphalt paths as Avenida Justicia, Fairness Street, Unity Blvd., Public Alley 1025. The tents are numbered, creating neighborhoods with street addresses. Huge protest banners hang between trees, blowing in the breeze. The nearby imposing buildings are plastered with support posters. Its inhabitants and visitors are from many nationalities and countries. They wear sandals, sneakers, lace-ups and heels-- or go barefoot. Length of hair ranges from shaved heads to long dreadlocks and braids in every color from hard-earned gray to rainbow hues. Needs have shifted from extra blankets to sun block. Today the temperature is an unseasonable 90 degrees. Seminars are being taught in circles on the grass. Other students form circles outside the occupied administration building to consult with protesters hanging out Mass Hall windows. Something new is being birthed here. It's a 24-hour-a-day demonstration that never goes home. It's a round-table discussion around the clock. Sometimes those in front of the building grow from dozens to hundreds. Earlier this week the lunchtime crowd swelled to almost 1,800 to hear AFL-CIO leaders back the student occupation. Periodically everyone draws together for a rally or a march. The sounds of congas, poetry, story-telling, folk songs, rap and salsa fill the yard. The jingling and beeping of cell phones can be heard in every direction. Food donated by individuals, groups and unions is always available and plentiful. "Please help us eat the donated food," reads a hand-made sign. "Even Harvard students can't eat it all." THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS At dusk people light candles and draw closer to the protesters leaning out the windows of the occupied building. The evening vigil summarizes the day's events. An organizer reminds the crowd: "Poverty on this campus is an eyesore, just like this Tent City." Voices instantly rise in disagreement: "Tent City is beautiful!" Wordsmiths, poets, musicians, storytellers have been urged to "Come reveille trumpeting and jerk the world-weary from their slumber." One poet reminds those gathered that today is the 31st anniversary of the killing of four Kent State student protesters by the Ohio National Guard. The 1970 firing on students at Kent and at Jackson State University in Mississippi were attempts to silence the anti-war movement at its peak. The moon is rising and street lamps are lit. To limit support, cops lock the entrance gates to the yard, check student identification and allow each person only one "guest." Crowds still mill about the yard in animated political discussion. Tent City has lasted so long it has a new "mayor" who assigns tents and keeps track of residents. Tent City never sleeps, and neither do many of its inhabitants. Debate, laughter and music fill the night hours. A student road crew makes "municipal repairs" to a giant banner that was drooping between trees. Every 20 minutes students with flashlights patrol the neighborhood to discourage anyone who might harass the encampment. One hostile student shouts during the night, "If this is a serious protest, why aren't you sleeping on the ground?" He is answered from a nearby tent, "You think we've got Sealy Posture-Pedic mattresses in here?" At dawn a brief cold rain sends people scrambling for shelter. But after a short lull, activity resumes. Day 18 of the occupation begins. Tent City is the living proof of a pink-scrawled message on Avenida Justicia that the rain hasn't quite washed away: "Solidarity is not a word, but an action." - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. 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