ASM's Past

This is a really insightful article written back in 1999 (ASM's heyday) by Ben Manski, a leftist student leader at the time who is still very active here in Madison.

http://www.zmag.org/zmag/viewArticle/13329

This is a passage about ASM and its role in progressive activism that culminated in two sit-ins for student empowerment and against sweatshop labor in 1999 and 2000:

"The Associated Students of Madison is the campus student association, representing the 37,000+ students of UW-Madison. ASM is a rank and file organization in the sense that every student is a member, and that all ASM campaigns and most committees are open to all students. ASM is led by an elected 33-person council, which sets policy and priorities for the organization, and allocates millions of dollars to student organizations and services. In 1998, the radical UNITY! slate won 16 of 33 seats on the Council. The new ASM leadership established the ASM Social Responsibility Campaign, which among other things, took a lead on the sweatshop issue.

ASM, as the campus student association, is unquestionably the most broad-based student organization at UW-Madison; it also has the largest number of members not only on paper, but also in terms of active members. The involvement of ASM leadership in the occupation meant that many students took part in the occupation that had never participated in direct action before. It also meant that the occupation had greater credibility with the Administration and the media as being an action that students in general supported.

ASM resources proved essential in ensuring the success of the occupation. Tools such as quality walkie-talkies, portable computers, cell phones, and megaphones were all readily available due to ASM involvement; the ASM offices and ASM staff organizers, along with the UW Greens Infoshop, served as the main base of support work for phone banking, web and email updates, media work, and so on.

ASM elections provided a forum for students to ratify or reject the goals of the occupation by referenda. Students generally showed their support for the goals of the occupation in the February 23-25 elections by passing the anti-sweatshop referenda with over 76 percent of the vote."

The fact is is indisputable: ASM was once a hardcore, effective grassroots organization. Founded by campus radicals back in 1994, the organization was designed to run political campaigns, which it did quite successfully on a number of issues (as outlined in the article above). It was the focal point for political action on campus in a way that is almost incomprehensible less than a decade later. Its many achievements include affirmative action advocacy, divestment from Burma, groundbreaking anti-sweatshop work and even a tuition freeze.

Hell, ASM even forced a Chancellor to resign. The 2000 sit-in featured 55 students, including the ASM Chair and Vice Chair, who chain-locked themselves to the Chancellor's office demanding sweatshop-free apparel and increased student control over the university's operations. (As Manski writes above, the sit-in and preceding movement were led and organized by ASM's Social Responsibility Campaign.) The riot police were called in and mass arrests were made amidst a large student protest. The student and local community loudly and actively opposed the Chancellor's actions, forcing his resignation soon thereafter. Before stepping down he committed UW to joining the Workers Rights Consortium, making it one of the boldest advances against sweatshop labor taken by any major American university at the time.

Aside from its structure, what made ASM a success at the time were the people who occupied its positions. For several years, the campus radicals - CAN, SPD, MCSC types - controlled a majority of the seats on the Student Council. The UNITY slate was the banner under which they operated.

As radical involvement declined in ASM, so too did the organization's effectiveness. As moderate students came to control the organization and made attempts to "govern" when not studying for their Poli Sci classes, ASM degenerated into the do-nothing body that we know today. Perhaps the last gasp of radical energy in ASM was the unsuccessful hunger strike for lower tuition in 2005. This was also the last year that progressive students ran a slate of candidates for the Student Council. Since then, the activist-progressive crowd has operated almost completely independently of ASM, to the detriment of both groups.

Since the Student Council has given up on what it was designed to do, it has become a joke - and now, conservative forces have found their opening. What we are currently witnessing with the new Constitution is really just the culmination of a multi-year conservative backlash - as symbolized by the recent logo change. If the other side gets their way, ASM will never again be the principal channel for campus activism.

For those who feel differently and want to return ASM to its roots, defeating the Constitution is a first and imperative step. I will join ASM members in congratulating the Constitutional Committee in rekindling interest in our student government. For the first time since I've been on campus, the left is actually taking an interest in ASM, operating as an organized force to change it for the better. Regardless of the result of next week's elections, the growing and energized campus left will be a force in ASM come this year, the next, and into the future.