Students at SUNY Purchase hear the legend of South African divestment

Some core leaders of Raise the Consciousness at SUNY Purchase. Students there are as creative and freaky as ever — in fact more than I remembner. About 80 of them were arrested by four police agencies the same night as New Paltz. Photo by Eric.

Here is the story as told by Jane McAlevey herself on Democracy Now (second video player down). Knowing and working with Jane were formative experiences for me.

Jane is someone I think about every day, who influenced me deeply when I knew her, when I was a university student and we were both about 19-years-old. I modeled much of my leadership style on hers (though she’s a tad more competitive, as you will hear, and she needs to be in her line of work — unionization).

When she says “Student Union,” she means the Student Association of the State University (SASU). These articles, from my own publication, Student Leader News Service, will give you pretty good idea what SASU was.

Generation cover from Oct. 1, 1985.