SLAM Distributes Strike Pamphlets Across Undergraduate Dorms

The Harvard Student Labor Action Movement delivered nearly 1,000 pamphlets to undergraduate dorms Monday night, aiming to inform students about ongoing labor organizing on campus and encourage support for the graduate student strike.

The pamphlet outlines the demands of the Harvard Graduate Students Union-United Auto Workers. It also includes a brief history of student labor organizing at Harvard and an overview of the unions currently active on campus.

Olivia G. Pasquerella ’26, a SLAM organizer and Crimson Magazine editor, said the group created the pamphlet to address what they see as a lack of awareness among undergraduates.

“We want undergraduates to be as educated as possible about why HGSU was on strike,” Pasquerella said. “In particular because we’re acutely aware that without this information, I think Harvard will try to spin a very different narrative.”

One page, titled “DON’T CROSS THE PICKET LINE!”, urges students to avoid attending classes held on campus during the strike and to support alternative arrangements.

“You should ask your professors to move class off campus or onto Zoom (ask them to meet in a park, a cafe, or even near the picket),” the pamphlet read.

The pamphlet also encourages students to push back against professors or non-union staff taking on work typically performed by student workers.

“This is called scabbing!” the pamphlet continued. “No one wants to pick a scab.”

The final page provides resources for students interested in supporting the strike, including QR codes linking to email templates and a petition backing union members. It also encourages undergraduates to join graduate students on the picket line.

Pasquerella said they have already observed significant undergraduate engagement with the strike.

“I’ve been surprised, honestly, by the extent to which people really connect with the strike and care about it — people who are in organizing spaces and outside of them,” they said.