The Martlet

Whether it’s shouting bomb threats from a downtown roof top, paying tuition in petty change or scrawling graffiti on the walls of the SUB, it seems like an awful lot of people have something to say, and they’re saying it loudly.

There are many ways to get your voice heard. Holding rallies and marches has always been a popular option. Expressing your opinion in writing, perhaps in a newspaper, is another. Writing letters to people in authority works nicely, as does starting a petition.

Then there’s the other side of activism — violence, intimidation tactics, sensationalism. For every peaceful protest, there’s a Molotov cocktail being lobbed into the air. For every carefully scripted letter, there’s a hastily sprayed graffiti message. But who gets the attention?

For the last few weeks, José Barrios has been collecting signatures in an attempt to remove the elected UVSS Board of Directors. Having spent hours of his own time collecting over 500 names for his petition, he presented this petition to a special board meeting last week, and was told it would not be considered.

Barrios tried to put forward his thoughts through activism by doing things the “right” way and attempting to follow all the rules. Yet he was ultimately unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, the people too cowardly to openly stand up for what they want decided to scrawl their thoughts on the SUB walls, in loud red spray paint. “Closed” was sprayed across the Cinecenta sign, while “Resign Now!” was written on the UVSS’ door. “Pay Our Wage, Open The Damn Bar!!” was sprayed on the brick wall outside Felicita’s.

(Sure, everyone has to vent their anger, but did these vandals really think that UVSS chair Caitlin Meggs, upon looking out her office window, would see the message and say: “Hey, good point — I never thought of it that way”?)

It hardly seems fair that Barrios, who went about his protest peacefully, doesn’t make any headway while people who will never come forward get all the recognition for putting dead fish in the SUB. How did it come to this?

It could be that the “right” way of participating in activism doesn’t get taken seriously because it’s easier to ignore. Peaceful protests, petitions and letters-to-the-editors aren’t likely to make people cry. Sometimes they even get laughed at. They’re still within the status quo. They’re still measurable. They’re still predictable. They’re still safe. And because of that, they don’t push the established boundaries of incremental change.

Violent acts of protest make louder statements than petitions, because they aren’t playing by the rules. Unpredictability shakes things up. It demands attention. It demands change. The problem is, it also undermines the purpose.

Pointed activism against any group easily makes witnesses infer that the violence is coming from the opposing side. But the problem with random acts of vandalism is that there’s no way to tell for sure which group laid down the mess to make the other look bad — so everyone looks like a bunch of grade schoolers throwing sand at each other over the play box. 

And while people are left confused, scared or unjustly blamed, the true perpitrators walk away with a chip of fame. Is there anything good that could come out of destructive (not to mention costly) vandalism?

Both the union and the UVSS are just students doing their best to get their points across. None of them are evil, and none of them are out to screw each other over. This labour dispute is a complicated and multi-faceted issue, with no easy fix. But sticking glue in locks, spray painting walls and taking dumps on the toilet dispensers in the SUB bathroom is doing absolutely nothing to resolve the issue.

Everyone’s annoyed by the strike, everyone’s eagerly awaiting Felicita’s re-opening, but let’s work together here. Maybe if we took the time to pay attention to the people who are doing things “right,” those who are doing things peacefully and legally, things might progress before people vent their frustration through feces.