Funferal

Talking at the GEO rally

It has been some time since I’ve made a political speech, and somehow I’d missed the challenge. Academic presentations are such a different environment, where even as you are working to persuade your audience of your argument, you must feign objectivity, neutrality. It’s possible to work towards a climax, to enthuse your audience and carry them with you towards your conclusion, but generally such presentations lack the energy of a rally or political debate, and are more measured in tone. In teaching too, while you can build an energy and momentum in the students, there’s also – at least as I practice it – a constant vigilance to stop the student momentum ending up as a runaway train, encouraging the class, instead, to be self-aware, to analyze their presumptions and claims.
In a rally, in contrast, your aim is to bring the crowd with you, to channel their energy. Given that the crowd is usually sympathetic – they’ve gathered to support the cause you’re going to address – the challenges are different, and there is perhaps less risk attached than in other contexts.
Which is not to say it’s easy. Every time I speak in a different format – tiered lecture hall, classroom, from a stage, behind a podium – the change in setting brings out extra tension, manifesting in shaking hands or a tremor in my voice. Practice helps, of course, but there’s always a first time. Indeed, although I’d spoken at party conferences and at inter-party debates in college, I had never previously addressed an actual rally.
And so, I was anxious to take the opportunity to speak to the GEO rally on Friday, while also being nervous as to how I might succeed. I had an advantage, of course, in that I was speaking at the tail-end of a successful event, where we’d tried some new – and very fun – strategies. My talk was actually set in the ‘intermission’ between two-halves of a skit by two clowns, one on stilts, so while I wasn’t the most colourful performer, I did have a receptive crowd. Earlier we’d had local folk-singer Paul Kotheimer perform a number of songs, and a small ‘circus band’ followed him.
I don’t have a lot of training in writing speeches, so my drafting style isn’t incredibly sophisticated, though there are a number of rules I tried to follow. The number 3 resonates well in English, so I often try to set statements in triplets. It’s important to have an ebb and flow in a piece – you don’t want to have everything at the same (angry) pitch. And a strong close is a must – people must know when to start chanting/cheering, etc. I suppose in a way, it’s like being a dance lead – you should get to the stage where just the slightest of signs indicates to your partner (the audience) what’s happening, and what’s expected of them next.
On a similar note, one thing I realized consciously while delivering the piece is that you have to, of course, leave space for audience response and interaction – there’s an anecdote by Fergus Finlay about not leaving enough time for this in the first speech he wrote for Dick Spring, and having to edit the speech down on the fly, as it was being rolled onto the teleprompter. I think I’d put in pauses sub-consciously in drafting, but it’s important to be conscious about this part too.
At the event, I was using a bullhorn, which was a new experience for me – I might have been somewhat more comfortable talking without amplification, but I’d started with the horn before I realized that, so just continued with it.
The content of the speech is below the break.

We’re gathered here today to call on the University to engage seriously with us at the bargaining table
We’re gathered here today to remind the University that we care about decent healthcare and fair wages
We’re gathered here today to tell the University to stop clowning around!
The motto of this university is Learning and Labor. As graduate employees we are situated at the nexus of the Land Grant project. We teach 30% of undergrad classes on this campus. We engage in research and analysis. We engage seriously, on a day to day basis, with the claims of the public education system, the public trust that brings this institution into being and that continues to sustain and legitimate its core mission.
The university administration, on the other hand, like to talk about RESPECT, but without any willingness to reflect that in their dealings with us. They like to talk about their RIGHTS as employers, but refuse to acknowledge their RESPONSIBILITIES to us, their employees. They claim to care about health and safety on this campus – but refuse to guarantee appropriate training to graduate employees, because their RESPECT, their CARING, must not interfere with their RIGHT to do – or not do – whatever the hell they want.
As union members, we not only fight for fair wages for ourselves, but we work in solidarity to improve the lives of all graduate employees, and to hold the administration to the public trust. We fight for our members with families, who must choose which family member to leave without health insurance. We fight for wages that will pay for day care, for proper healthcare, and for a decent standard of living. We fight for each other, and stand together in our common struggle.
I’m proud to be a member of the GEO, and to stand with you today. The administration has frozen our wages, and then refused to bring forward proper proposals on this most basic of items in our negotiations. We gather to tell them – act responsibly; live up to your duties; and BARGAIN FAIRLY.