Campus Filibuster 101

Princeton students are filibustering Senator Frist. Find out how you can “Fristabust” with them.

By Karen Wolfgang and Asheesh Siddique, Princeton Progressive Review

Check out the live Fristabuster webcam and watch Asheesh on “Hardball.”

Majority Leader Bill Frist and right-wing Republicans in the Senate are trying to trample on 200 years of American tradition by threatening to eliminate the right of Democrats to filibuster President Bush’s nominees to the federal courts. The filibuster ensures that Senators make the most careful and thoughtful decisions possible in deciding which nominees make it onto the courts. Here at CampusProgress.org, we already know that judicial nominations matter – on important issues, from civil rights to environmental protection, the judiciary will have a decisive impact on what America will look like forty years from now. The President’s nominees have records of deep hostility to many of the great advances progressives have achieved through law- from protecting workers’ rights to ensuring that women have control over their own bodies. Princeton University students are currently staging their own filibuster of Bill Frist’s Campus Center in support of Senate Democrats. Let’s make this a national phenomenon. Here’s how to stage your own filibuster.

1. Get together an interested core group. Reach out to progressive groups, activist groups, community service groups and the like. Pinning down sponsorship is an important way to create broad-based support. Get faculty support, if at all possible, it conveys extra legitimacy. Email progressive professors and offer to give them prime-time speaking spots.

2. Find your Frist Campus Center. Stage your filibuster in the most visible and heavily-trafficked area on campus. It’s nice if the Senate Majority Leader’s family sponsored the building you are filibustering in front of, but you know what? That doesn’t really matter. The key is to be in a place where you will be seen and heard; the symbolic impact is extra!

3. Get the facts on the filibuster down pat. Your filibuster will be that much better if all of the participants understand what the filibuster is, basic facts about the nominees being filibustered, and the status of the Senate debate over the filibuster. Campus Progress’ Campus Debate Crib Sheet: The Filibuster is a great resource to start with.

4. Get in touch with the proper authorities and administrators and obtain permission to be where you’re going to be (this was necessary for us, but may or may not be on your campus). Know the rules about protests on your campus- you’re campaigning to try to get law enforced fairly and judiciously, so don’t break any in the process.

5. Make multiple copies of your “permission slip.” Keep several copies of this paperwork at the filibuster site, and make sure all of the organizers have one. The campus police, for example, may ask to see this.

6. Sign people up to man the filibuster station at all times. You should have at least one organizer on site throughout shifts. Be sure to keep emergency contact information with the numbers of all the organizers handy, along with the campus safety hotline in case of emergency. Create a calendar so students and faculty can sign up for dates and time slots to read. Take down names, email addresses, and phone numbers. Don’t worry too much about recruiting: slots will fill up fast once people figure out what’s going on.

7. Make signs and a concise, purpose statement script of 500 words. (REMINDER: “We are here today because . . . “) to have on the podium for each filibuster-ee to read at regular intervals, so that passers-by know what you’re up to.

8. Hunker down. You’ll need a megaphone with plenty of extra batteries. Duct tape very important! You really never know when you will need it. Have chairs for the organizers and support/audience. Have food, a steady source of caffeine, and WATER. Have rain/wind contingency supplies. Have a box of books and other reading materials for readers who come empty handed. And have a place for the important information you might need in a pinch—it’s worth investing in a little black box.

9. Get attention. Once the protest is off the ground, let the media know. Contact both local and national press with a one-page press release. Have an organizer blog about your protest at CampusProgress.org and encourage other participants to give testimony. If you have the technological know-how, provide streaming video coverage on your website. You can continue to distribute press releases every time something interesting happens. A great way to generate additional interest is to invite interesting guest readers – local politicians, popular professors, authors, and so on.

10. Divide responsibilities. Depending on how long you want to keep this project up, it takes a lot of work. Divide it up. It should quickly become clear who is good at what. You should have different point people for: volunteer coordination, media, logistics, etcetera. Make sure it’s clear who is the point person for everything that might go wrong—or RIGHT. (And it WILL go right. Trust us.)

11. Last but not least. This is an amazing way to bring the campus progressive community together. It starts to feel like a giant party, or a family gathering, or…well, like something you can’t quite put your finger on. A network. A cause. A source of HOPE. There is nothing like it.

Be flexible and have fun. This will be an amazing experience. Let it be what it is, and let us know if we can do anything to help you. We’d be glad to tell you what we can about what worked for us and help think about what might work for you!

Tell us what to read at a campus filibuster! Check out the Campus Progress Blog and share ideas! And be sure to read the rest of our package on protecting the filibuster with our Campus Debate Crib Sheet and 5 Filibusters Conservatives Wish You Would Forget!

Illustration: Matt Bors