What Refusal can we take up?
Refusal resonates with everyone. This video of Notre Dame's undergraduates accompanying Rungren on "I Dont Want to Work" illustrates how refusal resonates with everyone and across generations . Todd Rungren describes I Don’t Want to Work as " the most lucrative song I have ever written."
explaining how ". . it got adopted by a lot of sports fans… then it got picked up for various commercials and movie promo— things like that. And then Carnival Cruise decided they wanted it to be their entire identity. For several years, they were paying me ridiculous money to use it. And then they started sinking a lot of ships. So they decided they should change their image *laughs*… I don’t make as much money currently off of it as I used to, but it’s available *laughs*…But, I like to say it was some kind of cosmic gift I was given(Nolasco, 2019).
A cosmic gift indeed, from Bartleby on down through the years to rundgren can we learn how to say "No":
I prefer not to take you up on your offer to expand my duties.
I prefer not to be the beneficiary of others' largess if the strings are too tight.
I can fully occupy my role, my space, my destiny.
Refusal to work “more than” We can refuse to work more than the other person paid more to do our same job ?
Refusal to send our people to work (or go ourselves) without PPE during a pandemic?
When's it time to say: "No PPE? I'm not coming in to work/I'm not working around [these co-workers, that patron] "
Refusal to be last in surveillance or diagnostic testing or simply not included at all ?
We can say: "Re-opening/Staying open without COVID-19 testing? I'm not coming in to work "
Refusal to work harder for less advancement opportunities? Innovation vs maintenance in valuing contribution (another form of canon vs curator?)
Refusal to to work without credit?
Refusal to work without copyright? (UC’s recent announcement) Equity, hierarchies of staff, fac, admin early/late career?
Strike as the ultimate form of organized collective refusal?
Carrie Smith. 2018. “Unions 101: What Library Unions Do—and Don’t Do—for Workers.” American Libraries Magazine (blog). November 1, 2018. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2018/11/01/library-unions-101/.
Nolasco, Stephanie. 2019. “Todd Rundgren Explains Why He’s Never Taken the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Seriously.” Text.Article. Fox News. Fox News. December 13, 2019. https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/todd-rundgren-rock-roll-hall-of-fame.
