Eggplant and Politics
by Donna Gabaccia
May 7, 2020
Some time in early 1975, forty University of Michigan teaching and research assistants picketed outside a physical plant building. They were on strike to demand the University negotiate a first contract with their union. That morning the students planned to provoke police into arresting them as they slowed traffic and distributed leaflets to unionized building trades workers. Hustled into police wagons, the students sang the “Internationale” and “Solidarity Forever” as they rode to the Washtenaw County Courthouse.
I was one of those picketers. I was arrested. And that is all I remembered of that day until 2020 -- when an old box of recipes opened a door to the past: Marcel Proust had his madeline; I had eggplant parm.
You may have seen those metal, cardboard, or wooden boxes into which home cooks once squeezed their raggedy recipe collections? I still have one. I kept it long after I stopped consulting its outdated contents. Now I faced late-life decisions: Keep it ? Throw it away? Convince my son to take yet another “family heirloom”?
As a food historian, I know collections always reflect their times (in this case, the 1960s-1980s) and the concerns of their collectors. My recipe box held remnants of many culinary influences. There were recipes from my early organic gardening and hippie days (lentil loaf, “Zookini casserole,” directions for raising “sprouts” and fermenting cabbage and bean curd). I could also see an earlier generational transition as I had diligently recorded mom’s, grandmother’s, aunts’, and new mother-in-law’s favored recipes. With grease spots and stains, some recipe cards documented how my cooking changed as I experimented with culinary inspiration from a diversifying group of friends in several countries. Visible too were the early roots of “foodie culture,” captured in my teen-age transcriptions of recipes from a UN compiled cookbook, from Julia Childs and from the Time-Life “Foods of the World” series.
While personally relevant, most recipes held few surprises for me.
Until, that is, one very odd recipe for “eggplant parmesian” surfaced. It was written in a strange hand on folded, pristine (if faded) paper. I don’t believe I ever made this dish of thickly egged and floured eggplant smothered with commercial sauce and “Cheddar or Colby” cheese.
When I unfolded that sheet of paper, however, I knew why I had kept it. The paper was a faded purple, old-style “mimeograph.” It was a forgotten strike document, given to me by the eggplant parm’s cook, a friend and co- picketer. We were at a celebratory post-strike potluck gathering: We had a contract! But we were also both still awaiting a court date. Preserved along with her recipe was the long list of questions, prepared and circulated by the union’s lawyer as he prepared our defense. As former strikers read his questions and shared arrest stories, we were sure we could win in court, too!
In fact, the following summer “the U” dropped charges against all picketers. By then I was in New York, beginning my dissertation research. Soon I would live in Germany and Sicily, and in Sicily, I certainly learned to cook much better eggplant dishes than the one I had tucked into my recipe box.
But my union -- GEO -- still exists. And as I reminisce on this blog, so many years later, GEO has just negotiated another three-year contract with the University of Michigan.
EGGPLANT PARMESIAN [sic]
Ingredients:
1 medium sized eggplant
4 eggs
1 cup flour
Tomato sauce (1 small can is usually sufficient)
Water
Cooking oil
Cheese (cheddar, Colby, etc.)
Combine eggs and flour; beat until smooth. If batter is too thick, thin with a little water. (But batter should be somewhat thick)
Slice and peel eggplant
Dip and coat each slice of eggplant in batter. Fry in cooking oil on top of stove. (About a couple of minutes on each side)
Place slices on cooky sheet. Top with tomato sauce and thinly sliced cheese.
Bake in oven at 350-400 degrees for about 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Eat!
Statements on Arrests
Please type your statements, answering the questions adequately but avoiding excess length.
When and where was the arrest? At what time? What was your vantage point?
Where on the property was the picketing conducted? What things about the area or property would indicate that it was university or public property and if university, whether or not it was open to general public use? Examples are: university or city traffic signs, gates or fences or the lack of them, parking lots open to the public, sidewalks, and changes in the paving indicative of a property line.
What was said by university officials and/or by the police? Did University officials identify themselves and specify their authority? Were there any contradictions in what was said by police and/or university officials?
How was the picketing conducted? Were drivers who wished to proceed allowed to go? Was there a moving picket line (i.e. a line moving in front of a moving vehicle)? When a vehicle passed, was the line allowed to re-form and the picketers allowed to speak to the next driver? Did the police ask the driver if he wished to proceed?
Did the police give warning of arrest before actually proceeding with the arrest? Was the arrest orderly? Was any resistance offered? If any force was used by the police, did it appear necessary or justified?
If you witnessed Mark Rozeen’s arrest Thursday morning at Hoover and Green, describe what occurred between Mark and Officer Ehnis to the best of your ability. What did they say to each other? Where was Mark standing? Any hostile moves toward Ehnis?
Put down any other information you think may be of value, such as arresting officer’s name and badge number.
Please sheck the statement list for the name of witnesses who could give a statement that we don’t have. Include name, address and the arrest involved if possible.
Give your name, signature, address, phone number and the times you are available.
Don Koster
GEO defense lawyer
20 Nickels Arc
769 5929
Donna Gabaccia is Professor Emerita at the University of Toronto.