[91] in peace2
Fwd: Student sit-in victories and arrests
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (martha london)
Wed Feb 23 09:10:07 2000
Message-Id: <20000223140931.38828.qmail@hotmail.com>
From: "martha london" <marthalondon@hotmail.com>
To: sfischer@igc.org, peace-list@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2000 06:09:30 PST
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
Dear All--
I don't know if any of you are on this email list, but this particular
posting might be of interest to you, since it concerns student activism. The
last part about students of color and their efforts is disturbing, but very
important.
Hope to see you at the next IMF/WB meeting.
--Martha London
_______________________
From: Campaign for Labor Rights <clr@igc.apc.org>
To: clr@igc.org
Subject: Student sit-in victories and arrests
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 15:44:44 -0800
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STUDENT SIT-IN VICTORIES AND ARRESTS
posted February 22, 2000
In this alert:
Arrests at University of Wisconsin
UPenn victory
Oberlin, Temple, Indiana, Michigan victories
Conditional victories?
Contrast: Students of color ignored
Action request
ARRESTS AT UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
At the University of Wisconsin on February 20, police arrested as many
as
58 students and supporters, ending a four-day sit-in at the chancellor's
office. Earlier in the sit-in, police had used pepper spray against some
of
the participants. The students had listed 7 demands, most designed to
remove apparel industry control over monitoring. Chancellor David Ward
agreed on February 18 that the university would join the Worker Rights
Consortium "on a conditional basis." Citing Ward's reputation for
backsliding, activists were continuing their sit-in to secure a clear
commitment on WRC membership and to pressure the university to address
the
other 6 demands. From a report posted on February 21 by United Students
Against Sweatshops staff person Erik Brakken:
"The official final count is 58 people arrested this morning. All have
been
released as of Monday night. Cops entered Bascom Hall at 4 am this
morning
[Sunday] fully decked out in gas masks, with tear gas guns and
canisters.
Most students were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and
unlawful
assembly, a few received charges of resisting arrest or obstruction of
justice. All students are safe, and no one was seriously physically
harmed.
If convicted, an unlawful assembly charge could provide the pretext for
suspending students for 6 months from the university. While the sit-in
is
over for now, the police raid has had the opposite of the
administration's
intended effect. Instead, energy and commitment has skyrocketed in the
past
day. Over 150 people showed up to a press conference at the jail this
afternoon that was only called this morning and spread through email and
word of mouth. Mobilization continues for a rally at 5 pm tomorrow
[Monday,
February 21], and things are expected to escalate after that."
UPENN VICTORY
On February 15, after occupying the outer office of University of
Pennsylvania President Judith Rodin for 9 days, student anti-sweatshop
protesters declared victory: The Penn administration
has agreed to an immediate withdrawal from the Fair Labor Association
(FLA), the industry-controlled system of monitoring factories for
sweatshop
abuses. Penn has yet to join the Worker Rights Consortium.
Penn is the first school in the nation to withdraw from the FLA. The
achievement by Penn Students Against Sweatshops (PSAS) is all the more
remarkable since Penn is known as a conservative campus. Prior to the
sit-in, PSAS energetically built support on campus and forged alliances
in
the community. The Philadelphia city council had passed a resolution
urging
area schools to withdraw from the FLA and to join the Worker Rights
Consortium (WRC), a monitoring system drawn up by the national student
organization United Students Against Sweatshops with input from
non-governmental organizations and from workers in the global south. The
Penn students also received support from around the country as hundreds
contacted Penn administrators and students at over 60 college campuses
participated in 48-hour solidarity fasts.
OBERLIN, TEMPLE, INDIANA, MICHIGAN VICTORIES
On February 14, OBERLIN College joined the list of schools which have
committed to join the Worker Rights Consortium, the monitoring system
designed by United Students Against Sweatshops as a legitimate
alternative
to the Fair Labor Association.
On February 16, TEMPLE University President Peter Liacouras said the
school
may have been "unwittingly compromised" by joining the Fair Labor
Association. Liacouras questioned whether the FLA is dominated and
unfairly
influenced by the apparel industry. Liacouras said the Temple would
withdraw from the FLA if that organization could not satisfy the
university's concerns by March 15. Like UPenn, Temple is located in
Philadelphia.
INDIANA University administrators called a press conference on February
18
to announce that the school would be joining the Worker Rights
Consortium.
IU President Myles Brand had conferred by phone with the presidents of
the
University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan recently to
discuss
a plan for the three schools to enter the WRC together.
On February 18, following a 60-hour sit-in at the Dean's office by
Students
Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality (SOLE), University of
MICHIGAN
President Lee Bollinger committed the University to joining the Worker
Rights Consortium. The award for the most humorous anti-sweat action
goes
to a University of Michigan student who put the Dean's office up for
sale
on eBay, the online auction house. The eBay item included an asking
price
of $3.60 - to emphasize that sweatshop workers' labor is absurdly
undervalued.
CONDITIONAL VICTORIES?
We should not second-guess the decision of some students to declare a
victory and end their sit-in after receiving a conditional commitment
from
their university administration - or the decision of the University of
Wisconsin activists to continue their sit-in after receiving only a
conditional commitment. While a firm commitment is always to be
preferred
over one that is conditional, the fact remains that administrators will
have to think twice about backsliding on any kind of commitment to
withdraw
from the FLA or to join the WRC. The seriousness of purpose demonstrated
by
the scores of people willing to face arrest for their principles
certainly
will give the University of Wisconsin administration an incentive to
make
good on its promise. Once again, United Students Against Sweatshops
activists have taken the campus anti-sweatshop movement to a new level.
There is no turning back.
CONTRAST: STUDENTS OF COLOR IGNORED
[Thanks to Bill Capowski of the Center for Campus Organizing for
bringing
attention to this issue.]
In stark contrast to the way an anti-sweatshop sit-in at the Dean's
office
was treated as a priority issue, a longer-running sit-in at the student
union by the Students of Color Coalition (SCC) has been treated by
university administrators as a non-issue. The SCC protest, which began
on
February 6 and still continues, includes in its demands the removal of
the
Michigamua society, because of racist practices, and two other secret
societies housed in the Michigan Union Tower. A statement released
February
19 by the SCC says in part:
"Members of the Students of Color Coalition (SCC) applaud the decision
by
the University of Michigan's (UM) President Lee C. Bollinger to enforce
anti-sweatshop initiatives. We also appreciate the public statements of
support from SOLE (Students for Labor and Economic Equality). However,
while members of the SCC believe that the anti-sweatshop campaign is an
important issue, worthy of President Bollinger's attention, leaders were
distressed to find out that the agreement reached between SOLE and
President Bollinger would be further testimony of disrespect by the UM
and
its President.
"SOLE, a group of primarily white, student activists, were able to
secure a
meeting with Bollinger within one hour of their occupation of LSA Dean
Shirly Neumann's office. Their occupation began over one week into the
SCC
occupation. The SCC, however, was forced to wait. Just what did they
wait
for?
"1. three days for a visit from Bollinger where claimed he wasn't in a
position to talk yet, he just wanted to see the room that was in
controversy,
"2. four days for a meeting at which he said little more than "next
Wednesday" we will meet to discuss your concerns (a statement witnessed
by
over 200 students and videotaped - yet the meeting failed to materialize
the following week), and
"3. ten days to finally grant the SCC an opportunity to sit down with
President Bollinger and the administration to begin discussions. Now two
weeks and counting, and we are still no closer to a resolution."
ACTION REQUEST
Please send the following email to University of Michigan President Lee
Bollinger
<leecbol@umich.edu> and please send the following four-line notice (not
this entire alert!) to Campaign for Labor Rights at <CLR@igc.org> or
fax:
(541) 431-0523:
I have sent an email to the President of the University of Michigan.
NAME:
CITY/STATE (or COUNTRY if outside U.S.):
ORGANIZATION (if applicable):
Dear President Bollinger,
I urge you to treat the sit-in organized by the Students of Color
Coalition
with the same level of seriousness demonstrated in response to the
anti-sweatshop sit-in organized by SOLE. The fact that UofM
administrators
rushed to engage in dialogue with the SOLE activists but continue to
ignore
the SCC activists leaves the university open to a charge of racist bias.
Please demonstrate by your actions that the University of Michigan
values
the concerns of its students of color as highly as it values concerns
expressed by organizations with a predominantly white membership. Thank
you
for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
NAME:
CITY/STATE (or COUNTRY if outside U.S.):
ORGANIZATION (if applicable):
______________________________________________________
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