Creating a Sweatfree Campus

After a very interesting presentation in my Social Advocacy class last week by my classmate, Daniela Vann, I am moved to write about a topic that I honestly never considered before: sweat shops and the proximity with which they affect our campus.  Sure, I've followed some of the big sweat shop "busts" throughout the years...Gap, Kathy Lee's abysmal clothing line failure, etc., but not until I heard Daniela speak did I realize the ubiquity of sweat shop labor practices.  Also, I guess in my naivity I didn't realize that all the clothes that we buy here from the University at the Book Center or wherever else are stained with the sweat and agony of underpaid, overworked, abused, and mistreated workers.  It got me to thinking...geez, how many hoodies, pairs of shorts, and t-shirts have I bought with the UMD logo from these stores over my four years here?  It's also interesting to consider that some of the sweat shop factories are located here in the U.S. in towns in California and New Mexico...who would have thought? 

So, what is to be done (to quote Vladimir Lenin)?  This is the one million dollar question...what can we truly do about this?  It's daunting to think what it would mean to campaign against all of the sweat shop producers in the world because, in reality, that's pretty much everyone.  Most people aren't willing to sacrifice the ease at which we can stroll into a store in the mall and pick out a t-shirt for an increase in wages and welfare for people they will never meet.  Also, let's consider the unintended consequences of a mass boycott.  Yes, the producers would eventually have to change their corporate practices, but we'd also be putting thousands of low income earners out of work and into a situation of even more misery.  

So, Terps, let's start small.  Daniela has informed me about a movement taking place on campuses all across the United States entitled the "United Students Against Sweatshops", with an aim to force our universities to stop carrying sweat-stained clothing.  The Worker's Rights Consortium is endorsing the Designated Supplier's Program (DSP).  If we got the University of Maryland to sign onto the DSP, this would effectively mean that all of our clothing for sale would be coming through sweat-free suppliers (hence, the "designated suppliers").  "Sweat-free" insinuates 1) a fair living wage, which means the brand names suppliers have to pay the factories more for their products and 2) the right to unionization and promotion of worker's rights by the workers themselves.  Please visit www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org and check out all kinds of information about the movement...it's a great website and a great resource if you're interested in finding out about how you can get involved locally.  Currently, students at Appalachian State University have organized a sit-in in their administrator's office and they aren't leaving until the DSP has been signed.

So, again, what is to be done here on the UMD campus?  Let's think about ways that we can influence our university to sign on to the DSP.  Maybe sitting in President Mote's office is not the way to go (or maybe it is...who knows?).  Maybe we need to start petitioning.  Maybe we need to look for some leadership from the athletes who have a large stake in UMD apparel.  Maybe we each need to sit back and think for a minute about how the buying choices we make are affecting a larger population of people than we realize.  These are all maybe's, but the one definite is that we need some type of change.  I'd love to hear back from some of our readers on some ideas for how we can get these issues to the forefront on our campus again.  Please feel free to guest blog at any time.

In the meantime, check out www.workersrights.org and www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org and educate yourself about what is really going on.  You'll be surprised...knowledge is power, and power is responsibility...

"Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on Earth.  I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." - Eugene V. Debs

In peace,

Pat