We Are a Chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops

Students for

Economic

Justice

New Member

Handbook

SEJ is a student organization working to support local, national, and international economic, labor rights, and human rights issues.

We are a chapter of United Students Against Sweatshops.

We meet every Tuesday

from 7:30-8:30pm

in the 2nd floor lobby of the Union

during the academic calendar

Check out our website:

Our e-mail address is:

E-mail us if you want to be on the list serv!

SEJ is not a hierarchical organization. We are all leaders and members and share the responsibility of organizing and tasks. Facilitators and notetakers rotate each meeting.

Table of Contents

Mission...... 2

Current Campaigns...... 4

Information about United Students Against Sweatshops(USAS), the organization with whom we are affiliated 5

Principles of Unity...... 5

The Principles...... 6

Jargon/Abbreviations/Other Organizations...... 7

SEJ Timeline...... 11

A Website To Help You Know More About the Companies Behind the Products You Buy 13

Local Groups We’re Proud to Support...... 13

Current Campaigns

• Anti-FTAA campaign- The FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), is an agreement that would expand NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) to all 34 countries in the Western Hemisphere, except Cuba, affecting approximately 800 million people. Like NAFTA, the WTO, and other “free trade” agreements, the FTAA seeks to free corporations from government regulations which they say restrict “free market.” This means that if our elected representatives, from the federal government down to local city councils and boards of education, make laws that a foreign-owned company feels infringes on their “right” to make money, the company can sue for monetary damages and force us to change our laws. This includes laws governing our social institutions such as public education, health care, social security and environmental laws. SEJ is organizing transportation to Miami, Florida November 20-21 to protest at the next FTAA ministerial. We will also work to educate the campus about the dangers of the FTAA by hosting the PoeTree speakers and by hosting a conference.
• Fair Trade campaign- 25 million coffee farmers and their families are facing hunger and starvation. Due to low coffee prices, farmers are unable to provide a decent livelihood for their families, and many are simply abandoning their land. Fair Trade enables farmers to receive a larger share of the profit on every pound of coffee they produce. The result is stronger farmers’ cooperatives, independence from exploitive middlemen, and more revenue for social development and environmental conservation programs. SEJ will work with The Real Food Group in getting fair trade coffee and other products on campus and in the surrounding community.
• Art Show- SEJ is organizing an art show focusing on social and economic justice at Kresge Art Museum in November!
• Educating the campus about economic justice, how to support local businesses, where to shop, etc.

• State News Protest- for their racist ads last year
• Research pending contracts of MSU union workers and what it will take to start a living wage campaign on campus

• Supporting the Graduate Employees Union (GEU)
• Supporting the other local activist groups and their activities through the Progressive Student Alliance and other means.

*We have an active Women’s Committee right now in SEJ. Talk to Rachel or Melissa if you want more information.

Information about United Students Against Sweatshops(USAS), the organization with whom we are affiliated

United Students Against Sweatshops is an international student movement of campuses and individual students fighting for sweatshop free labor conditions and workers’ rights. We define “sweatshop” broadly and recognize that it is not limited to the apparel industry, but everywhere among us. We believe that university standards should be brought in line with those of its students who demand that their school’s logo is emblazoned on clothing made in decent working conditions. We have fought for these beliefs by demanding that our universities adopt ethically and legally strong codes of conduct, full public disclosure of company information and truly independent verification systems to ensure that sweatshop conditions are not happening. Ultimately, we are using our power as students to affect the larger industry that thrives in secrecy, exploitation, and the power relations of a flawed system.

Principles of Unity

The principles of unity below have been drafted as an assessment of the spirit and of the issues which bring students on campuses across North America together to create a united youth front against sweatshops.

Hopefully, these principles touch on the underlying consciousness we are all developing, within ourselves as individuals and within our collectives, whether they are local, regional, national, or international.

The abuse of sweatshop labor is among the most blatant examples of the excesses and exploitation of the global economy. We recognize, however, that the term “sweatshop” is not limited to the apparel industry as traditionally conceived; sweatshop conditions exist in the fields, in the prisons, on our campuses, in the power relations of a flawed system.

Thus, we consider all struggles against the systemic problems of the global economy to be directly or by analogy a struggle against sweatshops. Whether a campus group focuses its energies on the apparel industry or on another form of sweatshop, agreement with the principles below will be used as the sole requisite for working under the name of United Students Against Sweatshops.

The Principles

1. We work in solidarity with working people’s struggles. In order to best accomplish this and in recognition of the interconnections between local and global struggles, we strive to build relationships with other progressive movements and cooperate in coalition with other groups struggling for justice within all communities campus, local, regional, and international.

2. We struggle against racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, and other forms of oppression within our society, within our organizations, and within ourselves. Not only are we collectively confronting these prejudices as inherent defects of the global economy which creates sweatshops, but we also recognize the need for individuals to confront the prejudices they have internalized as the result of living and learning in a flawed and oppressive society.

3. We are working in coalition to build a grassroots student movement that challenges corporate power and that fights for economic justice. This coalition is loosely defined, thus we strive to act in coordination with one another to mobilize resources and build a national network while reserving the autonomy of individuals and campuses. We do not impose a single ideological position, practice, or approach; rather, we aim to support one another in a spirit of respect for difference, shared purpose and hope.

4. We strive to act democratically. With the understanding that we live and learn in a state of imperfect government, we attempt to achieve truer democracy in making decisions which affect our collective work. Furthermore, we strive to empower one another as individuals and as a collective through trust, patience, and an open spirit.

The power of these principles to unify us as United Students Against Sweatshops ultimately rests with the individual. Self-evaluation and personal responsibility are critical to the effectiveness of our work we all must continue to struggle as individuals in order to struggle in concert, thus we strive for compassion and support for one another as we continue this endeavor together.

The USAS website:

To join one of USAS’ many list servs:

Jargon/Abbreviations/Other Organizations

AFL-CIO

The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFLCIO)is the voluntary federation of America's unions, representing more than 13 million working women and men nationwide.

Behind The Label

BehindTheLabel.org is a multimedia news magazine and on-line community covering the stories and people of the global clothing industry – the hidden stories of the millions of workers around the world who make our clothes, the people who care how their clothes are made and the multinational corporations behind the labels.

divestment

discontinuing the investment (stock) in a certain company or organization

fair trade coffee

Fair trade is a system which guarantees a fair wage for coffee farmers around the globe. Under Fair Trade Certified coffee, several middlemen are removed from the market chain between farmers and the consumer. Farmers can more than double their incomes, allowing them basic need such as education and health care for their families. They system is monitored by third-party institutions that verify the growers are getting their share.

FLA (Fair Labor Association)

The organization that currently monitors sweatshops for Michigan State University. The FLA is criticized for the amount of power given to corporations in the organization, its lack of commitment to public disclosure and accountability, and its failure to include organizations representing apparel workers in its organizational structure and monitoring programs.

FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas)

The FTAA will extend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the entire hemisphere, and is to be implemented by no later than 2005. Negotiated behind closed doors, with no citizen input but plenty of suggestions from business interests.

GEU (Graduate Employees Union)

Members of the Graduate Employees Union are all graduate students at Michigan State University. Not all of us are technically titled "employees," although this is a distinction we are working out with the administration. We have our own academic responsibilities in courses, exams, theses and dissertations and we also teach classes, grade students' assignments, conduct research, and perform many of the duties which the university needs to function.

Global Exchange

Global Exchange is a human rights organization dedicated to promoting environmental, political, and social justice around the world. Since our founding in 1988, we have been striving to increase global awareness among the US public while building international partnerships around the world. Go to this website to learn more about the criticisms against the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, and the FTAA.

IMC (Independent Media Center)

The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth. We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity.

IMF (International Monetary Fund)

Through loans, often to unelected governments, and "structural adjustment" policies, this institution has kept most nations of the global south in poverty. Their policies ensure open market access for corporations while cutting social spending on programs such as education, health care, and production credits for poor farmers.

Kukdong

A former campaign. In January of 2001, approximately 600 workers were fired from the Kukdong plant in Atlixco, Mexico for attempting to start an independent union. The plant produces Nike sweatshirts for a number of USAS schools, and USASers pushed administrations and Nike to get the workers and organizers of Kukdong back to work. USAS has supported the efforts of the independent union to obtain recognition, and sent a delegation of approximately 20 students to Kukdong in March 2001.

living wage

a wage you can live from

MIMC (Michigan Independent Media Center)

The independent media center for Michigan.

NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)

NAFTA was a radical experiment in rapid deregulation of trade and investment among the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. In effect since 1995, NAFTA is considered the symbol of the failed corporate globalization model because its results for most people in all three countries have been negative: real wages are lower, farm income is down and farm bankruptcies are up, environmental and health conditions along the U.S.- Mexico border have declined, and a series of environmental and other public interest standards have been attacked under NAFTA.

New Era

A former campaign- Upon hearing allegations of workers' rights violations in the New Era factory of New York, a delegation of 6 USASers traveled to Buffalo in March to investigate. The factory produces caps for several university, and has a history of anti-union practices. They now have a union and are in the process of signing a contract.

NLC (National Labor Committee)

The National Labor Committee is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting and defending human and worker rights in the global economy. The NLC exposes human and labor rights abuses committed by U.S. companies producing goods in poor countries and organizes campaigns to put an end to these abuses.

public disclosure

Companies that contract or subcontract with a factory to make their apparel, should publicly disclose the names and the locations of the factories that they are using. They usually disclose them on their website.

STITCH

STITCH is a network of U.S. women working to support women's organizing for a just wage and fair treatment on the job in Central America. Our members are union organizers, unions members, community organizers, social workers, teachers, professors, students and other women and men who believe in international solidarity.

SOLE (Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality)

SOLE is a student organization at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor that campaigns for social and economic justice locally, nationally and internationally.

UNITE (Union of Needletraders, Industrial, & Textile Employees)

UNITE, the clothing workers’ union in the U.S. and Canada is aggressively organizing low-wage, immigrant, and industrial workers.

World Bank

Through loans, often to unelected governments, and "structural adjustment" policies, this institution has kept most nations of the global south in poverty. Their policies ensure open market access for corporations while cutting social spending on programs such as education, health care and production credits for poor farmers.

WRC (Worker Rights Consortium)

Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) is a non-profit organization created by college and university administrations, students and labor rights experts. The WRC's purpose is to assist in the enforcement of manufacturing Codes of Conduct adopted by colleges and universities; these Codes are designed to ensure that factories producing clothing and other goods bearing college and university names respect the basic rights of workers. There are more than 100 colleges and universities affiliated with the WRC.

WTO (World Trade Organization)

Established in 1995, the WTO is a powerful new international body that develops and enforces rules for trade and investment. A global economy is being created where corporations have all the rights, governments have all the obligations, and democracy is left behind.

SEJ Timeline

Spring 2000

3/16 Meeting with McPherson urging him to drop the FLA and join the WRC

4/13 World Bank/IMF Protests in D.C., protesting the exploitation of developing countries

4/28 Rally at Demonstration Field, alternative to the World Band President Wolfenson speaking at the undergraduate commencement

Fall 2000

8/7 SEJ members meet Behind the Label tour in Ann Arbor

9/9 Gap Protest with other USAS schools, promoting awareness, pressuring Gap to stop using sweatshop labor

10/2 National Labor Committee Forum, 2 former Nicaraguan employees who were fired from a factory for trying to unionize spoke

10/4 Kohl's protest at the Job Fair on campus, promoting awareness about factory in Nicaragua, pressuring Kohl's to stop using sweatshop labor

11/15 Painted the rock to spread awareness of the anti-sweatshop movement

11/27 Meeting with McPherson again urging him to drop the FLA and join the WRC

Spring 2001

1/9 Nike discloses factory locations

1/17 Nike/Kukdong protest at the Admin. Building asking the administration to call Nike and express their disapproval

1/31 Jim Keady, the St. John's University coach who was forced to resign for refusing to wear Nike equipment, and Leslie Kretzu came to speak about visiting Mexico and their Olympic Living Wage Project

2/5 Xicano Power Rally; Adam spoke about SEJ

2/14 Crashed McPherson's reception after his State of the University address to apply public pressure to McPherson so he would join the WRC

3/12 ASMSU passes a bill to support the WRC and drop the FLA

3/22 Adam leaves for a week long delegation to Mexico to meet with striking workers

3/27 Meeting with McPherson to urge him to join the WRC, also rallied to raise awareness of the meeting outside the Administration Building

4/3 The undercover officer last spring in SEJ was exposed in the media

4/4 SEJ Mock Fashion Show to highlight companies that use sweatshop labor