Citing a recent drought in Boston University student activism, especially against sweatshops, Students Against Sweatshops and BU Unite held an educational forum last night to rekindle local awareness and involvement.
Featuring speakers from the Eastern Service Workers Association, the Boston Global Action Network, SAS and Unite, “Open Your Eyes!” served its purpose in mobilizing students, drawing enough to crowd the Terrace Lounge of the George Sherman Union.
“We needed to let people know we are still here, still active,” said College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Sue Curry, a member of SAS and organizer of the event. She was “pretty surprised with the turnout” and excited to realize “people really do care.”
According to Dave Burt, a member of the Boston Global Action Network, people need to do more than just “care” about the increase in sweatshop conditions the new Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement would cause in developing western hemisphere countries. They need to act, he said.
The agreement, which Burt deemed “NAFTA on steroids,” would allow free trade between all western hemisphere countries except Cuba. The newly created cheap labor markets of the developing countries would thus create even more opportunities for companies to exploit workers in sweatshop conditions, he said.
“This is a consistent problem that has been a concern for a long time. The rise of globalization and free trade has led to the proliferation of sweatshops around the world,” said Rebeka Lutz, a CAS senior and event organizer.
Because most in this country are so privileged, Lutz said, “We have to try to align ourselves with workers’ struggles around the world. The problem of sweatshops was never really solved. If we can get organized and get the message out, we can effect change.”
The organization’s current focus is to get University administration to agree to join the Workers’ Rights Consortium, an independent anti-sweatshop organization that SAS believes is much more effective than the government-subsidized Fair Labor Association, of which BU is already a member.
On a global level, Burt urged concerned activists to go to Quebec, Canada, on April 20 to protest a meeting of the heads of state of the 34 countries participating in the FTAA.
“We shouldn’t try to simply reform agreements, such as these, that encourage sweatshops, but cast them aside entirely,” Burt said. “This is an incredible opportunity for us to go up and make our voices heard.”
Drew Wilkinson, director of the Eastern Service Workers Association, said people need to realize there are voices of poverty speaking meekly in our own country as well.
“The biggest problem for workers in our country is lack of income. Many U.S. companies employ immigrants who are subject to lower wages. Some work two and three jobs and still can’t afford to heat their homes and feed and clothe their families,” Wilkinson said. “People don’t realize that the problem of low wages occurs in our own country.”
Two years ago, SAS staged two demonstrations about the poor conditions and low wages of workers that make BU clothing, but were ignored by BU administration, according to Jamie Weiss, a COM senior and SAS member. “We need to reiterate that the problem is not going away,” he said. “We need to spread the word again of BU being involved with sweatshops.”
In order to get the BU administration to pay attention to various activist groups on campus, Unite and SAS will join Spectrum and several other campus groups in a protest to “remind the administration that this is our school” and students should have a say in how it is run, according to Weiss. The joint protest is being planned for the second week in April.
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