Disclosure alone won’t reform sweatshops
A recent editorial on Universi
ty licensees’ disclosure (Jan. 7,
ODE) greatly misreports the
stance of the Human Rights Al
liance and tackles a subject that is
out of the understanding of the
editorial board. As a member of
the HRA, I’m slightly offended.
The amount of the disclosure re
quired by the University will only
minimally add to the next step of
monitoring. Factory site locations
alone will not prevent companies
from using sweatshop labor. Dis
closure should include items
such as wages, condition number
of employees, transportation of
factories, the cost of company
supplied housing, standards for
women’s rights and other aspects.
I understand this is a small step
in a long process, but the process
is not moving at the immediacy of
the situation. When people say,
“Slow down, you move too fast,”
in regard to injustice issues, they
immediately lose sight of the fact
that people are suffering because
of the injustices, but for some rea
son we need to move slower. In
the words of MLK Jr., “... Actual
ly time itself is neutral. Time can
be used either constructively or
deconstructively.” He said this in
reaction to the white moderate’s
call for a slower timeline when
blacks wanted segregation ended.
An appropriate timeline is ex
actly what the HRA was planning
for when it made its demand of
disclosure three months ago. It’s
already January and we have just
gotten disclosure. In retrospect,
other schools where students
have chosen to forego the chan
nels of so-called democracy by
not dealing with advisory com
mittees are already conducting
studies into the finer points of the
movement.
We have been asking for disclo
sure for more than a year and be
cause we as students have very
limited power, it has taken the ad
ministration this long to require
something that should have been
required last year. We carefully
calculated our demand — labeled
arbitrary by some — taking into
consideration the three-month
Commentary
Gevon
Cutler__
time period that the companies
are allotted to disclose. We will
have the minimal disclosure in
formation in March, which leaves
us four months of the school year
instead of six months to work
with the information.
This is not enough time be
cause the next committee meeting
is Jan. 28, and considering we
have only met twice, waiting a
month is hardly timely and cer
tainly not efficient.
I would like to take a moment
and describe the over-shadowing
principles of the anti-sweatshop
campaign, a major student move
ment across the country. In the
past, administrations at other uni
versities have only changed poli
cy in response to “raucous
crowds” that would partake in
protests such as sit-ins, rallies and
demonstrations. But the most im
portant aspect of the movement is
that students do not have democ
ratic power at the University. All
decisions regarding University di
rection and practices are made by
one person.
The committee working on the
sweatshop campaign should be a
decision-making body rather than
an advisory body. It should be a
decision-making body because it
has representation from the
whole University community.
There are countless examples of
administrations across the coun
try who come over the top of stu
dent and faculty movements to
shut them down. A close-to-home
example is the Riverfront Re
search Park.
In my opinion, the role of the
administration is to facilitate
what the students and faculty
want, not rule it out. Students
have little voice at universities
and student voices are continual
ly limited by attacks on student
fees and advisory committees that
have no power. Surely, a student
newspaper should support the
students and student democracy.
Stating ill-informed opinions
about a student movement that
represents more than just sweat
shops is not only detrimental to
progress but attacks the hard
work of students.
Jevon Cutler is a co-coordinator for the
Survival Center. His views do not neces
sarily represent those of the Emerald.
He can be reached via e-mail at jcut
ler@gladstone.uoregon.edu.
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office, 346-5511, and leave a mes
sage—with phone number and
best time to reach you—for sup
plement editor Jack Clifford.
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