From: WestSaeed (u2babyboy@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Jan 07 2002 - 17:32:47 EST
Hey all-
I picked-up this book and it has some comments on the anti-sweat
movement
by Noam Chomsky. It's by David Barsamian and is called "Propaganda and
the Public Mind"
South End Press, 2001. It's even got us listed in the back of the book.
I thought it would be of some interest 'round here.
Saeed
SDSU
***
DB: Returning to the U.S., talk more about the student sweatshop
movement.
Is it different from earlier movements that you're familiar with?
NC: It's different and similar. In some ways it's like the movement
against Apartheid, except
in this case it's striking at the core of the relations of exploitation
that are used to reach
these incredible figures of inequality that we are talking about. It's
very serious. It's another
example of how different constituencies are working together. Much of
this was initiated
by Charlie Kernaghan of the National Labor Committee in New York and
other groups
within the labor movement.
It's now become a significant student issue in many areas. Many student
groups are pressing
this very hard, so much so that the U.S. government had to, in order to
counter it, initiate a
kind of code. They brought together labor and student leaders to form
some kind
of government-sponsored coalition, which many student groups are
opposing
because they think it doesn't go anywhere near far enough. Those are
issues that are now
very much contested. Last I heard, I don't know the details, there was a
big demonstration
in Wisconsin with students arrested.
DB: Aren't the students asking the capitalists to be less mean?
They're not calling for a dismantling of the system of exploitation.
Maybe they shoud be.
What they're asking for are the kinds of labor rights that are
theoretically guaranteed. If you look
at the conventions of the International Labor Organization, the ILO,
which is responsible for these
things, they bar most of the practices, probably all of them, that the
students are opposing.
The U.S. does not adhere to those conventions. Last I looked, the U.S.
had ratified hardly any
of the ILO conventions. I think it had the worst record in the world
outside of maybe Lithuania or
El Salvador. Not that other countries live up to the conventions, but
they have their name on them
at least. The U.S. doesn't accept them on principle.
DB: Tell me what's happening on your campus, at M.I.T. Is there any
organizing around the sweatshop
movement?
NC: Yes, and on a lot of issues. There are very active undergraduate
social justice groups doing
things all the time, more so than in quite a few years.
---- Support public open space -- how many more shopping malls do we need?
http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/corporations/saipan/faq.html
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Tiny Wireless Camera under $80! Order Now! FREE VCR Commander! Click Here - Only 1 Day Left! http://us.click.yahoo.com/WoOlbB/7.PDAA/ySSFAA/BGfwlB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
USAS webpage: http://www.usasnet.org
Unsubscribe from USAS list: email blank message to usas-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Mon Oct 28 2002 - 02:52:32 EST