[usas-announce] Fwd: [calsas] ITS TIME TO VOTE FOR WRC BOARD REPS!!!

From: Rachel Edelman (rachel_790@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Apr 10 2002 - 18:16:21 EDT

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--- Trina Tocco <talkalot83@hotmail.com> wrote:
> To: usas@yahoogroups.com,
> wrc-usasgb@yahoogroups.com, calsas@yahoogroups.com
> From: "Trina Tocco" <talkalot83@hotmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 17:39:01 +0000
> Subject: [calsas] ITS TIME TO VOTE FOR WRC BOARD
> REPS!!!
>

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***PLEASE FORWARD THIS ON AND MAKE SURE THAT IF YOU
ARE AN AFFILIATED USAS CAMPAIGN THAT YOU VOTE BY APRIL
22****
Hey USAS, It's time to elect two people to
represent USAS on the WRC board. Below are 7
applications from amazing people.  The large
amount of applicants shows the amazing work that
USASers are doing all over the country and the drive
to become more involved in the struggle for workers
rights. 
 Here is how the voting process works:
each USAS affiliate group should review the
applications below. Then, each USAS affiliate
group should appoint two liaisons to communicate the
group's votes. Each liaison votes for two candidates,
as determined democratically by his or her USAS
group. Your group's liaisons can vote anytime
between today, Wednesday, April 10 through Monday,
April 22. 
Some details on the voting process: It is
perfectly fine for a group's two liaisons to vote for
the same two candidates, or for none of the same
candidates, or for some of the same candidates.
The same liaison
can act as both liaisons for your group, but
the
liaison must indicate so during
voting. No single liaison
can vote for an applicant more than once, unless the
same liaison is acting as both liaisons for the group,
in which case s/he can vote for an applicant at most
twice. It is permissible to vote for an
applicant who is in your USAS group.  Obviously,
applicants cannot be a liaison. Just to be
clear: the liaison should vote the group's preference,
not necessarily his or her own preference. The group's
preference should be determined by circulating the
applications over e-mail, bringing paper copies to
this week's meeting, discussing the applications in an
open forum, and whatever other democratic methods you
can come up with.  Please remember it important to
create diversity of regions, gender, race, small
schools vs. large schools, sexual preference, socio
economic background, etc. The winners of the
election will be the top two vote
getters. Liaisons should e-mail their group's
votes to: EMAIL: <A
href="mailto:wrc_elections@yahoo.com">wrc_elections@yahoo.com</A> Your
liaisons can also telephone in their votes, to the
USAS office (202-NO-SWEAT). It is OK to leave your
votes on the voice mail of the USAS office.-- just
remember to identify yourself, the group for whom you
are the liaison, and clearly name the two applicants
for whom your group is voting. Here is a list
of the 7 applicants, in alphabetical order. For your
convenience, each applicant has written a short
paragraph that sums up their application, which are
located before the actual applications.  Their
applications are pasted below: Matt Aber-Towns,
Grand Valley State University
Audrey Avila, Loyola University of Chicago
Leah Bry, Grinnell College
Gabe Katsh, Harvard University 
Ginny Leavall, Georgetown University
Mary Nagle, Georgetown University Nancy
Steffan, Indiana University Please look over
their applications carefully- they are all good
candidates. When your USAS group reviews
their applications, please keep in mind that in
addition to striving for diversity in the areas of
race, class, LGBTQ, and gender, USAS also strives for
diversity of region and school size in its
representation on the WRC board. Information on the
region and size of each applicant's school is included
below for your consideration. If you have any
questions about the voting process, please don't
hesitate to contact us at <A
href="mailto:wrc_elections@yahoo.com">wrc_elections@yahoo.com</A>
PARAGRAPHS<PRE>MATT ABER-TOWNS, GRAND VALLEY STATE in
MI<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/><o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>My involvement with
the WRC is pretty extensive primarily working only at
the local level with USAS. I feel I have a firm grasp
of USAS and the WRC. I will bring perspective of a
non-licensing school with needs that are unlike those
of type A and B licensing schools. I know I will do a
good job because I am a self-starter and have a
passion for doing this line of work. Please look over
all of the applications very carefully and make the
right decision for USAS as well as your local group
and school.</PRE><PRE> <o:p></o:p></PRE>
<H5><TT>AUDREY AVILA, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF
CHICAGO<o:p></o:p></TT></H5>
<TT>I’m from
Chicago, I’m bi-racial, and I’m a woman. This says a
lot about me. I think being half-Mexican and
half-euro-mut mix gives me a unique and open
perspective on life. I can empathize with the person
of color and the distraught white kid—while never
truly understanding either. It’s taught me to take in
all sides and to be objective. I am open to all races,
colors, creeds, etc. I’ve really just recently become
involved with the student sweatshop movement; however,
I have been an activist all my life.</TT> I’ve always had a vague awareness that things in
the world just don’t always seem fair. I just couldn’t
put all the pieces of the puzzle together until I got
to Loyola. I’ve become active in activist work through
race-related issues before sweatshops. I’ve always
been very aware of different races and since I was
little I was enthralled with the work of Martin Luther
King jr. and Cesar Chavez. I do not think I realized
the depth of injustice, poverty, and oppression in the
world though. Every day I learn more about the
structures of oppression, etc. I think the student
sweatshop movement is incredible. The students I have
met through conferences and protests have really
inspired me. We may lack money, logistical training,
etc, however, we have passion, intelligence, and
energy to truly make a difference. I do find it
frustrating, however, that I sometimes find myself
feeling disconnected from the workers who I am
fighting with-- that we are working in solidarity with
abstract faraway factories and people. I’m trying more
and more to try and put names to faces and experiences
to campaigns. I want concrete experience with the
abstract people that I fight in solidarity with. I’m
interested in furthering the link between workers,
corporations, and students. <o:p></o:p><PRE> <o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE> <o:p></o:p></PRE>
<TT>LEAH BRY, GRINNELL COLLEGE in
Iowa<o:p></o:p></TT>
<TT>My
name is Leah Bry, and I’m a member of the Grinnell
College USAS branch. My father was a public defender
for 10 years, and I’ve grown up concerned about
fundamental rights and advocacy for those who have no
voice or representation. This concern has generated
and guides my passion for activism at college. I’m
interested in the workings of the WRC at its most
basic level because I see it as a unique organization
in the movement for worker’s rights worldwide with an
unprecedented structure and philosophy for supporting
worker advocacy and organizing while influencing US
corporations from a consumer and activist
perspective.<o:p></o:p></TT>
<H1><TT>GABRIAL KATSH, HARVARD
UNIVERSITY<o:p></o:p></TT></H1>
<TT>I have been involved
in anti-sweatshop work since I first came
to</TT> <TT>college. Working with local labor
organizations and my campus</TT> <TT>anti-sweatshop
group</TT> <TT>has been an important part of my
college career, as well as an</TT> <TT>unparalleled
educational experience that beats anything I have
learned in</TT> <TT>the classroom.</TT>  <TT>The more I
meet with people from USAS chapters around the
country, and the</TT> <TT>more I hear about the vital
work that USAS and the WRC are doing in fighting for
workers' rights, the more I hope to gain the
opportunity</TT> <TT>to expand my involvement in the
anti-sweatshop movement beyond my
campus.<o:p></o:p></TT>
<TT> <o:p></o:p></TT>
<H3><TT>GINNY LEAVALL, GEORGETOWN
UNIVERSITY<o:p></o:p></TT></H3>
I want more than anything to
start working here with the students around me who
don't know about sweatshops or don't know that it is
an issue that concerns them. I'm passionate about this
issue and want very much to work from a position that
can teach me more about the WRC and collegiate
licensing. It's exciting for me to work creatively to
raise awareness among students and get them more
involved.  There are so many students who just
haven't been exposed to sweatshop issues or realize
that they are contributing to the problem, and only
need a little exposure to the facts. Working on these
issues inspires and makes me happy, and I hope to
continue in this vein of activism in any manner
possible, whether on the WRC board on my own
campus.<o:p></o:p>
<TT> <o:p></o:p></TT>
<H4><TT>MARY NAGLE, GEORGETOWN
UNIVERSITY<o:p></o:p></TT></H4><PRE>I am very active in our campus's
student labor activist group, known as Georgetown
Solidarity.  I have participated in things such
as conference calls with USAS, educational activities
concerning the issue of New Era, efforts to remove Mt
Olive pickles from our student-run grocery
store--basically I help out/work on all the issues our
Solidarity group works on.  Specifically, I
concentrate my effort on the LOC (our Licensing
Oversight Committee).  I was on the special
subcommittee that wrote our letter to New Era
concerning our dropped contract, and I was also on the
subcommittee that reviewed their huge response. 
Now, I am working on the issue of a Living Wage for
all workers here at
Georgetown.<o:p></o:p></PRE>
<TT> <o:p></o:p></TT>
<H2><TT>NANCY STEFFAN, INDIANA
UNIVERSITY<o:p></o:p></TT></H2>
<TT>I have been involved
with No Sweat (IU`s USAS affiliate) for the past 2
</TT> <TT>years. I have also been involved with
USAS on the regional level as a </TT> <TT>regional
organizer and was very involved nationally on the
Kukdong campaign. </TT> <TT>This semester I have
been studying abroad in Central America with a
</TT> <TT>program focused on movements for social
change, which has given me new </TT> <TT>insights
into the lives of people in a different part of the
world and new </TT> <TT>inspiration to work in
solidarity with the people I have met. I know that
</TT> <TT>the success of the WRC model is based on
strong USAS participation at the
</TT> <TT>university level, and as a governing
board representative I would be </TT> <TT>commited
to representing USAS and serving as a resource to
student groups so </TT> <TT>that we can effectively
support the struggles of workers making our licensed
</TT> <TT>apparel.</TT> 
FULL VERSIONS OF APPLICATIONS<PRE>Name: Matt Aber-Towns
<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>School: Grand Valley State University
(Michigan, Midwest)<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>Year: Junior
<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>Licensing/non licensing school: Non-licensing
<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>Size of student body at your school: 15,000
Undergraduate, 5,000 graduate
<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>Any languages spoken
<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE> <o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>1) What has been your past
involvement with the Worker Rights Consortium and USAS
at the local and/or national level (less than 100
words please)?<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>For the last 4 months I have been
in charge of gathering factory location information
for those goods purchased by our University Bookstore.
Prior to that I co-founded our USAS chapter in the
Fall of 2000 and ran, with fellow runners, a WRC
campaign. We won in April
<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>of 2001. I also attended, as an observer, the
University Caucus meeting last
May.<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE> <o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>2) As a WRC board member, you
would be representing USAS and advocating for
workers.  What are some means of communication
and accountability that you propose in order to
fulfill your role? 
<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>The sure-fire and efficient way of
communicating is through email, but damn am I tired of
it! Not everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas over
listserves. And this is probably in some respects a
good thing, otherwise it would be atrocious to try to
read through all of them. Nevertheless, no one can
share ideas unless somehow information is available to
formulate ideas from. I plan to use email to keep
regular up-to-date information flowing from the WRC to
students. I know, from my experience of trying to
figure out what is going on (for the sake of keeping
allies on campus informed), that it can be frustrating
not knowing, or at the very least embarrassing.
<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>Furthermore, it builds strength at the local
level when, not only is there regular up to date
information, but as well critical thought in regards
to the WRC, its relation to Workers, and Students
relations to workers through the WRC and/or the ISC.
For this, I plan to make phone calls to my
constituents (I can do my own fundraising to cover the
costs as well) and ask as well as answer any relevant
questions they may have and be sure that if were not
on the same page, were at least working towards it.
One of my largest frustrations has been that the WRC
staff is more accessible to speak with than the WRC
board reps. That largely is because they, and not the
WRC board reps have been perceived, by myself, as more
knowledgeable. However, I know longer think this is
the case, or at least should never be. I’d like to
take a little work off of their shoulders, but letting
my constituents know that I can be held accountable
for answering any of their questions, and if not, I’ll
find out the answers. That’s how at least I see
representing
USASers.<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE> <o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>Representing workers is ensuring
USAS knows the dynamics of workers struggles (I have
faith in my experience with USAS that the individuals
involved are not guided by their own strong idealogue
separate from the workers, but rather work in tandem
with workers struggles). Outside of this I think the
individuals that have been doing great work with the
International Solidarity Committee would be a great
help in formulating exactly what workers are calling
on usas to do.<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE> <o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>3) How would you describe the
WRC¹s relationship to universities? To corporations?
<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>The WRCs relationship to
Universities is to keep them regularly informed on the
progress of the WRC and to disseminate reports. It
also I hope is to make University Administrators feel
empowered. Not only to change conditions (and perhaps
even reach the level of consciousness USASers have to
where they work for the workers), but also to feel
empowered within the WRC. From my experience, it alone
isn’t and/or cannot do this, as represented in my
administrations void of attending University Caucus
meetings. (again, I think the students have to do
this).<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE> <o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>There’s talk that the WRC is
exclusionary, even an advocacy organization that
Universities shouldn’t join for the reason that
corporations are not sitting on its governing board.
That is a ridiculous claim! No organization that is
attempting to change the working conditions that
benefit corporations can allow for those corporations
to sit on its board. It only benefits corporations to
correct these conditions when there is an impact to
their image as local corporations serving communities
and, predominantly US, consumers. Furthermore, it
would undermine the validity of reports, something I
would hope Academia holds to be important. However, we
should also realize that the WRC is focused on making
point-to-point changes in conditions in the hopes that
the whole industry will become revolutionized. For
this, the WRC needs Corporations to comply with
requests, which ultimately means there has to be
communication.<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE> <o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>4) What do you see as the WRC¹s
relationship to workers in producing countries? 
(150 words) <o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>I’d like to think that the WRC
can stay credible and directly work with workers to
change their conditions. But I feel this unfortunately
is not the current situation. Universities want
reports they can feel are done with the utmost
professionalism. And frankly, that’s exactly what they
are getting and that has really struck administrators
as a great thing. I think the last reports done by the
WRC show a great balance between advocacy
(recommendations for immediate action by affiliate
universities) and concise and thoughtful research that
is done in conjunction with worker-allies
organizations. <o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE> <o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>5) What skills can you contribute
as a USAS WRC representative? (150 words)
<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>What I have yet to say is that I
am also in GVSUs Student Senate. It may seem odd to
mention, but I think the formalitiness (in my informal
language) has provided me speaking skills as well as
the ability to constructively deal with differing
opinions. Outside of that, I think I have developed a
great method of keeping track of information and
progress through both on-campus activism and my work
gathering factory location information from the many
corporations GVSU is in business with. Fluent in
Excel, word, internet, power-point, and talking on the
phone.<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE> <o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>6) Is there anything else that
you would like to add? <o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE>I honestly was not going to run
for this position, not because I don’t want to do the
work, but because of other time commitments. I will
be, hopefully, in Jamaica from February 4thish
Mid-April of 2003. Nevertheless, in talking with
current WRC-reps I feel that I will have the time and
capability of fulfilling my role. First and foremost,
this position will be top priority, after school,
eating, occasional sleep, friends and
family.<o:p></o:p></PRE><PRE> <o:p></o:p></PRE>
<TT>Name:
Audrey Avila</TT> <TT>School:
Loyola University Chicago</TT> <TT>Year: Sophomore</TT> <TT>Email:
audreyavila@hotmail.com</TT> <TT>Licensing/non
licensing school</TT>: Licensing <TT>Size of
student body at your school: 7,411
undergraduate</TT> <TT>Any languages spoken: Some
espanol<o:p></o:p></TT>
 <TT>1)
What has been your past involvement with the Worker
Rights Consortium and USAS at the local and/or
national level? (150
words)<o:p></o:p></TT>
<

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