[Fwd: Fw: Urgent! Duke students take-over of Pres. office!]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--------------C5BDE87513F0B8366DD5F659



--------------C5BDE87513F0B8366DD5F659

>From guest  Sat Jan 30 13:48:20 1999
 (original mail from owner-slac@listproc.hcf.jhu.edu); Sat,
 30 Jan 1999 13:47:38 -0400 (EDT)
 30 Jan 1999 13:47:16 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 13:38:32 -0500
From: Erica Schoenberger <eschoenberger@juno.com>
Subject: Fw: Urgent! Duke students take-over of Pres. office!
Sender: owner-slac@listproc.hcf.jhu.edu
To: slac@listproc.hcf.jhu.edu
Reply-to: slac@listproc.hcf.jhu.edu
X-Juno-Line-Breaks: 0-1,3-22,24,26-27,29-43,45-59,61-85,87-105
X-Juno-Att: 0

Folks,

Are you on this mailing list?  Sounds like something we might want to
support in solidarity. 

Erica Schoenberger
Visiting Professor
Dept of City and Regional Planning
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94705

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Medea Benjamin" <medea@globalexchange.org>
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 21:20:32 -0800
Subject: Urgent! Duke students take-over of Pres. office!
Urgent! Duke students take-over of Pres. office!
URGENT!!!!!!
Dear students against sweatshops and supporters,
Below is a copy of Duke's press release about their amazing take-over of
the president's office on Friday (1/29) to protest the CLC code. We were
elated to hear what the Duke students have done! Way to go, Duke! We must
now take their example and create a wave on campuses across the country.
PLEASE try to organize a solidarity action this Monday, Februrary 1 or
Tuesday, February 2 on your campus. Anything you can do--tabling, a
rally,
a similar take-over--would be fantastic. Remember, TIME IS OF THE
ESSENCE.
While the Duke students vow to stay put until the university president
agrees not to sign the CLC code, we have no idea when the university
might
physically evict them. We must show the CLC, the various university
administrations, the press...and the workers making college gear that the
Duke students are not alone!
Thanks, Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange

January 29, 1999

DUKE STUDENTS TAKE OVER PRESIDENT'S OFFICE
Protesters from Students Against Sweatshops storm Allen administration
building

Durham, NC--In light of Duke President Nan Keohane's recent indications
that she'll sign a weak sweatshop monitoring code proposed by the
Collegiate Licensing Company, members of the Duke chapter of Students
Against Sweatshops (SAS) have stormed the President's office. The
students
will not leave the building until President Keohane publicly refuses to
sign the code. A showdown debate with the President is expected.

Simultaneously, in Washington DC the Georgetown chapter of Students
Against Sweatshops marched from Red Square to the office of their
President. They presented him with a letter signed by dozens of faculty
members and students opposed to the CLC code.

The proposed code of conduct is weak because it allows manufacturers to
hide factory locations from students, the public and human rights groups.
Students and human rights groups contend that any credible code requires
manufacturers of collegiate apparel to publicly disclose the names and
addresses of all of their factories. Fearing that public disclosure would
expose their unethical practices, manufacturers have claimed that merely
releasing factory addresses would damage their competitiveness.
University
administrators know this is only an excuse: "I don't know if I buy that
argument...,"said Jim Wilkerson, Duke's Director of Licensing and Store
Operations, in a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
After a December SAS rally, President Keohane admitted that the proposed
CLC code was "flawed," and that the lack of full disclosure was a
"disappointment." Duke Junior Sara Jewett adds, "The argument that full
disclosure would release competitive information is just an excuse to
cover up widespread human rights violations. We're just asking for the
release of addresses, not competitive secrets." 

If President Keohane signs the proposed code, Duke will actively endorse
the hiding of sweatshops. Keohane publicly promised to criticize the code
and advocate for a stronger one, but her actions have only consisted of a
few comments in local papers and a handful of phone calls to a few other
universities. Based on these calls, Keohane has concluded that "nobody
else was energetically taking leadership to push for a tougher code." SAS
believes Keohane should be willing to provide this leadership herself so
that Duke can set the standard for all universities to follow. The amount
of positive publicity that Duke has received in the past year for its
efforts may be enough to soothe the consciences (and egos) of University
administrators, but without pubic disclosure Duke students can never rest
assured that the workers who make Duke apparel are treated with justice.

Since the 1996 discovery of sweatshop conditions in a factory
manufacturing apparel for Kathie Lee Gifford's line of clothing, the
cause
against sweatshops has gained a great deal of attention in the national
media. Duke's chapter of SAS was the first in the country and stories of
their efforts to establish a national code have appeared in the New York
Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and the Chronicle of Higher
Education.

For interviews, contact Tico Almeida or Kyle Crafton, cell phone
#919-684-5555 or Kyle.Crafton@Duke.edu



-------------------------------------
Global Exchange
2017 Mission St., Rm. 303
San Francisco, CA 94110
Phone: 415.255.7296 Fax: 415.255.7498
 http://www.globalexchange.org


--------------C5BDE87513F0B8366DD5F659--