What: Rally to support anti-sweatshop activists and call on the University of Michigan to go Sweatshop Free

When: Thursday, September 20, 2:30 pm to 3:00 pm.

Where: The Spinning Cube behind the Fleming Building

Why: To support the 12 University of Michigan students who were arrested for a nonviolent action to encourage the University to go sweatshop free and to call for rules to make University apparel sweatshop-free.

As background, here is a recent email sent by Prof. Ian Robinson to members of the Lecturers’ Employee Organization:

As many of you will remember, 12 SOLE students occupied President Mary Sue Coleman’s office last April 4 in the hope of pressuring her to adopt a new and (I think) better approach to enforcing the Code of Conduct that former President Lee Bollinger signed some years earlier (in response to an earlier SOLE sit-in). The Code says, in essence, that UM won’t permit apparel bearing the official UM logo to be made in sweatshops. The new approach to enforcing this code, known as the “Designated Supplier Program” (DSP) has been endorsed by many major universities, including the entire University of California system and the University of Wisconsin.

Mary Sue, on the advice of a University committee that has no representation from organized labor and offered no plan for a feasible enforcement alternative, refused to adopt the DSP approach. When the students responded with the occupation, she had them arrested by UM’s Department of Public Safety and charged with “prohibited conduct at institutions of higher education willfully remaining on premises.” Over the summer, she refused to withdraw these charges and each student was found guilty, fined $510, and put on six months probation.

The Administration’s repressive response to a peaceful and orderly protest — I can attest to this because I observed the conditions in the office shortly before the arrests — is clearly intended to send a signal to students and unions alike: peaceful protest in the name of worker rights will not be tolerated. When GEO and LEO reps to the Huron Valley Central Labor Council explained how President Coleman responded to the SOLE students, union reps from these other unions got the point right away and expressed their support for the students. They will contribute to paying for the fines, and they will also send people to the rally in front of Fleming this Thursday.

SOLE students, because of their commitment to worker rights, were there for us big time during our one-day strike in the spring of 2004 — another act of civil disobedience, since state law says we’re not allowed to strike, ever — a collective action that secured some of the most important concessions we got when we bargained our first contract. Now it’s up to us to be there for the SOLE students.

The reason for choosing Fleming Building at 2:45pm this week is that this is the first Regent’s meeting of the term. We are asking the five Democratic Regents — and any of the Republicans who are so moved — to demonstrate their support for workers’ rights and peaceful protest by contributing to a fund that will give SOLE twice what they require to pay their current fines… so they can occupy the President’s office again if they decide to do so. We are also asking the Regents to indicate in writing their support for the DSP approach to enforcement that the SOLE students were pushing for when they were arrested.

[snip]

Thanks for bearing with this rather long message. It’s important stuff and I felt you should have the basics of the story explained before we ask you to devote valuable time to the cause.

Solidarity!

Ian