Socialist Action /March 2001
Youth in Action
United Students Against Sweatshops & Prospects for Youth Radicalization
By DAVID BERNT
The United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) is at a turning point in
its short history. The organization is dwindling, faced with declining membership
across the country. After a series of high profile victories for the movement,
participation in USAS has dropped off significantly. This is due to both
the low level of class struggle and the high disconnection between sweatshop
workers and students.
The number of people currently involved in the movement is not enough
to sustain the campaigns that USAS has set out for itself, specifically
the abolishment of sweatshop labor in the production of collegiate licensed
apparel. USAS needs to orient itself to campaigns that have the possibility
of concrete victories. This new orientation must involve local labor struggles.
If USAS can involve itself in campaigns that are more concrete and tenable,
it will revitalize the energies of current members and inspire new students
to join.
Before going into what USAS should do, it is important to understand
what USAS has done right. It is important to recognize that USAS is based
on a principled program, despite tactical weaknesses.
Many leftists have criticized the anti-sweatshop movement as protectionist.
They claim that the movement tails the labor bureaucracy in advocating jobs
for Americans while ignoring the interests of workers in underdeveloped
countries.
Protectionism, which substitutes nationalist rhetoric in place of real
class struggle, is an anti-worker political line that only serves the interests
of the capitalist class and the privileged positions of the labor bureaucrats.
While it is true that many anti-sweatshop groups are protectionist, and
it is especially true of the heads of the AFL-CIO, many leftists have failed
to recognize the anti-protectionism that is at the core of USAS. USAS does
not support the protectionist measures advocated by the heads of the AFL-CIO,
but instead attempts to ally itself with the struggle of workers in the
underdeveloped world.
USAS helped form the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), a student-worker-run
labor-monitoring organization, which was intended to connect students to
the struggles of sweatshop workers. The WRC was created as an alternative
to a corporate-run monitoring organization, the Fair Labor Association,
which was created as a public relations scheme to offset public pressure
from anti-sweatshop groups.
The WRC, which is independent of both the capitalist class and the capitalist
state, demonstrates the anti-protectionist, pro-working-class politics of
USAS. USAS hoped that through the WRC students could support the struggles
of workers by pressuring universities and apparel companies.
But the WRC is in its infancy, unable to get off the ground due to a
lack of resources. If the WRC materializes as an active monitoring organization,
it is intended to operate in the following manner:
The WRC will enlist indigenous labor unions and human right organizations
to monitor the factories that manufacture clothing purchased by WRC-affiliated
universities. Based on the information gathered from local organizations,
the WRC will prepare a report that will be simultaneously disclosed to both
WRC-affiliated universities and the public.
The WRC does not require that universities break contracts with companies
that violate certain labor standards. The appropriate measures taken by
universities will depend on the students, who, in accord with the demands
of workers and their organizations, will decide the appropriate actions
to take against the university and the company (boycott, picket lines, etc.).
In this way, the WRC avoids the potential adverse effects of cutting
off trade with certain companies, i.e. the closing of factories in underdeveloped
countries. In fact, the WRC has a "cut and run" provision that
cites the closing of condemned factories as a violation of fair labor standards.
Nor does it advocate a kind of top-down institutional regulation of factories
from imperialist countries. Instead, the WRC intends to collect information
about working conditions in these countries and develop relationships with
the workers and the institutions that fight for the right of workers, namely
labor unions.
While the WRC is a principled and promising political campaign, it is
tactically flawed. USAS is attempting to form an independent student-worker-controlled
factory monitoring organization without the necessary numbers of students
and workers to maintain it.
Since the WRC is an independent student-worker run organization, it will
require masses of dedicated students and workers to effectively pressure
the apparel industry into conceding the demands of garment workers. Unfortunately,
USAS does not have the forces to effectively carry out this ambitious project.
But USAS's lack of resources does not mean that it should give up on
the struggles of workers altogether. Instead, USAS should orient itself
to local labor struggles. Many USAS chapters have already started doing
this.
In Chicago, USAS chapters from several major universities came together
to form the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), which has the endorsement
of several local unions and is oriented to local labor struggles
SLAP has mobilized students for labor rallies and the picket lines of
striking workers. By engaging in local labor struggles, students can more
concretely assist the working class in its struggle against the onslaught
of capitalism.
Young people everywhere have begun to fight against the misery and depredation
brought on by global capitalism. As recent mass demonstrations against the
WTO, in support of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, and other mobilizations
attest, young people are beginning to resist the oppression of the working
class.
USAS is one component of this new youth radicalization. It is a promising
youth organization that is principally based on the struggles of the working
class. The left should welcome this development.
USAS is just at the beginning of a new youth radicalization. The fact
that students are engaged in the struggles of working people, and that they
have rejected the fundamentally anti-worker protectionism of the AFL-CIO
leadership, shows both the magnitude of and the prospects for this youth
radicalization.
If this movement is nurtured well, it will provide the basis for a massive
youth-labor resistance to the misery brought upon by capitalism.
David Bernt is a member of the DePaul University chapter of the United
Students Against Sweatshops and of Youth for Socialist Action in Chicago.
Anatomy of a Hate Crime
By ADAM RITSCHER
Every day, on average, eight Blacks, three gays, three Jews and one Latino
become the victims of a blatant hate crime. A Ku Klux Klan cross is burned
at least once every week.
These are some of the facts displayed on the "Fight For Your Rights"
website set up and run by MTV as part of their year-long campaign against
hate crimes, in collaboration with GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight
Education Network).
The campaign was kicked off on Jan. 10 with the first of several showings
of a new film, "Anatomy of a Hate Crime." The film, a re-enactment
of the murder of 2l-year-old Matthew Shepard, was followed by 18 commercial-free
hour sessions of various celebrities reading accounts of hate crimes from
across the country.
Since then other programs, such as interviews and roundtable discussions
with various civil rights, gay and lesbian, and feminist activists have
been aired in an attempt to raise awareness about the extent and severity
of hate crimes in America.
Particular attention is being given to the discrimination suffered by
gays and lesbians. In this regard, the story of the murder of Matthew Shepard
has been particularly effective.
A college student in Laramie, Wyoming, Shepard was murdered after he
was picked up by two young men in a bar. He was driven out to a secluded
field, where he was beaten nearly to death, tied up, and strung up on a
barbed wire fence. He was discovered several days later, and died shortly
afterwards in the hospital. This year marks the second anniversary of Matthew's
tragic death.
Following a showing of "Anatomy of a Hate Crime" in late January,
a wrap-up program featured activists from GLSEN and GLAD, who provided some
shocking statistics to highlight the fact that the Matthew Shepard story
is not an isolated one. For example, they reported on a survey in which
60 percent of G/L/B/T youth reported they had been the victims of overt
harassment. In this same survey, 30 percent reported that they had witnessed
or experience anti-gay acts or statements by teachers and staff while attending
school.
It should also be said, though, that while MTV's campaign against hate
is doing a lot to bring awareness of the specific effects of discrimination
against individuals, it is weak in pointing to the source of racism, sexism,
homophobia, and anti-Semitism. Rather than look at the true roots of such
social ills, MTV and groups such as GLSEN suggest that ignorance is the
main source of the problem.
Youth for Socialist Action would say that, while of course such a factor
does play a role in the committing of specific acts of discrimination, it
is hardly the origin of racism and homophobia. Rather these are things that
are created and perpetuated by the capitalist society we live in, a society
that seeks to divide working people against one another, so as to prevent
us from uniting to face our common oppressors.
The lack of effective government defense of minorities is ample proof
of this. While some politicians and "leaders" may speak of unity
and diversity, their actions betray them.
Those gains we have won, such as civil rights legislation and affirmative
action (gains that are being whittled away as we speak), were won in struggle,
in opposition to the powers that be. And YSA believes that it is that course
of action that we need to continue if we are to build a world where stories
like Matthew Shepard's are re-enacted only on film.
Rage Against the Machine
By LEON BOYCHUK-HUNTER
Rage Against the Machine lead singer Zack De La Rocha announced in October
that he will be leaving the band he has written lyrics for over the past
10 years. In a statement made on Oct. 18, De La Rocha said that as a band
their "decision making process has completely failed" and their
"artistic and political ideals bad been undermined." Despite De
La Rocha's departure from the band the remaining members plan to rock on
and have released a live album "Renegade".
The band's decision to break up has come at a time when the style of
music that Rage seemed to have pioneered has stepped into the limelight.
By the time Rage released their third album, "The Battle of Los Angeles,"
the band had sold over 10,000,000 albums and with commercial success came
the attraction of big record labels; the band signed with Sony music.
Bands like Limp Biskit and Kom, who also play in the same style of music
as Rage, are also achieving commercial success. Maybe it is the relationship
between the band and the music business that is responsible for De La Rocha's
feelings that the band's artistic and political ideals have been undermined.
Working for a huge corporation places demands on commercial success which
might have conflicted with De La Rocha's intentions for the band in the
new millennium.
As far as Rage's musical history, their self-titled debut album came
out nine years ago; some of their old fans say that this was their best
album.
The album that made most people aware of their music was their second
album, "Evil Empire," which came out in 1996 with hard-rocking
tunes such as "People of the Sun" and "Bulls on Parade."
In their 1999 album, "The Battle of Los Angeles," the music
and lyrics complement each other very well in songs such as "Born of
a Broken Man" and "Testify." Rage is very consistent in their
content of songs-most being about raising political awareness and the fight
for social justice. They have also done many benefit concerts for causes
such as the appeal of Mumia Abu Jamal, the free Tibet concert, and advocating
the release of Leonard Peltier.
Overall I have to say that the influence of Rage Against the Machine
has been positive. By adding politically active incendiary music to popular
culture, the reality of social injustice has been exposed to many young
people. The only thing this society needs now is to act upon these injustices
and induce change; that may not be too far off because Rage has supplied
the inspiration.
Leon Boychuck-Hunter is a high school student living in Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada.
Socialist Action /March 2001 |