Sweatshop monitoring decision overdue

Although you couldn't tell by looking around, this campus has been engaged in a debate for two years now about the future of its involvement in world affairs. This dialogue has been going on largely between UB Students Against Sweatshops and the administration, namely Dennis Black, former President Greiner, and President Simpson.

President Simpson and Dennis Black are debating about which, if any, monitoring body they will adopt in order to investigate the sweatshops that make UB apparel. Despite the best efforts of UBSAS to mobilize the campus in support of the Workers Rights Consortium, the students, faculty, and staff sit largely unaware that a life-changing decision is about to be made. The decision does not affect us, the pampered bourgeoisie of Amherst, N.Y., but the lives of countless workers slaving in Third World countries.

Much has been said in this paper about the merits of the Workers Rights Consortium, so I will not digress on its superiority over the Fair Labor Association, the other option being considered by Dennis Black and President Simpson. What are most notable in this instance are not the merits of either organization, although this is vastly important. The issue on hand is that this decision is being made by the administration in isolation. A rally was held on Jan. 27 at the entrance to Capen Hall. Did people walking by see it as more than just a sideshow, a strange relic of the past resurrected for their enjoyment? The WRC, if the adopted by the university, has the potential to alter in a very real way the condition of sweatshop workers. It could help end abuses such as starvation wages, anti-union repression, and the firing of pregnant women.

Where is the debate on campus? Are we content to let the President choose the destiny of the impoverished people who make UB apparel without making our voice heard? In a Feb. 4 e-mail to Dan Cross, Dennis Black claimed that the recommendation should be made sometime between Feb. 6 and Feb. 10. Are we content as a university to sit idle, waiting for the President to make up his mind about the lives of hundreds of people working in the factories of the Third World? Or should we at least make some attempt to let him know our concerns? The answer is left to you.