3/29/2004

Labor Action Week works toward CHANGE

Grace Dobush
Daily Kent Stater

This week is the National Student Labor Week of Action, and the student group Coalition for a Humane and New Global Economy has a full schedule of events.

Kent State’s Labor Action Week is now in its fourth year.

Labor Action Week usually centers around April 4, the date of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, said CHANGE member Mike Pesa. This year, April 4 is a Sunday, so the rally now falls on March 31, labor organizer Cesar Chavez’ birthday.

Although Labor Action Week is a national project, events are organized locally by students. According to the Jobs With Justice Web site (www.jwj.org), students at more than 130 campuses nationwide have planned events for this week.

In Ohio, Kent State, the University of Cincinnati, Miami University and Westerville High School are hosting Labor Action Week activities.

Pesa said the first year’s turnout was pretty low, but in 2002, historian and activist Howard Zinn spoke on campus, and about 400 people attended.

Although attendance has fluctuated over the years, the numbers of speakers and activities has consistently grown, Pesa said. This year’s week includes more speakers from unions than ever before.

Events

Speakers include representatives from labor unions, national and on-campus activist groups and professors.

The activities begin at 7 tonight in Room 307 of the Student Center with a game night, including board games such as “Wheel of Misfortune.” The games aim to educate more than entertain, Pesa said, and the games are set to reflect biases in society.

“Your chances of winning are diminished if you’re working class, a person of color or a woman,” he said.

On Wednesday the rally will start at 11 a.m. in Risman Plaza with speakers and music. At 7 p.m. labor organizer Staughton Lynd will speak in Student Center Room 317. Lynd was active during the Civil Rights Movement and worked to keep Youngstown steel mills open in the late 1970s.

There will be two events Thursday evening in Student Center Room 314, starting with a workshop on fair trade coffee at 6 p.m. CHANGE has been attempting to bring more fair trade coffee to campus, and some places on campus do serve it occasionally.

“We’re looking for a specific policy that says free trade coffee will be served everywhere,” Pesa said.

At 7:30 p.m. is a screening of Live Nude Girls Unite! a documentary about the organizing efforts of peep show workers in San Francisco in 1996.

Finally, at 8 pm. Saturday, CHANGE is holding a benefit concert for itself in the Rathskeller. Musicians performing include Sue Jeffers, the Riverbottom Bushwhackers, Blitz, Kill the Hippies and MC Homeless.

MC Homeless is a local DJ, Pesa said.

“I don’t believe he’s actually homeless,” he said. “He’s trying to demonstrate his solidarity.”

Pesa said the point of the rally is to educate all of the students about to enter the job force.

“It’s about making America fulfill its promises of opportunity and happiness,” he said. “It’s just about justice.”

E-mail: gdobush@kent.edu