CHANGE sponsors labor rally for 'sweat-free campus'

By Leana Donofrio

Daily Kent Stater

Students and community members -- ranging from Christians to communists -- crowded the Student Center yesterday to raise awareness for National Student Labor Days of Action.

Tables filled with books, posters and pamphlets lined the steps of the Student Center, as students kicked a hackey sack around. A deep voice exclaimed: "In order to affect change in this country, in this world, we have to take a stand."

Robert Thomson is the Director of the union group American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Ohio Council 8 in Akron. He urged the group of around 65 students that the day also marked the death of Martin Luther King Jr. He reminded them that "activism of all kinds is about change. Martin Luther King, like many others, had to stand up for change."

Thomson was just one of three labor union leaders who spoke yesterday at the event, which was organized by the student group Coalition for a Humane And New Global Economy.

Ryan Johnson, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade of Cleveland, set up an information table to bring awareness and "get out information on the conditions of people from the bottom of society. Millions work in sweatshops and temp labor in the U.S., and it is hidden from middle class society."

Across the Student Center, Shelby Black, director of Kent Late Night Christian Fellowship, also had a table filled with books about activism and labor abuse.

She said her group wants to form bonds and work with groups like those represented yesterday. "Christians need to spend more time with other groups like these. Jesus Christ is a radical. He came to revolutionize, to set the suppressed and the poor free."

Senior Ellen Zielinski, a member of CHANGE, said the group sponsored the event with Student Anti-Racist Action to bring awareness to labor abuse and injustice.

CHANGE is fighting to make Kent State a "sweat-free campus," one that would not allow any clothing carrying the Kent State logo to be made under unfair labor conditions.

Patrick Coy, assistant professor of applied conflict management and political science, also spoke at the rally.

He said preventing Kent State clothing from being made in sweatshops is "just part of ending oppression. It is the least we can do."

Coy also spoke about the connection between Martin Luther King Jr. and the Student Labor Days of Action.

"He believed workers' rights were indistinguishable from civil rights."

King was assassinated while in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was giving support to a sanitation workers' strike.

But the event brought awareness to other issues besides labor abuse.

Angela Beallor, surrounded by students holding "sweat-free KSU" signs, spoke about the imprisonment of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of murdering a police officer in the early 1980s.

Beallor, a member of Student Anti-Racist Action, spoke about Jamal's involvement as an activist and explained that many groups, including unions, have said they believe he is innocent.

She stressed that injustice of all kinds is unacceptable and must be stopped.

Sister of St. Francis Marge Eilerman, a member of the School of the Americas Watch, spoke about the deaths workers and teachers in Columbia at the hands of School of the Americas graduates.

She stressed the need to close down the School of the Americas, which has trainedforeign soldiers to fight in rebellions in Latin and South America. She also said the United States must stop giving weapons and aid to Columbia, which she said it uses to suppress its citizens.

From sweatshops, to corporate greed, wrongful imprisonment and political hypocrisy, each speech was an impassioned message about the need to end injustice.

"All issues are interconnected," Beallor said, "you can't fight one without fighting them all."

Student Labor Days of Action will continue with events, workshops and speakers throughout the week. For more information and a schedule of events go to http://www.kentchange.org.