Student Labor Group Protests Sweatshops

Making a plea for full disclosure of information about the manufacturers of Harvard paraphernalia, members of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) staged a brief protest yesterday on the steps of Widener Library.

With a U.S. Department of Labor forum on collegiate apparel and sweatshops less than a week away, PSLM members sought to raise campus awareness about sweatshop labor.

"The point of this demonstration is to continue building support against sweatshops and to keep the campus and the administration concerned," said Daniel M. Hennefeld '99, a PSLM member.

Braving a light rain, the protesters created a human billboard to display their message. Wearing bathrobes over their clothes, they opened the bathrobes to reveal letters spelling the words "Full Disclosure."

This display was accompanied by the rallying cry, "What do we want?" "Full Disclosure!" The demonstrators also passed out leaflets to passers-by.

Hennefeld said "Full Disclosure" is a request that the University release the names and locations of every factory in which items bearing the Harvard name are produced.

But PSLM's efforts were cut short. The protest lasted less than 10 minutes before the small group of students was asked to leave by Harvard police.

According to Susan T. Cooke, coordinator of student activities, PSLM did not have a permit to protest.

"An administrator in Widener asked them to leave, mostly because people were unable to study," said Peggy A. McNamara, spokesperson for the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD). "When they hadn't left in a few minutes he told them he would have to notify the police."

The demonstrators were already leaving when HUPD arrived. Once the protest was over, security guards would not permit the students to continue leafleting the area.

According to Cooke," the Dean of Students in the college...has right to regulate the time and place of any events and, by extension. of leafleting."

Cooke said in the past PSLM has sought permission from the administration before staging events, but did not do so before yesterday's protest.

Last spring, PSLM held a rally at which two factory workers from the Dominican Republic spoke about their experiences manufacturing caps with the Harvard insignia.

After the rally, the College said it would look into creating a code of conduct that would ensure no more production of Harvard goods in sweatshops.

"We have had discussions with Harvard, and they have shown that they want to do something, but we still have to convince them that we need full disclosure," Hennefeld said.

According to Allan A. Ryan, an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel, the University has worked with PSLM to draft a policy that would make clear that Harvard goods must not to be made in sweatshops.

But Ryan stressed the difficulty in achieving full disclosure.

"When you get down to the question of where the thread is being manufactured for caps that's the point the we just have no hope of ever getting into," he added.

Ryan said the University will release a code of conduct to the public as soon as there is a way of monitoring and enforcing it. He did not have a specific date in mind.

Both Ryan and Hennfeld, along with Benjamin O. Shuldiner '99, will attend a forum next week in Washington, D.C. called "No Sweat University."

Organized by the U.S. Department of Labor, the forum will provide an opportunity for college students, university officials and licensing companies to talk about codes of conduct to prevent labor abuses.

"The Department of Labor has been involved in this since the beginning of the Clinton Administration. What we're going to do now is tap into the activism on campus," said Carl Fillichio in the Office of Public Affairs in the Department of Labor.

Hennefeld is equally optimistic about the conference, but he said he hopes the student perspective will be heard.

"I think this forum is a great thing, but we want to make sure that important issues like full disclosure are not glossed over," he said.