PSLM Chants, Marches Way Across the Square

Dressed in Hawaiian shirts, sunglasses and "No Sweat!--Union Made" hats, members of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) led about 40 students on an "anti-sweatshop tour" of the Square Friday afternoon.

The protestors targeted the Coop, the Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch--stores which PSLM said sells clothing produced under poor labor conditions.

While walking they sang, "Hi-ho, hi-ho, on a sweatshop tour we go. We'll see the sites and fight for rights, hi-ho, hi-ho, hi-ho."

The tour began in front of Mass. Hall. Organizers addressed the crowd as the Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" played in the background.

PSLM member Benjamin L. McKean '02 told the protestors not to harass store customers or clerks. "Please be courteous and respectful of their native habitat. Do not feed them," he said.

The Coop was the first stop on the tour. Students gathered in front of the store's Mass. Ave. entrance as PSLM member Nitzhan Shoshan '00 condemned the labor practices under which the Coop's Harvard apparel is manufactured.

"The prices [at the Coop] are somewhat high--$20 for a hat. But only eight cents of the $20 goes to the Dominican workers that make these caps," Shoshan said, speaking into a megaphone.

The protest moved inside the store as students marched into the Coop through the Palmer Street entrance, stopping in the Harvard insignia department.

Organizers held University apparel aloft and condemned factory working conditions until Coop management asked the protestors to leave.

They did so immediately.

"They were very respectful and well-organized. No problems with that," said Nancie E. Scheirer, the Coop's general merchandise manager.

Coop president Jeremiah P. Murphy Jr. '73 said the store does not allow protests inside the store.

"Our real concern is the safety and convenience of our customers," he said.

Murphy said he could not recall any other protests occurring inside the store during his eight-year tenure.

After leaving the Coop, the tour moved on to the Gap.

PSLM member Erik A. Beach '02 attacked the Gap for its role as one of 18 defendants in a lawsuit filed on behalf of over 50,000 workers in Saipan.

He said Saipan's status as an American territory allows companies to print "Made in the USA" on their clothing but conform to sub-par labor standards.

Workers allege that the companies charged recruitment fees for employment opportunities and encouraged women not to date or marry, to use birth control pills and to have an abortion if pregnant so as not to lose their labor services, Beach said.

Maria K. Moyer-Angus, spokesperson for Gap Inc., said yesterday the lawsuit "does not have merit."

"We feel very strongly that our actions in the court will demonstrate that we work very hard in making sure that the factories we do business with treat workers with dignity and respect," she said.

As Beach spoke, he attracted a crowd of onlookers.

"He seems to know what he's talking about--they shouldn't be treating their workers that way,"

said Jack D. Merry, an employee at the Tannery.

Merry called PSLM's tour "an interesting concept."

"I've never seen anything like it," he said.

After Beach spoke, the protestors moved inside the store but were soon asked to leave.

Store clerks said company policy prohibited them from commenting.

"The freedom of expression is something that we uphold. However, we would encourage people to call us to learn from us what our practices are," Moyer-Angus said.

The tour culminated in a stop at Abercrombie & Fitch's new Read Block franchise.

"We're not here to protest Abercrombie's contribution to gentrification in the Square. We're here because Abercrombie, like the Gap, uses sweatshop labor in Saipan," Fischer said.

Workers filing suit against the Gap also named The Limited, Abercrombie's parent company, in their allegations.

PSLM member Aron R. Fischer '99-'00.addressed the protestors outside of the store. Before speaking, he removed his Hawaiian shirt.

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do," he told the laughing crowd.

As he described Abercrombie's labor practices, protestors hissed and booed.

The crowd then entered the store but left shortly thereafter at the request of store clerks.

Abercrombie spokesperson Angela S. Benz said the company does not allow demonstrations inside its stores.

She said Abercrombie has a "prohibition against any form of

indentured or involuntary labor," but she refused to say whether the company prohibited employees from working in sweatshop conditions.

Fischer said PSLM's goal is not to target the practices of individual stores but to change the clothing industry.

"The goal is to reform the entire industry and not just piss off individual stores, except for a little bit," he said.

By influencing University policy, students hope to effect widespread change, PSLM members said.

"Students are by far the most powerful part of the anti-sweatshop campaign," Fischer said. "University policies are setting the industry standard right now, so by raising the bar for the University you're helping anti-sweatshop policy not just at Harvard but everywhere."

Following last March's "Rally for Justice," attended by about 350 students, the University announced that it would request all Harvard apparel manufacturers to release the locations of their overseas factories.

The two largest licensees, Champion Inc. and Gear for Sports, agreed to comply last month, in a major victory for PSLM's anti-sweatshop campaign.

Having won full disclosure, the campaign is now pushing Harvard to adopt an appropriate monitoring system for the clothing factories.

The University has currently signed onto the government-sponsored Fair Labor Association (FLA) and independently employs the international consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, but PSLM members said these measures are inadequate.

They charge that the two organizations maintain business associations with the companies they are supposed to monitor.

PSLM member Shoshan called PricewaterhouseCoopers a "lousy tour guide" because it "does business with the companies it monitors," he said.

Instead, PSLM members urge Harvard to join the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent monitoring firm.

"Only the WRC was developed with the help of factory workers," McKean told the crowd at Holyoke Center, the final stop on Friday's tour. "Harvard, however, prefers to work with corporations. They're in the FLA, which we say as 'flaw.'"

McKean, Fischer and Beach attended President Neil L. Rudenstine's office hours on Thursday to encourage Harvard to withdraw from the FLA and join the WRC, but found him unwilling.

"He was polite. He was not receptive to our specific demands," Fischer said.