Thursday, February 24, 2005

Mr. McCampbell,

We are concerned that products sold in the bookstore may be made in sweatshops. As you know, the UC has signed a Code of Conduct committing it to only buy products bearing the logos of any of the UC campuses from companies that

- do not use child labor or forced labor,

- guarantee that workers not have to work more than 60 hours per week, with at least 1 day off.

- guarantee the freedom of their workers to form and join a union without reprisal, and

- guarantee that workers not face any kind of harassment, abuse, or discrimination.

It’s ridiculous that we are even having this debate in the first place. UC Regents, pay your workers fair wages that meet competitive and living standards, period. It sounds simple, but the fact of the matter is that the perverted spending habits of the UC Regents are screwing over their employees. It has reached the extent that workers are threatening to withhold their labor if conditions do not improve and the workers are not treated with respect.

The World Social Forum (WSF) is a space to freedom dream: to talk with others about your particular struggles and to struggle in solidarity with people from across the world. The U.S. has not been well represented in the WSF. We as U.S. residents must be a part of this process to promote dialogue and question that which is taken for granted in our cultural political context. We cannot simply denounce global power structures and institutions. We must believe that another world is possible and actively struggle to make it so.

The U$ has been conducting secret missons with commando units since at least last summer, the target being to amass intelligence data and targeting information on Iranian nuclear, chemical, and missile sites, whether declared or merely suspected.