Santa Clara hosts conference on sweatshop issues

By Jessica Alway

The Santa Clara Community Action Program (SCCAP) sponsored the fourth annual California Students Against Sweatshops (CALSAS) Conference this weekend on Santa Clara's campus. California students as well as other community leaders and educators interested in issues involving economic justice and labor exploitation, gathered to attend seminars and workshops from Friday to Sunday.

All three previous conferences were held at University of California schools, making Santa Clara the first private school to host the annual conference.

After attending last year's conference at the University of California at Davis, SCCAP members Leana Molina and Patty Adams proposed Santa Clara as the venue for 2002.

"Leana [Molina] and I both knew we wanted to have it here," Adams said. "The issue of sweat labor means a lot to both of us. Because we are seniors this year and want to be community organizers in the future, it seemed like the right thing to do."

The University offered full support, providing free publicity for the conference, in addition to access to campus facilities.

"I thought it would be a great opportunity to utilize our resources," co-coordinator Leana Molina said. "We live in a pretty progressive area where many people are interested in issues similar to that of the conference."

California Students Against Sweatshops is the west coast branch of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), an international student movement of campuses and individual students fighting for sweatshop free labor conditions and workers rights.

USAS seeks practical ways to exercise leverage over companies to support worker struggles and create spaces for worker empowerment by encouraging communities to come together in under the common cause. The purpose of this conference, as described by the coordinators, was very similar.

"The conference offered a chance for students and other leaders and educators to convene around issue's of economic justice and labor exploitation," Molina and Adams said. "It enabled us to celebrate our growth and victories but also be honest in regard to our shortcomings."

The two began planning in September under a grant provided by the university, finalizing the schedule at the end of January.

"All of the non-organizations we worked with were really great," Adams said. "They made everything very easy for us. The presenters were also fantastic, some of them worked for almost 15 percent of their normal pay and they seemed happy to do it."

The content of the speeches, panels, presentations and workshops addressed many social problems affecting multicultural communities in the United States and abroad, and how students should respond to these problems.

One such venue for students to get involved is collegiate athletic programs, as they play a very pivotal role in the fight against sweatshops. The USAS has focused efforts against many athletic equipment companies, which profit from the indecent working conditions of their employees.

They encourage students to demand their universities adopt ethically and legally strong codes of conduct, full public disclosure of company information and truly independent verification systems to ensure that sweatshop conditions do not exist.

Yet the conference's organizers found it difficult to spread interest in this cause.

"It is so hard to get people excited," Adams said. "The turnout this weekend was pretty good, but not as good as we had hoped."

With the exception of this year, annual attendance has grown at each conference. Both coordinators agreed there were many possible factors that contributed to the low turnout.

"It was a three-day weekend so a lot of people went home," Molina said. "I assume there were also problems with funds or time for students attending universities further away. In addition, there were also other conferences occurring simultaneously in Southern California, which divided the activist community."

Though slightly disappointed with the turnout, the coordinators believed the conference to be extremely successful overall.

"The people who did come seemed to get a lot out of it," Adams said. "I received many positive comments from participants. I think we ignited a spark of interest in at least a couple people."

She hopes there might be some type of club operating through the university, SCCAP or both, which focuses on the issue of sweatshop labor next year.

"The service component of the club would include working with laborers in San Jose, where conditions are still very poor," Adams said.

Los Angeles, however, serves as the garment capitol of the world. For this reason Adams hopes a university in southern California will hold the conference eventually.