Students, workers protest at Lord & Taylor

By Ronald I. Kim

Philadelphia, PA, July 29— More than 100 students and workers gathered on the ground floor of Lord & Taylor in the old Wanamaker building at 13th and Market streets Saturday at 11:30 am to protest working conditions and exploitation in the clothing and apparel industries.

Most of the students belonged to United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), a nationwide organization formed in 1998 to hold universities accountable for the conditions in which their licensed clothing is produced. They were joined by local workers, including members of the UNITE! union from the Domestic industrial laundry plant in Kensington who staged a successful month-long strike last spring.

At approximately 11:35 am, a young man in dreadlocks began speaking through a bullhorn while people gathered from throughout the ground floor. Police physically prevented activists trying to unfurl a banner from the first-floor balcony, but the message on the second-floor banner was clear: “Just Say No To Nike.” A blue flyer was passed out, detailing the multibillion-dollar shoe company’s repeated suppression of labor organizers and student activists and exposing Nike CEO Phil Knight’s contributions to the Republican Party in exchange for “free trade” legislation on China.

The dreadlocked man was followed by Lynn Fox of UNITE!, who gave a brief speech on the labor abuses of Nike and clothing manufacturers such as Lord & Taylor. Protesters then marched and chanted through the store but had to exit when police began to assemble.

Outside the store, the first man recalled the recent shooting death of an African American man in Michigan after his daughter was falsely accused of shoplifting at Lord & Taylor, and connected this tragedy with recent acts of police brutality in Philadelphia such as the Thomas Jones beating. He then announced the launching of a new Internet site, www.behindthelabel.org, which follows USAS’s “Nike Truth Tour” across the US.

Lynn Fox addressed the crowd once again, reaffirming that “UNITE! is here for students and workers.” After a woman from the Domestic plant spoke up, a USAS member from the University of Pennsylvania led the group in song, first chanting “We are the union/The mighty mighty union,” then replacing “union” with “workers” and “students.” By this time, several camera crews from local TV stations were on the scene, and over 30 police — including, according to one sighting, Commissioner John Timoney — had lined up along the 1300 block of Market Street, facing the protesters onto the sidewalk.

The crowd then marched around City Hall to Love Park, site of this afternoon’s rally for universal health care. To everyone’s surprise, city police stopped traffic and cooperated with the marchers at intersections.

Source: United Students Against Sweatshops: www.usasnet.org

Postal workers demand justice for Mumia

By Dennis O’Neil

The just-concluded 2000 National Convention of the American Postal Workers Union adopted a resolution calling for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal and committing the union to filing a friend of the court brief in Mumia’s case.

The resolution was put before the convention by the New York Metro local. Metro members active in Morgan for Mumia, an ad-hoc group at a very large postal facility in Manhattan, had proposed and argued for Metro taking this stance at a union meeting earlier this spring.

Although the resolution mysteriously did not appear in the resolution books distributed to delegates, protests to convention organizers ensured that it came before the body.

The case for the resolution was put by Flo Summergrad of New York Metro and supporting statements were made by David Yao of the Greater Seattle Local and Dennis O’Neil of NY Metro. Ajamu Dillahunt of the Raleigh, NC local was at the mike to speak when the question was called for.

The motion won by a vote of over 1000 to 800.

Pro-Mumia forces had not done a good job of organizing either in advance of the convention or during its first two days, so the victory came as something of a surprise. Three factors aided us. First, in contrast to the reasoned statements of resolution supporters, the two opposing speakers called on were ranting middle-aged white guys pretty much demanding Mumia’s immediate execution. Second, internal APWU politics doubtless pushed some delegations and officials to try and get on the good side of the powerful and newly independent NY Metro local. Third, and most important, we found that at least a dozen locals had held discussions of Mumia’s case, that other locals had seen petitions circulated during meetings and many individual members knew of the case and voted their conscience.

We hope our victory will inspire other labor activists to take the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal before their upcoming conventions. Let’s build the momentum! Source: Labor for Mumia: Labor4Mumia@aspenlinx.com