Rethinking the Sweatshop: A Conversation About United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) with Charles Eaton, Marion Traub-Werner, and Evelyn Zepeda

Abstract

United Students against Sweatshops (USAS) was conceived in 1997 by a handful of organizers and student interns at UNITE (the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Technical Employees). With chapters at 200 universities and colleges, USAS has come a long way from its origins as an advocate for no-sweat licensing policies at campus bookstores. A founder of the Worker Rights Consortium,Founded in April, 2000, the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) is an organization of more than ninety universities, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and labor and civil rights organizations in the United States, Central America, and Asia. Its goal is to establish codes of conduct and verification procedures that guarantee fair wages and working conditions in factories manufacturing university-licensed merchandise. it is by now a broad political movement, campaigning for labor rights inside and outside the university; for economic justice; and for peace in the era of globalization. The evolution of this organization is the subject of an interview with three USAS leaders who came to the organization at different moments in its development. Topics range from international organizing to graduate student unionization. Questions of race, gender and sexual identity have preoccupied USAS since its inception. They figure prominently in the current discussion. The interview was conducted in August, 2001 and edited a few days after September 11, allowing us to include a few reflections on that day and its aftermath.