Clamor contributor and student activist Christine Petit was one of 28 UC students arrested on Tuesday for participating in sit-ins organized as part of the National Student-Labor Week of Action. Here’s her special report on the action:

“Sit-in! Sweatshops out!” was the mantra of the day on Tuesday, April 11, as University of California students staged sit-ins in the administration buildings of UC-Riverside and UC-Berkeley as part of the seventh annual National Student-Labor Week of Action. I was one of the 28 UC students arrested and cited with trespassing in actions aimed at pressuring the UC to adopt stronger policies to ensure the rights of workers producing university apparel and uniforms.

At a quarter past noon on Tuesday, a dozen students affiliated with United Students Against Sweatshops entered UCR chancellor France Cordova’s office and informed her that we were not planning to leave until the UC adopted the Designated Suppliers Program , which would ensure university-apparel workers’ rights to unionize and earn a living wage. One of the main problems with the UC’s current policy around sweatshops is that it is difficult to enforce and is ill-fitted to the exploitative realities of the apparel industry . Under the DSP, participating supplier factories would be evaluated by the Worker Rights Consortium, an independent board.

Watching the chancellor gather her things and leave her office, we felt a mix of nervousness and excitement — we didn’t know if we would be removed within minutes or stay for days. We quickly hung two banners from the balcony outside the office; they read: “We demand 1. A living wage 2. Union Factories 4 Garment Workers” and “Ní Una Más.” We linked arms and began chanting “UC — Sweat Free.” I chanted along, but since I was acting as a police/administration liaison for the group, I had to keep watch by the door for any movement by administrators or the police.

After about forty minutes, we were informed that the chancellor would like to meet with us and anyone else that we would like present. We invited the USAS faculty adviser, an organizer for AFSCME (the service-workers union on our campus), and a worker to join us. When asked to move to a larger conference room, we insisted that the meeting could be held in the chancellor’s office and that we would not move. In the meeting, we reiterated our demands to the chancellor, who read a statement emphasizing her commitment to “process” — a slap in the face to those of us who consider the process by which the UC is considering the DSP to be disempowering to students.

The meeting with Chancellor Cordova ended in a stalemate, and our group remained in her office when the chancellor left for an off-campus meeting. We sit-in participants went back and forth between chanting inside the office and on the balcony outside. Having access to the chancellor’s balcony allowed us to communicate our appreciation to those rallying in support outside (much to the dismay of the administration, who threatened to have the fire martial block our access to the balcony out of “concern for our safety”). By 1 p.m., over 200 students had amassed in the courtyard below the chancellor’s office.

Throughout the day, we had huddled strategy sessions, came up with new chants, napped, got updates from Berkeley, spoke to the press, ate food we had packed (as well as pizza left over from administrative meetings that went well into the night), and even came up with our own rendition of the classic “the song that never ends.” But our sit-in did eventually end when, after several appeals from university administrators and the police chief that we leave, ten of us were arrested, cited and released — almost twelve hours after beginning our protest. Dozens of supporters were waiting outside to cheer us on as we exited the administration building, citations in hand.

Although our action came to an end, this struggle is far from over. On Wednesday, approximately 50 students rallied outside of the administration building again to demand that the UC adopt the DSP and that charges against us be dropped. I’m also told that on Thursday students at UC-San Diego staged a “pseudo sit-in” in the office of their chancellor, who came out in support of the DSP and expressed this support to UC president Robert Dynes. With students from at least five UC campuses taking part in these actions, the promise of more actions to come, and victories on campuses across the United States, we remain hopeful that the UC will back up the lip service it often pays to the rights of workers and set an example for other universities and colleges to follow.

To take action in support of the DSP and UC students arrested in these actions, please visit Union Voice.

Read more on recent student-labor activism at The NewStandard.

—Christine Petit

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 15th, 2006 at 3:05 pm by Jessica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.