Mere Labor, Dr. Boghossian

Columbia University students sit in to protest university subcontracting to garment industry sweatshops (via USAS):

FROM OUR STUDENTS AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Today, students sit in Low Library
(the Office of the President) to demand that Columbia square its policies with
its values. We are sitting-in to demand that Columbia adopt the Designated
Suppliers Program, mandating that our collegiate apparel be made in factories
where workers have democratic representation and to which companies pay enough
to allow workers to negotiate for a living wage from management. We presented
this proposal to Columbia in September and they have failed to act, though ten
other universities already have. We have sat through countless meetings and
navigated all possible channels through the university bureaucracy. President
Bollinger claims to support "the goal of promoting basic fairness in wages,
working conditions, and a voice for workers," but he refuses to take the
practical steps necessary to make sure those goals are met. We sit asking
President Bollinger to live up to his own values. While we sit, thousands of
students, workers, and immigrants rally across the country today in support of
immigrant rights. They march for respect, justice, and hope. We sit, also, in
support of them and in support of their families. They left their countries
looking for a better life, in part, because they live in countries with jobs
that offered poor wages, working conditions, and little respect. By fighting for
the Designated Suppliers Program and a Sweat-free campus, we sit in solidarity
with their struggles.
We hope that President Bollinger joins the presidents
of Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, and Syracuse in
their support of the Designated Suppliers Program. Columbia University
Administration:President Bollinger: bollinger@columbia.edu,
212.854.9970

Roger Toussaint is sentenced to ten days in jail. This is unjust and outrageous. The Taylor law needs to go.

And who knows how many hundreds of thousands of people were with me downtown this afternoon in the latest iteration of what may be, as far as I know, the first mass uprising of undocumented workers in this country's history? There were 500,000 people in Dallas yesterday! (italics for emphasis, not to denote the TV show of the same name.) Here's what Bread and Roses has to say about it:http://nerdsforgsoc.blogspot.com/2006/04/estamos-aqui-y-no-vamos.html.

(LA)