Sweatshop Protesters Threatened with Suspension

Isn't this (0.00 / 0)

how it usually works?  One violation (in 2007 apparently?) is a slap on the wrist, more than one involves an investigation.  

I'm not suggesting that these students aren't being, to some extent, unfairly targeted, but I think your run-of-the-mill plagiarizer lives under the same standards at the university.    

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by: Anna @ Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 16:38:55 PM CDT

I used to see fistfights in the hallways of my dorm get less attention (0.00 / 0)

This is bullshit.  A suspension for what?  A little egg in the eye of the UM administration?  Now that I come to think of it, there have been major criminal incidents related to campus property or affiliated groups that have received less scrutiny.  What an embarrassment.  

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by: Nick Domitrovich @ Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 16:55:06 PM CDT

Excuse me, but (0.00 / 0)

Isn't part of engaging in civil disobedience being willing to accept the consequences of your actions?  And it is a bit tawdry to suggest that these students face (gasp!) possible sanction because of their principled stand.  They face penalties for unlawfully taking over state property, not for opposing sweatshops.

(That same line of thinking, suffering for moral principle and all, could be used to defend Randy Weaver or the Freemen.  Oh wait, it is ...)

And, just as an aside, wouldn't it be appropriate at this point to provide contact information for those wishing to politely influence the Dean of Students UM, and the rest of the administration?  Or at the very least, ASUM?

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by: Wulfgar @ Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 19:22:02 PM CDT

Sure -- and the students can accept the consequences of their actions (0.00 / 0)

I think they're unreasonable. And they do face penalties for their willingness to stand by their principles (as did the Freemen -- that's also true).

I think it makes sense to see what principles people are fighting for before casting your lot with them. I don't agree with the Freemen principles, so I'm a lot less sympathetic to their case. I do agree with Gandhi's principles, so I was more sympathetic to his case.

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by: Matt Singer @ Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 10:55:59 AM CDT

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The government must be protected from citizens at all costs!-- (0.00 / 0)

or Ronald Reagan served eight years for no purpose at all...

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by: jed @ Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 20:21:21 PM CDT

He did (0.00 / 0)

What's your point?

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by: Wulfgar @ Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 21:08:42 PM CDT

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Sheltering executives from protestors (0.00 / 0)

is one of the results of the ongoing industrialization of our governance.  A process which has been increasingly shored up and underwitten by both parties since 1981.
If leftists are not going to object to the niceties which sanction protest--who is?  
Your post sounded like something I would expect from mollusk; but is becoming more and more the fare of doily progressives, who are apparently more concerned with appearance than with progressive justice...  

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by: jed @ Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 22:11:57 PM CDT

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The only questions I have here are: (0.00 / 0)

How many more students have to get arrested before the UM administration decides to listen?

10? 100? 1,000? How about a week-long student body walkout? How many students are willing to accept the risk of getting suspended to stand up for their beliefs? How many students actually support the actions of hose arrested? At some point the administration will have to buckle under demands to change its policies, if student support is there.

The only real question here is, who blinks first in the face of escalating CD?

Do other students at UM think that the administration's attempts at using suspensions to quell dissent to be a good thing? Will the administration's tactics backfire, and ignite further protest? I don't know. We'll see how committed the UM student body is to these issues.

And as usual with CD, let's not let the media's spotlight on the conflict outshine the issue itself. Once the conflict has raised the target's and the media's attention (which usually is a goal of CD), then it is time to move in and amplify the issue and gain public support, not chase the conflict.

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by: JC @ Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 11:53:02 AM CDT

Weighty hyperbole aside (0.00 / 0)

There has been as much obfuscation of the issue right here on the web as there has been in any other media.  The progressive websites are painting this as if the UM administration wants to support sweat-shops and the students are bravely struggling against that grave immorality.  Balderdash!

The U of M has signed agreement with the Worker's Rights Consortium.  Do I need to repeat that? The U of M has signed agreement with the Worker's Rights Consortium. If "the issue" is that the UM stands against sweat-shop labor, then it's done.  The UM has accepted the students' demands and stands against sweat-shop labor. So, obviously, that isn't the issue, is it?

The issue is this:  the students are demanding that the University agree to a program that

a)  is probably unnecessary,
b)  is certainly expensive,
c)  could be illegal (a violation of anti-trust law),
and d) Dennison has already agreed to examine for feasibility and impact.

Put another way, the students are not supporting a noble cause as much as demanding that they get their way, regardless of consequence or responsible alternatives.  They aren't seeking discussion; they are demanding that Dennison sign on to the DSP, period.  Rather than likening these students to great civil rights leaders of the past, it appears more accurate to liken them to the child in the super market who holds his breath until he gets a candy bar.

Now, that having been clarified, as to 'the justice' of the proposed penalties against these students, I would like to point out (since I seem to have done it poorly before) that for activism to have any impact, it needs to turn sentiment into action for those who witness the drama.  That would be us.  Instead of bitching about this episode on the web, how 'bout we have contact information to apply pressure on authority on behalf of these students?  So far, the only contact info I've been able to find is to ASUM.  Howzabouts those of you more intimately involved here help us (and the students) out by helping us to help them?  I don't want to see anybody get kicked out of school for standing up for what's right (even if I think they're being foolish about it.)

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by: Wulfgar @ Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 14:21:34 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

And most white southerners felt the black protesters were similar (0.00 / 0)

to the child in the super market who holds his breath until he gets a candy bar, wulfie.  
They were all in favor of allowing blacks to have civil rights if they were willing to be patient and wait for more propitious times.
The same could have been said for those who were in the streets protesting the war in Nam.  Better they should have waited for MacNamara and Johnson or Nixon and Kissinger to follow the more decorous methods?

No question about it.  Ask any Reagan Democrat.  Decorum is very important to a sophisticated society...

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by: jed @ Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 19:58:13 PM CDT

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