So, Porgressive Student Allinace is still going strong at College of the Canyons. I know it's been so long since we wrote anything it probably seemed like we were inactive, but in fact we have been winning this campaign of ours and are that much closer to getting the COC clothes and merchandise sold in the school book store to be sweatshop free.
Progressive Student Alliance had a "festival of justice" a few months ago. We had a panel discussion on labor organizing on May Day. These represent the pinnacle of our activities for the semester coming to an end. We tabled a bit to try to get some attention for our activities, but our contact list already comprises so many dozens of names, it was more important to get everything organized as far as club events.
I don't know what the future holds for this club, but there are plenty of issues that press the student body. This fall, we'll see what the students want to fight for on campus.
Howdy! I know it's been ages since everyone out there was updated on PSA's happenings, but you know, we all get busy...So anyway as it stands now we have a pretty good chance of getting a meeting with the superintendent of COC, Dr. Diane van Hook, in order to propose the idea of our school signing on to the Workers' Rights Consortium. We had a very good first event last week with the Festival of Justice, as well, a peaceful happening that included drum circle, music, and selling quesidillas in order to raise money for the club. We made a little more money than we spent on the food, and got a major amount of students to sign the petition we are presenting in front of administration. Despite most people not being interested in getting COC a Workers Rights Consortium college, it would be better for all involved if our campaign was won sooner rather than later. There are many other issues out there for PSA to fight.
We've had a few meetings sonce that first one in January, and so far we've decided to scale down and concentrate on the essential ingredients of gaining support for our campaign: tabling, speaking to classes, and having multiple events. We are hopefully going to meet with Dr. Dianne van Hook soon to ask her if COC can be signed on to the Workers Rights' Consortium, and if she says no, the pressure will start. Our plan is to gain allies in high places, to hold peaceful demonstrations in solidarity with sweatshop labourers, and things like that. It all depends on how much student support there is...
Progressive Student Alliance met yesterday for the first time this new year of 2008. We came out of that meeting with fresh insight into the plight of Bangla-Desh sweatshop workers and with renewed vigour to do all we can this semester to win our campaign to get College of the Canyons to sign on as a member of the Workers' Rights Consortium. We will hopefully come up with some useful strategies for getting the administration to see our way as far as the WRC goes, and not have to resort to hunger strikes and sit-ins to get our campaign fulfilled. Last semester was successful in that the group got it's name out there, built a contact list, and hosted a few events that raised awareness about the situation worldwide when it comes to sweatshops. We will have better events this Spring semester! We will gain members until College of the Canyons joins the Workers' Rights Consortium, and the clothes bearing the school logo are no longer made by people with no voice to change their working conditions.
IN the midst of what has been going on in our area recently, it would be easy to pack up and go home. Say good bye to the campaign we were working on this semester, and forget about more evnts this fall. Hopefully though it won't come to that. Hopefully all the students that have been affected by these fires can rebuild and move on with their plans. So, we are still committed to getting College of the Canyons to sign on to the Consortium. It might take longer than it would've normally, but it should happen. Especially because it seems like more and more things are coming to light in my own life about how I need to take action against these forces I don't agree with. What a better time than now to think about change when disaster strikes and change is on the air. We held a movie night a few weeks ago and showed a doc about Walmart called "the High Cost of Low Prices." That was an eye-opener as well. The country and our whole society are on different roads of decline and disaster unless we change the system from within. Where can me and my fellow students start: with our college. Sustaining things and supporting equality and justice are the things we advocate. Let us take steps to ensure thsoe things don't burn up like so many trees.
Progressive Student Alliance decided to play "The High Cost of Low Prices" this week on Friday for the viewing pleasure of the College of the Canyons student body. It will be our second movie night and let's hope it's a hit. Our outreach campaign is going slow but it has been a busy week for all involved so that's okay. We've been tabling and we will continue to table to get more support for our campaign.
As the fall semester of 2007 at C.O.C. comes to about a mid-point, the Progressive Student Alliance is just gearing up to be active as far as hosting some events and raising awareness about our campaign for this year. Our first movie night went well, with about 25 - 35 people coming out to watch "The Take," a documentary about workers organizing collective ownership of various factories that closed during the economic collapse of Argentina in the late 1990s. It was extremely interesting to see what labor politics are like in a place like Argentina. I was also surprised that the factories ran so smoothly without the interference of the companies that had once owned them or government regulatory aparatii. Our goals this fall include trying to get our college to become a member school of the Workers' Rights Consortium, which would guarantee the clothes that get sold in our school store becoming globally fair products. As usual with a campus organization, we are always optimistic about new members coming on board at all points during the semester. Other than that, our second movie night will be held next week, and we will be planning the final touches to our outreach process tomorrow at a meeting.
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