Sneaker Scumbags

Dennis R Redmond dredmond at oregon.uoregon.edu
Tue May 2 15:37:46 PDT 2000


On Tue, 2 May 2000, Doug Henwood crossposted:


> Financial Times - May 2, 2000
> Jagdish Bhagwati argues that 'anti-sweatshop' protesters' strong-arm
> tactics will undermine their own cause
>
> They could not be more wrong. In fact, Mr Knight has drawn attention
> to two facts that seem to have escaped the public view. First, a tiny
> minority of students who are captive to unions have acted in the name
> of social responsibility to advance an agenda, both illegitimate and
> narrow, that will harm the countries and workers they claim to assist.
>
> Second, their tactics, which have consisted of intimidation and
> outright militancy, are reminiscent of the protests against the World
> Trade Organisation in Seattle last year. There have been no real
> policy debates on campuses, nor have there been any voting procedures
> that are truly democratic.

Truly hilarious. Really, Phil "Toejam" Knight and Bhagwati are just a gift from the gods to the global Left. They're worse than greedy, they're positively *dim*.

Here at the University of Oregon, the Worker's Rights Consortium was approved after a lengthy, yearlong debate on enforcing anti-sweatshop standards for UO clothing. There were committees and meetings, more meeting and more committees. The student government overwhelming approved the WRC. The Faculty Senate approved the WRC. The Administration stonewalled for awhile, until students set up a tent city and got themselves arrested en masse in front of Johnson Hall, until finally the UO signed on. Tons of democracy all over the place.

Nike, mind you, made $451 million on revenues of $8.8 billion last year, and has made around $5 billion in profits since 1990. Out of that vast revenue stream, Toejam has deigned to present $50 million in donations to the UO, an invisible speck on the investment income of his total wealth.

This is the first year I've taught classes at the U of O where my students are prompting *me* with radical critiques of capitalism. There's still a few neocons out there, but suddenly, there's this deep, impassioned *anger* at the lords of the global marketplace, at the vile hypocrisy of sneaker merchants who say "Just Do It" and then turn around and fuck your school. Scuttlebutt is that the Athletic Department at the U of O was actually one of the strongest supporters of the WRC, despite the fact they get all this money from Toejam. They make their living by selling sports entertainment, and they know that the sweatshop issue is a timebomb waiting to explode in their faces. As we proceed to halftime, the score is Basketball Socialism 1, Sneaker Slavery 0.

-- Dennis



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