HUMAN RIGHTS LAWS, Sweatshops, AND ACTIONS  

• USAS at NMSU Main Site (new window)
• USAS at NMSU In The News at New Mexico State (same window)
• Disarmament Links - good list (press here).

September 1999 Human rights on the Internet Sites that encourage activism by Elisa Mason. Guide to organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (click here).

• Coop America Anti-sweatshop link http://www.coopamerica.org/sweatshops/index.html Why support sweatshops and pesticide producers when you can support people and the planet. Go Green.
• The National Mobilization Against Sweatshops - Sweatshops are here, in the United States. http://www.nmass.org
• The World Crusade Against Sweatshops - http://www.senser.com/ 
• Academics Studying Nike (and Apparel Industry). http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/nike.html
• Clothes Encounters: Activists and economists clash over sweatshops
  by Liza Featherstone and Doug Henwood. LinguaFrancaVol 2 No. 2 March 20001 http://www.linguafranca.com/print/0103/cover_clothes.html

• Human Rights and Free Speech suppressed at Illinois State University by ISU United Students Against Sweatshops 8:33pm Wed Mar 21 '01

  mareede@ilstu.edu

  http://urbana.indymedia.org/active/news/display.php3?article_id=352 Disney is suppressing freedom of speech and trampling over students' rights. Tonight, approximately 30 people from ISU United Students Against Sweatshops and other activist groups gathered to protest Disney's internship recruiting program at Illinois State University. Carrying signs with phrases such as "The Wonderful World of Slavery" and "Disney Dream, Worker's Nightmare", we the protesters stood outside CVA 151, passing out fliers and informing potential interns about Disney's abysmal human rights record and horrific sweatshops in China, Haiti, etc. Some of the us had Mickey Mouse ears on; one protester came dressed as Mickey Mouse.

• HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE NEWS
• August 10, 2001 - BEFORE YOU DRINK THAT NEXT COKE
  • A lawsuit in Florida, charges that Coca- Cola's Colombian bottlers are working with death squads to kill, threaten, and intimidate plant workers.

    "Of every five trade unionists murdered in the world,  three are Colombian," said Kovalik.  He said more than 50 union leaders have been killed so far this year, including Oscar Dario Soto Polo, an employee and union official at a Coca-Cola plant in Monertia who was gunned down June 21. SOURCE:

    L A T I N    A M E R I C A    D A T A    B A S E NotiSur - South American Political & Economic Affairs  ISSN 1060-4189      Volume 11, Number 30     August 10, 2001
• April 15, 2001 Mexicans Paying Big Price for NAFTA  Critics examine free-trade lessons as summit nears by Linda Diebel, Toronto Star 

  Human Rights Critics according to Diebel and organizer Pedro Lopez face risk of being killed. STORY-
  CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Last month, union organizer Pedro Lopez was run off the road near the Mexican border city of Rio Bravo, and was lucky to survive with a smashed jaw, plastic surgery and a few days in hospital.

  ``It was pretty scary,´´ says Lopez, 22, who suspects that thugs from the government union tried to kill him as he was on his way home from a particularly nasty union vote at a factory in the Mexican Gulf state of Tamaulipas.

  ``They chased me and I lost control of my car when they rammed into me. I thought I was finished.´´

  Today, Lopez has come halfway across northern Mexico to Ciudad Juarez to meet a Canadian church delegation, here to examine the effects of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

  He tells them that, seven years into NAFTA and its promise of better labour conditions, workers still lack legal protection to fight the big government-controlled unions that wield such enormous power.

  ``I am afraid, yes,´´ says Lopez, who knows activists who oppose powerful interests get themselves killed in Mexico.