[Currents header graphic]

February 16, 1998

Campus hosts daylong forum on global sweatshops

By Francine Tyler

The rise of the global economy has led to an explosion of manufacturing relying on sweatshops and child labor in non-western countries--altering family and community life in those countries and motivating international boycotts and human rights campaigns.

Scholars and activists will take a look at the problems posed by globalization at a daylong forum on Wednesday, February 25, at UCSC. The forum, "What Price Fashion? The Campaign Against Global Sweatshops," takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Oakes College Learning Center. It is free and open to the public. (See schedule.)

Mary Beth Pudup, an associate professor of community studies, said the forum's panel discussions and presentations will help bring "a scholarly approach to a topic that carries an enormous emotional freight."

UC Santa Cruz faculty, scholars from other universities, and prominent national activists on the issue of sweatshops will speak at the event. The program also includes a daylong presentation of videos on the topic in the nearby Guzman Room.

The forum was organized by the Faculty Labor Action Committee with support from the Departments of Community Studies, Sociology, Environmental Studies, and History of Consciousness; the Center for Global, International, and Regional Studies; and Oakes College, College Eight, and Merrill College. For more information, call Mary Beth Pudup at (408) 459-3516 or send e-mail to pudup@cats.ucsc.edu.


To the Currents home page

To UCSC's home page