Educating for Justice

Yesterday, in my home state of NJ, the Department of Environmental Protection issued, “an expanded statewide drought watch, asking all state residents to voluntarily conserve water due to continued hot and dry conditions that have persisted all summer, and are taxing reservoir, stream and groundwater levels.”

Reservoirs, streams, and the groundwater table cannot conserve themselves, so this event is a very healthy reminder of God’s call to each of us to be stewards of the environment.

What can we do?

The NJ DEP is calling upon citizens to join the conservation effort by, “limiting lawn watering, cutting back on at-home car washing, and just doing the laundry when the machine is full.”  These three simple actions alone can save “millions of gallons of water daily,” says NJ DEP Commissioner, Bob Martin.

Why should we do this?

Water is essential for all life – humans, animals and plants.  Given that plants and animals cannot conserve water (nor do they waste it), it would seem that the moral responsibility to take action falls on us and we must approach this call for conservation with an absolute passion and Christ-like zeal.

We are reminded of our responsibility to do this in the groundbreaking book, “Ecology and Liberation,” by Brazilian theologian, Leonardo Boff.  Boff tells us that, “The world does not belong to humanity.  It belongs to God, its creator.  But the world is assigned to humanity to till and keep.  Therefore the relationship the human being enjoys with the creation is essentially one of responsibility; it is an ethical relationship.”

What does this mean?

In this case, it means that you and I must not waste any water.  The NJ DEP has given us their short list of actions to take (see above), to which I would add: turn off the faucet when you are brushing your teeth; limit your showers to less than five minutes; and if you’re washing dishes by hand, don’t leave the water running while you’re scrubbing.

If we take these actions and we can end this drought together, perhaps we will gain the praise of all God’s creation.  “The mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. All this will be a memorial for the Lord.”  Isaiah 55:12-13

Yesterday student activists won arguably the most impressive victory in the more than fifteen fight to end Nike’s sweatshop abuses. The “Just Pay It” campaign, run by the United Students Against Sweatshops, under the leadership of USAS staffer, Rod Palmquist, forced Nike to the bargaining table and got them to do something they have refused to do to date – take financial responsibility for the welfare of Nike’s subcontracted workforce.

At issue was $2.2 million dollars in severance and back pay due to approximately 1,800 Honduran workers who had been producing Nike products for the college bookstore market.

Here is an excerpt from the joint statement released by Nike and the trade union federation (CGT) that was representing the workers.

Nike and CGT are concerned for the workers in Honduras and have agreed to take important steps to support former employees of Hugger and Vision Tex. Through this agreement, Nike will contribute to a workers relief fund of $1.5 million to be administered jointly by CGT, the Solidarity Center, the Worker Rights Consortium and supervised by professor Lance Compa of Cornell University.

As someone who has fought this fight with Nike for more than a decade, I am so very grateful for what USAS and the Honduran workers have accomplished. This is truly a watershed moment. But now is not the time to rest on the laurels of this victory. We must analyze why it worked and develop plans duplicate its success. That is one of the mistakes that was made in the first go-around with Nike on these issues back in the late 90s. We had them on the ropes and we backed off. We cannot afford to do this again.

So, what were the key elements of the “Just Pay It” campaign that created the winning dynamic?

1. USAS picked and froze their target – Nike. This was not a generalized campaign against sweatshops, they did not go after “the industry.” Circumstances created a scenario where they focused on one company (Nike) in one country (Honduras).

2. USAS was clear in their demand – “Just Pay It.” There was no ambiguity to what they wanted from Nike. Workers were owed $2.2 million dollars and they wanted Nike to pay this amount. Because of this clear demand, they were not drawn into the subterfuge of public relations nonsense that Nike has been so successful at promoting over the years (Codes of Conduct, Corporate Social Responsibility, independent monitoring, etc.). Again, the demand was clearly laid on the table, “pay these Nike workers the $2.2 million dollars they are owed.”

3. USAS mobilized at the grassroots level. When Nike refused to meet their demand, the USAS ground forces mobilized workers, students, professors, non-profits, consumers, etc.

4. USAS made it fun and exciting. From small leafleting actions outside Niketowns, to creative demonstrations on college campuses, to bringing Honduran workers to the USA to tell their stories first hand; students had a blast taking on this corporate bully.

5. USAS held universities accountable to their public commitments. Students made excellent use of the foundation that had been laid by the first generation of USASers. If schools had licensing relationships with Nike AND belonged to the Worker Rights Consortium this meant that there was a framework for accountability. In accessing this framework, USAS was able to pressure the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University to cut ties with Nike over this issue. And had Nike not made the move they did yesterday, I am sure that other schools would have followed suit in the fall.

6. The Honduran workers were willing to fight and were wanting of the collaboration with students and consumers. I believe this was actually the linchpin of this campaign and will be the linchpin of future campaigns. These Nike workers, despite their fears and disappointments, were willing to stand up and fight. When they did, they inspired and empowered students and consumers to join them and the solidarity actions of the students and consumers then re-inspired and re-empowered workers. It was a fluid and symbiotic relationship that ultimately led to victory. Nike workers around the world must learn of this victory and know that there is an army willing to support and work with them when they are ready to fight.

Now that students have led the way, the task is laid before us – we must replicate this victory. Nike must be pressed in multiple factories and in multiple countries. The template has been created and now the work must be done.

Peace, Jim Keady

Here are the details about the event from the Garden State Equality website.

Meet at 7:00 pm in front of Garden State Equality’s Asbury Park office, 658 Cookman Avenue.   From there we’ll do a candlelight march through downtown Asbury Park, past the law office of Senator Sean Kean and then onto the Brickwall Annex for a free dinner.  We’ll distribute the free dinner tickets at the beginning of the candlelight march at Garden State Equality’s office, 658 Cookman Avenue, on a first come, first served basis.  Tickets for the free dinner will be limited to 80, the capacity of the Brickwall Annex.  This event is in the district of Senator Sean Kean, who voted no on the marriage equality bill.

As part of EFJ’s Jersey Shore Neighborhood Cooperative campaign to build community and economic activity where people and planet come first, we will be hosting a day-long series of workshops on Saturday, February 27, 2010 at Holy Spirit Church, 705 Second Ave, Asbury Park, NJ.  The workshops are being coordinated by EFJ’s JSNC Project Director, Djar Horn.

Here is the schedule for the day.

9:30AM COFFEE AND BAGELS

10:00AM WORKSHOP 1

* VISION AND VALUES OF A SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

* SUCCESSFUL SOLIDARITY ECONOMY PROJECTS

* DEFINING OUR SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

12:00PM LUNCH

12:30PM WORKSHOP 2

* HOW TO EVALUATE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY RESEARCH RESULTS AND COMMUNITY MAPPING

2:30PM BREAK

2:45PM WORKSHOP 3

* DEVELOPING COMMUNITY RESEARCH SKILLS

4:00PM WORKSHOP 4

* CREATING A WORK PLAN

4:30PM PREPARING AND SHARING A MEAL, MUSIC, CELEBRATING THE DAY

If you would like to attend the workshops, please contact Djar, at 732-682-1245, jsncooperative@gmail.com

THE MURDER OF EMMETT TILL

@ The Showroom -  708 Cookman Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ

February 23, 2010 @ 7pm

An $8 donation is requested to cover the cost of the program.

A discussion led by EFJ Director, Jim Keady, will immediately follow the film.

Film Description
In August of 1955, one year and three months after Brown v. Board of Education, a fourteen-year-old black boy unschooled in the racial customs of the South traveled to Mississippi to visit relatives. With adolescent bravado, he whistled at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman. This inadvertent violation of a sacred code of the South cost him his life. Two white men dragged Till from his bed in the dead of night, beat him, and shot him through the head. Three days later his mangled body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River. It was Emmett Till’s first visit to the South. Eight days after arriving in Money, Mississippi, where the town line was marked with a sign reading, “Money — a good place to raise a boy,” Emmett Till was dead.

If not for one extraordinary decision of Mamie Till, Emmett’s mother, the story may have ended there. At the urging of civil rights leaders, Mamie Till decided to leave the casket open at her son’s funeral. She told the mortician not to “fix” her son’s face. The world would see what had been done to him. Tens of thousands of people viewed Emmett Till’s body, which was on display in a Chicago church for four long days. Gruesome photos of his maimed and distorted face flooded the national and international press. America was shocked out of comfortable complacency, and the Till case became international news.

Two days after Till’s death, Carolyn Bryant’s husband and another white man were arrested and charged with his murder. During the trial the following month, the courthouse became a microcosm of race relations: black observers packed into the segregated balcony seats as the defendants’ families joked openly with prosecutors and jurors on the floor below. The courtroom took on a carnival atmosphere as snacks and soft drinks were distributed to white observers. Outside, the international press jockeyed for photographs and interviews that captured the ways of the American South.

Till’s uncle identified the assailants in court — the first time a black person had testified against a white in Mississippi, and perhaps in the South. He was forced to leave town. After a five-day trial that made an open mockery of the possibility of justice, the defendants were acquitted. The Bryants celebrated, on camera, with a smile and an embrace.

The federal government’s failure to intercede in the Till case led blacks and whites to realize that if change were to come, they would have to do it themselves. The murder of Emmett Till was a watershed in the development of the nascent movement for civil rights. Some historians describe it as the real spark that ignited broad-based support for the movement.

Three months and three days after Emmett Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began.

I write you with much hope, as there has not been a President in my lifetime that I believe understands and places high value on the work being done by people at the grassroots level to promote peace and justice in our world. I am an educator, organizer, and liberation theologian. It is from this grounding that I humbly request you consider the proposal put forth by Congressman Dennis Kucinich to create a Department of Peace.

Mr. President, you have the power to create a cabinet-level ministry whose sole focus would be to promote non-violent solutions to conflict. This would serve as a beacon of hope for the entire world.

Will there be resistance to this? Yes. Will you be mocked by the warmongers for taking this action? Yes. As a former community organizer, I am sure that meeting resistance and being mocked for the sake of righteousness are nothing new to you.

Mr. President, you publicly proclaimed and embraced your Christianity on the campaign trail. When Jesus’ told his followers to “love their enemies” and to “put down your swords,” he meant it. Now is the time for you to walk this talk, to lead our nation into a new era where peace and justice trump war and injustice.

As you consider this, you may have your personal doubts. You certainly will have advisors that will tell you that you would be crazy to attempt this-they will say that the nation is not ready for it. There were people a few short months ago that said our nation was not ready for a black President. We were. And now, as a nation, we are equally ready for the work of creating peace to be placed on equal footing in your Cabinet with defense, the economy, affairs of state, etc.

Mr. President, with regard to race, you are the fulfillment of Dr. King’s vision to have a nation where people are judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. You now have the opportunity to move us towards fulfilling Dr. King’s vision with regard to peace. King said, “It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.” I ask you, for the sake of our future and our children’s future, to establish the Department of Peace and lead us in this direction.

Thank you for consideration of this matter. I hope and pray this finds you well.

Peace,

Jim Keady, Director
Educating for Justice

CLICK HERE to learn more about TEAM SWEAT and the fight to end Nike’s sweatshop abuses

CLICK HERE to learn more about the KILLER COKE campaign

AMERICA: The National Catholic Weekly