Progressives
push for rights
By Tina Page
On-line Forty-Niner
Worker’s
rights, racism, social justice, sexism and
religious tolerance are just a few of the
issues that concern the Campus Progressives,
Cal State Long Beach’s social action club.
Founded in 2000, the Campus Progressives
has accomplished numerous goals within the
two years it has existed on campus.
The club considers one of its strongest
victories to be their influence on President
Maxson’s decision to have CSULB join the
Worker’s Rights Consortium.
“Last year, we organized a campaign to make
President Maxson aware of the plight of
sweatshop workers,” Jeb Sprague, a Campus
Progressive member said. “We had a speaker’s
corner and we handed out fliers. Due to
our influence, Maxson signed CSULB up with
the Worker’s Rights Consortium.”
To join the Worker’s Rights Consortium,
a member school must agree to their Code
of Conduct, which ensures that the factories
that produce clothing or any other product
bearing the school’s name respect the basic
rights of their workers, the Workers Rights
Consortium Web site said.
The Campus Progressives was originally founded
by a group of students called “Students
For Nader” who were supporting 2000 presidential
candidate Ralph Nader, when he was campaigning
at CSULB.
“Once the election ended, we decided to
continue to grow into a broader-based organization
for social and political awareness and activism,”
the Campus Progressives’ Web site explained.
With an e-mail list of over 100 people and
an active think tank of about ten to fifteen
members, the club has tackled controversial
issues such as anti-corporate globalization
and U.S. policy to sell arms to the Columbian
government, one of the world’s biggest human
rights abusers, club members said. The club
members also risked expulsion from school
due to their support of the teacher’s union
last year.
“The California Chancellor’s Office sent
us a letter threatening to expel us all
if we publicly supported the teacher’s union,”
Sprague said. “We had a meeting and we all
decided that we were willing to suffer the
consequences and go down as martyrs if it
brought more publicity to the issue.”
The club considers its two most pressing
issues to be the anti-war movement and addressing
Taco Bell’s alleged abuse of its tomato
pickers in Florida.
The Campus Progressives is working with
other organizations such as the Long Beach
Area Peace Network, a group that just recently
set up a booth at the CSULB International
Week, to get the word out and organize peace
rallies in the Long Beach area.
“Our next rally, held on Dec.5, on campus
is a joint effort with many different groups
who make up the Campus Coalition Against
the War On Iraq,” Sprague said. “We will
have three speakers and a rally to show
our solidarity against the war on Iraq.”
The Campus Progressives run their organization
based on the Zapatista principles. This
means that there is not one leader and that
everyone involved has an equal opportunity
to voice their opinions and promote issues
that they feel are important.
“Our main impact on this campus is to show
student support for workers’ rights and
to show that students care about things
and want to organize,” Sprague said.
This club prides itself for being one of
the most diverse in terms of race, religion,
social background and major choice. Many
of its members go on to work for unions
and jobs within the social justice sector.
The Campus Progressives holds their one-hour
meetings at 1 pm on Wednesday’s in USU 309.
There is no membership fee to join or to
get added to their e-mail list.
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