SOLE was launched into the public eye yet again following the sit-in. It also made sweatshops a hot topic on campus. The issue is unavoidable: University apparel, from hoodies to baseball caps, are produced amidst gross human rights abuses and labor law violations. SOLE advocates the “Designated Suppliers Program,” an initiative to relocate production of collegiate apparel to pre-approved factories.

Although many major universities have signed on – including the entire California state system and the University of Wisconsin-Madison – Ann Arbor’s administration has long been dragging its heels. The arrest, unprecedented in recent years, came as a surprise. President Coleman’s explicit refusal to participate in an open dialogue was also puzzling for a group whose sit-ins regularly produced agreeable outcomes. A 1999 sit-in under former president Lee Bollinger yielded a Code of Conduct for licensees in-line with SOLE’s demands.

The following year, another sit-in resulted in affiliation with the Workers’ Rights Consortium, an NGO that monitors conditions in UM-apparel-producing factories. It was natural for SOLE to expect a positive response from both Coleman and the Regents who espouse progressive values in theory, if not in practice. Then again, the president is a career anti-activist who took similar action against protesters during her tenure at the University of Iowa. While administrators didn’t acquiesce to student requests, Coleman’s antics landed the story in newspapers around the world.

Backlash from this violation of the right to non-violent protest has translated into increased support for the DSP. Unions wanting to support freedom of association abroad as well as at home rallied around the arrested students. Donations rolled in from organized labor, various other allies, and even two regents, allowing the students to pay off a collective $6,120 in court costs and fines. Such generous solidarity only strengthened SOLE’s drive to speak out for the too-often voiceless population of campus workers.

We are beginning to work in solidarity with those in Michigan who enthusiastically support this struggle, and continue to fight against sweatshops. SOLE’s advocacy is thriving at home and abroad. Locally, SOLE is in solidarity with the Graduate Employees’ Organization, who represents the university’s GSIs and other graduate employees, as they negotiate their new contract with the university. We hope the University bargains in good faith and we are prepared to work with GEO to make sure this happens.

To build ties with other campus workers and to thank them for their support following the arrests, SOLE held an employee appreciation breakfast in the lobby of the business school, and there is another planned for early March 2008.To further increase awareness about justice for workers, we co-sponsored, with Migrant Immigrant Rights Awareness and the Inter-Humanitarians’ Council, a Human Rights lecture by Ian Robinson on immigrant rights issues.

On February 21, we will be screening a powerful documentary on garment workers in China called “China Blue.” In the longer term, SOLE is preparing to work against a Michigan ballot initiative with the Orwellian title “Right to Work.” The initiative would make it harder to unionize and undermine organized labor in the state of Michigan. We will also advocate a ballot initiative that will charge the Michigan legislature with ensuring affordable healthcare for all. While Coleman’s decision to arrest SOLE members was a setback, we continue to move forward and organize for all workers to be treated fairly and with dignity.