Labor Alerts: a service of Campaign for Labor Rights

NIKE CAMPAIGN STRATEGY, PART 3: Campuses

This strategy paper addresses three questions which are in the thoughts of many campus sweatshop activists:

1. Is there a conflict between working on the Nike campaign and trying to get universities to adopt general standards for purchasing and licensing agreements?
2. If there is little expectation of being able to get universities to drop existing contracts with Nike, what is the use of making those contracts a focus of our Nike activism?
3. Should we worry if our numbers seem small in comparison with those who are apathetic or who actively oppose us?

QUESTION 1:

There is no conflict between these two efforts. They reinforce each other. The Nike campaign helps to bring out the human reality behind university purchasing/licensing agreements.

A victory in the Nike campaign is drawing closer. It would be a terrible shame if students simply dropped their Nike activism in favor of working on this other aspect of the sweatshop issue. The reason we have been able to get the attention of such a huge corporation as Nike is that human rights activists have persisted in pressuring Nike for years. This is no time to quit!

Campus activists who are working on the purchasing/licensing issue should be in close touch with UNITE garment workers union. They will help craft an agreement with real teeth so that you end up with something that has more than symbolic value. Campaign for Labor Rights will be happy to help you get in touch with UNITE if you would like contact information.

QUESTION 2:

Money-hungry athletic departments are unlikely to turn down lucrative contracts, no matter what sweatshop issues may be involved. Nor do college and university presidents seem worried about ethical considerations where profit is concerned. They will take the heat as long as they also can grab the cash.

But let's remember that there are two sides to this equation. The other side, of course, is Nike. Just like the athletic departments, Nike enters into these contracts to make a profit. In the past, these contracts have proved to be marketing bonanzas for the company.

In the weeks leading up to and following the first Nike Mobilization, which took place in October, Nike PR reps were racing back and forth across the country trying to put out the fires. Nearly all their stops were at campuses where Nike has contracts. That's a clear indicator of the anxiety with which Nike views campus agitation against those contracts.

Since the October mobilization, Nike sales and stock value have slid precipitously. Also, Nike recently sank megabucks into the 1998 Winter Olympics, which by all accounts proved to be a marketing disaster. Nike's big moment of the Olympics - the Nike endorser Kenyan cross country skier dragging himself last across the finish line - has been widely trashed as a tasteless publicity stunt. And Nike took a drubbing for its deal to have CBS newscasters wear the swoosh on camera.

The college contracts, which were meant to be Nike's marketing dream, are turning into a marketing nightmare for the company. Nike is spending multi-millions on these contracts and is buying itself more PR headaches.

Finally, this question brings us back to the first question. When we expose the details of real contracts with Nike (such as: how much personal profit some of these coaches stand to make and clauses limiting free speech) we help to build student indignation against unfettered corporate takeovers of campuses.

QUESTION 3:

It is always a minority who are passionate enough about a cause to become actively involved. Organized social movements have a much greater effect than the number of activists would seem to suggest. Nike knows that for every one of you who goes to a meeting or passes out a leaflet, there are many more who are concerned about sweatshops. Nike also knows that you reach people with your message. Never doubt your own power when you speak the truth with dignity.

That said, we have a responsibility to do things right, not to waste this opportunity for change. We need to find ways to reach out to others on our campuses and in our communities so that they will want to join our movement. We should criticize Nike without pushing away people who still are lured by the Nike PR machine. And we also need to work in coalition with other groups. Always look for opportunities to involve other organizations in the endorsement of events and give them prominent billing and time to speak at rallies. Think about the ways to diversify your constituency. Are you involving all of your potential allies: Asian student groups, Hispanic student groups, African American student groups, other progressive student groups on campus, concerned fraternity and sorority members, student professional associations, the graduate teachers association/union, concerned faculty, concerned athletes, the union(s) for classified staff, community groups, union locals? The movement to end sweatshop abuses has broad-based appeal.

[ NOTE: These questions are especially important as we draw closer to the April 18 International Nike Mobilization, which is part of the April Days of Action. On April 18, human rights advocates around the world will demonstrate in support of the rights of Nike production workers. In many U.S. communities, local activists will use the occasion to talk about building cross-border solidarity - in the Western Hemisphere and around the world - to resist the global corporate agenda, as embodied in NAFTA, GATT and the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. Activists in other countries also are invited to use their April 18 activities as a forum for discussing the trade agreements and policies which most affect their regions. The theme of this second International Nike Mobilization is "Hands across Borders." Activists in border areas will be forming human chains across the international barriers which divide worker from worker. In other cities, activists will form human chains between Nike outlets and other buildings implicated in the global sweatshop. Where physical location does not allow for linkages between actual buildings, activists can gather in front of Nike outlets to form human chains between large symbolic cardboard or plywood cut-outs. ]

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