Fair Trade vs Free Trade...

Sweatshop sportswear at UW Madison
Fed up with what they called a series of insults from the UW-Madison chancellor's office, four members of the UW Labor Licensing Committee tendered their resignations Monday. University officials, however, are calling the dispute a "disagreement over policy options."

At odds are the University's reaction to a proposal from the advisory committee that would have required the university to track when companies make moves to abandon any facilities in which workers are organizing and move their production somewhere else.

"It has become clear at this point that Chancellor Wiley is not listening to students or faculty and this committee is a total sham," said former committee member and UW-Madison sophomore Joel Feingold. "[The committee is] a front for the university to make it look good, to make it look like it cares about sweatshop issues where, as far as we can tell ... [Wiley] doesn't care."

The proposal would allow the University to track whether the companies were no longer in compliance with UW-Madison's Code of Conduct for licensees, according to Feingold.

On March 22, 2005 Jeffrey Sachs spoke to the World Bank in Washington DC. He advised the delegates to read the Monteray Consensus... and to ask any nominee for the role of World Bank President if they subscribe to the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

Described therein are a collection of basic human rights including the right for all global citizens to health, sanitation, water, education... "The eradication of extreme poverty is not only a moral imperitive but is in the best interests of all nations," says Sachs.

The US contribution to end global poverty is at 0.15% of GNP - the lowest donor nation of all nations in the world. The UN goal is to generate 0.7% in assistance by the year 2015.