Aramark, which provides us with "food" on campus, it seems has been involved with a major labor dispute with UNITE HERE in New York.

"There is no greater example of income inequality in American society than the Goldman Sachs cafeteria," Mr. Raynor said, adding that average employee compensation at Goldman Sachs was $660,000 last year, while employees in the company cafeteria typically are paid about $21,000 a year. "Aramark is in the middle of this equation, and as an owner and as a client Goldman Sachs needs to get Aramark to do the right thing."

What do you think?

Hat Tip to Art from SDS.

ARC is on the move.

There have been a lot of great things happening at ARC. I have to apologize for not blogging about them more.

Funding
This past Sunday, we brainstormed funding sources outside of F-board. Here are some of the things ARC members came up with:

• Brandeis Pluralism Alliance - Gives out grants relating to pluralism and diversity.
• Ethics Center - contact Marci McPhee (mcphee@brandeis.edu or ethicscenter@brandeis.edu to contact the admin).
• Student Union Social Justice Grants
• Local businesses. See especially: Franco's and Prime Deli. I'm told they really love Brandeis students.

Those are just some of the resources you came up with. The full list will be on the website soon. (I hope!)

Media
Two weeks ago, we had a great chat with representatives from The Hoot and The Justice. We discussed the entire production process of both newspapers from story to print. We had a conversation about misquotes, ethics and getting our activist events in the paper. Notes from those meetings will be on the website soon as well.

Sorry for the spotty updating -- I'm trying to do better in the future!

Is your club thinking about getting t-shirts or other apparel? The Brandeis Labor Coalition has a great list of sweatshop free clothing lines.

Here you go!

Justice Clothing discounts on non-profit bulk orders http://www.justiceclothing.com

Just Garments Union location: El Salvador
Factory prefer orders above 2000
http://www.justgarments.net

T.S. Designs sweatshop free Retailer
Shirts only
http://www.tsdesigns.com

No Sweat
Apparel-student, wholesale discount http://www.nosweatapparel.com

Garyline
Accessories - mugs, key rings, bottle openers, etc. http://www.garyline.com/

American Apparel
No union but provides good employee benefits, fair wages, etc. http://americanapparel.net

Maggie Organics
Worker owned co-op
Organic, environmentally friendly apparel http://www.organicclothes.com/prods.asp?productID=76

Protexall
Mostly work uniforms
http://www.protexallinc.com/

Ben Davis
"Working class chic" work clothes - overalls, etc. http://BenDavis.com

Union Jean and Apparel Company
Shirts, Fleece, Denim
http://Unionjeancompany.com

Best2Win
Campaign products (union-made picket signs, etc) http://Best2win.com

Sidenote: No Sweat prices for apparel seem to be the most reasonable, American Apparel is a good second choice if you disregard their sexual harassment charges. BLC has no experience with the rest of the list, but compiled the list from off the Internet and stealing companies from other school's Union-made/Sweatfree lists.


Know anybody else that practices fair labor practices and makes awesome clothing? Let us know in the comments!

The Justice focused on the Activist Resource Center in their piece about arming the Brandeis police with guns. ARC wants to acknowledge and affirm the Justice's accurate reporting of events and opinions as they unfolded.

The minutes from our Sunday meeting.

Please comment if you have anything to add, share, or want the general activist community to know about.

ARC Minutes
September 16, 2007

Meeting begins at 8:08pm
Facilitation – rotate within ARC Org.

Agenda: Intros/what each group is doing – ARC Event

-Breakout group: if somebody is doing an event that others might want to be involved in, meetup

-Problems/concerns

-What we’re doing next week

-Check-out

In attendance: Rivka –Dems., Katherine: SPA, Ari: ARC, Art: SDS, Jessica: Trisk, Aaron: Trisk, Maya: SEA, Lily: ARC, Sarah: ARC, Ben: DFA, John: Rottenberg Center & Sensible Drug Policy, Jake: STAND, Michelle: FMLA, Max: BLC, Rachel: BLC, Claire: BLC

There were many good sandwiches discussed at this meeting.

Events:

Jake (STAND): Stand no longer an acronym. Bring in a speaker from Sudan, Darfur stoves event coordinating with SEA, Dream for Darfur – a torch relay signifying the torch relay in China to attack China’s image.

Michelle (FMLA): First meeting on Thursday. Getting involved with Waltham community. Workshops?

Claire (BLC): Strategic planning session soon. Meeting with workers coming soon. No Sweat campaign and fair trade campaign. Mock sweatshop? Meeting with workers twice a month.

Art (SDS): hearing on CORI – going to Boston. September 18. Not had a meeting yet, continuing to make changes to structure. 1 page zine to help educate campus. Few returning members.

Rivka (Dems): Fundraising for organizing and for next year’s presidential race. Use the money to team up with other groups. In two weeks hoping to get together with Carpenter’s to do a fundraiser. Hopefully bringing speakers like Gov. Patrick

Katherine (SPA): National conference in mid October . On Tuesday there will be a big visibility campaign including domestic issues. 7pm showing a movie about day of peace. Sep. 23^rd is national day of peace. Ghandi’s grandson coming to Brandeis!

Ben (DFA): Healthcare – healthcare horror stories forum? Brandeis campus workers having problems with healthcare? Some sort of action mobilizing about arming the Brandeis cops.

Aaron (TRISK): Tuesday – pizza party Sept. 18 2-4pm. Luigi Ferrer speaking about HIV/AIDS and other things, trans brandeis getting bathrooms to be gender neutral (just to say “restroom”. Working on getting speakers on things of interest. Waltham House? QRC is starting a “club raps” going to various clubs educating about terms and issues.

Maya (SEA): the Prez signed the climate commitment, maeans that Brandeis is beginning process of becoming climate neutral, signed by deadline of yesterday.

John (Rottenberg Ctr): Working on talking to media outlets, working with College Dems.

Sensible drug policy: Working for end of drug war in US, looking to have event with speakers

Break out sessions – different groups coordinating together about what they can work on.

For next week: Talk about Strengths and Deltas for next week & set up group of people for the Activist fair?

10am club resource room – Student Union Romper Rm

We had a great first meeting!

Representatives from a wide spectrum of the Brandeis activist community came together last night to meet fellow activists, discuss the liaison meetings and set the foundation for ARC for the rest of the semester. I was especially thrilled that a few freshmen -- Lev and Liza (sp?) -- with a new club decided to attend as well. They're using ARC to meet seasoned activists and get ideas about how to organize on campus against the abuse of children at a facility in Canton, MA.

At the meeting we discussed what ARC would mean to the liaisons/ what we will do, how the meetings would be structured, let the others know about upcoming September events, how the activities fair/first meeting went, and wrapped up.

On FAQs:

I'm working on putting together some Frequently Asked Questions on how to effectively start an activist organization here at Brandeis. But I want your input! What challenges have you faced when you started a group? What things took you some time to figure out how to do? What do you want to know?

It should go without saying that any answers we'll provide are general--the nature of every club is different. Some of these questions are just questions for you to think about when you're starting or maintaining a club. Here are some basic questions that I hope will be answered on the FAQ:

The basics
-How do I register my new club? (The union's response can be found here, but we hope to give you a better sense of the time/effort it takes.
-What is the real difference between a recognized, chartered and secured club? What are the pros and cons of each?
-Writing a constitution is mandatory for a club. But, how much do people really pay attention to constitutions? What's the benefit of a well crafted constitution and how do I make one?
-How do I get funding for ...?
-Where do I go to reserve a room in...?
-When and where is the activities fair? What are some strategies to get more people to sign up for my club at the Activities Fair?

Club Organization
-What are some different models of club organization? What does it mean to be "bottom up," as opposed to "top down"? Should my club have an e-board?
-What are some interesting ways to organize on facebook, and other social networking sites?

Club Sustainability
-The first few meetings of my club went really well, but as the semester goes on, attendance drops. What are some ways to boost attendance?
-How can I build an e-mail list?
-That awesome leader we had graduated and all his/her knowledge built up after 4 years went right out the door, too. How could I have prevented this? What can my club do to keep its memory?

Outreach
-Check out our organization list t0 find other Brandeis activists!
-When are ARC meetings with representatives from other clubs?
-How can I outreach to other like-minded clubs?

So help us out! What do YOU want to know? Post in the comments or email: afertig AT brandeis DOT edu