Dear University of Montana

Above: the nine students who were arrested for sitting in Dennison's office. They look pretty dangerous, no? The real fun was going on outside, where my band, Babaganoush played in support of the Designated Suppliers Program, or DSP that ensures University apparel is made in fair working conditions. The university didn't sign on to the program.


To Whom it May Concern:

I am writing to urge you to drop the charges against the nine students who sat in President Dennison's office this Wednesday. Yet again, the university has been given the opportunity to fight sweat shops by signing the DSP, but it has chosen to react to this peaceful and organized protest with police involvement. Was the intention of the arrests to allow University business to proceed as usual by removing the protest from the work place? If so, then that end has been achieved and Main Hall is quiet again, quiet enough for you to rethink what you have done and what these actions imply for UM's image and for workers' rights. I do not want to attend a school that punishes honor; that would rather arrest its own students than do its moral duty. If you believe in what these students stand for, it is not too late to release them from the charges.

Every day on campus I see hundreds of people sporting UM's colors with pride. The football games paint the streets maroon and silver for blocks in all directions of the stadium. The economic weight of this apparel is considerable. Why not place that weight squarely on the side of the scale that stands for justice? Use it to crush unethical, exploitative manufacturers. Use it to pressure them toward standards you would demand for your own workers. Why not join the 42 other schools that have adopted the DSP in an organized boycott of injustice?

On the basis that it is an institution of higher learning that stands for world awareness, personal enrichment of students and equal opportunity, I whole-heartedly believe that UM's administration is by default opposed to worker exploitation and should be required to combat this exploitation within its power. Failure to sign the DSP demonstrates conscious endorsement of sweatshops and studied non-observance of the university's moral obligation to put these hurtful systems to their end.

Your decision to involve the police to end a peaceful, organized protest was a political one that definitively categorizes UM as an enemy of workers' rights. These nine students, after two years of work, saw no alternative to their action. They are tired of waiting, and so are the workers of the third world. These nine have engaged in "disorderly conduct" and "criminal trespassing" in order to prevent the far greater crimes of social injustice in Asian and South American sweat shops. This necessity justifies their crimes. What justifies yours?

Like the heads of the Hydra, those who were arrested will be replaced.