When anti-sweatshop protestors marched to Johnson Hall on Wednesday to push the University to cut its contract with Russell Athletic, they instructed University President Dave Frohnmayer to respond to their demands by Monday. Frohnmayer did not respond Monday. University spokesperson Heidi Hiaasen said the president would respond “sometime this week,” adding that she does not know the reason for the delay or when the information will be available. After meeting with the group Wednesday, Frohnmayer said he did not want to rush his response and sought to consult with University attorneys.
Members of Step Up, Oregon!, the group that organized the protest, said they were disappointed the president had not responded. They said their next action would be to put flags in bark dust outside Johnson Hall – 900 of them, each symbolizing two jobs lost when Russell closed down a Honduran factory, allegedly to stifle a union.
Mariah Thompson led the march. She also co-founded Step Up, Oregon!, the local chapter of the United Students Against Sweatshops, and convinced management at the University of Oregon Duck Store to cancel purchases from Russell.
The Emerald sat down with Thompson on Monday to ask her about why she protested, what she hopes to achieve and what she intends to do next.
Oregon Daily Emerald: Considering what happened the last time people (from the United Students Against Sweatshops) marched on Johnson Hall (in 2000, when five including then-ASUO vice president Mitra Anoushiravani were arrested), did you expect to get arrested when you did that?
Mariah Thompson: Absolutely not.
ODE: Why not? What’s the difference between you and the last people who did it?
MT: I don’t know the last people who did it, so I can’t really say anything for sure, but when we were planning this action, we made a point to make sure that everybody knew that we wanted to obey the laws, that we weren’t going to occupy Johnson Hall. We had no intent of causing much of a disruption. We were there to demonstrate what we care about, what we stood for, but we weren’t intending on really making things more difficult for the administration than they need to be, including for people who were working inside. We told that to the dean (of students, Paul Shang), we told that to administration beforehand and we told that to everyone that showed up. So, we went into that with the intent of ‘We’re not going to get arrested and we are not going to cause a whole bunch of trouble with this situation.’
ODE: Do you think that helped your case or hurt it?
MT: I think it probably helped. I think that the administration has an automatic response to this of being fearful that we’re going to be like the protesters that took over last time and I understand where that fear would come from because they were also a USAS affiliate and we’re a USAS affiliate. They were fighting for the same kinds of issues; it was surrounding the (Worker Rights Consortium, a monitoring organization for foreign factories), and you know this Russell case has to do with the WRC a little bit, and so I understand that fear. And I think that’s maybe why they sent the dean in (to our meeting) to talk to us, and they sent me e-mails wanting to know exactly where we’re going to be and when, trying to find out as much as possible kind of about what we wanted to do and what we were hoping to get and whether or not we’re going to go into the building or whether they could just meet us on the steps and things like that. And I understand that fear but I think it was probably beneficial for us to be able to effectively communicate with them that we weren’t intending on having the same kind of relationship that the group did 10 years ago, or nine years ago, or something. Because we would like to have a more trustful relationship with (the administration), but I understand why they would be distrustful of us just because of the issues that we’re dealing with.
ODE: So could you characterize your relationship with the administration during the events that led up to (the demonstration) and followed?
MT: Yeah. The demonstration has – they haven’t – I’m trying to think of the words. They haven’t done anything strictly opposed to us. They haven’t done anything that has made our fight really difficult. We haven’t built an antagonistic relationship and their responses so far have been pretty good. I find it to be very unfortunate that the president has not decided to release a public statement by today letting everyone know what he intended to do with this. Obviously people are interested in what we’re going to do with this. I’ve been getting calls from the press all day, wanting follow-ups on what the administration has said or not said on whether they’ll take action and … I’m disappointed in the fact that I’ve had to tell everybody that President Frohnmayer has decided not to release a public statement. I wish that he had made the decision to do that. That being said, I appreciate that he met with us. I appreciate that we were able to go to Johnson Hall and deliver the letters. I wish that the president had been there to receive them. He wasn’t, but that’s OK. So far things have been pretty cordial. I think that the word I would use would be “cordial.” I think that, by not responding today, he’s made it a little bit more difficult for me to say where exactly our relationship stands, So I think it’s going to play out from here on out. I can’t really say at this point. It’s been a pretty short relationship so far.
ODE: When the University of Oregon signed on to the WRC in 2000, Phil Knight (cut off) donations to the University. Do you think that there’s a danger of that happening again?
MT: People keep asking me that. I am in no position to try and make predictions about what Phil Knight is or is not going to do. What we are doing when we’re doing this is saying that people who contract with us have to abide by the rule of law. If Phil Knight is going to pull money from the University of Oregon because the University of Oregon is standing up for the rule of law, that’s a pretty poor situation. But I don’t feel like I can really predict on that. I feel like the administration might be afraid of that. I feel like there’s been a lot of people been asking me this question over and over again, and I keep trying to say over and over again, “This is not about Nike. This is about Russell.” But that’s all I want to say on that.
ODE: Russell Athletic has made statements that emphasize (the connection between USAS and the AFL-CIO, and with the Union of Needletraders, Industrial and Textile Employees). Why do you think they’re emphasizing that and what effect do you think that kind of association has on the larger movement?
MT: I have never heard anyone bring that up to me … I would be interested to see what Russell’s arguments are on that and why they think that matters.
ODE: And do you think that matters?
MT: How USAS was founded?
ODE: Mm-hmm.
MT: I think that what matters is what we’re able to get accomplished. I think that what matters is that we’re trying really hard. I mean, this is a movement of students across the United States that are doing incredible things, that are (fighting) for the rights of people, all working people. I don’t think that … I don’t see why they’re worried about this.
ODE: What would you say are the odds of getting the Honduran factory workers their jobs back?
MT: I don’t want to speculate on that. Hopefully really good. I’m an idealist and I know that all the other students in USAS across the United States are idealists too and I know that we’re really hard workers and we’re gonna not stop. Something tells me that we’re going to not stop until this happens. We’re doing this because we care about the workers … It just depends on what Russell’s going to do. It’s going to be a long fight.
ODE: Since you’re not going to stop, what’s your next move?
MT: Well, Frohnmayer did not respond to us and that’s pretty sad, so we’re goin
g to do an action tomorrow to call attention to that. We’re going to continue our education campaigns. We’re going to do, uh, some kind of street theater on Friday. We’re going to have mock sweatshop in the EMU Amphitheatre and we’re gonna have it be kind of an info session, so if people want to talk to us about, maybe ask us some questions. There has been some confusion about what Step Up is trying to do. We’re just going to keep doing things, keep doing actions until something happens. We can’t give it all away. That would take the fun out of it.
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