You become much more committed to a movement when you can put a face on it. There is a busy agenda planned for the March 11-19 trip to Nicaragua, which will be accompanied by a reporter from Rolling Stone magazine. The students' lodging will be in the homes of local workers. Repeated reports of labor violations and sweatshop abuse prompted Arne Ekstrom, a Ph.D. candidate studying neuroscience at the University of Arizona, to sign up. By visiting Nicaragua and meeting with workers, I plan to investigate and discover to what extent corporate codes of conduct are followed - and if workers have even heard of them.
Students taking the trip say they plan to share what they learn once they return to campus.
Through this trip, I feel I will be able to light a flame that will start a fire in the hearts and minds of Duke students and the world at large. Much of the anti-sweatshop movement to date has focused on the issue of disclosing factory locations, Jewett said. This spring break trip will look at what will come next, including the need to set up independent monitoring of factory conditions. We're not trying to be the police. We're going there to see where our role exists and, if we have one, where our responsibilities lie.