NEXT MEETING: Dec. 4 (Thurs.), 2003, 4:00-5:30PM. Fisher Hall, Room 719.
All interested faculty, graduate students, and other parties are invited and
encouraged to attend.
The following event is sponsored by a cooperative effort between student and
faculty organizations: Graduate Student Organization, International Student
Organization, Ad Hoc Faculty and Student Social Justice Group,
Center for Interpretive and Qualitative Research, and the Social and Public
Policy Center.
AGENDA: MR. DANIEL KOVALIK, Assistant General Counsel of the United Steelworkers
of America and a peace activist, will speak on "COLOMBIA, U.S. CORPORATIONS,
AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES."
Mr. Kovalik has met with trade unionists and other groups in Colombia several
times and has been involved in litigation against U.S. corporations that are
accused of abusing the rights of trade unionists and other human
rights activists in Colombia.
"Among the mounting horrors in Colombia, few are more shocking than the
attacks on trade unionists, for some years on the scale of the rest of the world
combined. The District Court decision in the Coca-Cola case can
be a step forward in the effort to protect courageous labor activists, and to
bring awareness of what is taking place to the American people. The fate of
Colombia lies in their hands, in no small measure."
Noam Chomsky (in a recent letter to Dan Kovalik).
Minutes
Dec. 4, 2003: MR. DANIEL KOVALIK, Esq., Assistant General Counsel of the United Steelworkers of America and a peace activist, spoke on "COLOMBIA, U.S. CORPORATIONS, AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES." The forty some audience members participated in an engaging and sometimes rightly passionate discussion following the paper. The discussion helped to highlight the abuses -- murder of trade unionists and human rights activists -- that some U.S. corporations are accused of abetting in Colombia and the role of the U.S. legal system in the attempt to bring those corporations to justice. A number of University of Pittsburgh students from Colombia participated in the discussion.
