Orlando activists welcome a sweatfree NBA!

With the recent Orlando excitement with the Magic making it to the NBA basketball final against the L.A. Lakers, United Students against Sweatshops visited from all over the country to educate the Orlando community about where the NBA basketballs come from. The NBA has a deal with the Russell Corporation for their merchandise and products. Why is it that the NBA, home of the most influential and inspirational basketball players in the US, works with the one corporation that repeatedly violated national and international labor laws? The Russell Corporation manufactures athletic apparel and equipment for hundreds of sports teams, sports organizations, colleges, universities and high schools. They have already had their factory in Jerzees de Honduras closed down due to the mass of reports about labor violations, illegal firings, and even death threats made against the employees. Another reason for the factory’s closure was because the workers organized against poor sweatshop conditions, but that backfired with 1,800 people becoming jobless. Students of USAS took the NBA’s biggest event of the year, the NBA finals, to shed light on the real truth behind the NBA. There were students from all over the country, from Pennsylvania, Boston, and California flying and driving down in time for the first Orlando game of the final. That night USAS decided to just get their name out there and hand out leaflet’s about their organization and the relationship between NBA and Russell. They faced much hostility from not only the civilians but also the police. Therefore, as drastic times call for drastic actions, for the second home game Students of USAS took the NBA’s biggest event of the year, the NBA finals, to shed light on the real truth behind the NBA. There were students from all over the country, from Pennsylvania, Boston, and California flying and driving down in time for the first Orlando game of the final. That night USAS decided to just get their name out there and hand out leaflet’s about their organization and the relationship between NBA and Russell. They faced much hostility from not only the civilians but also the police. And for the final game in Orlando (and unfortunately the final game of the finals) USAS joined with SLAP at UCF and Jobs with Justice to loudly and visibly protest outside the arena. What I mean by loudly is about 20 people chanting "M-A-G-I-C Make the N-B-A Sweat-Free' and a couple of drums in the background to keep up the beat of the protest. The visual aspect came with the 10 feet tall puppet of David Stern in a suit with the sign "All about Greed" hung around his neck - it was so popular people had their photo with it! Many Magic fans showed interest in our cause, even the Laker's fans! They felt that they were enlightened on an issue hidden from them. Overall, having USAS come down to this area was so liberating to see how these students traveled hundreds of miles to fight for the rights of worker's not to suffer poor working conditions. Also, it showed me how disconnected people in Orlando are from the real issues of the world. There's this phenomenon called the 'hundredth-monkey' effect whereby one group of monkey's with a new learned behaviors would instantaneously spread onto other people outside the group. The people of Orlando were confronted with a group of students against sweatshops, and with enough people to follow their beliefs there will be an instant where everyone will realize that we are all affected by sweatshop labor.