National Campus News -übi
Global trade protesters focus on human rights
by Merrill Goozner
Chicago Tribune
April 17, 2000
WASHINGTON (KRT) A snow
balling student movement that is
mounting the largest on-campus pro
tests since the anti-apartheid demon
strations of the 1980 s gathered in the
nation’s capital over the weekend to
join protests against International
Monetary Fund and World Bank poli
cies in the developing world.
The students bring the idealism of
youth and moral passion to a question
that rarely enters the sterile debate
over the costs and benefits of freer
trade: is there room for justice and
equality in the new global economy?
For years, those questions have been
largely overlooked because most
Americans have benefited from the
free trade policies pushed by the
Clinton administration. On the lob
bying front, business supporters of a
more open trading system could dis
miss the complaints of organized la
bor the loudest voice against the
North American Free Trade Agree
ment and China’s entry into the World
Trade Organization as nothing
more than protectionism.
But for the first time, the architects
of the new global economy are being
confronted with a moral challenge to
their fundamental belief that trade
benefits the world’s poorest workers.
A student movement that began as a
protest against sweatshops in the de
veloping world is now raising basic
questions about the fairness of the
entire system, and the students are
turning their anger against any insti
tution that plays a role in its gover-
“People don’t see it as just a cam
paign against sweatshops," said 23-
year-old Molly McGrath, a senior at
the University of Wisconsin. “They
UCF must put a lid on student housing
by Scott Maxwell
Knight-Ridder Tribune
April 14, 2000
ORLANDO, Fla. Residents who
dread the sounds of late-night college
parties and the early-morning after
math may be in for some relief.
Orange County commissioners
clamped down Tuesday, April 11, on the
burgeoning student housing surround
ing the University of Central Florida,
just hours after UCF officials celebrated
the groundbreaking of a new on-cam
pus dormitory.
The new law will require future stu
dent apartments to be more than a foot
ball-field’s length from any residential
property. And they will cap the num
ber of units in any complex at 750.
If such a law had been in place a tew
years ago, the massive Knights
“Club drugs” finding their way into younger hands
by Nancy L. Othon
Knight-Ridder Tribune
April 12.2000
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. People
say ecstasy makes them feel enlightened
and loving. The anesthetic GHB gives
people a profoundly intoxicating effect.
Ketamine can put people in a dreamy
state.
Ecstasy also can increase heart rate and
cause dehydration. GHB easily can send
someone into a coma. Ketamine, better
known as “Special K,” a dissociative
anesthetic, can practically immobilize
Whether mixed with other drugs or
alone, these drugs and other so-called
“club drugs” are killing at a scary pace,
say substance abuse and drug policy ex
perts. And while ecstasy, GHB and
Rohypnol were once the drugs of choice
at clubs or raves, all of them now have
made their way into teenage hands.
“It’s alarming. Teens are doing it like
people used to drink beer,” said Mary
Naples, a licensed mental health coun
selor in Boca Raton, Fla. “These kids
can use these drugs anywhere, and they
are.”
Florida Drug Control Policy spokes
man Tim Bottcher said the situation with
club drugs, or designer drugs, is “abso
lutely” at a crisis mode.
“We consider club drugs to be the chief
threat to the younger kids,” Bottcher said.
Ecstasy or MDMA, a mixture of a
stimulant and hallucinogen, was listed as
the direct or related cause of more than a
dozen deaths in South Florida in the past
three years.
see it as a broader campaign around
human rights.”
After four years of organizing,
United Students Against Sweatshops,
a nationwide umbrella group, now
says it has thousands of activists on
175 campuses across the U.S. The
group has targeted university apparel
shops that buy logo sweatshirts, caps,
and T-shirts from companies that
manufacture in countries like China,
Indonesia, and Honduras, where
wages are low, hours long, and work
ers are fired if they try to form inde
pendent unions to improve conditions.
In the past year, the student move
ment has escalated its tactics by stag
ing sit-ins and hunger strikes at uni
versity offices and stores.
The students have won some major
victories, too. Last month, Nike can
celed a contract with a major supplier
that student activists showed had sys
tematically violated labor standards
the sneaker and clothing retailer
claimed it upheld in its factories.
Starting Friday, April 14, the activ
ists have brought their militant tactics
to the streets of the nation’s capital.
Local police and federal officials are
girding for the same type of civil dis
obedience that disrupted the World
Trade Organization meeting in Seattle
last December.
Officials at the IMF and World Bank
seemed baffled last week as the pro
testers began gathering. Bank presi
dent James Wolfensohn complained
that his 10,000 employees go to work
every day with the mission of allevi
ating poverty in the less developed
world.
But his institution and the demon
strators have irreconcilable differences
over the best means of achieving those
laudable goals.
The economists who run the IMF
and World Bank argue that foreign in
vestment in poor countries is the sur-
Krossing complex in eastern Orange
County that has stirred up so much con
flict would not exist. That complex has
more than 2,500 students and abuts
nearby homes in Orange and Seminole
counties.
The commission's ruling was de
signed to give some solace to residents
such as Jerry Stewart, who told the
board that he was stirred out of bed
Tuesday morning.
"This morning at 3 a.m. I could hear
some girl screaming her lungs out,”
Stewart said.
Commissioners were sympathetic,
which is why they agreed to the 400-
foot buffer between luture complexes
and homes
Developers, brokers, and landown
ers fought the proposal every step of
the way. Many argued that the extra
buffers will essentially prohibit build-
Other “club drugs,” such as the anes
thetic GHB, or gamma-hydroxybutyrate,
and methamphetamine, ketamine, and
nitrous oxide were linked to dozens of
deaths.
Authorities say these designer drugs
are popular among people in their early
20s and increasingly popular among
teenagers.
“Having these kids use a single drug
is one thing, but what we've found is kids
like to mix these drugs,” Bottcher said.
“If you mix GHB and alcohol, there’s a
good chance you’re going to go into a
coma and die.”
Last month, four young adults almost
overdosed after taking GHB at a Holly
wood, Fla., party. Richard Julian of
Davie, Fla., and his three friends ended
up on life support; their conditions later
improved.
“1 don’t know that much about ‘G,’”
Julian told the Sun-Sentinel last month.
“But I know I won’t do it again. GHB
sucks.”
Teenagers, college students, and other
party attendees frequently take GHB for
its immediately intoxicating effects and
its relatively low price. It is also easy to
find, according to police and several us
ers interviewed.
“What’s worrisome about GHB is if
you have the raw ingredients, you can
make it at home,” Bottcher said. “You
don’t have to be a chemist.”
Timothy Condon, associate director of
the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
said GHB is one of the easiest and cheap
est drugs to make. “I’ve heard reports
from people in Florida that they were lit
erally giving it away,” Condon said.
A protester sits in front of cars in Washington, D.C., bringing a halt to
downtown traffic. An estimated 10,000 demonstrators, who accuse the
IMF and the World Bank of hurting the poor and harming the environ
ment, ringed the police cordon refusing to let anyone enter the meet
ings, including reporters and area employees. One group of charging
demonstrators was hit with pepper spray and tear gas.
est route to eliminating the poverty
that still plagues much of the planet.
They see IMF loan programs that en
force stringent balanced budgets and
open markets as the best route to build
ing up export-oriented industries,
which can provide jobs and income
for millions of workers.
Yet those free-market policies have
ing more of the needed oil-campus
housing.
One development attorney also con
tended that the county's new law could
violate the nation's Fail' Housing Act
because it discriminates against stu
dents. County officials, however, said
that wasn’t true because students aren't
protected under that law
The 400-feet buffer was something
of a compromise. Developers had ar
gued against anything more than 250
feet, while residents lobbied for 1,000
feet.
"We have a problem here that has no
perfect solution.” said County Chair
man Mcl Martinez.
One solution that all of the commis
sioners agreed upon, however, was that
UCF should build more student hous
ing on its sprawling 1,400-acre campus.
Less than 7 percent of the school’s
Federal agents arrested a Boca Raton
man less than two weeks ago after he
received a 55-gallon shipment of the con
trolled substance GBL enough to
make 98,000 doses of GHB. GBL is sold
through the Internet as a natural supple
ment that breaks down into GHB.
GHB and Rohypnol, known as roofies,
can easily be slipped into drinks without
detection because they are odorless and
tasteless. Both are referred to as “date
rape” drugs because they can render
someone helpless and produce amnesia
in a victim.
Rohypnol belongs to the benzodiaz
epine class of drugs and has never been
approved for medical use in the United
States, making it more difficult to find.
Condon said he thinks GHB has taken
the place of roofies among teenagers
because of its accessibility. And while
the sometimes deadly effects of GHB are
scary enough to Condon, he is more con
cerned about two other drugs.
“I’m not an alarmist when it comes to
drugs, but I am very alarmed about meth
amphetamine and ecstasy,” Condon said.
Methamphetamine, also known as
speed or crank, is a highly addictive
stimulant. Effects include anxiety, para
noia, and cardiovascular problems.
A small faction of psychotherapists
who prescribed MDMA before it was
outlawed in the mid-1980s has long ar
gued that there is no proof that ecstasy is
harmful. But the latest research shows
otherwise, Condon said.
Brain imaging research at Johns
Hopkins University shows that ecstasy
damages brain cells that produce seroto
nin. Heavy ecstasy users also had
a mixed record in getting the benefits
of the global economy to trickle down
to the world's poorest citizens. The
World Bank’s annual report released
last week showed that while East Asia
has posted strong gains in basic so
cial conditions in the past decade, the
number of people living in extreme
poverty actually rose in both South
32,(MX) students live on campus. And
even though the school has plans to in
crease that to 15 percent by 2002, com
missioners and residents want more.
The national average of students living
on campus is about 25 percent.
UCF officials have reminded angry
neighbors and county leaders that the
university generates thousands of jobs
and tens of millions of dollars for the
local economy.
The debate over UCF’s role in pro
viding housing is not over yet. A hous
ing task force comprised of school of
ficials, residents, and developers is set
to offer suggested changes to the new
law this fall.
Commissioner Ted Edwards, whose
district encompasses UCF, said he
hopes the task force will find solutions,
as opposed to the county’s new law,
which offers only restrictions.
memory problems that persisted for at
least two weeks after they stopped using
the drug, according to a study. Immedi
ate effects are dehydration.
The challenge for police and substance
abuse experts lies in convincing teenag
ers and adults of those long-term effects,
which continue to be studied.
"One reason we’re having such aprob
lem is that people find it hard to believe
that something that makes you feel so
good can be bad for you,” Condon said.
“But you don’t really want to have your
brain changed.”
Ecstasy, sold in tablets for $2O to $3O,
is not physically addicting, but many
people are hooked on its psychedelic ef
fects, which include feelings of peace
fulness and acceptance. Ecstasy some
times is referred to as the “hug drug”
because users experience feelings of
closeness and have desires to touch oth-
One ecstasy user, a 25-year-old Hol
lywood, Fla., resident, said she has re
searched the drug’s effects and doesn’t
think enough studies have been con
ducted to deem it dangerous. She uses
the drug about six times a year, she said.
She does ecstasy because of the “eu
phoric high,” she said, and has never had
a bad experience other than vomiting
once.
“It’s not something I want to do all the
time. I see people that overuse,” she said.
“It’s like they lose their souls after a
while.”
The Hollywood woman said she al
ways does the drug with friends and
would never promote it for teenagers.
But teenagers across South Florida
Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In the
63 poorest countries that contain 57
percent of the w'orld's population, av
erage income is still less than $2 a day.
The number of people subsisting on
just a dollar a day remained constant
at 1.2 billion between 1987 and 1998.
the bank reported.
In his forward to the report.
Wolfensohn admitted that "progress
in reducing poverty rates stalled, es
pecially in Asia, as a consequence ol
the [1997-98] financial crisis, and in
Europe and Central Asia incomedis
tribution worsened." Many critics say
the IMF and World Bank response to
the crisis only made things worse in
developing countries.
Many of the students w ho have been
attracted to the anti-sweatshop move
ment are using the tools of the global
economy to learn first-hand about
conditions in the developing world.
They frequently exchange e-mails
with the Third World non-government
organizations (NGOs) that criticize
IMF and World Bank policies in their
home countries, and they make occa
sional trips to inspect conditions.
Wisconsin’s McGrath, who grew up
in a conservative home, traveled to
Indonesia last fall to interview work
ers who worked in factories making
sneakers for the U.S. market. She
stayed in the home of a local NGO
representative.
What she found were young women
her own age who lived in shacks,
worked long hours without overtime
pay, and couldn’t afford to send
money home to their families who
lived in the countryside.
"Their main issue was they wanted
to be treated with respect and not like
animals,” she said. She also said the
workers told her that the conditions
the IMF attached to its bailout pro
gram in Indonesia had made it harder
for them to organize unions.
SPITFIRE TOUR RAGING ACROSS NATION
already have been exposed to designer
drugs, and ecstasy seems to be a favor
ite.
One 18-year-old from Boca Raton said
she first did ecstasy two years ago with
friends, most of them white, upper- to
middle-class teenagers.
“Some nights, we’ll plan a big night
out and we know we need to get our
stuff,” she said. “It just depends on how
much money we have.”
The teenager said she has done ecstasy,
cocaine, and GHB, but she doesn’t plan
to do GHB anymore after seeing one
acquaintance overdose.
Even though she has undergone drug
rehabilitation therapy and said she isn’t
addicted to ecstasy, the high school se
nior said, "mentally, you just keep want
ing that feeling.
“It sounds ignorant and stupid, but it's
kind of hard to stop," she said.
Her mother said she missed the signs
though she considers herself educated
about drug abuse.
“The thing parents need to realize is
to stop looking for typical signs,” said
the mother, 44, adding that her daughter
has a “B” average in school.
“This is a serious problem,” she said.
“People need to wake up. This isn’t go
ing away.”
Naples, the therapist, said some par
ents and educators have never even heard
of GHB or ecstasy.
They don’t know the lingo, so if they
hear their daughter or son tell a friend
“let’s roll tonight,” the parent might not
know they plan to do ecstasy. In turn,
teenagers aren’t aware of the dangers
because only the message “don’t drink
•They're most concerned about the
IMF's role in demanding labor flex
ibility," she said.
The students are demanding that
university stores i]uit doing business
with firms that buy goods made in fac
tories that haven't adopted codes of
conduct for how to treat their work
ers. The activists have targeted firms
such as the Gap, Starbucks, Nike, and
Reebok. whose marketing strategies
suffer when they receive negative pub
licity on campuses.
"It's not that university apparel
makes such a high protit tor the com
panies." said Dillon. "But the univer
sity can have a much bigger impact
on the larger society.”
The escalating student protests in
Seattle and Washington have forged
political alliances that were unthink
able in previous eras.
About-200 student activists met Fri
day with a similar number ot rank
and-file steelworkers who had been
bused into Washington to lobby
against the U.S.-China trade deal.
Beneath a banner proclaiming “Stu
dents and Steelworkers uniting to
combat worker exploitation,” United
Steelworkers of America president
George Becker praised the students for
investigating the conditions of work
ers in the developing world.
“We’re not against Chinese work
ers or Korean workers or Mexican
workers," he said. "We're against
laws and governments that don’t al
low those workers to share in the
wealth that they create.”
For many of the students who have
had their social consciousness awak
ened by the anti-sweatshop move
ment, the new alliance has also put a
spotlight on conditions closer to home.
“There's 30 documented sweat
shops in Chicago," said Loyola s
Dillon. “This isn't just an interna-
tional issue.”
TMS Campus
Founded by Rage
Against the Machine
frontman. Zaek De La
Rocha and presented by
colleges.com, the Spit
fire Tour is a one-of-a
kind event, bringing ac
tors, musicians, and ac
tivists together under
one roof to speak out on
global affairs and insti
gate social activism.
At left, Rosie Perez
works the crowd during
a recent stop on the Spit
fire Tour. Other celeb
rity guests on the tour
include Andy Dick, Ice-
T, Zack De La Rocha,
and Krist Novoselic.
and don’t smoke” has been ingrained into
their heads.
Parents should notice differences in
their children’s behavior, Naples said,
and they should make a trusting relation
ship with their teenagers a priority.
'What to look for isn’t so clear as
someone lighting up a joint or drinking
alcohol,” she said.
One Wellington, Fla., teen said he has
been doing ecstasy and Special K for the
past three years and his parents are oblivi
ous.
He said most high school students
have tried designer drugs at least once.
“It’s like this collective, ‘Let’s do drugs,”’
the 18-year-old said. “Mainstream kids
have moved from keg parties to rolling
parties.”
Even though the Wellington student
said he dexsn't rule out doing ecstasy
again, he agrees that designer drugs are
a threat to young people.
"But they shouldn’t be targeting raves,
it’s at our schools,” he said. “They
shouldn’t be targeting something that’s
weird to them.”
Bottcher, from Florida’s drug control
policy office, said the “rave culture is
largely responsible for a good part of
what’s happening out there.”
McAfee, the narcotics agent, said that
even though club drugs aren’t street-cor
ner drugs, they are easy to find outside
GHB is part of the bar scene in larger
cities, he said.
“If you’re a college-age individual,
you’re going to be able to get it really
easy at a bar, just as at a gym you can get
steroids."