By snoadmin
The Campus Progressives Collective, an activist group on the Cal State Long Beach campus, is on a mission.
The group aims to take on such controversial topics ranging from illegal immigration to the sweatshop production of sweatshirts proclaiming “Go Beach!”.
Armed with members, public demonstrations, a MySpace account and a message board, the group’s mission statement is the following: “The CSULB Campus Progressives Collective is dedicated to promoting political, cultural, and social awareness on campus through education, demonstration, art and action.”
They describe themselves as an “eco-friendly, pro-feminist, gay-positive, culturally-diverse progressive student voice without political party affiliations or organizational hierarchy.”
According to the CPC website, the club started in 2000 under the name Students for Nader – a reference to four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who in 2000 ran under the Green Party ticket.
However, after the election, the group decided to expand into a “broader-based organization for social and political awareness and activism, in the tradition of past progressive CSULB organizations,” according to the group’s website. The CPC was then reborn in 2001 as a non-sectarian activist group.
The group has been recently involved in the walkout during the controversial appearance of Jim Gilchrist, founder of the anti-illegal immigration group, the Minuteman Project.
The CPC’s final event of the semester will be a film series on immigration – both legal and illegal. The group is discussing taking on other hot political issues next semester.
The CPC’s Immigration Film Series will be shown in the Multicultural Center FO3, first floor, beginning Dec. 4 with “Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary” at 7 p.m. “A Day Without a Mexican” will be shown on Dec. 11 at 7 p.m.
“Farmingville,” a 2004 documentary about the hate-based attempted murder of two day-laborers at the Long Island, N.Y., suburb of the same name, will be shown Dec. 12 at 3 p.m.
Elisa de la Pena, a senior sociology major, has been involved with the Campus Progressives Collective since the fall of 2006.
“The May 1, 2006, rally CPC put on impacted me and confirmed I wanted to put knowledge into practice by becoming politically active,” said de la Pena.
The CPC has already begun to discuss its plans for the upcoming semester. The group said it plans to continue to inform and discuss the multifaceted immigration issue, as well as other political concerns. So far there have been talks about supporting the issue of marijuana legalization and what to do about the possibility of student tuition fee increases.
Clothing made in sweatshops being sold in the University Bookstore is still a hot topic for the CPC, which has prompted the group to bring back to life next semester its anti-sweatshop campaign from last spring.
According to de la Pena, the 49er Shops and CSULB President F. King Alexander overlooked the CPC’s requests for the Designated Suppliers Program, which would have prevented clothing purchases from sweatshops in Third World countries.
“Their negligence to our concerns, along with the evidence we investigated, supports that our university is contributing to the vicious cycle of dehumanization,” said de la Pena.
The CPC has worked with the United Students Against Sweatshops, an international student movement for sweatshop-free labor conditions, and hopes to work with the organization again in 2008.
“If we, as a university like many others nationally, can stop from buying this clothing, it’s our tangible effort for the good of the world. It’s about making a conscious decision to not consume whatever corporations give us and be a force for progression,” said de la Pena. “As for other issues we will address, it is an open, creative process we would like more people to be a part of.”
