Mike Pesa: Changing the face of economy

Before coming to Kent State University in fall 2000, sophomore history major Mike Pesa was more of a mainstream liberal. The fact he was that far to the left was remarkable, he says, considering he is the son of conservative parents who raised him in a conservative suburb of Youngstown. But as a freshman, he started getting involved with various activist groups on campus and joined a group of students who traveled to Cincinnati in opposition to the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue, the trade conference for corporate officials and government, in November that year. It was there that Pesa had what he considers to be a political awakening.

“The neighborhood we stayed in was just this really bad neighborhood. It was poor. It was scary,” says Pesa. “I had never been exposed to that kind of neighborhood before. It just really hit me hard to see the level of poverty, knowing that this was in my own state. I never even knew this stuff and how the government and the city and everyone could just abandon them.”

But what really struck Pesa was, while he was standing on streets littered with several weeks of trash, he could look across the city and clearly see the shimmering skyscrapers of the business district. It was then that he began to frame his political ideals in terms of economics.

As a founding member of the student group CHANGE (Coalition for a Humane and New Global Economy), Pesa was instrumental in the organizing of the “Sweat-Free” Kent State campaign, aimed at severing Kent State’s relationships with sweatshop clothing manufacturers known for inhumane and unfair labor practices. The group brought anti-sweatshop activists Jim Keady and Leslie Kretzu to campus to speak about their efforts in opposing these work environments. In addition to this, CHANGE also held a “sweatshop fashion show” in the Student Center Plaza and circulated a petition urging the administration to adopt a code of conduct that would require Kent State products to be made under good working conditions.

University Counsel James Watson met with CHANGE members to implement CHANGE’s demands and the university set up a committee to research the issue. They campaigned vigorously and by May 3, 2001, President Cartwright endorsed a code of conduct. This code of conduct requires factories producing Kent State clothing to operate under humane and fair labor practices. This code is continuously monitored by the Workers’ Rights Consortium, an independent organization designed for this purpose.

In addition, the School of Fashion Design and Merchandising and a non-profit group called Equal Exchange were able to form a partnership. This partnership could make Kent State the first university to own a manufacturing facility in Mexico. This would allow the university to encourage fair labor in their own factory.

Pesa and CHANGE didn’t stop. They still monitor the efforts being made by the Worker Rights Consortium and plan to meet with officials from university sports teams to promote fair-trade endorsement clothing.

Also on 20-year-old Pesa’s agenda is establishing a living wage for all Kent city workers. According to Pesa, CHANGE has the backing from some members City Council and research is underway to determine what a living wage for Kent would be.

If effective on the city level, Pesa and the rest of CHANGE plan on asking Kent State’s administration to do the same for all lower-level campus employees.

Although Pesa’s concentration and passion is in CHANGE, his efforts and interests bleed into other student groups such as the KSU Greens, Amnesty International and into various larger issues, such as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in Fort Benning, Ga., formerly called the School of the Americas. But Pesa is quick to dismiss those who protest and don’t follow through with their actions.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Pesa says. “Public protest is a very important tool but just going out there and protesting and not doing anything else is not going to change anything. It’s just one tool in the toolbox.”