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Activists Plan Breather in Wake of Rally

With several of their key demands met, organizers of the "Rally for Justice" said yesterday that they would put down their placards for a little while.

"The first thing I'm going to do is take a break," said Benjamin L. McKean '02, a Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) member who helped organize the group's antisweatshop campaign.

During the rally Tuesday, the University announced it would disclose the locations of the factories that manufacture Harvard insignia items--"possibly the central demand of the sweatshop campaign," according to McKean.

"At other schools it has taken students hundreds strong to win," McKean added.

The rally, scheduled to coincide with the full Faculty meeting held inside University Hall, attracted around 350 supporters of PSLM, the Coalition Against Sexual Violence (CASV) and the Living Wage Campaign. The students encircled University Hall, chanting slogans advocating higher wages for University employees, changes in policies regarding sweatshop labor and increased resources for rape survivors.

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Members of CASV said they were pleased by the Faculty's decision to dismiss D. Drew Douglas, Class of 2000, after an Administrative Board finding that a rape had occurred. Douglas had pled guilty in Middlesex Superior Court on Sept. 24, 1998, to a charge of indecent assault and battery.

But CASV members also said they have a long way to go before they are satisfied with the College's policies on the issue.

"For us, this is definitely about more than this one case," said Alexis B. Karteron '01, a CASV member.

She said future CASV action will probably involve more dialogue with administrators.

"I don't think we'll be planning a rally anytime soon," Karteron said. "We're just going to keep doing what we've been doing over the past year, trying to keep meeting with administrators to tell them the importance of this issue again and again."

CASV's demands include a 24-hour rape crisis center and a rape education program for first-year stu- received the bulk of the media attentionsurrounding the event. Most local news broadcastsomitted coverage of PSLM and the Living WageCampaign.

"We jumped on [the other groups'] bandwagon butthe coverage ended up coming to us, which isunfortunate because we believe in what they weretrying to do also," Karteron said.

But other groups say they still benefited fromthe alliance. Even members of the Living WageCampaign, who walked away from the protestempty-handed, said they were pleased with theother groups' success.

"I can't see any way in which a victory for oneof these groups is not a victory for the others,"said Justin B. Wood '98-'99, who is a member ofthe Living Wage Campaign.

"It shows when you're on the right side ofthings, the University may eventually listen," headded.

Wood said the Living Wage Campaign has not hadas much time to develop a support base as theother two causes had.

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