Jim Keady & Leslie Kretzu spoke at St. Louis U. High
to an all school assembly February 20, 2004.
They founded Educating for Justice.

Educating for Justice Mission Statement
Educating for Justice, Inc. (EFJ) is a US-based non-profit organization that develops, produces and distributes justice-oriented programming and content to the educational marketplace.� Through research, online resources, digital filmmaking, grassroots educational events, and educational publishing, EFJ seeks to raise awareness about issues of justice and spark efforts for social change.


 Some recommended web sites from Leslie
Independent Reports About Nike's Labor Practices:
Nike-Funded Reports About Nike's Labor Practices �
Groups Working to End Sweatshops:

Excerpts from the SWEAT trailer

JK: At the age of 18, I was just on the track. Go to a good college, get a decent degree, do good, have a couple of Mercedes and a trophy wife, retire early and that'll be the end of the game. I'm done.

JK: I get offered this coaching job by one of my teammates to go coach at St. John's University... I was having a blast. I was loving coaching, I was loving playing, I'm living in New York. I'm also studying stuff that I really enjoy. I'm diggin' into studying theology for the first time in my life in a formal way. I get online and I start doing searches about Nike and sweat shops and labor practices. What I found was if you wanted to pick a company that violates everything Catholic social teaching is about, Nike would be your perfect case study. At the same time I'm doing this research, St. John's University athletic department starts to negotiate a 3.5 million dollar endorsement deal with Nike that requires me as a coach to wear and promote the products.

JK: St. John's University is the largest Catholic institution in the country and, its coupling itself with the largest sportswear company in the world. How can we as such a public symbol of Catholicism do something that runs completely counter to our mission?

JK: Like we're saying to the world then that you should care about the poor, we should fight against injustice, and we should seek out the causes of poverty--well, unless you're getting some really good athletic equipment and 3.5 million dollars along with it. If you want to talk about just hypocrisy manifested itself in real world this was it.

JK: I did not go to St. John's University to work for Nike. I went there to coach and to study theolgy.

JK: I was given an ultimatum from my head coach: wear Nike and drop this issue or resign. So in June of 1998 I was constructively fired.

JK: People were telling me you don't know what you're talking about. Those are great jobs and you could live like a king or queen on those wages and those people are really happy to have those jobs. I wanted to go find out. Doesn't everybody just want to know the truth? So I wanted to know the truth, first hand.

JK: I knew I was going to need other people. Leslie was a natural match.
LK: Jim and I went to college together. We came together ultimately because we share an interst in labor rights issues.
JK: I eventually met back up with her a few years after school through an e-mail about sweatsops. And I wrote to my buddy, 'Who's this woman who is writing you about this stuff?' and he said, 'Oh, she's nuts like you.' She was actually en route to work with Mother Teresa's sisters in India. And I sent I sent her off this e-mail, 'Hey, I've got a great idea. Let's go to starve on Nike wages in Indonesia.'
LK: And so he's like 'I really need to go.'
JK: She wrote me back, 'Sounds great.'
LK: Let's go.

JK: We plop down in Tangarang, Indonesia this industrial suburb outside the capital of Jakarta with the plans that for the next month we were going to live as Nike factory workers live, which meant that we were going to live in workers slum. We were going to live on the workers wages, $1.25 a day for the next month, to try to come to a better understanding what's its like for Nike factory workers to make this kind of money and live under these conditions.

JK: We'll have a great harvest and the harvest will be truth and justice and fairness for all people.

"It's not enough to be compassionate. You must act." 14th century Dali Lama


Some excerpts from the assembly
Key terms: sweatshop, solidarity, social justice.
Social justice is a world free from injustice.
It is where God's values rule not the values of the marketplace or greed.


What Can You do?

� Get Educated about the Issues.
Visit Stop Nike Sweat Shops and read through the material and sign up on our mailing list to get updates on the campaign.

� Help Spread the Word.
Tell three friends to bring EFJ to their community or school for a presentation.

� Write to Nike CEO Phil Knight.

Email Mr. Knight c/o his personal assistant and let him know how you feel.

� Become a Shareholder for Justice.
Work with EFJ's "Shareholders for Justice" program by purchasing and/or donating shares of Nike stock.

� Become a Financial Partner for Justice.
Make a donation towards our "STOP NIKE SWEATSHOPS" campaign or SWEAT the flm.

� Get involved: Work for Justice.
Join a social justice-oriented group at your school, your church, or in your community and commit to being active in that group.



Take some time to reflect:

 Who are you?
In whom do you believe?
Whom do you want to follow?
Is Jesus really someone you want to follow?

You have tremendous power as a U. S. citizen
and as a consumer.
Learn how to use it.

Photos by Charlie Hall, SLUH Prep News

Click photos for larger version



Office of the America's web site on Jim Keady
Links to Jim's research paper, listen to interviews, read Jim's and Nike letters and more.

Nike's web site and recommended sites:
� The Global Alliance � Fair Labor Association
I'll add Nike's letter given out to students as soon as I learn to scan.


Other sites of interest concerning fair labor
� Sweatshops andGlobalization
� A Curriculum of United States Labor History for Teachers.
Sponsored by the Illinois Labor History Society
� Art and Music and the Labour Movement
� Joe Hill: Songs of Hope
Other sites of interest concerning children and povery and child labor
� Save the Children � Free the Children

Catholic & Jesuit Sites for Social Action
� Center for Concern
� Jesuit Advocacy Network
� Woodstock Theological Center
� Men (and Women) For Others
This is a very important letter by Fr. Arrupe to Jesuit schools about the necessity for socal conced and action in our institutions.


Please e-mail any corrections or suggestions to Matt Sciuto


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