You can check out some press articles from the Maryland event online here:

http://media.www.diamondbackonline.com/media/storage/paper873/news/2009/01/30/Opinion/Time-To.Bring.Justice.To.Jerzees-3604880.shtml

http://media.www.diamondbackonline.com/media/storage/paper873/news/2009/02/02/News/Sweating.For.Your.Sweatshirt-3608403.shtml

Monday, February 2nd Part I -- Georgetown University

Definitely one of the highlights of the tour so far. After Norma and Moises met with officials in Senator Brown & Kennedy's offices as well as Representative Miller's staff on Capitol Hill, we went to Georgetown University in Washington, DC for a press conference and action at noon. Members of USAS' affiliate at Georgetown -- called the Georgetown Solidarity Committee (GSC) -- made a great banner and lots of signs for an event in the middle of their Red Square on campus. There was a ton of media who attended the event, as well as students who stopped to listen to the workers' testimony during the main lunchtime class break. After the workers spoke about the situation on the ground in Honduras, members of the Georgetown Solidarity Committee organized a march to their administration building to deliver a demand letter to their president with the union leaders. The media followed the students and workers into the admin building where people were chanting and yelling on megaphones for President DeGioia to cut Georgetown's contract with Russell. The president refused to come out of his office to meet the students and workers, but a university spokesperson listened to Norma and Moises' testimony and received GSC's demand letter (all under the watchful eye of local and national media). Right before we left Georgetown for the next stop on our tour, we also got the good news that the University of Houston has chosen to terminate their licensing contract with Russell Athletic later this spring!  Check out some awesome pictures from this action at the end of this email, as well as a sampling of the below print, online, radio and TV media:

http://www.news8.net/news/stories/0209/591064.html

http://www.examiner.com/x-2071-DC-Special-Interests-Examiner%7Ey2009m2d1-Students-and-factory-workers-to-rally-Monday-to-pressure-Georgetown-to-defend-worker-rights

http://www.thehoya.com/node/17720

http://wamu.org/audio/nw/09/02/n16090202-24928.asx

Monday, February 2nd Part II -- Penn State

After a strong start to the tour in DC, we traveled to State College, Pennsylvania to give a speaking event on Monday night at Penn State. USAS at Penn State did a great job outreaching for the talk, and around 100 to 150 students and community members showed up to hear direct testimony from Norma and Moises. You can read more about Penn State USAS' event and awesome protest yesterday afternoon here:

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2009/02/03/workers_detail_factory_life.aspx

 Tuesday, February 3rd -- Cornell University

When we woke up yesterday morning we heard the good news that Georgetown decided to terminate their business relationship with Russell, which was really exciting and has added a feeling of momentum to this campaign. Georgetown has joined the University of Miami and the University of Houston as the three schools to end business with Russell over the Jerzees de Honduras case. After leaving Penn State, we spent a few hours on the road to Ithaca, New York (this when we brainstormed the "Rein-In"/western theme ;), before speaking at an event on campus organized by USAS' affiliate, the Cornell Organization for Labor Action (COLA). Before the evening talk, Norma, Moises, Ashwini, Jack, Rod and two members from COLA (Ben and Laura) met with Cornell's Vice-President to talk about cutting the Russell Contract. Cornell's VP heard direct testimony from the workers and committed to arriving at a decision on whether to cut Cornell's Russell contract in the near future. It probably didn't hurt that he knew about COLA organizing a teach-in with the workers for the student and Ithaca community later that night. After meeting with the administration, the workers gave a talk organized by COLA where about 40 students turned out to hear Moises and Norma's testimony. This was a really successful event, and it looks like the group at Cornell is going to push their administration to cut Russell as soon possible. This would be huge, as Cornell is one of Russell's bigger collegiate customers.

That is pretty much the latest news so far, but we hope to post regular updates to the list in the future (as well as set up a cool website!) -- the next stops on the Rein-In Russell Rodeo are Rutgers University this afternoon and evening, New York City on Thursday and Friday, and then the USAS Winter Conference in Los Angeles over the weekend. We'll try to get another update out soon, and this coming week after the conference we'll be bringing the fight right to the doorstep's of Russell's parent company, Berkshire Hathaway, before going through the Midwest...

REIN-IN RUSSELL, CUT CONTRACTS NOW!