Olympic torchbearer spotlights labor
abuses
By PATRICIA LEFEVERE
Leslie Kretzu held high the Olympic Torch as she ran through
streets of her native Philadelphia Dec. 22. But what drew more attention than
the flaming torch were Kretzus bare feet.
The 27-year-old social activist chose to run barefoot as an
act of solidarity with workers around the world who are consistently denied
their human rights and human dignity while working in factories for U.S.
corporations, she told NCR. In keeping with the International
Olympic Committees theme, Celebrate Humanity, Kretzu said she
wanted her participation to represent the millions of unrecognized persons
around the globe who produce the uniforms and athletic equipment that will
allow athletes to compete in the 2002 Salt Lake City games.
About 11,500 people, many chosen for their public service, are to
participate in the torch relay from Athens, Greece, to Salt Lake City.
The Olympic flame is a great symbol of cleansing hostilities
and setting the stage for a world at peace, said Kretzu, who finished her
two-tenths of a mile relay in South Philadelphia in 35-degree weather. She
spoke of the demands of Nike factory workers to organize and earn a living wage
-- rights that she said Nike has not yet addressed.
She also pointed to the Olympic Torchbearing uniform, which was
made in Myanmar (formerly Burma), a country with one of the worst track
records on labor abuses and denial of human rights, Kretzu said.
A 1996 graduate of St. Josephs University in Philadelphia,
Kretzu credited liberation theology and Catholic social teaching with prompting
her to take such a political stance at a time when millions will have their
sights on the games. She is currently studying social ethics at Union
Theological Seminary in New York as well as co-directing the nonprofit
organization Educating for Justice.
The organization aims to raise the consciousness of youth about
the living and working conditions of factory employees in Indonesia who produce
much of the brand-name sportswear so popular in America. In August 2000 Kretzu,
who had previously volunteered with Mother Teresas sisters in India and
Nepal, lived for a month on the wages of a factory worker in Tangerang,
Indonesia.
The experience helped her to document the at-work and at-home
conditions of people producing goods for U.S. corporations and caused her to
cofound Educating for Justice along with Jim Keady, a former soccer pro.
Together they have traveled to high schools, church groups and more than 80
universities across America with a multimedia presentation. In it they seek to
give human faces to the fact that 95 percent of our clothing and shoes
are made under conditions that qualify as sweatshop labor, she said.
In light of her accomplishments and her commitments, it is
no surprise that she was chosen to carry the Olympic flame, said Union
Seminary President Joseph Hough, Jr.
He acknowledged that in a single semester Kretzu has emerged
as a real leader in our community.
Patricia Lefevere is a special report writer for NCR.
National Catholic Reporter, January 11,
2002
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