Mexican women workers’ stories will be included in a two-day DePaul University forum to explore “Sweatshops, Cross-Border Trade and the Global Economy,” April 10-11, 2001. On April 10, from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m., a film screening and discussion will be held in the Schmitt Academic Center (SAC), 2320 N. Kenmore Ave., Room 154.

The film, “Maquila: A Tale of Two Mexicos,” will provide an overview of the unfair practices that occur in the U.S.-owned factories, known as maquiladoras, located in Mexico. The film includes actual footage from inside these so-called “sweatshops.” The film, according to Elvia Arriola, a DePaul humanities fellow and visiting legal scholar, describes unfair wages, unsafe working conditions and human rights violations that are central to the day-to-day reality of the people working in the factories.

The post-film discussion will be moderated by Gil Gott, assistant professor of International Studies at DePaul. On April 11, a panel discussion – featuring Mexican women workers’ testimonies about the conditions in the maquiladoras – will be held from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. in SAC, Room 154. Arriola, organizer of the forum, will moderate the panel and talk briefly about her own research on the topic. She will introduce the two Mexican women who are travelling to the United States as volunteers for the Committee for Women Workers at the Border to help develop strategies for surviving poor conditions in the factories.

Landi Smith, a student coordinator in DePaul’s Office of Community–Based Service Learning, will serve on the panel. Smith has made several community service trips to Mexican border camps with student volunteers during spring breaks, Other panelists will include representatives from labor groups, human rights scholars and activists from the Chicago community.

According to Arriola, two women workers from San Antonio will attend the forum and speak on behalf of U.S. workers. The women are representatives of Fuerza Unida (United in Strength), a women workers grassroots organization formed 10 years ago when Levi Strauss shut down its U.S. operations and moved to Mexico.

A short videotape on the work of the Committee for Women Workers at the Border, known in Spanish as the CFO, will be shown.

All of the forum events are free and open to the public. This event is co-sponsored by the DePaul Humanities and Women’s centers and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker-based international human rights organization. For further information about “Sweatshops, Cross-Border Trade and the Global Economy,” call 773/278-2222.