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December 7, 2007 > News > Students protest free-trade at Baker Institute

Students protest free-trade at Baker Institute

By Jocelyn Wright | Thresher Editorial Staff

Rice students are not especially known for political activism, so when Rice for Peace and Justice gathered in front of the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy Friday to protest Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez’s speech about free trade, it is no wonder that they attracted the attention of the Rice University Police Department. The protest, which attracted around a dozen people holding signs, was asked to disperse by police officers on two separate occasions.

Sid Richardson College senior Sarah Taylor said an officer told the protestors they were a security threat to the persons inside and asked protestors to stand 20 to 30 feet away from the Baker Institute to prevent loitering. Taylor said one officer told her no one was allowed to protest on campus.

“When I first got here the campus police came up here threateningly saying there were no public demonstrations allowed on campus,” Taylor said. “It was a different guy than who we’d been negotiating with. He just came up 30 seconds after I had take out my sign and said I had to leave campus.”

The protestors eventually moved from in front of the Baker Institute entrance to the sidewalk along Alumni Drive.

The Student Code of Conduct does not explicitly ban student protest as long as it does not obstruct or interfere with university functions or activities. For example, when controversial law Professor John Yoo spoke in support of torture at the Baker Institute in Nov. 2006, two students stood in an aisle and held a banner in protest throughout the duration of the program and were not asked to leave.

Although Rice for Peace and Justice may not have received the sort of attention that they were looking for, the purpose of the protest was to raise awareness rather than force any immediate change, Brown College senior Sarah MacDonald said.

“I don’t think we’re going to change the secretary’s mind but we’re going to show that not everyone is willing to accept free trade,” MacDonald said. “A lot of students walked by, so we’re just speaking out and letting people know.”

Rice for Peace and Justice opposed U.S. free trade agreements on the grounds that they helped corporations at the expense of human and environmental rights.

“We feel that free trade agreements as they stand benefit big businesses and profit other people,” Jones College junior Gislaine Williams said. “Large transnational corporations violate international labor as well as environmental standards, so we’re here to say that free trade agreements are not really promoting freedom and are in fact exploiting people and the environment.”

Not everyone supported the protest. Brown junior Paul Tucker, a Rice for Peac­e and Justice member, attended the speech but did not join the protest because he felt like the situation was misrepresented on the listserv e-mail sent out to club members.

“They made it sound like corporations are evil and that free trade ultimately hurts host countries which is just a false lie,” Tucker said. “Third world countries benefit. Globalization is not a zero sum game. More people get helped than hurt so I think it’s kind of simplistic for [Rice for Peace and Justice] to put this on the department of commerce. [Gutierrez] doesn’t negotiate everything.”

End of article

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