By Journal Times staff | Posted: Monday, November 17, 2008 12:00 am
RACINE - Steve Watrous, chair of the Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition, will examine the character of economic development in China and its associated problems in a free presentation at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Huron Room of Gateway Technical College's Racine Building, 901 Pershing Drive (parking is lakeside, Lot D).
Watrous recently visited China on a tour devoted to sustainable development. "Through presentations, discussions and site visits," he said, "I learned about some of the positive and negative things in this vast land of contrasts. I visited and took slides of technological innovations such as the Three Gorges Dam and the Capabus. I heard about the new labor law from academics and in the factory. I got some sense of how China views its role in the world, and specifically vis-à-vis the U.S."
Watrous teaches sociology at the Milwaukee Area Technical College, where he also holds elected union office. He has been involved in the peace movement since the Vietnam War, and worked extensively on Central America issues during the 1980s. He is currently involved with U.S. Labor Against the War, and in local, state, and national peace coalitions. He has been involved in the fair trade movement since NAFTA and is currently chair of the Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition. He has written extensively about global issues.
The presentation is sponsored by the Racine Coalition for Peace and Justice, and the Racine Interfaith Coalition.