Minding the Gap for ethical supply chains
Being forthright with consumers, investors and workers when it comes to problems with meeting labour and environmental standards is essential to successful ethical branding, says Dan Henkle, senior vice president for global responsibility at Gap Inc.
Henkle was in Sydney this week as a visitor of the Centre and shared his battle-tested wisdom in a keynote address to the Executive Roundtable on Ethical Supply Chains attended by senior representatives from the corporate, non-profit and academic sectors. The roundtable was jointly hosted by the Centre and the NSW Department of Industry and Investment and also saw Professor Michael Hiscox from Harvard University present his research on companies such as Gap and Whole Foods showing that people really are prepared to pay more for goods that don’t take unfair advantage of workers and don't harm the environment.
Discussion afterwards centred on how to encourage the further development of ethical branding and practices in Australia.
Obama makes history for Australian teachers
While the US Democrats are likely to incur losses in the November midterm elections, Obama is still in a position to win a second term, Professor Geoffrey Garrett told the History Teachers Association of Australia this week at their national conference.
Garrett's keynote address examined the Obama presidency as part of a broader look at American power in the 21st century.
“Obama remains more popular abroad than he is at home, and more popular than his country abroad,” said Garrett. He predicted that if he does win a second term, Obama is likely to follow a bolder foreign policy than he has to date.
The Campaign Tapes: George McGovern
In the latest addition to our Campaign Tapes web page, 1972 presidential nominee George McGovern talks about Nixon, nominations and the machinations leading to the disastrous 1968 Democrat Convention.
The now 85 year-old McGovern lost in a landslide to Richard Nixon in 1972 and his name is sometimes used today as a euphemism for an inability to win.
In an interview with Centre research associate, John Barron, the former air force pilot and later strident anti-Vietnam War nominee says the 1968 Democratic Convention strife grew from the disjuncture between the party and its members at the time.
McGovern says “practically all the delegates to the national convention were picked in back rooms by governors and political leaders”.
Watch the video or read transcript
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Coming up
13 July
Lecture: Barack Obama and African American politics, presented by Professor Kevin Gaines from the University of Michigan. (Invitation Only)
US Studies Centre
12.00-1.30pm More 
26 July
Book Launch: Financial Fraud and Guerrilla Violence in Missouri’s Civil War, 1861-1865 by Centre postdoctoral fellow, Dr Mark Geiger, will be launched by Bob Carr.
Darlington Centre, University of Sydney
6.00-7.30pm More
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Commentary
This week honorary professor of legal policy with the US Studies Centre, David Weisbrot, opines in The Australian that the ongoing influx of new genetic information presents novel ethical, legal and social dilemmas.
On the Centre website, we have new interviews with recent Centre visitors, art historian Susan Vogel and filmmaker Judith Ehrlich. Professor of art history at New York’s Columbia University, Vogel says that antiquated and contemporary African art is recognised in the US because of its quality and the country's racial composition. Ehrlich discusses her documentary, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, and how the ordeal caused a permanent change in the relationship between citizens and government in the US.
Meanwhile, the Centre’s honorary professor in urban policy Ed Blakely has been elected to the board of the New York Regional Plan Association in recognition of his contribution to the city following the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
On the blog page, Lesley Russell reminisces about an encounter with the late long-time Senator Robert Byrd. And Jonathan Bradley looks at the 1852 Frederick Douglass Independence Day condemnation of slavery.
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