Sweatshops

Make sweatshops history!

A month before the big Make Poverty History demonstration in Edinburgh on 2 July, the movement has been hit by a row about the wristbands it sells, for people to wear to show support, being made in non-union, low-wage, sweatshops. This fact was revealed in Solidarity (3/67) as long ago as February, but has now been highlighted in the Independent and the Guardian on 30 May. An audit requested by Oxfam, Christian Aid, and Cafod, three charities within the Make Poverty History coalition which had ordered silicon wristbands from Chinese factories in order to raise funds by selling them, has found...

Organising in the maquilas

Evangelina Argueta comes from the Central General de Trabajadores in Honduras and co-ordinates a project to organise the workers in the maquilas — factories which assemble goods for export. The maquilas are found in Mexico and Central America. They offer cheap labour, few labour or environmental regulations and low taxes. Products include clothes, electronic products and car parts. In Honduras 127,000 workers are employed in this sector.

Wear a wristband, support exploitation?

Make Poverty History is the theme of the protests that will surround the G8 summit at Gleneagles this summer. No Sweat will be heading along in full tweeds, as our Golfers Against Sweatshops make for the Gleneagles greens. To show your support for Make Poverty History, the organisers are asking you to wear plastic wristbands. Apparently beating poverty is a completely separate issue from beating sweatshop exploitation though, as these bands are made in China. If you oppose both poverty and exploitation, you can buy Traidcraft fair trade Make Poverty History armbands , made in the UK.

Brown’s plan won’t save Africa

By Paul Hampton The Make Poverty History rally in Trafalgar Square on 3 February launched a year of campaigning on Africa. Make Poverty History is a coalition of over 200 charities, campaigns, trade unions and others that is calling for “trade justice, drop the debt and more and better aid”. The focus on Africa is important because the continent remains desperately poor. Despite over ten per cent of the world’s population living there, Africa is the only continent in the world where income per head has been in decline in the last twenty years and where nearly half its people live on less than...

Chinese workers strike

A group of female workers have been on strike since early December at a Japanese wireless phone factory in Shenzhen, which supplies giant American retailer Wal-Mart. The New York Times reported on 16 December that production had stopped in the Uniden Factory, which employs 12,000 workers, mostly young women from poor interior provinces. Before going on strike, workers had drawn up a list of grievances, including dissatisfaction over low wages and abusive working conditions. Wal-Mart has recently been in the media spotlight when Chinese authorities insisted that the retail giant allow its...

Iranian garment workers march for backpay

More than 200 workers from the Iran Pars Garment factory marched from the city of Rasht (northern Gilan province) to the Iranian capital Tehran in a dispute over backpay. The workers have not received their salaries for the past seven months and Gilan Workers’ Union demands for government action have proven fruitless. Overdue wages have become routine in Iran in recent years as the government has not enforced laws and regulations concerning workers’ wages and benefits. Generally it has sided with factory owners, and clamped down on workers’ protests. In another dispute, workers at Khorram...

Bangladeshi garment workers demand job security

Hundreds of garment workers from different parts of Bangladesh held a massive rally on 1 January to mark the end of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA). Under the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA), garment products from countries such as Bangladesh enjoyed quota free access to US and European markets. But the MFA was phased out on 31 December as part of a global agreement with the World Trade Organisation. The rally was organised by 24 national trade union federations from the country’s garment sector. Unions fear that a large number of garment workers may lose their job due to the expiry of the MFA...

Cambodian garment workers protest over factory closure

Cambodian police broke up a protest by 100, mostly female, garment workers on Christmas Eve. The workers were protesting over the closure of their factory. Riot police kicked some of the women after they refused to end their sit-down protest, but there were no arrests. Some 600 workers lost their jobs when the Ho Hing garment factory closed in November after new orders dried up. Cambodia’s garment sector employs 300,000 workers, most of them young women who earn about $45 a month and face an uncertain future after export quotas known as the Multi-Fibre Arrangement guaranteeing access to North...

Last Prize in Nike’s race to the bottom

In blaze of corporate charity, sportswear giant Nike held a 10 kilometre “fun” run, at night, through Bermondsey in south London. 30,000 runners, each paying £25, were cheered on by hired supporters shouting “go Nike Nocturnals” and other gibberish. As they approached the finish line a recorded loop shouted applause and told them, “You’re doing great”, and, “Just Do It” . But that was underneath a rather attractive No Sweat Banner. On the night No Sweat and the Space Hoppers were out in force. The run was raising money for corporate support of London schools — doing up their gyms and...

Can corporations change their ways?

Under the banner of “Corporate Social Responsibility” the big companies and transnationals claim to have changed their ways. BP is now green. Nike promises transparency. Gap spends a packet on rebranding itself as a company that cares about the people who stitch its clothes. They’ve all been green-washed. Everyone is ethical. But all that has happened is that big business — under pressure from campaigners and media scandals — have taken up the demands for Corporate Codes of Conduct and are using ethical-sounding PR as a weapon to fend off scrutiny. Sadly some activists have been taken in by...

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