Sweatshops

At least 530 maquiladoras (sweatshops that produce for export) left Mexico between 2000 and 2003 according to a recent report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The maquiladora sector lost 280,000 jobs, a 21% decrease in three years, and foreign direct investment decreased by a third during the same period. Most of the factories left for China, Central America or the Caribbean in search of lower wages than the 45 cents per hour paid in Mexico. The Mexican government is to phase out payroll taxes at the end of the year and virtually end income taxes for...

On 8 September 200 police attacked the striking workers of PT Shamrock in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Several workers were injured, also some police. This was the most brutal attempt so far to suppress the building of an alternative union in this factory. The workers at Shamrock produce rubber gloves, for medical use, for a US transnational. By Mick Duncan At first the firm dismissed 14 workers involved in building the new independent union. Now, more than 800 have been laid off because of the solidarity strike. The firm has been working closely with the old state-run union, SPSI, and...

Gemma Pillay and Jean Lane report from the East End Cleaners who work on Canary Wharf in east London celebrated a big step forward in their campaign for a living wage on Thursday 8 July. They have won recognition for their union, the TGWU, from one of the major office cleaning contractors, ISS. They are demanding a wage of £6.70 an hour. ISS employees clean the offices in the huge, skyscraper buildings in Docklands. The directors of the companies which own these buildings - Citibank, Barclays, HSBC, Morgan Stanley - earn more in an hour and a half than the cleaners do in a year. The Citibank...

Indonesian sweatshop worker on the daily grind The front running candidate in this month's Indonesian Presidential elections, former general Susilo Baubang, may face a run-off election in September. If this so-called "thinking general" wins he will not change the government's commitment to free market economics. The economics which have left 40 million Indonesians unemployed and half of the population of 220 million living on less than US$2 a day. Nenang works in a factory that makes products for several major sportswear companies. He visited Britain recently*. He described the reality of...

By Jean Lane It felt just like old times. Marching through the streets of London with contingent after contingent of union branches with their banners, whistles and music, chanting working class demands... "The workers united…" sang the megaphones. "T&G Fighting Back" declared the posters. "Universal Benefits are a Universal Right" "Retirement With Dignity For All" Bringing up the rear of the demonstration, looking for all the world like another delegation, in matching blue sweatshirts and caps, were about twenty workers with plastic bags and litter pickers, cleaning up. They were casual non...

Nike's multi-million dollar Olympics advertising campaign is in jeopardy. Marion Jones, the record-breaking American athlete accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs, is in danger of being barred from the competition. She is under scrutiny by the US Anti-Doping Agency. Jones is paid $3m (£1.64m) a year to endorse Nike (from a total endorsement budget which now stands at an obscene $1.36bn a year). But Nike has a record of standing by athletes involved in doping scandals. In 1992 when Germany's Katrin Krabbe, the world 100 and 200 metres champion, tested positive for steroids Nike...

This is the text of a leaflet produced by Nottingham No Sweat to give out at showings of Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11 Michael Moore against Bush and Disney and General Electric and US corporate power Round 1 to Moore Most people will know of Disney's attempts to stop the release of Michael Moore's film in the US election year. What they may not know is the extent to which Disney, the US government and other US corporations are continuing their campaign against the film and why. Disney explained its obstructions with statements that "Disney caters to families of all political stripes...