Advocacy Across Borders is Now Available

Advocacy Across Borders: NGOs, anti-sweatshop activism and the global garment industry by Shae Garwood is available from Kumarian Press.

The clothing and textile industry employs nearly 30 million people worldwide, mostly in Asia and Central America. Workers frequently face long hours, inadequate wages, harassment and abuse. While some resist such conditions by joining labor unions, many are prevented from doing so or find it difficult to adjust to transitory manufacturers. Because of these challenges, garment workers have reached out to allies across political borders in order to apply more pressure on garment manufacturers.

The transnational anti-sweatshop network is at a critical stage in its development and is due for serious analysis. Advocacy Across Borders reveals the relationships that Northern-based NGOs forge in order to exert influence on powerful actors in the industry. An exhaustive dissection of the strategies of many organizations involved in this extensive network, Garwood’s study points the way forward for civil society actors reaching across borders to advocate for a better world.

Ethical school uniforms

Ever wondered who makes school uniforms or the conditions under which those uniforms are made?

FairWear reports that school uniforms are made by some companies in Australia who are accredited to the Homeworkers Code of Practice and have had their supply chain checked for compliance to wage and occupational health and safety requirements, others are made in factories who are not accredited and have not been monitored, while others are made in sweatshops or by homeworkers for very low rates of pay, and without the legal entitlements such as superannuation and holiday pay.

FairWear is gathering information about the working conditions under which school uniforms are produced. If you are a student, parent or teacher, send the following details to fairwear@awatw.org.au : school name, number of students, item of clothing, brand, where it was made, where it was bought and price (optional).

This information will help FairWear get more Australian manufacturers accredited to the Homeworkers Code of Practice, and get more schools choosing to source their uniforms from accredited companies wherever possible.

Is it possible to be an ethical consumer?

The consumption habits of many of us in the global North and among elites in the global South are obviously unsustainable. The raw materials needed to support our habits are unreasonable and unfair. As standards of living improve in countries like China the demand for goods continue to grow, putting additional demand on people and the planet.

Economists tell us that consumption is good. Economic growth is the answer to all of our problems. After all, they tell us, purchasing things means that someone has a job making things. In 2001, President Bush tried to convince the American people that consumption was their patriotic duty following the attacks on September 11. He encouraged everyone to show those terrorists what we are made of and go out there and shop. And they did.

Fast forward to 2009 and the call to consume seems absurd (as it did to many people then) and potentially criminal in the light of the financial tsunami, which originated in the US but has now hit millions of people around the world, leaving a trail of foreclosures, bankruptcies, and poverty in its wake.

So what is the relationship between consumption and political action? While I don’t accept the premise that indiscriminant consumption is the answer to fixing the global financial system, I do believe that there is potential to use our purchasing habits to further our political goals. For example, there are worker-owned cooperatives, fair trade producers, and unionized factories that provide decent livelihoods for thousands of women and men.

I should be clear that I don’t think consumption is sufficient as the only point of political action, but rather it is one small, but albeit important, piece of broader civic action. Although I am writing this from a perspective of relative privilege, the same is true for consumers in the developing world. Choices we all make -- individually and collectively -- can be used as valuable tools to influence the way systems are structured and resources are distributed.

If you happen to be living in one of the countries that recently passed economic stimulus packages and you receive money, I encourage you to think about how to spend that money in a way that furthers your social and political values. Give it away, save it, or if you spend it, check out this guide to where to buy ethically made goods: Shop with a Conscious Consumer Guide