Do consumer boycotts help the world

[moe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Do consumer boycotts help the world's poor? 

Symposium: Q: Do consumer boycotts help the world's poor? 
Insight on the News; Washington; Nov 29, 1999; Molly Ivins; Fred Smith; 

Volume: 
                           15
Issue: 
                           44
Start Page: 
                           40
ISSN: 
                           10514880
Full Text:
Copyright Washington Times Corporation Nov 29, 1999


Yes: When sweatshops overseas feel the heat of boycotts, they'll start to
see the light of
fair wages. 

By MOLLY IVINS 

Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth StarTelegram. Thefollowing essay was
distributed
by Creators Syndicate in late October Way to go, college students! Reebok, the
sports-shoe manufacturer, recently admitted that conditions at two of its
factories in
Indonesia were distinctly subpar and says its subcontractors have spent
$500,000 to
improve them. Reebok's action came after a boycott of its shoes on campuses
around the
country coordinated by United Students Against Sweatshops, or USAS, a nationwide
student coalition. Nice going, good win. 


Reebok also deserves credit: In response to the boycott and criticism from
human-rights
groups, the company commissioned a study of working conditions in its
foreign factories
14 months ago and apparently has followed up on the findings. "We hope that
this will
also break through and encourage more companies to do something like this,"
said a
Reebok vice president. USAS also urged students to join a new group - the Worker
Rights Consortium - that will set a strict code of conduct for overseas
factories that make
clothes with university names. 

USAS then pressed universities to withdraw from the Fair Labor Association,
or FLA, a
group backed by the Clinton administration, on grounds that the group's
practices are
insufficient. The specific criticisms of FLA include letting manufacturers
choose the
monitors, letting manufacturers choose which plants will be monitored and
giving advance
notice of inspections. Another very smart move by the college students. In
my day, we
referred to this as "not getting co-opted by the establishment." 

Several human-rights groups have helped with the antisweatshop movement, but
the bulk
of the energy seems to come from the campuses. USAS has become quite
sophisticated
about how to guarantee independent monitoring and also is working for living
wages for
foreign workers, based on economic conditions in each country. These laptop
activists
already have had a major impact on the collegiate licensing industry and
should in time be
able to affect the entire apparel industry 

The apparel industry is - to use a word I loathe - paradigmatic, in that it
is completely
globalized and notoriously exploitafive. Apparel manufacturers are actually
design and
marketing firms that outsource production to independent contractors all
over the world.
This model increasingly is copied by other industries as they seek to lower
labor costs and
avoid worker organizing. 

Any Texan can get a look at the results by visiting the maquiladoras just on
the other side
of the Tex-Mex border. The toxic dump in Matamoros, Mexico, is worth a visit
all on its
own. 

Tom Friedman, the New York Times 'foreign-affairs columnist, has observed:
"For many
workers around the world the oppression of unchecked commissars has been
replaced by
the oppression of the unregulated capitalists, who move their manufacturing
from country
to country, constantly in search ofthose who will work for the lowest wages
and lowest
standards. To some, the Nike swoosh is now as scary as the hammer and sickle." 

Middle-aged activists who waste time bemoaning apathy on campus could help
by getting
off their duffs, and helping spread the word about the USAS boycotts. Lest
you think
hideous working conditions are found only in the Third World, consider the
case of Big
Chicken, the poultry industry in America. Workers in chicken factories
endure conditions
that would shame Guatemala or Honduras. Many stand for hours on end in sheds
that
reek of manure, or chop chickens all day in cold, dark plants, or are
constantly scratched
by live chickens that have to be crammed into cages by the thousands. 

The New York Times reported that the Rev. Jim Lewis, an Episcopal priest whose
assignment is to improve the lives of poultry workers, once led a wildcat
strike against a
plant where a worker was fired after he had a finger cut off. The wages are
so low,
workers often qualify for welfare, And as Texans know from our experience
with Big
Chicken in East Texas, these plants often are notorious polluters as well,
fouling both air
and water. The point of the Times article on Lewis was to demonstrate that
hundreds of
priests, ministers and rabbis are involved in struggles to improve
conditions for American
workers on the bottom rungs of society. 

This seems to me at least as newsworthy as the latest bulletin from the
Christian right
that Tinky-Winky, the purple Teletubby, is gay or that the Harry Potter
books are satanic.

Speaking of good guys, on Nov. 7 in San Antonio, the Southwest Industrial Area
Foundation Network will celebrate 25 years of organizing folks to get
governments to act
on the needs in their communities. The network includes COPS in San Antonio,
Valley
Interfaith in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, ACT in Fort Worth, Texas,
EPISO in El
Paso, Texas, and 20 other organizations in seven states. 

Much of this is the work of Ernie Cortes, who has trained and mentored 40
full-time
organizers and hundreds of community leaders. Pretty much the whole point of the
program is to train leaders in poor communities, since only squeaky wheels
ever get
greased by government and these folks can't afford lobbyists. 

His groups have pushed for water and sewer utilities in the colonias and
living wages in
the Rio Grande Valley, paved streets and sewers in San Antonio, worked for
better
public schools and on and on. The groups are nonpartisan, nondenominational and
multiethnic. Cortes has been honored with a MacArthur genius grant, the H.J.
Heinz
Award for public policy and much more - although he has yet to get any
recognition from
Texas A&M University, his alma mater. 

Ernie Cortes may be impressive, but everyone in Texas government knows the
sisters
who head some ofhis organizations are the real power. If you want to see Texas
politicians sit up and pay attention, just tell them Ernie's nuns are on the
way. 0