Radiohead's music video for All I Need. [more inside]
posted by ageispolis on Dec 27, 2008 - 35 comments

Design your own Chuck Taylors. Not normally a fan of corporate gimmickry. However, I grew up wearing these, and as a wee lad always dreamed of this day. (In the eighties the best that could be managed was to try to sneak a mixed pair under the nose of the sales clerk.) My Chucks were as beautiful as they were useful. And in those days they were still sweatshop-free.I knew little of the man, as the youth of tomorrow may know little of this one. I conclude with a parable.
posted by flotson on Apr 16, 2007 - 68 comments

Paradise Lost: Greed, Sex Slavery, Forced Abortions and Right-Wing Moralists. Saipan is not a pleasant place to live or work.
posted by chunking express on Sep 18, 2006 - 41 comments

The 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report by the US State Department has been released. It reviews 150 countries.The introduction provides a broad overview of the report with anecdotal stories, legislation imperatives, methodology, definitions, specific country reviews and suggested remedies. It is a commendable document and well worth perusing. UN page. via
posted by peacay on Jun 7, 2005 - 2 comments

Suburban sweatshops. Jorge Bonilla is hospitalized with pneumonia from sleeping at the restaurant where he works, unable to afford rent on wages of thirty cents an hour. Domestic worker Yanira Juarez discovers she has labored for six months with no wages at all; her employer lied about establishing a savings account for her.
In 1992, Fordham law professor Jennifer Gordon founded the Workplace Project to help immigrant workers in the underground suburban economy of Long Island, New York. She has written a book ,"Suburban Sweatshops", to describe the experiences of these immigrants. More inside.
posted by matteo on Mar 15, 2005 - 14 comments

Yes, Virginia, there is a sweatshop in China! [Friday flash, holiday humbug]
posted by homunculus on Dec 19, 2003 - 8 comments

Commondreams.org story on a California court decision that Nike's PR blitz about its subcontractors' sweatshops violates a law against deliberate deception (via Blogdex). "Corporations are non-living, non-breathing, legal fictions. They feel no pain. They don't need clean water to drink, fresh air to breathe, or healthy food to consume. They can live forever. They can't be put in prison. They can change their identity or appearance in a day, change their citizenship in an hour, rip off parts of themselves and create entirely new entities. Some have compared corporations with robots, in that they are human creations that can outlive individual humans, performing their assigned tasks forever." Reminds me of this: REESE (slow, but intense) Listen. Understand. That Terminator is out there. It can't be reasoned with, it can't be bargained with...it doesn't feel pity of remorse or fear... and it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead.
posted by palancik on Jan 4, 2003 - 33 comments

Boycott GAP. Several groups see sweatshops as dangerous and inhumane. Yet there remains rejuvenation through globalization.
posted by the fire you left me on Nov 29, 2002 - 28 comments

"For the last 8 years, young women at the Shah Makdhum factory in Bangladesh have been forced to work over 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, denied maternity benefits, beaten and paid just 15 cents for every $17.99 Disney shirts they sewed." "Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney, pays himself $133 million a year, or about $63,000 and hour. It would take a worker in Bangladesh sewing Disney garments for 12 cents an hour 210 years to earn what Eisner does in an hour."
posted by headlemur on Jun 20, 2002 - 55 comments

Alice in Monsterland. "Certainly it's more pleasant for a 7 year old boy or girl to learn to be a boss in Denver, than spend 60 hours a week in a Peshawar sweatshop. The problem is, one implies the other. The moral critique will never realize the world is one."
posted by Paul Dunne on Oct 23, 2001 - 6 comments

You know those exploited Nike workers in Indonesia we hear so much about? Good news and bad news: the good news is, a bunch of 'em aren't being exploited anymore. The bad news is, it's because they were laid off.

Local manufacturers blame the soft economy on the WTC attacks, so yes, even this ends up being a WTC post. You cannot escape.
posted by gimonca on Oct 8, 2001 - 3 comments

Chinese sweatshops working overtime producing American flags. Just so we can show each other how much we value freedom and democracy.
posted by electro on Sep 20, 2001 - 17 comments

Vote for Sweatshop Retailer of the Year As the Retail Council of Canada is poised to present its annual Retailer of the Year Award to another of their favourite corporations, the Maquila Solidarity Network is ready to follow suit with our second annual "Sweatshop Retailer of the Year Awards." Categories include Sweatshop Retailer of the Year Award, Sweatshop Smokesceen Award and Sweatshop Transparency Award. Voting is open until June 17th.
posted by elgoose on Jun 9, 2001 - 4 comments