Re: Forwarded from Rakesh

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Perelman wrote, quoting a comprador Third World trade
minister writing under the name Rakesh Bhandari:

> We have articles about the student anti-sweatshop movement with
> titles like
> kids vs. economists, though they would be more appropriately
> titled ivy league
> brats vs. all major trade union centres in India.

So I've got to endure this demented crap here too? You have a very
selective policy about personal attacks, Michael.

Here's what the actual article says, rather than this sick caricature of it:

> The founding of the WRC, which focuses on investigating worker
> complaints rather than certifying specific companies or factories as
> "sweat-free," reflects the student movement's increasing emphasis on
> direct contact with garment workers. Students have visited factories
> and established relationships with workers throughout Central
> America and Asia. Critics ranging from the Bangladeshi-born feminist
> sociologist Naila Kabeer to mainstream pundits like Thomas Friedman
> have derided First World anti-sweatshop crusades as protectionist,
> and it's true that a few (though by no means all) of the unions that
> back the student anti-sweatshop movement can be exactly that. But
> USAS, which receives funding from the AFL-CIO, has been careful to
> emphasize that it does not favor banning imports, nor does it call
> for boycotts. Most apparel workers, USAS activists realize, need
> their jobs. The goal of the movement is to improve workers' pay and
> working conditions at offshore factories, not to force universities
> to take their business elsewhere.

[...]

> Peter Dreier, director of Occidental College's Urban & Environmental
> Policy Program, advises student activists and has taught a seminar
> on the sweatshop issue. With Occidental activists, Dreier pressed
> administrators to commission an Occidental T-shirt made by UNITE
> members in Pennsylvania. Though some activists have criticized this
> strategy as protectionist, Dreier believes that the union label
> provides the best available insurance that apparel is "sweat-free."

The full article is at
<http://www.linguafranca.com/print/0103/cover_clothes.html>.

Doug