Sweatshop labor has caught the public eye as several large-scale anti-sweatshop campaigns have risen to prominence in the U.S. Global Exchange, a non-profit organization that strives "to increase global awareness among the US public while building international partnerships around the world," illustrates the realities of sweatshops and the anti-sweatshop movement:

"Contrary to what many would like to believe, sweatshops are not working for the people of developing nations. In many cases, sweatshop workers, employed by large multinational corporations, are trapped in a system of modern day indentured servitude comparable to slavery and denied basic human freedoms like the right to join a union, attend religious services, quit or marry. Menial wages and reports of physical abuse in addition are typical of a new economic world order in which the poor are getting poorer and the rich growing richer.

The anti-sweatshop movement strives to eliminate these poor conditions in garment and shoe factories by pressuring companies to disclose the location of factories, pay workers a living wage, allow independent monitoring of factories and ensure workers the right to organize in independent unions. Did you know...

· Cambodian garment workers make $40 a month sewing clothes for Gap, Inc. They are requesting a living wage of $60 a month to meet their families' basic human needs such as food, clothing, shelter and education. Is this too much to ask from a company worth $28 billion, whose CEO Millard Drexler made over $39 million in 2000?

· Asian immigrant women in Saipan, a U.S. territory, work under a system of indentured servitude. Many of the 45,000 workers live in unsanitary barracks behind barbed wire where they sew clothes 12 hours a day, seven days a week for retailers like The Gap, J.C. Penney, Levi's, Abercrombie and Fitch, and The Limited.

· Child labor is rampant in Tehuacan, the jean capital of Mexico. Workers there make so little that families are forced to send their children to the garment factories rather than to school.

· Starbucks is the largest retailer of gourmet coffee in the country, yet they pay their coffee growers poverty prices. In Guatemala, less than 4 percent of the coffee plantations even have schools.

· In China, most people make less than $1 a day. Most factories where toys are made in China do not allow independent trade unions."

- Global Exchange [source]

For more information on this and other related issues, visit Global Exchange on the Internet.

Global Exchange
- a nonprofit "striving to increase global awareness among the US public while building international partnerships around the world."

United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS)

Sweatshop Watch

Corp Watch
- "CorpWatch works to hold corporations accountable on issues of human rights, labor rights and environmental justice"

Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE)

General

Global Exchange - Global Economy
- sweatshop information

Global Exchange -
Anti-Sweatshop Links page
- includes history of sweatshops, international and American groups working against sweatshops, other anti-sweatshop campaigns, governmental resources, news articles and reports

Sweatshop Watch - Sweatshop FAQ

CorpWatch Sweatshop page
- a definition of sweatshops, news, reports, backgrounders, related NGO links

Behind the Label
- a multimedia news magazine that covers stories about sweatshops and the global clothing industry

UNITE - Stop Sweatshops Campaign

Sweatshop Watch
- What Can You Do?
- a summary of different, simple actions that citizens can take to help eliminate sweatshops

UNITE - Consumer Guide to
Decent Clothes