School Related
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Immaculata
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Immaculata High
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Child Slave Labor Links
The Global Exchange is a
human rights organization dedicated to promoting environmental,
political, and social justice around the world. Ever since their
founding in 1988, they have been striving to increase global awareness
among the US public while building international partnerships
around the world. Their goals are to educate the U.S. public about
critical global issues, to promote respect for the rights outlined
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to encourage both
the U.S. government and private institutions to support policies
that promote democratic and sustainable development, and to link
people in our own country and people in the global South who are
working for political, social and environmental justice.
Sweatshop Watch is a coalition
of labor, community, civil rights, immigrant rights, women's,
religious & student organizations, and individuals committed to
eliminating sweatshop conditions in the global garment industry.
We believe that workers should be earning a living wage in a safe
and decent working environment, and that those who benefit the
most from the exploitation of sweatshop workers must be held accountable.
Christian Solidarity International
URL: http://www.csi-int.ch/
Christian Solidarity International
(CSI) is a Christian human rights organization for religious liberty
helping victims of religious repression, victimized children and
victims of disaster. CSI was founded by Reverend. Hans Stückelberger,
following silent demonstrations in Switzerland in support of persecuted
Christians, in 1977.CSI's primary objective is worldwide respect
for the God-given right of every human being to choose his or
her faith and to practice it, as stipulated in Article 18 of the
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. CSI's governing
body is the International Council, which represents all national
affiliates. As a non-profit, independent organization, CSI cooperates
with Christians of all denominations as well as with churches,
human rights organizations, and the public.
Campaign for Labor Rights
(CLR) is an organization that works to inform and mobilize grassroots
activists in solidarity with major, international anti-sweatshop
struggles. CLR has been called the "grassroots mobilizing department"
of the anti-sweatshop movement. Coordinating with over 500 communities
in the U.S. as well as other local, national, and international
anti-sweatshop groups, CLR attacks the root causes of poverty,
oppression, and global economic disparity. Its campaigns and strategy
are designed in solidarity and collaboration with workers struggling
to gain the right to organize, the right to earn a living wage
in a clean, safe work environment, and the right to bargain collectively
with their bosses. CLR promotes a broad, contextual understanding
of sweatshops by locating them within the current structure of
economic globalization, and it promotes resistance to this structure
in local communities. At a time when U.S. consumers are becoming
more concerned and aware of the conditions under which their goods
are produced, CLR pushes for disclosure and accountability within
the current trend of economic globalization. CLR works to have
the right to organize recognized as a fundamental human right.
Our mission is to identify,
protect, represent, and advance the economic and social interests
of consumers and workers. The National Consumers League is a private,
nonprofit advocacy group representing consumers on marketplace
and workplace issues. We are the nation's oldest consumer organization.
NCL provides government, businesses, and other organizations with
the consumer's perspective on concerns including child labor,
privacy, food safety, and medication information.
UNITE is a group of people
from all around the world who's main mission is to organize a
union of people against slave labor. The union is supporting workers
in other countries who are fighting to organize their own unions
to improve wages and working conditions. UNITE believes that helping
workers organize unions in the Philippines or the Dominican Republic
is good for workers there and here. When those workers win, UNITE
win too. UNITE is working with college students who are demanding
that their universities take responsibility for college logo apparel.
UNITE is working with religious and community leaders to demand
that retailers take responsibility for the conditions under which
their products are made. This, along with constant political pressure,
allows UNITE to hold politicians accountable for their actions
on sweatshop issues. Along with this message of taking responsibility
for one's actions, UNITE realizes that giant retail chains and
name-brand clothing companies are driving the sweatshop system.
UNITE is working with our allies to demand that retailers take
responsibility for decent working conditions.
The Maquila Solidarity Network
(MSN) is a Canadian network promoting solidarity with groups in
Mexico, Central America, and Asia organizing in maquiladora factories
and export processing zones to improve conditions and win a living
wage. In a global economy it is essential that groups in the North
and South work together for employment with dignity, fair wages
and working conditions, and healthy workplaces and communities.
Everyone can play a part in ending sweatshop abuses. We can join
together in protesting particular abuses of major brand-name companies.
We can demand improved government legislation and its enforcement.
And we can work within our organizations and public institutions
to develop "No Sweat" purchasing and procurement policies that
increase pressure for public access to information and respect
for workers' rights. Campaigns targeting different organizations
and institutions will add to the pressure for industry-wide solutions
to the growing problem of sweatshop abuses. Successful university
campaigns have already forced several major corporations to disclose
production locations in order to comply with university codes
of conduct. Companies that want to continue to sell to large buyers
like universities will have to accept independent monitoring of
workplace conditions, and work with their suppliers to improve
working conditions.
Women make up 90 percent
of sweatshop laborers. The majority of these women are between
the ages of 15 and 22. Companies that use sweatshop labor to increase
their own profit margins are taking advantage of predominantly
young women. Injustices perpetrated by factories that employ the
use of sweatshop labor are numerous. Women are paid as little
as six cents an hour and work ten to twelve hour shifts. In many
instances overtime is mandatory. In some cases, women are allowed
only two drinks of water and one bathroom break per shift. Sexual
harassment, corporal punishment, and verbal abuse are all means
used by supervisors to instill fear and keep employees in line.
Companies such as Nike, Guess?, and Disney should not be allowed
to continue to increase their profit margins, using the sweat
of hard working women. These women deserve to be paid a living
wage, to be given a safe working environment, and the right to
be free of unwanted sexual harassment.
Anti-Slavery International is the world's oldest
international human rights organization, founded in 1839. It is
the only charity in the United Kingdom to work exclusively against
slavery and related abuses. We work at local, national and international
levels to eliminate the system of slavery around the world by: Urging
governments of countries with slavery to develop and implement measures
to end it; Lobbying governments and intergovernmental agencies to
make slavery a priority issue; Supporting research to assess the
scale of slavery in order to identify measures to end it; Working
with local organizations to raise public awareness of slavery; Educating
the public about the realities of slavery and campaigning for its
end.
Fisek Institute Science & Actions Foundation
for Child Labor
URL: http://www.fisek.org/emain.php3
The Fisek Institute is a
non-governmental organization acting in the field of occupational
health and safety at the national level. It focuses on the continuation
and enrichment of the community medicine philosophy by its applications
especially for small and medium scale enterprises and working
children. It aims at making use of medicine to protect and improve
the community's health, at making use of social sciences to protect
and improve the people's social lives, at making use of engineering
sciences to purify living and working conditions from hazards
and to combine all of these to implement theoretical and practical
studies. At the same time, it aims to raise the consciousness
of the public in order to remove the reasons forcing children
to work; to eliminate the factors that are dangerous for their
health and safety at work; to ensure improvement of health, identity
and self-esteem of the working children.
iAbolish is a project of the American Anti-Slavery
Group (AASG), a grassroots organization founded in 1993 to combat
slavery around the world. AASG has broken a virtual media blackout
on slavery and helped free over 45,000 slaves. AASG Directors
- including survivors of slavery - have testified to Congress
three times and met twice with the Secretary of State.
Clean Clothes Campaign
URL: http://www.cleanclothes.org/
This organization aims to
improve working conditions in the worldwide garment industry.
The Clean Clothes Campaigns in each country are coalitions of
consumer organizations, trade unions, human rights and women rights
organizations, researchers, solidarity groups and activists. Every
national campaign operates autonomously. However, we do work together
towards international action. Twice a year representatives from
the national secretariats of each CCC gather to exchange information
and co-ordinate activities as they are needed on the international
level (for example, in negotiations with multinational companies).
The campaigns co-operate with organizations all over the world,
especially organizations of garment workers (in factories of all
sizes), home workers and migrant workers (including those without
valid) working papers. Above all the Clean Clothes Campaign is
a consumer campaign -- its strength comes from consumer power.
The purchasing power of consumers is being mobilized on the issue
of working conditions in the garment industry.
The National Labor Committee
URL: http://www.nlcnet.org/
The National Labor Committee
(NLC) is a human rights advocacy group, dedicated to promoting
and defending the rights of workers. Through establishing long
standing working relationships with non-governmental, human rights,
labor and religious organizations, primarily in Latin America,
the NLC puts a human face on the global economy. The NLC educates
and actively involves the public in actions aimed at ending labor
abuses, improving living conditions for workers and their families
and promoting the concept of a living wage and true independent
monitoring. In just the last few years the NLC has organized several
ground breaking campaigns targeting large corporations such as
the Gap, Liz Claiborne, Kathie Lee Gifford/Wal-Mart, and the Walt
Disney Company. These campaigns have put the issue of sweatshops
on the national agenda and created an enormous grassroots movement
to hold corporations accountable for their human and labor rights
practices. The NLC's direct and creative approach to labor rights,
including our high profile campaign style, has generated an overwhelming
amount of interest around human and labor rights issues in this
country. This in turn has generated a host of groups that want
to work on these issues. We have successfully brought together
many different groups interested in worker rights and have created
a strong national coalition to fight for increased corporate accountability
in the global economy. The single most outstanding aspect of the
NLC's work is the immense popular support and participation it
generates from a highly diversified social base that surpasses
gender, class, and racial lines. Our campaigns involve active
participation from students (in all educational levels from elementary
school to graduate school students), teachers, church ministers,
rabbis, academics, union officials and members, solidarity groups,
human rights activists, religious and labor organizations, both
domestically and internationally. Our campaigns demonstrate that
a small nonprofit organization working with a network of concerned
citizens and activists can successfully challenge multi-billion
dollar corporations.
Global March Against Child Labor
URL: http://www.globalmarch.org/index.html
In the shadows of your favorite
soccer games, there are many children spending their childhood
stitching footballs at the cost of their education. Find out what
the campaign has accomplished. Find out the shocking truth about
current status of child labour, including slavery, trafficking,
child prostitution / pornography, children used in crime, child
soldiers, & child servants. Read the latest developments in the
fight against child labour in our e-newsletter. It gives an insight
to key issues regarding the world's neglected children.
Student Committee Against
Labor Organizations
URL: http://www.nlcnet.org/scale/main.htm
High school students volunteering
at the National Labor Committee created SCALE in November of 1998.
In June of 1999,SCALE organized its first demonstration in front
of a Gap store in downtown Manhattan. The protest showed that
teenagers are conscious consumers who know about the use of sweatshops
in the apparel and shoe industries. It also allowed us to express
our dissatisfaction with the human rights abuses that occur in
these sweatshops. We raised our voices again in December of 1999,
when we took part in a candlelight vigil /protest with the National
Labor Committee and other socially conscious groups. The turnout
was huge, and more importantly, a majority of those at the protest
were high school students. This proved yet again that teenagers
are educating themselves and becoming part of the movement to
end sweatshop abuses. Right now, SCALE is focusing our attention
on Gap Inc., the corporation that owns Gap, Banana Republic, and
Old Navy. We are running a petition drive to get the Gap to release
the locations of its factories, so that independent monitors can
assess the working conditions at these sites. We also held a demonstration
on June 4th outside the Gap on 17th street and 5th avenue. This
once again showed the large corporations that the voice of teenage
consumers is one to be reckoned with. To join SCALE or help organize
an event, you can contact the National Labor Committee by phone
@ (212) 242-3002 or e-mail us @ nlc@nlcnet.org.
Free The Children Campaign
URL: http://www.freethechildren.org/
Free The Children Campaign is a group
of over 100,000 children worldwide who fight for the rights of
their less fortunate peers. Free The Children consists of volunteers
from over 35 countries. The group has initiated the construction
of over 300 elementary schools. Free The Children has also provided
school supplies for the children who attend these schools. The
organization has created rehabilitation centers for freed child
slaves from India. The group also provides medical care to the
recovering child slaves. Many teachers volunteer to teach child
sugar cane workers to read. A group of caring people has joined
under this campaign.
Co-Op American Sweatshops
URL: www.coopamerica.org
Co-Op America urges the people
in this country to buy goods from companies that do not use slave
labor. As a consumer, you have the power to help put an end to
sweatshops. No one wants to buy products that are made in sweatshops,
but it can be hard to know how to avoid it. That's where Co-op
America's Guide to Ending Sweatshops and Promoting Fair Trade
comes in, with practical tips and resources you can use to make
a difference. You can take action to end sweatshops and promote
Fair Trade. Co-Op America also urges us to take action in order
to form a sweat-shop free environment. The following information
will help you and the groups you work with join strategic campaigns
to build a just economy, take everyday action within your community,
and find out more about Co-op America resources.
Educate the Children is a small, Is a grassroots
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) founded in1990, which conducts
educational and community development projects in Nepal. We pride
ourselves on running programs which promote self-help and local
initiative, and which are designed and carried out by a Nepali
professional staff.
CISPES has a campaign to challenge the U.S. Agency
for International Development on its role in setting up free trade
zones in El Salvador while ignoring labor rights violations in
those FTZ's and its role in promoting privatization of Salvadoran
assets such as the phone company, ANTEL. Privatization, among
its other failings, is a major tool for union busting. Another
focus of the campaign, Citibank, is involved in the process of
privatizing ANTEL at the same time that Citibank engages in union
busting at home.
It is the mission of the Campaign for Labor Rights
(CLR) to mobilize grassroots support throughout thUnited States
to promote economic and social justice by campaigning to end labor
rights violations around the world. CLR educates about, and advocate
against, the underlying causes of the global sweatshop. Its campaign
strategies are designed in collaboration with workers struggling
to gain the right to organize, the right to earn a living wage
in a clean, safe work environment, and the right to bargain collectively
with their bosses. Through these campaigns CLR's goal is to empower
workers.
In their drive for higher profits, thousands
of corporations have turned to Mexico in search of lower wages.
South of the border they can also avoid health, safety and environmental
restrictions, and representative Union Organizing. In Tijuana,
workers arrive from the south of Mexico in search of a better
life. Instead, they find that the U.S. and Asian owned plants
barely provide enough to survive. With an average of$25-$35 for
a 48-60 hour week, maquiladora workers cannot afford to rent housing,
and must build their own shacks on land near the companies. The
incidence of birth defects, miscarriages, and disease has shot
up in these areas where plants have dumped their toxic wastes
with abandon. Efforts to improve conditions have been met with
brutal repression.
UNITE is working with unions and community groups
to make sure that our tax dollars don't go to sweatshops
GLEP is an independent, nonprofit organization
working with religious, human rights, and trade union organizations
to educate the U.S. public about the denial of basic worker rights
in Guatemala.
US/LEAP (formerly the U.S./Guatemala Labor Education
Project) is an independent non-profit organization that's upports
economic justice and basic rights for workers in Central America,
Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico. US/LEAP focuses especially on the
struggles of those workers who are employed directly or indirectly
by U.S. companies such as Starbucks (coffee), Chiquita (bananas),
and Phillips-Van Heusen (clothing).
Anti-Slavery's work has produced real change.
Throughout the last century, the organization was involved in
many successful campaigns, such as those to stop the abuse of
rubber workers in the Belgian Congo and the use of child slaves
-- Mui Tsai -- in Hong Kong. One of Anti-Slavery's recent successes
demonstrates the strength of working in partnership with local
organisations. After years of pressure from Anti-Slavery and local
organizations, including Backward Society Education and Informal
Sector Service Centre, the Government of Nepal passed a law in
February 2002, declaring kamaiya bonded labour illegal. This ruling
outlawed one of the most widespread forms of slavery that affected
tens of thousands of people throughout the country. Following
a seven-year campaign, in 2000 Anti-Slavery sent a high-level
delegation to Nepal urging the need for legislation. Although
the Government a few months later declared that bonded labour
was illegal, no relevant law or assistance, such as land redistribution,
was provided. Thousands of families were thrown off the land and
were forced to live beside roads, in forests and in makeshift
camps. They were subjected to violence from officials and were
vulnerable to disease and hunger. As a result of constant pressure
from Anti-Slavery and our partners, the Government finally passed
a law, which not only declares this form of slavery illegal, but
also states the Government is responsible for managing housing,
employment and income-generating activities for those freed and
will punish anybody who uses kamaiya as bonded labour.
