Labor is Not a Commodity

The Latest from Liberia

Tim Newman, Campaigns Assistant, International Labor Rights Forum

I just returned from a trip to West Africa, including Liberia.  During my trip to Liberia, I was able to meet the newly elected and recognized leadership of the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia, talk with Liberian members of the Stop Firestone Coalition and visit the Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia.  I saw first hand how Firestone continues to exploit workers, use child labor and harm the environment on their rubber plantation.  I also was inspired by the incredible organizing workers have been doing to protect their rights and there is a lot we can do in the U.S. to stand in solidarity with these workers.

Keep reading to find out the latest about the Firestone campaign and how YOU can help fight exploitation!

Fair Trade in the Classroom: Empowering Youth as Global Citizens

By Elisa Arond

How can young people learn about injustice in the world and feel empowered to change it? How can youth be inspired to identify ways in which they truly can make a difference?

Students in the United States are connected to people across the globe in many different ways – from the clothes we wear daily, to the banana we munch at breakfast, to the hot cocoa we sip on an icy winter afternoon. Youth represent an important and growing chunk of the consumer market, and are constantly bombarded by marketing campaigns to buy the latest brand, the hottest new product. As budding global citizens, students also have the power to learn about their connections with the people behind the labels, the hard work and many costs of producing the items we buy, and to take responsibility for the impact of their consumer choices on people and the environment around the world.

Sweatshop workers from the DR Speak at U of Maryland

By Hanh Nguyen, ILRF intern

Feminism Without Borders at the University of Maryland-College Park held a sweatshop worker panel last Wednesday. For the past year, FWB has been working on a campaign to make UMD sweat-free, which is no easy task. With help from United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), Julio and Manuel came to talk to students about working in TOS Dominicana, a factory in the Dominican Republic that produces cloth for Hanes, Wal-Mart and others. 

You can learn more about this factory at ILRFs website and at sixdegreesofexploitation.org.

Last Wednesday’s event was held in a nearly packed large lecture hall.  Julio and Manuel, the two workers, spoke to us about the conditions at TOS Dominicana and how they had feared for their lives after trying to organize. Manuel spoke of death threats and promises to make his death “look like an accident.” It was very saddening to hear about all they had gone through, and how hard they worked to get the factory managers to listen to them. Many workers were fired and still do not have their jobs back. Hanes’ corporate office would not talk to them.

What Should We Do About Wal-Mart?

By Trina Tocco, Campaigns Coordinator at International Labor Rights Forum

Right now I am just so angry at the idea that Wal-Mart spends so much of its energy trying to convince suppliers to reduce packaging, energy use and other practices that cause environmental harm.  On the other hand, it still struggles to actively engage in more than one factory case a year.  Somehow it has time and money to hire a consultant to train Chinese suppliers on being more energy efficient and yet it doesn't have the ability to make sure its workers are being paid the legal minimum wages at their factories in China.

So I ask you, what should ILRF be doing to have a greater impact on Wal-Mart?  What have you seen other organizations do well that you would like us to consider?

No Irish Need Apply

By Beth Myers, Executive Director of STITCH

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all the Irish-Americans! If you are like me and most Irish Americans, your ancestors probably came over during the period between 1820 and 1930. This was before and during the potato famine, when desperate economic factors led many immigrants to migrate for survival.  It is estimated that as many as 4.5 million Irish arrived in America between 1820 and 1930.  Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish constituted over one third of all immigrants to the United States. In the 1840s, they comprised nearly half of all immigrants to this nation. And much like today, these immigrants were often met with suspicion and hostility.

From Answers.com:
In America, initial sympathy for the starving peasants gave way to anti-Catholic hostility as they began to arrive in droves, forming enclaves in Northern cities. In Boston, for example, immigration rates rose from 4,000 in 1820 to 117,000 in 1850. By the 1850s–1860s, 28 percent of all people living in New York, 26 percent in Boston, and 16 percent in Philadelphia had been born in Ireland. Irish Catholics also dominated immigration to Southern cities before the Civil War (1861–1865); New Orleans was the second-largest port of arrival after New York by 1850. Throughout the nation, work advertisements stated, "No Irish Need Apply," while nativist political parties like the Know-Nothings gained power. Hostility often turned violent, as in 1834 when mobs burned an Ursuline convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Such episodes were etched in Irish American memory, contributing to a separatist mentality long after they achieved success.

Ralph Nader Remains a Friend of Labor

By Brian Tierney, student intern at International Labor Rights Forum

Before a nearly packed lecture hall at George Washington University last Thursday, Ralph Nader’s campaign for president announced the candidacy of his running mate, Matt Gonzalez, for vice president. Nader, who in previous election bids has run on the Green Party ticket, is campaigning as an independent, carrying his extensive career as a consumer advocate fighting against corporate interests and the duopoly of the Republican-Democratic party machine into the fray of the 2008 elections.

Many will remember the support Nader enjoyed from large portions of the labor movement in the past, especially in 2000. But with what promises to be an historic election, and amid the fervor surrounding candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Nader’s base of support among organized labor and working class Americans in general is looking even more dismal than in 2004. Where in past elections the fear that supporting Nader would spoil the results in favor of the right had left many in the labor movement – including major federations like the AFL-CIO – staunchly opposed to Nader’s candidacy, this time around Nader is so overshadowed by the excitement fueling the Democratic candidates that such spoilage would seem very unlikely.

Happy International Women's Day!

By Beth Myers, Executive Director, STITCH

Although International Women’s Day is not celebrated in the United States with much fanfare, it is a day that women around the world use to highlight women’s challenges and successes. Many have heard of International Women’s Day and understand that it is a day to celebrate women, but did you know that this day is also an important milestone in women’s union power?

International Women’s Day was first created to mark the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York in 1911. This fire was one of the worst industrial disasters in New York and caused 148 garment workers to lose their lives.