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Labor Alerts: a service of Campaign for Labor RightsCLR Labor Alert posted February 14, 2002
In this alert:
TOWARD A NATIONAL NETWORK FOR LOCAL CLEAN CLOTHES INITIATIVESCampaign for Labor Rights is working on an exciting, innovative new project to build a national network of activists who are working in their own communities to pass anti-sweatshop or clean clothes initiatives. Local and statewide groups in Minnesota, Maine, New York, Ohio, and Washington are the driving force behind this new network. Many of them have already had some success with anti-sweatshop work in their schools, counties, cities, states, and more. These groups have asked CLR to help coordinate this emerging network on a national level and to reach out to activists who are doing (or are interested in doing) similar work in their communities.
STARTING POINTLocal groups working against sweatshops and child labor have sometimes had a difficult time trying to match the task of building strong local movements with the ebbs and flows of national campaigns. Activism built up during one campaign cannot simply be put on the shelf when one campaign ends and then pulled off the shelf whole when the next one begins. Having a vehicle that allows local groups to control the shape and timing of their own organizing efforts can be important to building and maintaining local anti-sweatshop activism. Over the past several years, United Students Against Sweatshops has built a thriving national network based on the logic of students focusing work on their own campuses. Over the past several years, a number of groups have begun local campaigns aimed at persuading public school districts; parochial schools; municipalities, counties, and states; workplaces, local businesses, and congregations to adopt sweatfree/child labor free purchasing policies - roughly parallel to USAS's efforts directed at universities and colleges. There is a tremendous potential for this work to become an important new arena for work within the anti-sweatshop movement. Currently, however, there exists no national network to help coordinate, promote, or serve as an information/materials clearinghouse for such efforts.
BUILDING A NETWORKFor these reasons, plus the continuing need to spread the scope and depth of the movement, several groups already involved in local initiatives have begun discussions aimed at forming a national network devoted to this type of work. The process is at a very early stage--there is no grand plan and no funding other than what the participating groups can contribute in-kind. However, some initial steps have been taken: ~Bangor Clean Clothes Campaign (ME) and the Resource Center of the Americas (MN) have lined up interns to help take stock of the current situation - where have local initiatives been attempted?; how were they organized?; where have they been successful?; what were their terms?; are they being enforced?, and if so, and how?; etc. ~Campaign for Labor Rights has offered to play a coordinating role. And BehindtheLabel.org has offered to host a web presence for the network. ~Steps have been taken to develop "how-to" materials and guides for groups wishing to undertake local initiatives. And we have begun to promote the idea and to assess interest from groups around the country. Soon, we will need to begin discussing alternative sourcing. ~Initially, at least, this effort has been focused on shoe, apparel, and textile products.
GET INVOLVEDIf you would like to become involved in this effort, or to find out more, please reply to Campaign for Labor Rights - send us an email with your contact information including your mailing address. If you have already launched a local campaign and you would like to be in touch with others across the US doing similar work please include a brief description of your efforts. Groups currently participating in this effort include:
Bangor (ME) Clean Clothes Campaign |
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