Support the Play Fair at the Olympics Campaign

This alert was prepared with info rmation provided by Oxfam America
Posted June 11, 2004, Updated July 15, 2004.

One of the most exciting campaigns this year is the Play Fair at the Olympics campaign; it is an international coalition of people who reject the notion of sweatshop produced clothing. As the Olympics approach, it is important that all of us join this campaign and call on the manufacturers, athletes, and the Olympic Committee to embrace clothing made under just conditions.

The Olympic promotional theme this year is "Celebrating Humanity." How this is possible when humanity is trampled on for the sake of cheap clothes and logo-ed sports gear is incomprehensible. The Olympic Games, supposedly a fair and just competition in a number of sports, fail miserably when it comes to a fair and just workplace. The people who manufacture the sportswear and gear, most often women and children, see their labor rights violated on a daily basis. However, they can do nothing else than endure the inhumane conditions in which they are forced to work, hardly a way to "celebrate humanity."

This is the perfect opportunity for us to show the discrepancy between the reality of the situation and the noble principles which sportswear companies and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) claim to uphold. Tell them that their workers deserve to be treated humanely and that you are appalled by the hypocrisy that they shamelessly display. This year would indeed be a great time to celebrate humanity, but the first step requires that the sportswear industry do what is in its power to respect worker rights.

Oxfam America's Play By The Rules campaign focuses primarily on FILA, whose workers are coerced into working overtime, scared out of joining trade unions and forced to pay fines when they make mistakes, among other labor violations. Make sure to check out PlayByTheRules.org, which allows you to automatically send a letter to FILA's CEO, Steve Wynne.

You can also email Lotto and Kappa through the international Play Fair at the Olympics Campaign's website at www.fairolympics.org. The workers who are employed by these companies toil in equally deplorable conditions as FILA workers. You can also contact the International Olympic Committee through this website: ask its members to use their leverage to influence working conditions in the sportswear industry. Generic letters that you can modify as you wish are available at http://www.fairolympics.org/en/actnow/index.htm. If you have not done so already, we urge you to please join the campaign. The sweatshop system is one that can, and must, be changed!