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07.14.11 - 12:41 PM
The Unconscionably High Price of Your High-Tops
Despite the decade-long criticism of Nike for its use of sweatshop labor, thousands of mostly women workers at its Converse plants in Indonesia continue to make 50 cents an hour while facing "serious and egregious" abuse, from slaps to kicks to insults like "dog" and "pig" to forced standing in the sun as punishment. High-tops are cool and all but.
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15 Comments so far
Show AllWho do you think funded these sweatshops? The USA tax payer through 2 trillion in bank bail out money.
That was American tax payer money which should have stayed here in the USA to make jobs.
Americans are incredibly stupid to continue to elect and re elect Congressmen and a president who are millionaires. These millionaires are working for their own interests which does not include the working person.
Our biggest job maker is a foreign deployed army.
BTW, the Vietnamese won the war. Ironical.
"Americans are incredibly stupid to continue to elect and re elect Congressmen and a president who are millionaires."
We tried not to with Obama. We were lied to.
I keep thinking what a schmuck that guy is. He could have been the greatest president of all time and really made positive change, if he'd kept his promises. Instead he chose to be a corporate sellout. At this time next year, the Dems will be haranguing the Dems to vote for him and he'll get the Dem vote because the Republicans actually do stand for every thing Obama did to piss his base off - they aren't the answer. It won't be like the last election though. The "hope" is gone. Now he's another loser who is the problem. Voting for someone I believe should be hung for war crimes is going to be PAINFUL. Voting for a green party member who can't win really is a throw away vote and voting for a republican just gets corporate robbers who won't even try to cover it up, in. What a bad situation American is in.
I don't think that voting for a candidate who you think has no chance is throwing away your vote, for the following reason:
We must express both our dissatisfaction with the current system and our willingness to participate and vote for someone who represents our interests. People can refuse to vote-- that's their right-- but a more effective protest is to establish that the two parties do not enjoy the support of all the people.
The hope is that eventually a candidate comes along who can collect the disaffected votes.
If Bernie Sanders can get elected, then... could not some others of similar persuasion? I'm not saying I have the answers, but citizens have much more power than they are willing to believe. Of course there are other ways to participate politically, even when the powers that be seem to have things sewn up. You can engage with others, you can be your own lobbying team, you can form informal neighborhood groups of mutual assistance and common dreams (to coin a phrase). Or you can join existing groups-- Veterans For Peace, CodePink, etc., whatever gets your juices flowing.
I don't think that because the big money controls Congress and is doing its best to corral the electoral process, that we can't fight back.
Of course, this is but an opinion, and people can choose to do as they will.
One tries not to buy sweatshop goods,, unfortunatly that's all that's left! I get my Chinese Sweatshop sneekers for less than $10 at least the Fatcats don't get the big money! Like Nike and Converse! I also know some Sports twit doesnt get a big piece of the coin either.
It's either that or learn to make my own shoes! >^^<
"Voting for someone I believe should be hung for war crimes is going to be PAINFUL"
Painful? I can think of other words. I refuse to play the voting game anymore since it is rigged. No one who won't play for the bank and corporations and the elites will never be president. It just can't happen. Democracy and voting right now is the biggest joke they are playing on us. Maybe at the local levels where you can actually vote for decent bills or vote to block bad ones it isn't so corrupt. Yet. But at the major leagues, it is. Bush stole the second election. It has been proven. Local areas that are heavily democratic will have 2 machines and people have to wait 8 hours to vote, and the dems don't do a thing about it. It is proven that votes for one party get switched to the other one because of the corrupt machines.
As for the comment that if he would have kept his promises, he would be dead if he had. He was 'elected' by running the biggest con scam ever. YES WE CAN. Go back and look at those videos of his campaign and watch him laugh after he says it. Put that it the current context.
Anyone read NO LOGO by Naomi Klein? Many corporations sold their names to third world companies, like NIKE, MS and other big names. Democracy Now had a segment on it. Should still be in their archives.
Don't forget about american unions with their annual demand for higher wages
and benefits -- so they could continue to buy excessively expensive homes and other things beyond their means. This along with their annual attack for MORE HIGHER WAGES -- Helped to drive industry into foreign countries where their non union workers are willing to work for 0.50 an hour. Think about that for awhile before
you start useless flaming.
And to think such a silly thing used to be big time news, and anyone having to do with these sweat shops were castigated in the media. Seems like all that happened in a dream state now. In the decline this country is in, with labor being pushed toward lower and lower wages, won't be long before this story will be about the sweat shops in the USofA.
Sadly my friend, there are sweat shops in the USA.. I live in LA county and they've uncovered several underground garment "factories" which utilized illegal immigrants, mostly Chinese, as slave labor.. It's really hard to determine where your clothes actually come from, but WorldWatch.org used to put out a "do not buy" list.. And everyone talking about the congressmen and presidential candidates being pre-corrupted, sorry to tell you but in this current aberration of "democracy," both parties are funded by the same corporations.. Vote Green Party or join the Zeitgeist Movement.. I once opted for the former, now I've chosen the latter.
Sweatshops in LA Correct, but usually making things with Chinese Parts, or sorting from containers Left Shoe / Right Shoe. I guess as long as the authorites remain on the take, Nothing will happen! Occasionally a container gets missplaced and you hear about 70 or 80 dying trying to claw their way out. It doesn't happen often enough to stay in the publics awarness. >^^<
these workers need a union.
call it Sole-idarity.
One of the dirtier little secrets about the US economy is that it is supported by millions of slave laborers. It is an illusion, propped up by the sweat of indentured servants.
The sad thing is that if this story is brought to public attention many would simply say, "Better 50 cents an hour than nothing". In other words, they give fuck all about the workers and their plight.
"Nike, the brand's owner, admits that such abuses have occurred among the contractors that make its hip high-tops but claims there was little it could do to stop it."
Why is that? I would think Nike would have the upper hand not the contractors. One can only assume it's Nike's legal department that drafted the contracts.
"I simply find it impossible that a company of the size and market power of Nike is impotent in persuading a local factory in Indonesia or anywhere else in meeting its code of conduct," said Prakash Sethi, a corporate strategy professor at Baruch College at the City University of New York."
I agree with the professor.
Look at those girls in the picture. How different really are they from your daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece? If you think you have no connection to these girls---well, that is an even bigger problem than the conditions under which they work. It is, in fact the exact reason those sweat shops exist.
the thing is, there are really enough clothes in the world already so that we barely have to make any more.... it's our over materialistic culture that makes us think we need so many new clothes. I get 90 % of my clothes and shoes from second hand stores. yes, if we stop making clothes, then all clothes will get more expensive, even second hand ones.... but if we stop thinking we need soooooomany, that would dampen demand also.... somehow, we have to wrap our minds around the idea of less is more...