Friends Don’t let Friends Support Sweatshops

Nickolas Conrad
The Daily Evergreen
Published: 04/08/2008 00:00:00

In a global economy, we often purchase clothes and goods without any knowledge of how they were produced. In America, we are led by companies such as Wal-Mart, always expecting to pay bottom dollar. As long as what we want is cheap, we have no regard for the ethical implications.

We are all perpetrators of “fetishism,” a condition that overrides our sense of decency in lusting after a material object. In our desire for the new object, we fail to reflect how our purchases support unjust or harmful corporate practices. Fetishism symbolizes how we care only for ourselves.

As educated citizens, we should be concerned about our impact on the lives of others. In their race to out-compete and provide goods at the lowest dollar, corporations cross political borders. This causes a new form of underhanded exploitation. Devoid of the same labor laws and workers’ rights, employees across the world can be aggressively exploited in ways that would be illegal in the U.S. Whether we choose to recognize it or not, how we spend our money is an ethical and political act.

I doubt anyone on campus could name the corporation or country that produced their WSU jersey. The WSU Progressive Student Union has been crusading against this lack of awareness. Last semester, wearing cardboard boxes, PSU demonstrated for WSU to join the Worker Rights Consortium. The group said it would rather wear cardboard boxes than sweatshop clothing. President Elson S. Floyd signed onto the WRC two days later.

The WRC is one of the largest sports apparel monitoring groups in the U.S. and this was a significant win for social justice. The WRC investigates factory conditions in the U.S. and around the world to monitor labor practices. Universities that sign onto the WRC ensure that wherever their logo is used, basic human rights are respected. The WRC works to end sweatshop labor and stop workplace abuses. More than 100 colleges and universities have signed on.

But PSU did not stop with the WRC. The group took the issue one step further and asked Floyd to also sign onto the Designated Suppliers Program. Since WRC is only a supervisory force, the DSP guarantees the supplier will be in compliance with minimum standards, including the right to organize, bargain collectively and receive living wages.

“Sweatshop labor is a broader human rights issue,” PSU member Chelsea Tremblay said. “All people deserve to be treated as equal human beings, just the same as U.S. citizens?” Tremblay has helped lead the anti-sweatshop campaign.

Our economic system can be unethical and opportunistic, caring for profit before principles. American companies contract their factories to areas with the lowest bidders, where workers’ rights can be ignored. If we believe in human rights, we should strive to provide workers with the same benefits we enjoy. Anything else is exploitative. Foreign workers are not means to our selfish, materialistic ends.

Thanks to PSU, a couple weeks ago, Floyd agreed to sign onto the DSP. We should thank Floyd for his compliance, but we are still waiting to see him follow through.

We should be proud of what a small group of passionate students has done for WSU. We should strive to be ethical consumers and thank activists for making this process that much easier.