P age
A2
J uly
24, 1996 • T he
P ori l a n d O bserver
Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views O f
The JJortlanh ©bseruer
oday Reverend Jackson
and his delegation are in
Indonesia, calling atten­
tion to the sweatshops that man­
ufacture our sneakers and our
apparel.
In last week’s JaxFax, we high­
lighted the pitiful wage rates paid by
Nike shoes to the women in Indone­
sia who make the sneakers that Am er­
ica wears. Nike, o f course, is not
alone.
A c c o rd in g to the A F L - C I O ,
Reebok pays Indonesian workers 16-
20 cents an hour for 6-day-a-week,
10-hour shifts Reebok has 20.5% o f
the U .S. market for athletic shoes,
second to Nike
Gap T-shirts are made by teenage
girls in E l Salvador forced to work 18
hours a day in sweatshops, for about
16 cents a shirt. Some Neiman-
Marcus designer fashions are made
by immigrant Thai women impris­
oned behind barbed wire in forced-
labor conditions
Children in Pakistan, ages 5-14,
work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week,
making soccer balls and other athlet-
ic gear.
The Washington Post this week
put sweatshops and child labor in the
“ Style” section, interspersed among
com m entary about K a th ie Lee
G iffo rd ’s “pink and white suit with
an above the-knee skirt,” “white
patent slingbacks that had a sensible
heel," and her “Chanel purse on a
dainty shoulder chain.” Since Ms.
Gifford was on Capitol H ill discuss­
ing illegal sweatshops and child la­
bor, after “human rights activists.,
revealed that part o f her signature
line o f clothes, sold exclusively at
Wal-Mart, was being manufactured
N A T IO N A L
C O A L IT IO N
Child Abuse
under illegal and substandard condi­
tions in Honduras and New York,"
the Post finally did manage to find a
little space to note that “experts put
the number o f children working ille­
gally around the world at 100 million
to 200 million."
Ms. G ifford’s news conference
was with Rep Christopher Smith ( R-
N .J.), who "unveiled the proposed
International Child Labor Elim ina­
tion Act Highlights o f the act in­
clude banning the import o f products
made by child labor, prohibiting any
aid—other than hum anitarian-to
countries that don’t enforce child
labor laws, and providing $50 m il­
lion in funds to the International L a ­
bor Organization, which advocates
fairand humane workingconditions."
At the risk o f embarrassing the con­
servative Smith, JaxFax has to say it
sounds like a good idea. Sm ith’s bill
raise s the o b v io u s q u e stio n —
shouldn’t opposition to child labor
be Democratic turf?
The International Labor Organi­
zation reported last month that at
least 73 million children ages 10
through 1 4 -1 3 % o f chi Idren that age
around the world-are trapped in chi Id
labor. 45 million children o f that age
in A sia are working, and another 24
million kids in Africa.
The U.S. Department o f Labor, in
its 1994 report, “ Sweat & T o il,"
points out that;
2.2 m illion children between the
ages o f 10 and 14, about 3% o f the
total labor force, are economically
active in Indonesia, mostly in rural
areas. (Th is figure does not include
child workers below 10 years o f age
and children involved in domestic
work.)
The forced labor o f children oc­
curs in the fishing industries o f Indo­
nesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines,
India, and Pakistan.
There are many paths by which
children may end up as prostitutes.
Frequently, they are tricked or kid­
napped, and then sold into prostitu­
tion: estimates are that 10,000 Bur­
mese women and girls are trafficked
into Thailand each year. The price
paid by the brothel owners-$400 to
$800-m ust be paid o ff by the young
women themselves.
Bonded children working in the
carpet industries o f India, Pakistan,
and Nepal may work up to 20 hours
per day, 7 days a week. They often
sleep, eat, and work in the same
small, damp room, and are some­
times locked in at night.
In the jungle ofsouth-eastem Peru,
children recruited by contractors to
work for 9 months in gold mines find
they must continue to work well be­
yond that period to pay o ff the differ­
ence between their wages and the
larger amount they owe the contrac­
tors for transportation to the mines,
food, and medication. In 19 9 1, com­
mon graves of child workers were
uncovered. The corpses revealed that
the youths had died o f disease, work
accidents such as falls, and contusions.
Most o f the world’s working chil­
dren live in Asia, and the majority of
these children work in the agricultur­
al sector.
A 1995 report by the Indian Com ­
mission on Labor Standards states
that, “even on a conservative esti­
mate, India has the largest number of
urban and rural child workers in the
world.” The report acknowledges at
last 18.6 million working children in
1990, but notes that private organi­
zations have placed the figure at be­
tween 44 mil lion to over lOOmillion.
A ll JaxFax can say is thank you to
our forefathers and foremothers in
the labor movement, who made it
possible for our sons and daughters
to be able to go to school rather than
work in the fields. W e’re glad Moth­
er Jones raised “ less corn and more
hell,” and helped union activists get
rid o f child labor in this country. It’s
time to do the same worldwide, and
goods imported to America are part
o f the problem—which means we are
all potentially part o f the solution. In
the 2 1st century, a child should be
neither an employee nor a field hand.
That is not what jesus had in mind
when he said, “suffer the little ch il­
dren to come unto me.”
Civil Rights Journal: Where Is The Justice?
BY B ernice P o w e l l J ackson
s our nation seems to be
rushing backwards to the
future, It is noted with a
great deal of irony that those
who have victimized now claim
to be victims.
Thus, those who kept African
American students out o f Texas uni­
versities until 20 years ago have now
persuaded the nation’s highest court
that 100 years o f oppression have
been remedied in one-fifth the time
and that they are now the victims o f
reverse discrimination.
Thus, Kathie Lee Gifford, whose
clothes line has reaped millions o f
dol lars o f profits for her and for Wal-
Mart, has cried that she is the victim
o f the media when the real victims
are the thousands o f children who
work in U.S. sweatshops in Hondu­
ras and El Salvador and other poor
countries the world. The real victims
are children like Wendy Diaz
Wendy, a 15 year-old Honduran
orphan, was recently brought to the
U.S. to testify in Washington and to
meet with Kathie LeeGifford. whose
Because o f the recent church
burnings across the nation, and be­
cause o f last month's crossbuming
in Gresham , the “Not In Our
Tow n!" Committee in Portland,
Oregon and the Mayor Vera Katz
declared the week of July 2 1 - July
28, Not In O ur Town! Week.
During Not In O ur Town! Week
the fair minded citizens o f Oregon
w ill display the “Not In Our Town!”
Poster in the windows o f their cars,
homes, and places o f business.
The mass display o f these post­
ers w ill give notice that together we
w ill not tolerate hatred and bigotry
in our town
The current Oregon "Not In Our
Town!" Campaign was started by 2
moms who were disgusted by local
hate crimes.
This campaign is based on a
sim ilar successful campaign in
B illings, Montana. The citizens o f
B illin gs united to oppose white
supremacists who had terrorized a
clothes line Wendy had worked on
for 3 1 cents per hour Wendy told a
story o f the horrors o f working 13
hours per day, o f being subjected to
threats; o f physical, verbal and sexu­
al abuse and harassment and o f often
being forced to work all night. For
$21.86 per week, Wendy received
no health care, no sick pay o f vaca­
tion time. She told o f how pregnant
women were assigned to work in the
pressing department, where they
worked 12 or 13 hours a day on their
feet in tremendous heat to force them
to quit so the company would not
have to pay maternity benefits.
Despite claim s by Kathie Lee
Gifford and Wal-Mart that they have
resolved the problem, the fact is that
U .S . com panies are still using
maqui ladora sweatshop labor and st i 11
oppressing the world's poorest ch il­
dren. The fact is that just because
Kathie Lee Gifford and Wal-Mart
moved their business to another fac­
tory does not mean that they have
resolved Wendy D ia z’ problem and
those of the hundreds o f other work­
ers who are still working at the G lo ­
bal Fashion factory, which also pro­
duces J. Crew and Eddie Bauer
clothes.
This is not the first time that Amer­
icans, including celebrities who en­
dorse or design c loth ing and the com-
panies who sel I them, have learned o f
sweatshop conditions o f the women
and chi Idren who produce the c lothes
which earn them millions. So the
claim o f ignorance o f working con­
ditions is no longer valid or believ­
able. The claim o f ignorance can no
longer absolve them and It can no
longer absolve us.
Using child labor is exploitation
and we, the consumers, must show
that it is neither morally right or
fiscally sound. We must let Kathie
Lee Gifford and Wal-Mart and Eddie
Bauer and J.Crew know that we do
not condone the use o f sweatshop
labor.
We must let them know that it is
not enough to move from one factory
to another when the bad press hits the
headlines.
We must let them know that they
must return to those factories and
IN OUR TOWN
w
Jewish family by throwing a brick
through a window d isp layin g a
Menorah. The town's people all dis­
played Menorahs in their windows
demonstrating their solidarity against
bigotry.
“Not In Our Town" states that
K
These hate crimes are mostly acts by
individuals who are not affiliated
with any organization These indi­
viduals are then encouraged to imi­
tate these acts in their own communi­
ties because they get press and be­
cause there is no great public outcry.
make certain they pay a living wage
in decent work conditions, monitored
by an independent human rights
monitoring group. We must write
them letters and we must write to our
congresspersons urging them to sup­
port the efforts o f Congressman
George M iller o f California to hold
retailers, manufacturers and celebri­
ties more accountable for labor prac­
tices behind the clothing they pro­
duce and market.
And ¡fall else fails, we must refuse
to buy the clothing produced by poor
women and children inhuman condi­
tions for pennies a day. We do live in
a global village. Exploiting these
workers a I lows corporat ions to leave
our nation and put U.S. workers out
o f work. It’s an economic issue. It’s
a justice issue.
(Note: Write to Kathie Lee G ifford
at ABC, 7 Lin co ln Square, New York,
N Y !0023. And if you d like to con­
tribute to the scholarship fu n d fo r
Wendy Diaz, send your check to
Lafayette Avenue P re sb y te ria n
Church, 85 South O xford St., Brook­
lyn, N Y 11217.)
The “Not In Our Tow n” Com ­
mittee wishes to give everyone the
opportunity to express their rejec­
tion o f this type o f crime. Further
hateful acts would be discouraged
if the majority o f citizens show
disapproval o f these destructive
actions.
In B illings, Montana, there have
been no reported hate crimes since
the campaign there.
Hatred and bigotry o f many forms
does exist in our community; si­
lence w ill not make it go away.
We need to work together, speak
together, listen to each other and
learn together
Together we can make Our Town
a place where hatred and bigotry
w ill not be tolerated!
F o r more information call Jane
B iehlat289- 707lo r May Wallace or
Peter Parks at 735-3802 Fax 735-
9413 O r visit the Not In Our Town!
web site http //www teleport.com/
-maydan/niot/
l/’ c c j ' / ’ c c / / r e s
W atch Your Tongue
31
must confess, I didn’t
realize how many of the
v
readers were interest­
ed In “language”. I mean, really
interested-to the extent that
I they wished to exchange cita-
| tions and reading lists with me.
,
j
dolls I used in The Dalles demonstra­
tion o f communication relationships I
on the " stage o f commerce”-an d to I
make clear the binary, permutation
math o f the computers (exactly like
actors appearing on a stage, one at a
time). I couldn’t ‘do my full thing" or
else my copyright [
and patent attor­
neys would have a I
B y
fit. It will all be out
P rofessor
there on the market |
M c k in i . ey
by spring, includ­
ing C D -R O M
B lrt
B y the same to-1
ken, I wish I could have shown much
more at the Mathematics/computer
demonstration I did this spring for|
Mr. Michael Grice at his “Saturday J
Academy Program” fhat is the very I
excellent program sponsored by
Jefferson H igh School/Portland |
School District for gifted and talent­
ed students.
There were many other topics o f,
interest explored during our all after- F
noon session. Everyone was con­
cerned about the use o f Ritalin to
control and suppress “hyper" or “dis­
ruptive” children as they are termed I
under that stifling mantra, “Attention
Deficit Disorder” ! A D D ). I have writ-1
ten here about this growing attack on
the children o f minorities and poor
whites. A ll o f were aware o f the cur­
rent congressional investigations. The I
president oftheNational Association I
I have ap-
I pended some o f
my “ basic ba­
sics” as I call
them, and most
are available at
the p u b lic l i ­
brary; ifnotatthe
branches, then downtown, o f course.
I And, most importantly, use this new
perspective and your enhanced pow-
I ers o f communication every day and
| every way; especially in that "nurtur­
ing” process we’ve been discussing
| here. Some o f us are going to be
awfully surprised when we discover
just how much those preschoolers
(and older) really understand when
| we “break the code” for them.
During the week I had a wonderful
I talk with a grandparent who is the
sole provider for youngsters age 3,5
and 7. This is not an unusual case at
all; in fact she belongs to a "grandpar­
ents support group.' After a spirited
discussion on “Norma Loquendi” and
our “lingua franca” in general, we got
down to cases and found ourselves in
total agreement about use o f the nar­
rative, ‘building block words’: and
| using the "theatre-play theme” .
o f School Psychologists was put on
I actually cleaned up my "floor
the hot seat, where he squirmed and [
files’, and had the lady and her friend
stuttered.
bring over a total o f five little ones so
I showed the grandmothers "The I
I that we could more clearly demon­
War Against Children” by Peter R. I
Breggin, M .D. A very excel lent book |
strate our techniques. I was especial­
ly interested in demonstrating a "the-
that goes in depth to reveal the mach-
I atre-narrative model’ which, with
inationsofsome pharmaceutical com-1
modifications, can be quite effective
pames, doctors, psychologists and I
forall groups-not just little folks. In
school administrators. Every parent
should get it--and not just depend on |
fact. The Dalles, Oregon Junior 11 igh
I School Mathematics-Communica­
Town Hall, Channel 2.
tion Demonstration, which won a
Some excellent books for those |
National Science Foundation Award,
really interested in language
was an effort that drew on all my
• The Language Instinct, Steven |
I years o f experience and commitment
Pinker, 1994, William Morrow;
| to this approach.
• The Tyranny o f Words, Stuart |
“The World is a theatre and the
Chase, 1966, Harcourt Brace;
I play is the thing", I emphasized; We
• The Alphabet Effect, Robert K. |
were all in absolute agreement about
Logan, 1986, William Morrow;
the need for introduction o f more o f
• The Quest For Mind, Howard |
this in the curriculum. “ People com-
Gardner, 1972, Alfred Knopf;
| petent in the Mime, Puppetry and
• Language, Thought And Reali-1
ty, ed. John B Carroll, 1956 M ir|
Instructive narrative is what we are
lacking” said one lady-quite vehe-
| mently. And almost in unison we
insisted," ...and with the proper cul-
| tural structure. It is rather difficult to
find both the ethnic and cognitive
I (math. science)combined in contem­
porary curriculum.
I did show the ladies the original
Press.
For deep stuff on “signs, meaning I
and signifying” see the following: A f
Theory OfSemeiotics, Umberto Eco,
1979, Indiana U. Press; andl
Sem e io tics A nd Them atics in
Hermeneutics, T .K . Seung 1982,
Columbia V. Press
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