Last night, at a dinner party, one of my co-workers who'd spent time in Micronesia (a US quasi-territory in the Pacific) spoke passionately about the forced labor and abuse of workers there. Basically, she said, Chinese and Filipino immigrants who want to come to the US pay smugglers to get them to Micronesia (US territory) and once they get there, are threatened/cajoled into working off their "debt". Their employers then subcontract to US companies. My co-worker told us all this to explain why she no longer buys clothes at The Gap, one of the biggest subcontractors of Micronesian forced labor.

So I did some hunting around and found a description here, which also names our beloved Target as a fellow offender.

Before I say anything else, let me say that I was shopping at both Banana Republic and Target over the weekend, so I'm not trying to get on a high horse or anything. The week before I spent a crapload at The Body Shop, which has been accused of violating its own greener-than-thou image by using third party suppliers who test on animals and exaggerating the amount of money it reinvests from sales of "Community Trade" products.

So all this is a long prelude to the question of: do you take social/environmental issues into consideration when you buy products? If so, which ones? Or do you think it's a better route to buy cheaper products and donate the money to charitable organizations?

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2001

Answers

WG, you've pimped MATH+1 enough that it has inspired me to participate. WHOOO!

I don't take social/environmental issues into consideration. Sorry, I'm not that socially concious. And I have all these questions: How does one keep track of what companies are violators anyway? And who's ultimately responsible? Target, or the clothing manufacturer? It's easy to go after Target, but with the hundreds of vendors they buy from, how is Target supposed to monitor working conditions in foreign companies?

Maybe I'm veering off the topic here, but anyway: Some companies like Nike for instance, have vowed to monitor their offshore manufacturing facilities. Say Target decrees it will only buy from these type of companies. Who's to say that Nike actually monitors? Maybe it's just a public relations ploy. (I know, I'm a cynic.) Who are they using as monitors - are the monitors on the level? And is the foreign manufacturer putting on a show for the monitors, then going back to treating it's workers like crap when the Nike reps leave? And will Nike only monitor until it thinks the public's interest has died down?

The sweatshops don't always happen in foreign countries either, in recent memory a sweatshop was busted in San Francisco for importing Asian women and forcing them to work.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2001

I think the best thing to do is wear whatever you want to wear and then go teach a kid to read or help out at a soup kitchen.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2001

I absolutely use my money to make a statement on what I find acceptable and unacceptable. If I hear that a company spilled oil in the sea, causing devastation, I will not let that company have my money. If I go to buy a pair of jeans and the sales person is a bitch, I will walk out and look for a place where the people seem pleased that I might want to give them money. And if I hear that someone is selling clothes that have been manufactured in sweatshops, I will go to another store that hopefully is not selling goods manufactured in sweatshops.

I know that you can't be sure that everyone down the line is behaving responsibly, but I can be sure that I'm behaving as responsibly as I can. That's the best I can do.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2001

I was all set to say that I don't do this at all, but after reading Robyn's post, I guess I do do this to some degree. But it usually has to do with ME and how I'm treated and how much money I'm spending. Once a countergirl was evil to me and it soured me on that particular department store for a long time. I get offended when I am asked to pay more at one store than I would at another store for the same item. If I hear that a place has ripped off somebody I care about or treated them badly, I will boycott it. But I don't check the labels of clothes I buy to make sure they weren't produced by sweatshops. Like Melissa said, there's really no way to know whether each and every company you deal with, directly or inadvertantly, is on the up- and-up. I feel you're probably putting a dollar into a sweatshop's pocket somewhere along the line no matter how conscientious you may be.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2001

Just so you guys know, Melissa and Aidan, I agree with you both. There's just no way to be sure. But I do what I can with what I know. I'm just not ready to give up - and there are lots of places that pride themselves on being as earth/human friendly as possible.

-- Anonymous, September 07, 2001

See, the only problem with voting with your dollar is the same problem as when you don't leave a 20% tip at a restaurant because the service sucked.

They don't know you are pissed, they just think you are cheap.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001

See what happens when you use Internet cafe computers? shittiness, that's what.

Anyway, as I was saying:

The only problem with voting with your dollar is the same problem as when you don't leave a 20% tip at a restaurant because the service sucked.

They don't know you are pissed, they just think you are cheap.

So, if you don't write a letter or speak to the manager or make the company aware in some way, like "Dear Targiet, I am now officially pronouncing your name TAR-GET and also not shopping here because you bowed to the Religious Right like a little bitch and pulled your substantial donations to women's rights organizations..."
then they have no clue.

If a person makes a political statement and then falls down in the forest or something, and there is no-one to hear it, was the statement still made? well, you know what I mean.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001

Which reminds me of the time I had an anti-Pepsi sticker on my front door (in college) and The Geek asked for a sticker. Not because he cared about workers in Burma, but because he hates Pepsi.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001