Madison-Wisconsin Oct 20 2006

Mobilizing Global Social Justice Mobilizing Global Social Justice Responsibility-TakingResponsibility-Taking

Samples from our book-in-progress

Michele Micheletti (Karlstad University)Dietlind Stolle (Michele Micheletti)

Project financed by the Swedish Council of Research

Madison-Wisconsin Oct 20 2006

Political ConsumerismPolitical Consumerism

Use of the market as an arena for politics

Three formsBoycotts – don’t buy for political, ethical, environmental reasons

“Buycotts” – do buy for these reasons

Discursive actions – opinion & value expression in communicative efforts

GOVERNMENT IS NOT PRIMARY TARGET FOR GOVERNMENT IS NOT PRIMARY TARGET FOR POLITICAL ACTIONPOLITICAL ACTION

Madison-Wisconsin Oct 20 2006

Paper HighlightsPaper Highlights

Focus: No-Sweat, Just Clothes, Anti-Sweatshop, Clean Clothes Movement

• Political Responsibility & Sweatshops: – Responsibility problems; responsbility models

• Short Overview of Anti-Sweatshop Movement

• Envisioned role of consumers in the movement

• What force has political consumerism?

Madison-Wisconsin Oct 20 2006

Examples

Problems in global garment industry in Logo SweatshopsProblems in global garment industry in Logo Sweatshops

“At the Hung Wah factory, young women work from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., seven days a week, sewing Nike clothing for an

average wage of 22 cents an hour.”

“Keds made in China by 16-year-old girls applying toxic glue with their bare hands, the only tool given them, a toothbrush.” 

“Timberland shoes are made in China by 16 and 17-year-old girls forced to work 14 hours a day, seven days a week for 22 cents an hour, often in temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The young women are threatened and coached to lie to any auditors visiting the factory.”- National Labor Council report 2004

Madison-Wisconsin Oct 20 2006

Why Problems Here?Why Problems Here? Globalization, Government, Corporations & Consumers

No Global Government “Earth has no CEO. No Board of Directors. No management team…” – UN, World Bank, and World Resources Institute

Conventional Model of Political Responsibility Nation-state government model out of touch with global times

￫ ￫ social justice responsibility vacuumssocial justice responsibility vacuums

Global Garment Corporations Fiercely competitive buyer-driven corporations “race to the bottom” to price themselves in the market

Consumers Demanding good personalized “mass” fashion at “good” prices

￫ ￫ mobile outsourced fashion manufacturing & sweatshopsmobile outsourced fashion manufacturing & sweatshops

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Anti-Sweatshop Focus on CorporationsAnti-Sweatshop Focus on Corporations

“[G]lobalization has generated layers of transactions and institutional practices that envelop and cut across the system of states.”

Globalization’s most visible manifestation Ca. 70,000 transnational firms in operation

with ca 700,000 subsidiaries and millions of suppliers connected through distributed networks globally

They are like “elephants standing in the center of rooms…”They are like “elephants standing in the center of rooms…”

Speech by John G. Ruggie, Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University and Special Representative on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises

October 2005

Madison-Wisconsin Oct 20 2006

Anti-Sweatshop Focus on Consumers & Consumption Anti-Sweatshop Focus on Consumers & Consumption PracticesPractices

“Choose it, colour it, sign it, buy it”

“Divided spring – real self, real style”

“The best style is your very own”

“Everyone is a star”

“Clothing and accessories that enhance personal style”

Who’s responsible for sweatshops?Who’s responsible for sweatshops?

Cause & treatment responsibilityCause & treatment responsibility

Everyone involved with garment consumptionEveryone involved with garment consumption“The social relations that connect us to others are not restricted to nation state borders. Our actions are conditioned by and contribute to institutions that affect distant others, and their actions contribute to the operation of institutions that affect us. Because our actions assume these others as condition for our own actions, …we have

made practical moral commitments to them by virtue of our actions. That is, even when we are not conscious of or actively

deny a moral relationship to these other people, to the extent that our actions depend on the assumption that distant others are doing certain things, we have obligations of justice in relation to them.”

Iris Marion Young, “Responsibility and Global Justice: A Social Connection Model,” Philosophy and Social Policy (winter 2006)

Madison-Wisconsin Oct 20 2006

Overview Overview Contemporary Anti-Sweatshop Political Contemporary Anti-Sweatshop Political

ConsumerismConsumerismFormative events for North American & European Branches

European Branch: Lockout of women workers in Philipine factory making

clothes for C & A for demanding legal minimum wage (1990)

North American Branch: Establishment of amalgamated Union of Needle, Industrial, and Technical Employees (UNITE!) & sweatshop raid in El

Monte, California (1995)

STRUCK A NERVE IN CIVIL SOCIETY STRUCK A NERVE IN CIVIL SOCIETY ￫ ￫MOBILIZATION MOBILIZATION ￫ ￫ CONSOLIDATION OF ANTI-CONSOLIDATION OF ANTI-

SWEATSHOP MOVEMENT SWEATSHOP MOVEMENT

Transnational MovementTransnational Movement

• Teaming up of Old & New Civil Society

• Church groups, student groups, think tanks, policy institutes, foundations, consumer-oriented organizations, international organizations, local to global labor unions, labor-oriented groups, specific anti-sweatshop groups, no sweat businesses, business investors, and old & new international humanitarian networks and groups

• Figure 1 – 106 main groups, networks & organizations (CSR-oriented groups not included)

• All use “sweatshop” metaphor as their master frame

Madison-Wisconsin Oct 20 2006

Academic Consortium on International Trade Educating for Justice

Adbusters Ethical Consumer

Alberta Nike Campaign Ethicalshopper.net

American Center for International Labor Solidarity Ethical Threads

American Apparel Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI)

Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC) European Association of National Organisation of Textile Retailers

Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational Accident Victims European Fair Trade AssociationFair Labor Association

Attac Fairtrade Foundation

Behind The Label (UNITE) Fair Trade Center

Boycott Nike Fair Wear

Campaign for the Abolition of Sweatshops & Child Labor FLO-International (Fair trade Labelling Organization International)

Campaign for Labor Rights Gapsucks.org

Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Garment Worker Center

Catholic Institute for International Relations Get Ethical

Child Labor Coalition Global Alliance for Workers and Communities

China Labor Bulletin Global Exchange

Christian Aid Globalise Resistance

Clean Clothes Campaign Global Solidarity, Irish Congress of Trade Unions (UCTU)

Community Aid Abroad “Just Stop It” Global Solidarity Dialogue

Co-op America Global Unions

CorpWatch HomeNet

Development and Peace Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee

Diamond Cut Jeans Human Rights for Workers: The Crusade Against Global Sweatshops

Madison-Wisconsin Oct 20 2006

Human Rights First

International Committee for Trade Union Rights

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions

International Federation for Alternative Trade

International Labor Organization (ILO)

International Labor Rights Fund

Just Act: Youth ACTion for Global JUSTice

Just Do It! Boycott Nike!

Just Shoppers’ Guide to Sport Shoes

Labour Behind the Label

LINK Etc.

LINK-label

Maison Internationaa huis (MINTH)

Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network

Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN)

Multinational Resource Center

National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice

National Labor Committee for Worker & Human Rights

National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS)

Nike Wages Campaign

Nike Watch (Oxfam, AUS)

North-South Institute

No Sweat. The UK Campaign Against Sweatshops

No Sweat Shop Labeling Campaign

Olympic Living Wage Project Starving for the Swoosh (2001)

Oxfam’s campaign “Make Trade Fair”, involved in Fair Play at the Olympics

Peace Through Interamerican Community Action (PICA)

People-Centered Development Forum (PCDF)

People’s Global Action (PGA)/

Play Fair at the Olympics

Press for Change

Responsible Shopper, Co-Op America

Resource Center of the Americas

SA 8000 (Social Accountability International)

Scholars Against Sweatshop Labor (SASL)

Smithsonian Sweatshop Exhibition

Stichting Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen (SOMO, Centre for research on multinational corporations)

Students Against Sweatshops (SAS-C)Canada

Sweatshop Journal

Sweatshop Watch

SweatX, Union cut and sew shop

TCFU Austrialia

Thai Labor Campaign

Transnational Information Exchange- Asia (TIE-Asia)

Transnationale Organization

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Union Label and Service Trades (part of AFL-CIO)

Union Mall

Union Wear

Unite! Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees

United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS)

US/Labor Education in the Americas Project (US Leap)

Verite, independent, non-profit social auditing

Vietnam Labor Watch

Witness for Peace

Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)

Women Working Worldwide

Workers Rights Consortium (WRC)

World Development Movement

Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production

Madison-Wisconsin Oct 20 2006

Study of Key Anti-Sweatshop Movement Actors Study of Key Anti-Sweatshop Movement Actors

From old & new “membership-based” civil society groups & associationsFrom old & new “membership-based” civil society groups & associations

• Unions (UNITE, Gobal Unions) (UNITE, Gobal Unions)

• International Humanitarian (Oxfam, Global Exchange) (Oxfam, Global Exchange)

• Specific “no-sweat” groups (United Students Against Sweatshops, Clean (United Students Against Sweatshops, Clean Clothes Campaign)Clothes Campaign)

• Internet Spin Doctors (Adbusters) (Adbusters)

Sources: Interviews, documents and other materials from key actors, secondary sourcesSources: Interviews, documents and other materials from key actors, secondary sources

Different Envisioned Role for Consumers to Different Envisioned Role for Consumers to Play in Social Justice Responsibility-TakingPlay in Social Justice Responsibility-Taking

Work-still-in-progress

• Support group for other causes– unions: consumers are “broad, ideologically benign community” to mobilize “to

make the struggle for justice for workers more palatable to the public in an antilabor climate”

• Critical shopping mass- USAS & international humanitarian organizations: consumers can “use their purchasing power to tilt the balance, however slightly, in favour of the poor;” “Organizing communities of consumers can make sweatfree purchases dynamic and effective”

• Spearhead force hitting corporations where it hurts most– Clean Clothes Campaign: uses opportunities opened up by buyer-driven

corporate vulnerability: “Brand name companies compete intensely for consumer loyalty, and therefore consumers can influence how these companies operate.”

• Ontological agent of societal change– Adbusters Media Foundation: “the world can change if consumers change their

relationship to consumption”

Madison-Wisconsin Oct 20 2006

Envisioned Role for Consumers Affects Movement Actors’ Envisioned Role for Consumers Affects Movement Actors’ Campaign Strategies & TacticsCampaign Strategies & Tactics

Work-still-in-progress

Thematic campaigning penetrates underlying mechanisms leading to social justice responsibility vacuums; goal is change in predispositions, worldview, consumer outlook on role of consumption in their lives

Episodic campaigning focuses on particular issues, actors, puts responsibility claims on specific wrong-doers (Nike, Walmart, H & M…)

Preliminary Findings: (1) Support group, critical mass, spearhead force; more focus on episodic campaigning; (2) Most movement actors focus on episodic campaigning; event & actor focus (exceptions: Adbusters; UNITE’s Behind the Label Campaign)

(See Shanto Iyengar “Framing Responsibility for Political Issues” Annals, AAPSS 1999 for initial discussion on these frames)

Effectiveness of Episodal Campaigning and Anti-Sweatshop Effectiveness of Episodal Campaigning and Anti-Sweatshop ActivismActivism

Effectiveness Chain ModelSome Preliminary Results

Links Definition Effectiveness

Problem formulation Actors’ ability to create movement with common master frame

YES. 106 groups. Sweatshop metaphor. NO. Solutions

Problem recognition by others

Movement’s ability to convince relevant targets (consumers, civil society, politicians, corporations, media) about sweatshops as problem

YES. Sweatshop well-known problem frame; 2.7 million Google hits; newspaper reports, others’ acknowledgement

Agenda-setting Pushing corporations to put sweatshop on their policy agenda

YES. Corporations address it.

Policy-making Influence how corporations formulate their policies

YES after much struggle. CSR reporting, establishment of Codes of Conduct and improvements in them.

Policy implementation Are and how well are codes of conduct implemented in practice?

Mixed findings.

Problem-solving outcomes

Is anti-sweatshop improving garment workers’ lives?

Yes. In certain cases. No more small child labor.

How measure activist effects on market share and stock prices?How measure activist effects on market share and stock prices?

Builds on classical studies of power & influence, Keck & Sikknik’s work on transnational advocacy networks; mainstream political science analysis of public policy processes

Madison-Wisconsin Oct 20 2006

Force of Political ConsumerismForce of Political ConsumerismMicheletti’s ThoughtsMicheletti’s Thoughts

• Need to distinguish between light & thick political consumerism?– Thin version: better buying, supporting unions when

triggered episodically by mobilizing campaigns- Problems of price-sensitivity; fickliness; incongruencies between

saying and doing- Implication: harnessing consumer power is never-ending-task

– Thick/deep version: changing our consumption predispositions and deep values about role of consumption as social marker; long-term goal of ontological movement

- New “non-price-sensitive” relationship to consumption with staying power