Pacific Free Press was launched in March 2007 by Dutch-Canadian Richard
Kastelein of V.O.F. Expathos, in the Netherlands along with Chris Cook- CFUV radio journalist and Editor in Chief of Pacific Free Press. Cook is based in , Victoria, British Columbia.
The site is a sister to Atlantic Free Press and Brick Ogden an American Expatriate in Amsterdam has been a key supporter of this project.
The mission of Pacific Free Press is simple: to dig out nuggets of truth from
the slag-heap of lies, ignorance and witless diversion that has buried
public discourse today. Pacific Free Press provides a new venue for
disseminating hard news and insightful, fact-based analysis of the
harsh realities too often ignored or distorted by the mainstream press.
Slaves to Fashion: GAP's New Frontiers in Child Abuse
The Gap: New Frontiers in Child Abuse
by Barbara Ehrenreich It was enough to make you vomit all over your new denim jacket. The Gap has been caught using child labor in an Indian sweatshop, and not just child labor -- child slaves.
As extensively reported on the news, the children, some as young
as ten, were worked sixteen-hour days, fed bowls of mosquito-covered
rice, and forced to sleep on a roof and use over-flowing latrines.
Those who slowed down were beaten with rubber pipes and the ones who
cried had oily cloths stuffed in their mouths.
But let's try
to look at this dispassionately -- not as a human rights issue but as a
PR disaster, ranking right up there with the 1982 discovery of cyanide
in Tylenol capsules. Think of this as a case study in a corporate
Crisis Communication course: How is The Gap handling the problem, and
could it do better?
[republished at PFP with Agence Global permission.]
The Gap -- America's retail casual clothes giant -- has a little
"child slave" problem. In a nation that cannot bring itself to extend
child health insurance (SCHIP) to all children in need, the corporation
could just try a little PR spin to avoid the human rights scandal.
This is not the first time The Gap has
been caught using child labor, but Gap President Marka Hansen went on
the air to state that the situation was "completely unacceptable" and
that the company would "act swiftly." Two problems here: One, she
failed to detail the actions. It would have been nice, for example, if
she had announced that some of the top-producing child slaves would be
reassigned to manage Gap outlets in American malls, and that the
under-performers would be adopted by Angelina Jolie.
The
other, more serious, problem is that she got defensive about child
labor. This is the mistake Kathie Lee Gifford made in 1996. When
accused of using child labor in Honduras to manufacture her Kathie Lee
line of clothing, Gifford broke into tears on TV. Maybe Hansen meant to
cover herself by saying that The Gap would not "ever, ever condone any
child laborer making our garments" rather than saying the company does
not condone child labor itself. We already knew, from the rubber pipes
and oily cloths, that The Gap does not condone much from its child
laborers.
Hansen underestimated the potential support for a
full-throated defense of child labor. More and more American children
are tried and punished as adults today. And the ubiquitous conservative
pundit William Kristol will surely be enthusiastic, considering his
recent -- though possibly facetious -- statement that "whenever I hear
anything described as a heartless assault on our children, I tend to
think it's a good idea."
The core of the argument, though,
is that anyone who opposes child labor has not witnessed its opposite,
which is child unemployment and idleness.
Hansen claims to
be a mother herself, but I wonder how often she has returned home from
a hard day in the C-suites to find her unemployed offspring Magic
Marker-ing the walls and crushing the Froot Loops into the carpet. This
is what jobless children do: They rub Crazy Glue into their siblings'
hair; they spill apple juice onto your keyboard. Believe me, I see this
kind of wantonly destructive behavior every day. Vandalism is a way of
life for unemployed children, and they do not know the meaning of
remorse.
In fact, corporate America should go further and
make a strong statement against the sickening culture of dependency
that has grown up around childhood. Why are jobless children so
criminally inclined? Because they know that whatever damage they
inflict, the Froot Loops will just keep coming. The Gap should portray
its child-staffed factories as part of a far-seeing welfare-to-work
program, which will eventually be extended to American children as well.
To
appeal to American parents, our own child factories should be run more
like Montessori schools, where the children are already encouraged to
regard every one of their demented activities as "work." If they're
going to pile up blocks and knock them down all day, then why not sew
on buttons and bring home a little cash? But even American families
will have to brace themselves for the inevitable cost-cutting measures.
First the cookies and milk may have to go, then, as in India, the
toilets and beds. Wal-Mart has already pioneered the price-cutting
defense of human rights abuses, and The Gap should follow suit.
The
company can of course expect some lingering opposition. Just as there
are vegetarians and pacifists, there will always be some men, for
example, who would rather wear skirts than blue jeans impregnated with
the excrement and tears of ten-year-olds. Well, let them shop at
American Apparel or some other "sweat-free" vendor, and if they can't
find anything there, let them wear dhotis.
In a nation
that cannot bring itself to extend child health insurance (SCHIP) to
all children in need, child-made clothes make a fine fashion statement.
And why not accessorize your denim jacket with a scarf derived from one
of those oily cloths stuffed in weeping workers' mouths?
Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed (Owl), is the winner of the 2004 Puffin/Nation Prize.
Agence
Global is the exclusive syndication agency for The Nation, Le Monde
diplomatique, as well as expert commentary by Richard Bulliet, Mark
Hertsgaard, Rami G. Khouri, Peter Kwong,Tom Porteous, Patrick Seale and
Immanuel Wallerstein.
-------------------
Released: 02 November 2007
Word Count: 790
Rights & Permissions Contact: Agence Global, 1.336.686.9002, rights@agenceglobal.com
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Writings 
It was enough to make you vomit all over your new denim jacket. The Gap has been caught using child labor in an Indian sweatshop, and not just child labor -- child slaves.
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