Ethix Merch: In recent years, the movement has focused on utilizing the leverage of large consumers like states, cities, universities, and school districts. While these projects develop, how can individuals help the cause?

In a related question, do you think it is realistic for consumers to buy only guaranteed sweatshop-free clothing for themselves and their children, or should they focus on supporting the movement in other ways?

Bjorn Claeson:
First of all, most of us – and I include myself here – should buy less of everything, period. When we do buy, we owe it to workers, to the earth, and to our future generations to pay a fair price so that others do not need to absorb the true cost of production by living in abject poverty, working when sick, and enduring unhealthy workplaces. Unfortunately, we have built a global economic system that requires producers to externalizing the cost of production to the weakest and most vulnerable among us, including our planet. So it is not easy to pay a fair price. We have to work against the system. Just as companies scour the globe for the cheapest possible labor, we have to scour the aisles—so to speak—for products that are union made or made by worker-owned cooperatives. We should buy organic-certified cotton as much as possible. We should consider buying products that are made locally and haven’t been transported half-way across the globe before we get them. We need to reduce the distance between consumer and producer both geographically and economically. Look at it that way and shopping is activism. We have a tool to promote shopping as activism—the Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide. There are many other tools. The important step is to think when we buy. Is this purchase necessary? And if so, how does it impact the earth and the workers?

Beyond shopping? Yes, of course. There are many, many ways for people to get involved and strengthen the anti-sweatshop movement. I would suggest that people consider ways to build activism into their daily lives. How can you educate the members of your church or school? Can you get your company to buy logo-apparel made by union workers? Can you join or start a group for your city to buy only sweatshop-free apparel? There is no end of possibilities.

Ethix Merch: In a recent column, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times defended sweatshops, writing:

"Among people who work in development, many strongly believe (but few dare say very loudly) that one of the best hopes for the poorest countries would be to build their manufacturing industries. But global campaigns against sweatshops make that less likely."

How would you respond to this particular argument?

Bjorn Claeson:
Kristof assumes that industrial development ineluctably leads to a better standard of living, that second generation factory workers will be better off than first generation workers. But he ignores the economic system within which industry develops, a system based on low-cost production requiring factories to operate as sweatshops in order to be successful. Garment factories in Central America or Asia are every bit as oppressive today as two decades ago. The anti-sweatshop movement is not trying to deny the opportunity of industrial development to certain countries—it has never been a boycott movement. Instead, it is working to change the system of production so that factories that pay workers a living wage and respect workers’ right to organize are favored rather than disfavored, so that industrial development can actually produce a middle class.

Ethix Merch: How would you rate the Obama administration’s first few months, when it comes to sweatshops? Going forward, are you optimistic about the role of the U.S. government in combating sweatshops here and abroad?

Bjorn Claeson:
I am not in a position to rate Obama’s actions on sweatshops just yet, but here is at least a beginning of an agenda I would propose to the administration: 1) Speak out in support of unions and the Employee Free Choice Act. With EFCA workers have a better chance to turn U.S. sweatshops into decent places to work. 2) Fully fund the U.S. Department of Labor workplace investigations to discover and remedy violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. 3) Turn the ship of trade around. No more WTO and NAFTA model trade agreements in which labor standards are at best unenforceable and at worst seen as a hidden obstacle to trade. Advocate for the T.R.A.D.E. Act. 4) Enforce and then expand Clinton’s Executive Order banning federal purchases of products made by forced and indentured child labor. First, add transparency requirements and add investigatory capacity. Then expand the purchasing ban to products not made in accordance with international core labor standards. 5) Fund the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium to help all government agencies end purchasing from sweatshops.

Let’s check back in a year from now.

Ethix Merch: As challenging as it has been to pass sweat-free procurement ordinances in states and cities around the country, it seems that enforcement of these ordinances has been inconsistent. Why aren’t more of these ordinances enforced, and what is being done about it?

Bjorn Claeson:
Enforcement is a tremendous challenge because there is hardly any supply of sweatfree uniforms and other apparel for government agencies to buy. Buying sweatfree is not the same as buying recycled paper, fair trade coffee, or organic cotton shirts when you can just check the label and buy accordingly. Buying sweatfree is a process of transformation where government agencies use their purchasing power to create transparency, investigate working conditions, demand change, and, eventually, designate sweatfree suppliers. It’s a lot of hard work in the early stages especially. The only way forward is collaborative. That is why we are focusing on creating the Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium to give governments real monitoring and investigative capacity. We also encourage companies like Ethix that truly seek to comply with sweatfree standards to get into the government procurement market. It’s not going to be easy in the beginning, but we need to show government purchasers that they do have options.

Ethix Merch: During the sweatfree communities conference in 2007, a link was drawn between sweatshops in the garment industry and "sweatshops in the field." Are partnerships continuing between SFC and organizations like the Coalition of Immokalee Workers?

Bjorn Claeson:
You know, not as much as I would like. We learned a lot from the CIW and their demands for supply chain transparency and fair pricing—their penny more per pound campaign. The solutions for sweatshop workers in the field and in the factories are similar. But whether it is because of lack of resources or other reasons we have not maintained more than occasional contact.