GUEST COLUMNIST: The view from the sweatshops

The radical student activist groups of which I am a member throw around nebulous terms like "solidarity" and "democratic global economy" as if they actually involve something more than marching around like anarchists on a racquetball court. My trip to Mexican sweatshops with a United Students Against Sweatshops delegation over winter break helped me to understand our movement and these terms by putting a face on the winners and losers of the unrestricted global economy. Our delegation consisted of 14 students from U.S. universities who had some interest in improving working conditions abroad. Most were in United Students Against Sweatshops, which has representatives from all over the country. We spent four days meeting with activists, workers and employers. The goal of the trip was to generate understanding between concerned citizens on both sides of the border. The most inspiring part of the trip was seeing the huge networks of non-governmental organizations already working on the issue of workers' rights in Mexico. We managed to bridge a cultural, linguistic and geographic barrier to build solidarity with these everyday heroes. With respect to the employers, we met with an American executive in the electronics plant he manages. Under the pretense that we were business students, he let us in the factory for a discussion and tour. He explained that the workforce in Mexico is easy to suppress because it is docile and compliant rather than outspoken like American workers. While the electronics executive did not tell us why this might be, our meetings with employees and activists gave me a pretty good idea. It's hard to be a deviant worker by demanding more than $30 per week when your co-workers are routinely fired for even thinking about organizing. It's hard to request less than a 12-hour workday when the alternative is a 16-hour workday. It's hard to challenge these abuses in court when American and Japanese companies have more influence upon policy than 95 percent of the population combined. It's hard for a female employee to request the right to have children when she won't be hired if she doesn't pass a pregnancy test. And it's hard to imagine a higher minimum wage when this same corporate lobby wines and dines the lawmakers to avoid cutting into their huge profits. In short, it's hard to imagine a democratic working environment when the message inside the sweatshops is that Americans (in all their glory) want cheap clothes over democratic institutions. One of our hopes was that we might change this perception in some small way. Sweatshop workers I spoke with were both pleased and surprised that American students were fighting on their behalf. If the United States is to realize Jimmy Carter's dream of becoming a "beacon of democracy," the best place to ignite meaningful democracy is at the ground level by empowering normal people, like factory workers. This is what makes the anti-sweatshop movement so important right now.