Sunday, October 10, 2004

No Sweatshops Bucco!

The Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance = PASCA

Saturday, Oct. 16, 2004
Duquesne U. - Pappert Hall - 2 to 4 pm (more in comments)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nearly 1.8 million women work in the sweatshops of Bangladesh to produce apparel for export. Thirty years ago there were no apparel exports. Then a trade agreement called the Multi-Fiber helped to create Free Trade Zones by eliminating import/export taxes on fabric and finished apparel into and out of the US and Canada. Then 80% of North American apparel assembly disappeared while sweatshops in developing countries like Bangladesh boomed.

The National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) of Bangladesh has had astounding union victories in recent years. The NGWF shut down the
industry on May Day in 2001, winning their first paid holidays. In July 2004, through a combination of strikes and publicity, workers won 4-weeks of paid maternity leave.

Hear members of the National Garment Workers Federation describe working conditions in Bangladesh, their struggle to organize a labor union, fight factory closures and demand economic development for themselves, not just their employers.

This tour is sponsored by the National Labor Committee - www.nlcnet.org

Welcome to Pittsburgh at 4:30 PM at Freedom Corner Centre and Crawford

Reception to follow, Blakey Building 1908 Wylie Avenue

Duquesne University is celebrating their new membership in the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), a sweatshop monitoring group independent of
corporate interests with students and university administrators on its
board.

Solidarity Activists are invited to come and listen to NGWF members and then
welcome them to Pittsburgh by sharing our own struggles for unions, jobs,
women‚s rights, civil rights, free speech, education, transportation and
healthcare at Freedom Corner. PASCA sees a working Pittsburgh in
solidarity, not competition, with workers in other parts of the world.

Co-Sponsored by Student and Faculty Social Justice Committee (Duq U), Center for Interpretive and Qualitative Research (Duq U), Duquesne Graduate Student Organization, Students in Solidarity (PITT), People for Workers Rights (Carnegie Mellon), International Socialist Organization, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 2459, Graphic Communications International Union Local 23, Mon Valley Unemployed Committee, AFL-CIO Western PA Labor and Religion Coalition, Black and White Reunion.

We need your group to sponsor too.

PASCA c/o Azania Heritage International, 5125 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15224

For more information on PASCA = nosweatshopsbucco@yahoo.com