They way to go is through an organized boycott of the stores that use sweatshop labour. The boycott should then be followed up with a letter writing campaign to the boycotted stores We need to explain wto the CEO's of GAP, Banana Republic, Walmart, Nike etc... that if the people in the sweatshops aren't given livable wages, then the boycott will persist! However, an organized boycott will do nothing if it is a very small group of people.
That's why we need a PR campaign that gets the word out in plain english what happening in these facilities, what companies are to blame, and the alternatives to sweatshop clothing! That's the way to go. I suggest everyone visit[URL=http://www.greenpages.org/ ]Co-op's Green Pages[/URL]

Its quite refreshing to see some people on Youthnoise care about more than themselves.

COMPASSIONATE POWER!

they do not get a dollar a day, they get like 5 cents a day and thats enough to buy like 3 slices of bread and thats their dinner for their entire family. just bread. and thats almost as bad as starving. in fact, it is starving! its just a prolonged starving. even if they were paid enough for three loaves of bread you can't simply say "at least their not starving" and move on. because we have enough money for 3billion loaves of bread and we're not sharing. we give them awful working conditions and just enough to live on, sometimes not even enough for that just so that we can have 5 dollars off a pair of pants. By paying those extra 5 dollars at some other store you can help save 30 familes that work in a sweatshop. Isn't that enough right there to tell you not to buy from sweatshops? Its so selfish to know all of this and continue buying from places like JCPenny's and Walmart! We're worrying about whether we'll have enough money for the 5 pairs of jeans we want and they're worrying if they'll have enough money to buy food so they can survive! its just one simple choice and a couple extra bucks! who cares about those few dollars when we have to much already? They have nothing! they don't even know if their children will be alive tomorrow, let alone whether they'll have a new pair of pants next week or go to school in a couple of years! all we're thinking about right now is the economy. we don't even know about what 9/10 of the world is going through right now. all we care about is ourselves and what kinds of appliances we should buy to make life easier for ourselves. Please, someone, the next time you want to buy something, think about it first. "Do I really need this? Where did it come from? Is it worth it to kill 5 kids for a pair of pants?." and i'm hoping that you'll realize that its not. www.urbanruby.com has some really cute clothes that are sweatshop free and even help endangered species! shop there or at your local stores instead of the big chains. you'll find way cuter clothes and you'll save lives.

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Would you still keep buying clothes and other goods from a store if you found out the stuff is made in abusive sweatships around the world, including in the US (such as tenements in NYC)?

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HELL NO.

Well, I guess a petition would be the best way to do it. Organizing a protest, and then signing a petition asking them to improve the conditions these people work in with a threat to stop buying there.

Yes, unrealistic. How are you going to convince the average american to stop buying in these places. Because if they pay the workers more, they'll just raise the prices. And that's not good for anyone.It will make people go to other stores where prices are low, probably because of sweatshops.

Laws are the only way to go.

well, its liek a dollar a day true. but its better than starving! besides, a dollar to them is like a hundred dollars. so its not a bad paying job for them!

if alot of people stop buying from sweatshops then the owners will lose a bunch of money even if they at first decide to pay their workers even less. then, if we let them know that we are not buying their clothes because they're made in a sweatshop, then they will have to make some big changes if they want us to start buying their clothes again, or they'll completely lose their business. hopefully then those people can still be employed but they will no longer have to work under sweatshop conditions, they will actually recieve reasonable pay and conditions.

Then the sweatshop owners will just pay their employees lesser...How will that solve the problem?

luvabug-
the money you spend on sweatshop goods does not go to paying the workers. it goes to the corporate pigs who own the sweatshops. if it DID go to the workers, do you honestly think that they'd be making 13 cents an hour for the 70$ clothing they make? also, boycotting sweatshops can be effective because it helps keep money out of the sweatshop owners' pockets.

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If I didnt buy the products those people would be out of jobs. How would they live?

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Because their quality of life is so substantially good right now. This is a cop-out

I've been thinking about this issue. It's a bi of a catch 22. Although it's wrong to buy products made in sweatshops because that supports them, if you boycott them, the workers get even less pay. So I really don't know where I stand on the issue.

some friends made this in summer school. please see the product of 6 weeks of labor.

Real Real World'

we need to help them realize that they don't have to work for us to survive. they have other skills and some of them are putting those skills to good use, not everyone over there works in a sweatshops you know. maybe the best way to go about this would be to teach them how to make money using the skills they already have and if we teach enough of them how to do that, there won't be enough of them to work in our sweatshops and the sweatshops will have to leave.

We can try to stop buying from stores that use sweatshops, but how many people are actually going to make that effort. It probably wouldn't even hurt the company if a few people tried too.

Then how would the people in the sweatshops make their money to survive?

probably not

because when we tried to civilize them we took away their old lifestyles, giving them the need for wealth and essentially no other way to obtain it but to work for us, so they did. if we take away that need then their need for work will also cease.

Jellybean... If their lives were so much better before the sweatshops why would they work at them in the first place or just, quit??

this is a discussion on sweatshops, not grammar, not ignorance, and not arrogance. so just drop it.
"If I didnt buy the products those people would be out of jobs. How would they live?" bauhaus
"If we don't buy from them, they get an even lower income" luvabug22
for a while, their lives might be worse off while they get readjusted to living the way they used to before we started putting them in sweatshops, but, if enough people stop buying from sweatshop-made companies, those companies will have to shut down. Then, the sweatshops will close and like I said, they will have to get used to living the way they used to again, but then once we leave, they will be free again. The only reason they needed our jobs in the first place is because we came over there and tried to civilize them so that they could no longer live the way they wanted to and had to get a job somewhere since their livestyles now require money. If we leave, that will eventually go away.

I do what I can to avoid goods that I know were made by sweatshop labor. I would rather support companies that use fair labor, and let the companies using sweatshops know that I do not approve of their operations.

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Ok you are trying to call me arrogant, but you should have called me ignorant... learn some vocab.

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I neither called you arrogant nor ignorant. However, I do recall you calling me arrogant.

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but you are just to arrogant to understand them.

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and what I said is exceptable grammar

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I think you meant acceptable.

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"i've met a many good men in my day"

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That makes sense.

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I've made a many good points,

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That does not.

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Go read some non picture books and you'll pick up a thing or two

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I'll remember that.

Ok you are trying to call me arrogant, but you should have called me ignorant... learn some vocab.

and what I said is exceptable grammar. You just havent been around long enough to hear a sentence like that....

"i've met a many good men in my day"

Go read some non picture books and you'll pick up a thing or two.