Sweat busters

Smart shoppers

by Kristen Lombardi

All you fevered holiday shoppers, take note: the anti-sweatshop brigade is coming to town, and it's here to say that buying those Gap cotton tees and Nike Air Jordan shoes is more naughty than nice.

In honor of the Christmas season, local activists have designated this Saturday, December 16, as Boston's Sweatshop-Free Holiday day. Organizers hope to attract as many as 300 activists to what they have dubbed "Sweatshop Square" -- the corner of Newbury and Exeter Streets, in front of the prominently located Gap and Nike stores -- to decry these companies' persistent and ugly use of sweatshop labor.

"I believe the majority of American consumers are goodhearted," explains Dan Denvir, an organizer with the Youth Action Network, a group of area high-school students that's sponsoring the demonstration. "We have a real opportunity to let shoppers know about the frightening conditions that go on at Gap and Nike sweatshops."

Activists have had both Nike and the Gap in their cross hairs for years now. Nike had faced repeated allegations of labor abuses in its 700 Third World factories before the company announced sweeping initiatives to improve conditions in 1998. But last year, the $10 billion corporation fell from grace when Nike vice-president Joseph Ha penned a letter to the Vietnamese government in which he said that critics of the company's factories there also want to oust the country's authoritarian regime.

And Gap Inc., which consists of the Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic, was one of 18 brand-name clothiers to be sued last year for practices at clothing plants on the Mariana Island of Saipan, which is a United States territory in Southeast Asia. The lawsuit charged the company with illegal labor practices and human-rights violations.

Anti-sweatshop crusaders expect to be out in full force Saturday afternoon. Look for a classic picket with holiday flair, as activists try to lure shoppers into their protest ranks by invoking the spirit of St. Nicholas. Protesters dressed as Santa and his elves will hand out candy canes to all good girls and boys who bear stickers declaring I OPPOSE NIKE AND GAP SWEATSHOPS. Those who dare to cross the line will get lumps of coal instead.

"We're not there to fight with holiday shoppers," Denvir promises. "But we're pretty certain they'll be receptive all the same.

"People are beginning to realize that we're not asking them to throw away all their Gap and Nike clothes. We're asking them to become responsible consumers."