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Sweat hogs
BY CAMILLE DODERO
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In the spectrum of activist causes, sweatshop labor falls somewhere between Tibetan freedom and saving the whales — noble, but somewhat passé. And when there’s a staunchly right-wing administration in the White House and an unjust war still going on overseas, the fight against sweatshop labor seems as out of place as Kathie Lee Gifford at an AFL-CIO meeting. "Sweatshops are not going to be on the top of many people’s lists," says Adam Neiman, CEO of No Sweat Apparel, an anti-sweatshop clothing line based in West Newton. "People have other things on their minds: you’ve got a war, millions of children and prostitution on the streets, pressing things like that." But with the declared support of Musicians Against Sweatshops, or MASS (www.nosweatshop.org) — a collective of anti-sweatshop musicians that includes folks like Billy Bragg, Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders, Chumbawamba, and the Asian Dub Foundation — Neiman hopes to bring attention back to the garment industry. And so, in conjunction with progressive retailers such as Powell’s Books, Union Wear, and Union Threads, Neiman has established the Union Mall (www.nosweatshop.com) — "the first shopping mall in the world where you can’t find a stitch that was made in a sweatshop." Although one Web site isn’t going to eradicate the world’s unfair labor practices, Neiman sees it as a small step in the right direction. "This is the very first time that ordinary people who care, but are not activists, can do something other than wring their hands about sweatshop labor — which is something that touches them intimately." Intimately? "Every time they put on a piece of clothing, [sweatshop labor] touches them." Like when people put on their Fruit of the Looms? "There you go: Fruit of the Looms are the product of sweatshops," Neiman says, laughing. "It doesn’t get anymore intimate than that." Essentially, Neiman — roofer by day, activist by night ("I don’t sleep much," he jokes) — hopes to ignite a boycott protest that will change industry policies. "When the government tells industry to do something, it’s like a parent telling it to do something. When activists tell the industry to do something, it’s like a kid brother telling them to do it. But if consumers tell them, or investors tell them, well, those are like the girls they want to get a date with. And we all know that the industry folks are like randy teenagers." Strange metaphors aside, Neiman also sees his crusade as a fight against a worldwide shift. "The global sweatshop is really something all of us are sliding into. Every day we wake up and we work harder for less money. All of us," he says. "And how can our rags be glad rags when they’re cloaked in the misery of the world?"
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