J. Jill, Ann Taylor, Liz Claiborne: Made By Slaves, Backed by Congress

By David Swanson

The Spring 2006 issue of Ms. Magazine contains an article by Rebecca Clarren about some beautiful tropical islands described by disgraced House Majority Leader Tom Delay as "a perfect petri dish of capitalism." What's so perfect about Saipan and the other 13 Northern Mariana Islands? Primarily this: items produced there can carry the label "Made in USA" and be sold in the U.S. without tariffs or quotas, but the scandalously low U.S. minimum wage does not apply, and the pathetically minimal rights of immigrants and workers in the U.S. do not apply. There are no labor unions. Any worker can be terminated and deported at any time for no cause.

The workers, mostly Chinese women, some of whose stories are told in the Ms. Magazine article, sew clothing for J. Jill, Elie Tahari, Ann Taylor, Liz Claiborne, The Gap, and Ralph Lauren, among others. They pay so much money to obtain work and for shelter and food, that they can labor for a decade and still not pay it back. They serve, therefore, as indentured servants, sharing rooms and beds, lacking health care, and working extra unpaid hours for the reward of being permitted to also work paid overtime. Pregnancy is unacceptable, costs of it not covered, and amateur abortion encouraged.

The island of Saipan does great business in prostitution for Asian businessmen and American soldiers. Approximately 90 percent of the prostitutes, according to Ms., are former Chinese garment workers. Others had been recruited for jobs like waitressing but were forced into prostitution instead.

Over the past decade, 29 bills in Congress have sought to apply a minimum wage standard and/or immigration law to the Mariana Islands or to deny use of "Made in USA" to items produced there. Every one of these bills has failed. Some have won support in the Senate but been blocked by the House Resources Committee. Others have won the support of a majority of House Members but still been killed in that same committee.

Guess who earned $11 million in fees from the Marianas government and garment manufacturers? A fellow by the name of Jack Abramoff. The Ms. Magazine article details his extensive lobbying of the Republican leadership in the House, and in particular of Tom Delay.

But DeLay has gone down, and there is hope that Congress, such as it is, might finally manage to act (that is, go on record as legislating reforms that Bush and Cheney will ignore). There are three bills in the House and Senate right now that would apply the U.S. minimum wage to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Ms. recommends contacting the chair and ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and Workforce and the Senate Committee on Finance. They are:

Rep. McKeon www.house.gov/writerep
Rep. Miller george.miller@mail.house.gov
Sen. Grassley http://grassley.senate.gov/webform.htm
Sen. Baucus http://baucus.senate.gov/contact/emailForm.cfm?subj=issue

Congressman Miller has asked the chair of the House Resources Committee, Rep. Richard Pombo (himself the subject of a report on ethics violations released yesterday http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/politics/14507254.htm ) to investigate Abramoff's lobbying on behalf of the Ann Slave Taylor Islands, the Ralph Lauren Petri Dish for Plutocratic Plundering and Prostitution.

If every American who has purchased an item of clothing made by what is essentially American slave labor were to ask Pombo to hold hearings by writing to him at rpombo@mail.house.gov and by sending a letter to the editor of the Stockton Record at editor@recordnet.com it might provide some hope to the women whose stories Ms. Magazine tells.

DeLay single handedly killed all of the bills on the Northern Marianas while he was in Congress. Is Boner going to follow suit? Is there enough scrutiny on the Northern Marianas to get some public support for this?

I hope that this campaign gets some traction.

Any chance that some 'known' name in entertainment or something can come forward on this? This is the kind of thing that benefits from people outside of politics being involved.

I have a personal connection with Saipan. When I was a child, my family moved there when my father was appointed Chief of Construction by the Government of the Marianas. Saipan was then (1972-6) a magical place. Although the postwar American influence was evident, much of the indigenous, Spanish, German and indeed Japanese history of the island was still visible. The weather was always balmy, the breadfruit trees were plentiful, the trade winds kept humidity at bay and the reef created a lagoon rich with fish that darted in and out of the wreckage of WWII tanks that hadn't made it ashore.

In short, the place was paradise. There were only four hotels on the island, two supermarkets, a department store and a handful of local businesses. I counted my time on Saipan as one of the happiest of my childhood and have thought fondly of the friends I made there ever after.

A few years ago, for my 40th birthday, my wife surprised me by booking a trip for us to Saipan. Rather naively, I expected to find something like the tropical idyll I remembered. What I saw appalled me. The reef is virtually gone, the lagoon and shore battered by waves from the open ocean. The Japanese tourist boom of the 1980s and bust of the '90s has left a score of 'resorts' scarring the once beautiful coastline. Small, local businesses have been replaced by malls full of Gucci, Dior, Rolex, Cartier and all manner of other luxury crap that no islander can afford and no tourist ever comes to see. There's even a Hard Rock Cafe there, for Christ's sake.

The biggest change is the people. There has been a definite change in the attitude of the local people. Where once was an open and welcoming culture, it now seems closed and suspicious. When I lived there, the relative wealth of my family compared to local people appeared to make no difference. We formed close friendships with islanders, some of which persist to this day. When I visited them on my last visit, they confirmed that Saipan was a changed place. Crime has skyrocketed, prostitution is rampant, drug use is virtually out of control. These were things that were unheard of in the 1970s. There was, I think, one murder in all the time I lived on the island. Now, there seems to be one a week.

The sweatshops are merely the latest manifestation of the effect of globalisation on this small corner of the world. Because the Confederation of the Northern Marianas is technically part of the US (like Guam and Puerto Rico), manufacturers producing products there can put 'Made in the USA' on their goods. The sweatshop conditions in which these goods are made, however, are horrific. So horrific that the factories are surrounded by high fences patrolled by goons. Taking a photo is taking your life in your hands.

For many, the story of Saipan is just another tale of woe in a woeful world. For me, it's something more. It's the pollution of my childhood and, as such a powerful representation of how much has been lost in such a short time.

It is that much more horrifying when presented from a personal perspective, and, I have that much more motivation to try to do something about it. For starters, I will no longer purchase products from these companies.

... of the article can be found?

I'd like to send a link of it to some people.

This is a great 2006 campaign issue.

I would love to have one to refer to.
thanks! :)

Every woman in the US will be outraged! *THAT* would serve them right!

I'm so glad this is getting some pulp women's mag coverage.

-Hoot

I guess I just won't buy anything.