No Sweat

Broadmead, Bristol's pedestrianised shopping centre was split in two today as 150 Bristol Activists descended and sat down in protest at the systematic abuse of sweatshop labour by US clothes chain GAP. The sea of faces dividing the walkway held placards reading "GAP - Globally Abusing People" and "GAP rips off child labour and sweat shop labour". The protest gained momentum as local shop workers on lunch breaks and teenagers grabbed pickets and joined in. In the swarm, lines could be seen forming as passers-by queued up to sign petitions calling for an end to GAP's global profiteering. Julie carrying a petition board said how one woman, feeling guilty after having bought a GAP bodywarmer was reminded that she hasn't benefited at all from the exploitation - it cost her an outrageous £55 and needed her to work for hours and hours to pay for it. GAP is anti-union and non-unionised. Its UK workers are as much without rights as its Cambodian or Chinese counterparts earning a few tens of pence an hour.

So, what is to be done next? We need to mobilise ourselves to recruit GAP workers into their shop workers union. An organised strike by those exploited in the West in solidarity with those exploited in the East can put a full stop on child labour. No sales, no profit. But local action must go hand in hand with a perspective that argues for organised global action to cripple transnational corporations like GAP and institutions like the World Bank, IMF and the WTO they bankroll to allow them free reign. Many workers now have this perspective which is why Chris Harman's pamphlet on the IMF sold out within minutes of us protesting and why this week's Socialist Worker reading "Greedy Multinationals" was gobbled up and lead to the recruitment of some school children who, like many of their classmates, are coming to terms with a world where they like what they see but cant afford it. Anti-capitalism has arrived in Bristol and local brands such as GAP, Starbucks and Macdonalds struggling to hide their tarnished corportate images are likely to get a pasting. Protests can spread easily to every high street and GAP shipments and hauliers can be blockaded. No sweat. Just do it.