Dear all,

Please find below a number of resources and recent publications for your information.

1. On our website you can find articles published this september on factory conditions and status of garment the industry in Madagascar: " The Suffering Zone ", http://www.cleanclothes.org/
   and Mauritius: " No paradise for foreign workers "
   http://www.cleanclothes.org/
   Both articles are based on research undertaken in september and october 2001. A more extensive report on the entire Africa programme of CCC/SOMO will be published next month.

2. A book called " Corporate Responsibility and Labour Rights: Codes of Conduct in the Global Economy ", edited by Rhys Jenkins, Gill Seyfang and Ruth Pearson. From the announcement: "Are Codes a progressive response to the globalization of production in the 21 st Century? Or are they a cynical response by Transnational corporations to the damaging accusations and campaigns of anti-globalization protestors? This volume provides a thorough exploration of different positions and experiences by presenting contributions from a wide range of stakeholders not generally represented in academic collections including corporations,international trade unions,women workers ’organizations, international campaigns for workers rights, government initiatives,NGOs and code monitors". Several people and organizations on this list have written chapters in it (including us).
   The book is published by Earthscan in London, ISBN 1 85383 931 0 (paperback) £17.95

3. Check out the new website of Tie Asia , which includes usefull briefings on Bilateral Trade Agreements, a subject we receive quite some questions on: http://www.tieasia.org/ReportsNEW.htm

4. As some of you know, the Austrian CCC has filed a complaint against Nike and Adidas at their OECD national contact point, based on the "We are not Machines" report written by Tim Connor. The Austrian contactpoint has transferred the case to the contact points at the Headquarter country, respectively Germany and the US. We'll keep you informed on the developments.
   
   Several 'toolkits' were produced to help NGOs and trade union understand the guidelines.
   • TUAC published a " usersguide for trade unionists ", which can be found at
     http://www.tuac.org/publicat/cpublica.htm
   • Friends of the Earth International has written a " critical starterkit for NGOs - using the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Entreprises " you can find it online in English, French and Spanish at
     http://www.foenl.org/tk_english.php
   • IRENE, together with Friends of the Earth International, plans a seminar on the topic in March. For more details see
     http://www.irene-network.nl/oncoming.htm
     We're glad that IRENE has developed this website, where you can also find reports of their seminars!
5. Short english reports of activities of the different CCCs from april to june 2002 , including the World Championship campaign, can be found at
   http://www.cleanclothes.org/
6. Maquilasolidarity Network has published yet another usefull codes memo , this one on the Worldwide Responsible Apparel Partnership (WRAP), a factory monitoring and cerification programme created by the American Apparel and Footwear Association. WRAP deserves our critical attention: the codee is far below standard, so is the monitoring programme and, not surprisingly, they seem to be growing pretty fast. Find more info at
   http://www.maquilasolidarity.org/resources/codes/memo12.htm
7. More on codes, monitoring and multistakeholder intiatives: Dara O'Rourke, to many of you known as the author of "Monitoring the Monitors", has published a paper called " Outsourcing Regulation: Analyzing Non-Governmental Systems of Labor Standards and Monitoring ". Very usefull comparison and evaluation of the different systems out there. To be found at:
   http://web.mit.edu/dorourke/www/PDF/OutsourcingReg.pdf