• Austria - Kampagne für faire Arbeitsbedingungen weltweit
• Belgium North - Schone Kleren Campagne
• Bulgaria - (BEPA) CCC Programme
• Eastern Europe & Turkey
• France - Collectif De l'éthique sur l'étiquette
• Germany - Kampagne für 'Saubere' Kleidung
• the Netherlands - Schone Kleren Kampagne
• Spain - Campaña Ropa Limpia
• Sweden - Kampanjen Rena Kläder
• Switzerland - Clean Clothes Campaign

Austria - Clean Clothes - Kampagne für faire Arbeitsbedingungen weltweit

Campaigns

Sports and Olympics Campaign
After the success of our actions at the Vienna City Marathon in May 2003 we went on with our Sports Campaign with actions at the Graz Marathon and the three-countries-marathon in the autumn. At the Graz Marathon we were present with a big info point and the medals (in the form of CD-ROMs) all finishers got, contained an CCC-advertisement.

The Olympics planning is on its way, and a separate working group inside the platform was established together with activists.

Codes of Conduct for TNCs
Solidarity among Women (one of the members of the Austrian CCC) has launched a 3 years' information campaign/project on "Codes of Conduct for TNCs" in May this year, together with the German NGO and CCC member Christliche Initiative Romero. The project consists of four components of which the first one will be an information journey to India which takes place from the 5th-16th of January 2004. The group going to India consists of 11 women: three women from different governmental political parties, one from the press and the others from various NGOs. The other three components will be the production of an information video, a calendar and a poster action. The objective of the visit to India is mainly to gather information about the situation and the state of discussion about Codes of Conduct in India (which works in this case as an example for all the other countries), to bring together the Austrian participants with their Indian colleagues and to discuss the topic, the possible common strategies, etc. and continue the work in Austria more efficiently based on the experiences of India. The participants of the trip will be offered the possibility to see the backgrounds behind the CSR/CoC discussions, to see the working reality of women in different branches of factories that are producing for the Austrian market, to find out what a Code of Conduct means in the working reality of the women working in those enterprises and what their claims, criticisms and proposals are concerning Codes of Conduct.

It is planned to visit enterprises that have made and effort to implement (various kinds of) Codes of Conduct, to discuss with the workers there and visit factories. Moreover, we want to get in touch with trade unions, representatives of the industry and NGOs working within this area.

CSR-Austria Dialogue
In the autumn we intervened in the debate about CSR in Austria, a project founded and funded by the chamber of commerce and the government. We brought the CCC issues into the discussions and they took up some of them.

Steirischer Herbst 2003 (styrian autumn)
This is a big theatre festival in Styria that had one CCC-related play called "Dry Clean Show". They had advertisements of the CCC in all their material.
Infotables and Actions at:

Urgent Appeals

Hermosa, adidas
289 people participated in our two e-mail actions on adidas and Hermosa in June and July 2003.
Jaqalanka Ltd.
323 people participated in our e-mail action on Jaqalanka Ltd. in August and September 2003. Campaign ended.
North Sails Lanka
Campaign still going on. 276 people participated from June 2003 till now.
PT Kahatex
Campaign still going on. 524 people participated from September 2003 till now. We also did a press release on the case because s.Oliver is the sponsor of a casting show called "Starmania" on Austrian television and made some stir.

Partner Activities

Solidarity among Women plans to visit the CCC-Taskforce during the Information journey to India in January 2004.

Ethical Procurement

CSR: Solidarity among Women is taking part in the NGO-Platform dealing with CSR to bring in women's issues.

New Newsletter
On the 31st of October the new CCC-Austria newsletter came out. Print run: 9000 (which is 2000 more than before)

Belgium North - Schone Kleren Campagne

Campaigns

Clean Clothes at work
This campaign aims to have workers wearing uniforms at their workplace in Belgium get their company to source ethically. We got feedback from trade unionists that they had brought the issue on the agenda in 6 companies so far.

Urgent Appeals

Jaqalanka
We put the appeal on the website and we sent the appeal to our mailing list of 250 teachers; we also sent it to an NGO that has been sponsored by Nike and ABVV (TU) sent a protest letter to VF Europe.
Tarrant
We put the appeal on the website.

Partner Activities

Maquila
3 maquila trade unionists from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua made a tour through 3 regions of ABVV; later on 30 Belgian trade unionists and the 3 Central American trade unionists held a 2 days seminar and drew up an action plan.
The maquila trade unionists were from 'Sindiciato de trabadoras de empresa (El Salvador); Federación independente de trabajadores de Honduras and Confederación Sindical de Trabajadores José Benito Escobar (CST-IBE / Nicaragua)

Ethical Procurement

Clean Clothes Communities
At least 3 communities have integrated social criteria in their call for tenders.
We had a meeting with 40 participants: civil servants, trade unionists and somebody from Alsico, an important Belgian producer of work wear with 13 production sites abroad (France, Tunisia, Morocco, Ukraine, Slovakia, Thailand, Singapore, ...).

Bulgaria - (BEPA) CCC Programme

We have mainly directed our efforts to tracing subcontracting chains of German contractors in the Bulgarian garment industry and also to doing research on labour conditions in factories producing for the German market.

Brand related work

Information concerning the level of trade between Germany and Bulgaria and garment products has been collected from official sources. It turned out that Bulgarian garment export to Germany amounts to 48% of the total exports of Bulgaria to Germany. This marks a growth of 32% per year for the period 2000-2001. In other words, Bulgarian garment export is a rapidly growing item in the overall Bulgarian export to Germany. The range of German companies and brands outsourcing in Bulgaria goes from some world famous brands such as adidas, Puma, and Hugo Boss to retailers and dealers in products by catalogue like Otto, Qwelle and Neckerman, and suppliers like Rollman, Heiner und Peter Roessler and Rudolf Schripp. The outlined subcontracting chains show an interesting and somewhat mixed picture - some of the chains have established direct links with their contractors while others get their orders using different agents and intermediaries. The world famous brands that have already accepted companies' Codes of Conduct are of particular interest.

Eastern Europe & Turkey

Campaigns

A lot of Eastern European countries are planning (for the first time) some campaigning work, specifically for the upcoming Olympics campaign.

Partner Activities

Romanian and Bulgarian partners took part in the Muehlheim IRENE/CCC pricing seminar.
Bulgarian and Turkish partners took part in the Amsterdam Monitoring seminar.

There is the remarkable initiative "women's rights at work" in the East of Macedonia (see international newsletter December 2003), a garment industry centre. Here, working conditions are miserable. In addition, state subsidies for re-qualification schemes are abused by employers. A local organisation educated women on their rights and initiated a local multistakeholder group that raised awareness locally and nationally - with some result.

In June: Women's labour Rights network established in Romania.

In July, Sofia: kick-off for Train the Trainers project - a project to establish a network of researchers/activists with related national networks across 5 Eastern European countries and Turkey and to train women in how to investigate working conditions in the garment industry (conducting workers' interviews and writing respective reports).

France - Collectif De l'éthique sur l'étiquette

Campaigns

Olympic campaign
08/2003 : a letter was sent to CNOSF (French member of IOC)
24-25/01/2004 : training for local CCC's volunteers

Other activities and Events

European Social Forum

Coordination: Collectif De l'éthique sur l'étiquette (CCC-France), in the name of the European network Clean Clothes Campaign (12 countries). Organisation: Amis de la Terre/Friends of the Earth, Amnesty International, CCC-Deutschland, De l'éthique sur l'étiquette Collective, CRID, IG-Metall, No Sweat, Peuples Solidaires, Secours Catholique/Caritas, Sherpa. Violation of the Human Rights at work, degradation of the environment…The companies have a share of responsibility. How do trade unions and associations analyse the current mechanisms of public and private regulation of the social and environmental behavior of the European companies, in their international activities? Which proposals to promote in order to improve and reinforce this regulation? This seminar aims to support the debates, sharing experiences, synergies - even alliances - between associations and trade unions involved in the field of Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility.

Ethical Procurement

Germany - Kampagne für 'Saubere' Kleidung

Activities and Events

August: CCC-Workshop at the Attac-summer-academy.
October: Speakers tour with Marina Rios from MAM/ El Salvador.
25th of November: event in Leipzig, begin of the campaign of Terre des Femmes: Fashion, Power and Women Rights with the presence of Lek from Thailand and Anifa from Macedonia
From November 18-30, round trip (speakers tour) of Lek and Anifa through 12 cities in Germany
For the year 2004 the German CCC will organize a conference on the phase out of the MFA/ ATC.

Urgent Appeals

Kahatex, Indonesia
Several urgent action calls. The CCC group at Hamburg has organised two actions (26th of September, 5th of December) in the streets of Hamburg protesting against Tom Tailor. TT and s.Oliver have placed several orders at Kahatex sweater factory. Critical comments by the German CCC on the audit report of Kahatex written by Systain (consulting) on behalf of s.Oliver. Meeting between CCC and Systain representatives on October 24th.

On 15-19th September 2003, the German SÜDWIND Institut für Ökonomie und Ökumene and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung organised a second workshop on codes of conduct for unions and NGO's in Indonesia. This workshop evaluated a union survey conducted between August 2002 and January 2003 in seven supplier factories of Geman garment / sportswear factories in Java, which had been prepared at a workshop held in February 2002 in Jakarta. The survey provided interesting facts and figures on the implementation of codes of conduct in these factories. Meanwhile fundamental labour rights violations were still the order of the day, some code-related improvements were nevertheless reported by almost 50% of the interviewed workers.

Ethical Procurement

Hamburg, the council for development policy of the city has adopted a motion with respect to ethical procurement on October 20th, which has to be forwarded to the "senat". Two workshops were organised to raise awareness for the subject.

the Netherlands - Schone Kleren Kampagne

Campaigns

Clean Clothes Communities
Amsterdam made a guide for its civil servants on how to procure uniforms and work wear in an ethical way. The CCC is pressing to make Fair Wear Foundation partnership obligatory for suppliers of uniforms and work wear. We are researching to develop a new strategy for municipalities to implement the adopted resolutions. Results will be collected and worked out in a guide that will be published by the end of this year.

Fashion Files
The Fashion Files is coming to an end. This last trimester still 25 workshops at secondary schools are planned through which around 1000 students will be reached. The Dutch young people who've been to Sri Lanka last year (http://www.cleanclothes.org/campaign/fashion-files.htm) are still involved in the project, but won't be available next year. Through the workshops Gucci action cards, as well as leaflets on the PT Doson case (Nike) are distributed. Fashion Files also participated in the North Sails action.

Flevo Totaal festival
Workshop and panel discussion on CCC (August 15th): 150 attendants, handed out about 200 Nike flyers and 200 Gucci action cards.

'Day of the Alternatives' (Dag van de Alternatieven)
Workshop on Olympic campaign (September 6th): low attendance, about 50 leaflets distributed.

'Turn the Tide' demonstration
This is a demonstration organised by several organisations with the aim to protest the plans of the new right wing government. CCC was present at an information market with more than 100 other organisations.

Dam to Dam run
The Dam to Dam run (September 21st) is sponsored by Nike: Banner on the route, handing out about 300 PT Doson flyers.

Workshop on Clean Clothes Communities
At a regional conference of the GreenLeft Foundation for Sustainable Solidarity (October 25th), low attendance.

Urgent Appeals

PT Doson

North Sails
At surfing event promoted by North Sails at Makkum beach (September 20th), the CCC with the Fashion Files group did an action (See: http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies/northsails-03-09.htm), handing out action cards and collect signatures (>200), lip gloss, and together with the surfers we painted a NS surfing sail with slogans and signatures, that the CCC Austria will give the Boards and More Group of which North Sails is a division. At the same day, an action was done by the Fair Wear campaign in Australia, and in Sri Lanka 10.000 (!) leaflets were handed out in the Free Trade Zone demanding the reinstatement of the North Sails Lanka workers and the recognition of the union.

PT Busana
Internet petition sent around by e-mail to platform members.

We visited Bulgaria for the kick-off of the Train the Trainers project in Eastern Europe (July 18/19th).

Ethical Procurement

We have organised an urgent appeal tour (December 4th - 8th). We welcomed 4 Sri Lankan (Jaqalanka, North Sails) and 2 Indonesian (PT Busana) guests. On the 7th of December we organised a day for our subscribers of the urgent appeal system so that they can meet the people they are writing for.

Spain - Campaña Ropa Limpia

Our priority continues to be raising awareness about the objectives of the CCC through activities on the street, among the consumers. In various Autonomous Regions the CCC has held street actions and presentations for audiences who were unfamiliar with the work that CCC does. Other presentations focused mainly on the evolution of the CCC, the 4 aims, current activities and positive developments.

CRL workshop: The interactive workshop on CRL continues "showing" in Cataluña, it's becoming that successful that we are planning to extend it to other communities.

Urgent Appeals

Currently working on the Mexico: Tarrant case and Pakistan. Have worked on UA on Thailand. Also, we have use the UA network of cyber activists to inform and demand action regarding Inditex.

Partner Activities

From September - December we work on the follow up research on working conditions of women, working for Spanish companies on North of Morocco.

Monitoring and Verification

CRL is member of the social responsibility platform together with Amnesty International, Economist with out borders and Oxfam Spain. As such we have addressed the members of AENOR (Spanish agency for the implementation of European normative) on the issue of SR for national companies.

Sweden - Kampanjen Rena Kläder

Activities and Events

Festival tour
We always do a festival tour to different music festivals. Next to some specific member organisation activities (like congress), the festival tour resulted in 6140 postcards that we know for sure reached the companies. We have distributed 20 000 postcards in total.

Urgent Appeals

During this autumn we have started to work with urgent appeals. We translated "urgent appeals" to "Blixtupprop" in Swedish. The first case was Jaqalanka Ltd, one TV-show covered it. The second case was Tarrant México - Ajalpan, which is going on right now.

Switzerland - Clean Clothes Campaign

Activities and Events

Visit of two Swiss garment factories
March from Zurich to Berne from Berne Declaration (six days): there was one day dedicated to the textile industry. We visited with about 60 persons and some members of the trade unions two factories. Panel discussion on fashion and globalisation in the evening.

Public debate in Thusis
We had a discussion about the CCC with people from world shops at a bookstore.

Burma Campaign
The two Swiss companies Migros (garment) and Fenaco (rice for animal food) have stopped their imports from Burma after a public debate on TV and complaints from Berne Declaration. A social audit at the garment factory (realised by Eco-Tex, Köln) for Migros showed severe non-compliance with the Migros-Non-Food-Code (mainly in OSH, there was no child labour and no forced labour). There are no further imports planned.

School projects
Volunteers shall be trained to present CCC related issues in schools.

Urgent Appeals

PT Doson
There were 383 letters sent to Nike over the homepage of Berne Declaration. Nike was sending answers to the activists, saying that this is no issue for Nike any more.

North Sails Lanka
We sent 170 letters to Boards & More (Y. Marchand) and to Jacobs over the homepage of Berne Declaration (in German, French, Italian, English). Additional letters were sent to North Sails Lanka, North Sails Austria and Switzerland, to Boards and More in Germany, and to the (former) parent company KJ Jacobs in Switzerland. No response yet.

Legal Action

National human rights institution for Switzerland

Labour conflicts in the world factories of the garment industry and International Solidarity Campaigns. An evaluation of the Clean Clothes Campaign's Urgent Appeals , by Barbara Rimml, University of Berne. This book consists of an evaluation of the urgent appeal cases of the CCC-network. Did the labour disputes supported by international pressure end in a success or not? Besides giving an overview on the different cases (summaries, statistics, conflict types), successful and unsuccessful cases and their impact on the targeted parties are compared in order to find out why some campaigns were successful and others not. Price is CHFr 24,-/copy; Online order under: http://www.soz.unibe.ch/nbb/rimml.asp

Study on multistakeholder approach of CCC , by Michel Ducommun, a thesis in German. This can be ordered by e-mail from ccc@evb.ch (Word file with 785 Kb). Full title in German: Definition und Verwaltung von sozialer Gerechtigkeit in einer neoliberalen Weltordnung, eine Untersuchung des Kodexansatzes der Clean Clothes Campaign zur Durchsetzung gerechter Arbeitsbedingungen in der Bekleidungsindustrie. Michel Ducommun, University of Fribourg (Schweiz), 2003.

Building on Quicksand? The Global Compact, democratic governance and Nestlé by Dr. Judith Richter. Together with CETIM and IBFAN-GIFA, the Berne Declaration has just published a critical study about the Global Compact and global governance, including a Nestlé case study. You can order it at: Berne Declaration, http://www.evb.ch/product.cfm?product_id=153&action=detail&folder=248; E-Mail order: info@evb.ch. The price is 5€ or 5$/copy, incl. postage for orders from other countries.