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NEWSLETTER 15, JUNE 2002
Editorial
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Since
1989 the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) has been working to
improve conditions in the global garment industry. Throughout
all those years CCC activists have pursued a variety of
strategies to achieve positive change in the industry. Despite
this passage of time and new developments in the industry
and the many countries our network is active in, one of
our most important functions is still campaigning. This
means running programs to raise awareness and sustain pressure
to press for specific demands. Some CCC campaigns are launched
to coincide with the core issues that are at the heart of
workers' struggles to improve their lives -- for example,
the CCC's living wage campaign and a campaign on the right
to organize. Other campaigns come out of cases of individual
labor rights violations that the CCC has been asked to work
on. When workers organizations ask for international solidarity
actions to support their struggles in such cases, the CCC
distributes urgent appeals for action. Sometimes these appeals
grow into campaigns. For example, there was a case of the
Swiss lingerie multinational Triumph and a case at the Ladybird
factory in Thailand. There are also campaigns that target
specific groups for attention, for example young football
fans who will be following the upcoming World Cup. This
issue of the Clean Clothes newsletter includes information
on several of these CCC campaigns. Also inside this edition
you'll find information on working conditions in Swaziland,
India, and Sri Lanka. And because we're regularly contacted
by individuals and organizations interested in learning
more about the CCC's position on codes of conduct and methods
for monitoring and verifying code compliance, we've included
an update on these issues, a report on a conference where
many of these concerns were discussed, and also a bit of
background information to provide a clearer context of the
CCC's work in this area. We hope you find the newsletter
informative and we encourage you to give us feedback on
the activities presented on the following pages.
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