Index

NEWSLETTER 14, JULY 2001 Greetings from Barcelona CCCers meet to evaluate and strategize

The Clean Clothes Campaign has been in existence for 10 years. To mark this milestone we thought it was high time for an evaluation of our aims and activities, and their impact and of the way in which the campaign functions and is organized. During these years the campaign has grown and the context in which it operates has changed, therefore we also felt that any evaluation process should be coupled with a joint redefinition of CCC strategy for the coming years. What should be the main aims and activities of the Clean Clothes Campaign? How should it be organized?

To fulfil this aim, from March 7 to 11 the "International CCC Evaluation and Strategy Conference" was held in Barcelona. The CCC is a network organisation, and the Barcelona conference was organized to bring together the partners that make up that network. A guest list was developed jointly by the CCCs and partners. Prior to the conference a consultation process was set up to gather the opinions of those who could not be present and to prepare the conference. The Spanish CCC got to work organizing the logistics at the local level. Meanwhile, an international survey was conducted to gather input to evaluate CCC activities and develop strategy ideas. Using this material two discussion papers were drafted and widely distributed. In the end, 85 people from 35 countries came together in Barcelona to participate in the conference.

The international secretariat brought a team of six, while each of the other European CCCs was represented by approximately four people. Representatives also came for European countries that have only recently started campaigns (Portugal, Bulgaria, and Romania). Other participants came from related campaigns and organizations (NGOs and trade unions), from all regions around the world. The Barcelona meeting was five days of hard work -- lots of discussion, brainstorming, and debate -- but also a great deal of fun. While old acquaintances and friendships were renewed, many new contacts were made. Plus there was a great backdrop to all this activity: Beautiful Barcelona.

While a more extensive report of the entire conference with detailed reports on the various workshops and plenaries and the full text of the relevant discussion papers will be available shortly, here are some of the highlights of what was discussed.

Evaluation Comments

The evaluation was conducted in two major sessions: the first one identifying what had been successful strategies; the second one discussing and finalizing the paper that was written in preparation to the conference. These were the final conclusions:

Success!
The campaign's main successes are seen to be raising awareness on the issues, networking, and information provision (though failure to communicate our successes).

Urgent appeals
The CCC's urgent appeals network is seen as one of the campaigns strengths, both as a system for distributing information and motivating action. But there is a belief that the follow through on cases needs more attention (in terms of strategy, given that companies often "cut and run" when campaigning draws attention to labor rights violations at a particular factory, and in practical terms, i.e. how long do we continue to follow a case). More strategic thinking is required and better communication throughout the CCC network.

The international network
The CCC is recognised for it's contacts and co-operation with Asian groups - this is an accomplishment in itself, but points to the need to strengthen links with other regions (Africa, Central & Eastern Europe, Central America, North America). There is concern that the issue of violations of labor rights in developed countries have not been addressed enough.

Better links need to be build between North & South and South & South -- in terms of decision-making processes, strategizing, input, and awareness raising (should go both ways, ex. on globalization -- make connections between those working in Northern and Southern economies). Some Southern groups would like the campaign to do more education work (on codes for example). More attention should be put on language issues (translations, use of jargon-free language). The relationship between trade unions and NGOs, within and outside of the campaign, deserves more attention. More trade union representation is needed in campaigns and also a strengthening of the information network between NGOs and unions in the South. Furthermore, dialogue at the national CCC levels can be improved.

Strengthening and expanding content
In terms of content, people believe that gender issues and homeworking need more attention. A gender audit of the CCC could be a first step. More CCC research on the informal sector is also needed. There is interest in covering environmental concerns and issues of sustainable development as well. Co-operation with other "product-sector" campaigns and/or the environmental movement or anti-globalization movement could be a way to strengthen the campaign.

Codes of conduct, monitoring, and verification
There were mixed messages on codes of conduct. Some felt they were not appropriate or even a failure, and others felt they were one of the most important campaigning tools and strategically useful for creating space for debate, publicity and enable pressure. Codes can be a good tool if they include: core ILO conventions, a process of monitoring and verification that includes workers, labor NGOs and unions in production countries. They can also be useful if they are seen as a tool to empower workers and are implemented in countries where there is democratic space for independent organisations to participate in the process. But codes can also involve risks, for example, that company-monitoring usually only goes as far as the first supplier and does not monitor the whole chain and that it is often workers and not companies who pay the cost of the professionalization of monitoring and verification processes by the corporate sector. Finally, our involvement in developing monitoring systems should be based on a perspective of moving out of this work and towards supporting the empowerment process of workers and playing the role of watchdog over companies.

Lots of legal work to be done
The interplay between codes (often voluntary mechanisms) and public regulation (local labor law, international legal measures, trade negotiations, national legislation affecting national production) at different levels was mentioned as an area needing attention. In some countries new laws are being discussed concerning TNCs operating abroad. Furthermore, WTO negotiations pose a big danger for the CCC work, for example, in government procurement. The preparation of several court cases has started. These are relatively new areas for the CCC and it was stressed that there was a need for better information sharing.

Surprise -- we're overloaded!
Capacity (human resources and material resources) problems were noted at all levels (the CCC needs to do more, but we don't currently have the capacity to do so; we ask our partners to do more than they can, etc.) Capacity problems have an impact on other issues (for example capacity to expand communications between North and South -- language and communication problems slow down or limit effectiveness/participation in the urgent appeals system and other campaign activities/resources). Participants agreed that it is important to map the resources of the CCC network to facilitate a better division of labor amongst the network in order to relieve pressure points.

Some evaluation observations

Generally speaking people felt that all four areas of CCC work (raising public awareness, solidarity work, pressuring companies and legal initiatives) were useful and should be maintained. People are cautious about (but not willing to dismiss) the CCC's strategy of working with codes and monitoring/verification projects. The key seems to be to proceed in a way that takes these concerns into consideration, and ensures that we don't end up spending a disproportionate amount of our resources on this work (just because codes are getting so much attention in the public arena).

Related a bit to the code work, but more specifically to our involvement in several multi-stakeholder initiatives to learn more about monitoring and verification (see the article on this project elsewhere in this issue) is the question of reconciling the campaign's two somewhat contradictory roles -- campaigns that target companies vs. organizations that sit down and work with companies (ex. in pilot projects on monitoring and verification).

Many believe the campaign should put more effort into lobbying governments and pursuing legal initiatives.

The evaluation process highlighted the need to specifically consider all CCC strategies in relation to several important issues that the campaign is already committed to working on, such as gender, the informal sector/homeworking, and cooperation between NGOs and trade unions.

Specifically on the gender perspective, it was decided that next to the already mentioned gender audit it was essential to take the gender issue as a starting point for judging each new activity or campaign. It should be made much more clear that we are talking about women workers, they have to be named as such and support actions have to be geared more to their needs. The focus on the workplace is important, but linking with the community and the household has to be stronger, as this is also part of the reality that shapes the experiences (including rights violations) of women workers. At the Barcelona meeting the participants stressed that the obligations of companies should be reconsidered in this light.

Expanding the CCC?

In the preparation papers and at the conference we also wanted to hear how people felt about the campaign's focus on labor issues in the garments and sportswear sector. Did people want to maintain this focus?

What came out during the preparation was that most CCCers and other groups in the North felt that we should maintain the focus -- it gives us strength and there's still a lot of work to be done in this sector. There was the feeling that while we could stick to this sector, we should consider environmental issues in the context of garment production. Groups in the South favored expanding to cover other product sectors, and taking up environmental issues.

At the Barcelona meeting it was confirmed that across the board there is a strong feeling that the CCC needs to take on environmental concerns in the context of garment and textile production because these issues are linked to the social issues we currently tackle and because this will broaden/strengthen the CCC's base of support. However, given the capacity problems mentioned above and the importance of maintaining focus, the conclusion is that we will take up this work through cooperation with other (environmentally focused) networks, and not as a central activity of this network. The work that is done on the promotion of the use of biological (organic) cotton, involving member organisations of the CCC, is a good example.

On the expansion to other sectors the feeling at the Barcelona meeting was also that if at all, this should be done in a controlled manner and via cooperation with other networks and organizations. In fact the only sectors that were under discussion were the toy sector and the textile sector. Strategic linking with the toy sector organizations will not be difficult (they are mainly the same organisations already active in the CCC). The French CCC is planning a toy campaign to start at the end of 2001. Expansion to the textile sector was both an interest of those wanting to work on environmental issues and of many of the partners, for example those from Africa, India, and Eastern Europe where garment and textile production are often concentrated.

Structure
Another expansion issue has more to do with the structure of the CCC. The present organizational structure of the CCC is as follows: in nine European countries coalitions of NGOs and trade unions together form the national level CCC. They operate autonomously, but work together where possible under the umbrella of the European CCC. The international CCC network of partners consists of trade unions, NGOs, and networks or similar campaigns in producer and consumer countries. It was noted that there is no formal organization or structure, and that often cooperation is structured via projects. Sometimes links are maintained via active organisations in the campaign and sometimes via the international secretariat.

Though generally people are satisfied with the structure there is a certain amount of confusion on the extent to which partners is non-western European countries can "take up the clean clothes campaign" or start their own. Where this happens (ex. The Philippines, or now the Bulgarian/Romanian initiative) there is no clarity on the status of decision making or communication structures. Organizations who see themselves as partners in a specific project or activity of the CCC are also confused to have the campaign referred to as European, thereby excluding them, also from possible future activities. Related to this is the interest of Southern (ex. Asian) groups to further the development of the consumer movement outside of Europe.

At the Barcelona meeting people made their interest clear on having more cooperation among regions, via internationally coordinated projects and exchanges. Some campaigns/actions were prioritized that will be international from the start (for example, a "Right to Organize" campaign). People see the campaign as international, but the involvement of the different regions (and accompanying decision making and communication structures) will have to be defined per activity or project. There is a marked hesitancy to over-formalize a structure, with instead a preference to having the growth occur "naturally," and be regionally led.

Trends
To develop effective strategies we need to understand what is happening in the world around us: we need to look 'outside'. Participants were asked to join workshops focusing at the main actors (companies, workers, trade unions/NGOs, consumers) or at the main themes (gender, environment, informalization/homework) and discuss what developments are we facing, what major concerns do we see, what demands do different actors make of us? The main trends related to garment companies, legislation, consumer campaigns, the civil society movement, monitoring and verification of codes, and worker organizing in the context of increasing flexibilitization and repression were discussed (again, more details on these trends can be found in the full conference report).

Regional perspectives

To get further input for the strategy discussion, participants in the Barcelona meeting met in regional discussion groups to consider these trends and to give input on what issues they think the campaign needs to address at the international level. These regional priorities -- from Asia, Central America, Western and Eastern Europe, Southern Africa, Morocco, Canada, the United States and Australia -- are outline in the full conference report.

An agenda for action

For the last day of discussions, participants went back into groups based on trends/areas of activity (supporting worker organizing; legal initiatives; codes, monitoring and verification; the garment industry; brand-focused campaigning and awareness raising; and the growing civil society movement). With participants bringing with them the different ideas that were raised by the regional groups, these sessions yielded many useful ideas for the campaign's work in the future. Watch the newsletter and the CCC website for more information on the new initiatives the campaign will be pursuing in relation to the priorities for action outlined in Barcelona.