From:Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives  / From: Queens, NYC, 1994, National Museum of American History

Prof. Robert J.S. ("Bob")Ross
Office: 405 Jeff
Phone: 793 7243, 7376
mailto: rjsross@clarku.edu

Office Hours: Wed. 2-5
and by appointment

NOTE: This syllabus is available on the World Wide Web at http:www.clarku.edu/~rross.Wherever you see text which is blue on your monitor or oddly faded in print, it means that it is linked to a world wide web resource, or some file I have put on computer. You may access it by "clicking" your "mouse" on it; it's called hypertext.

COURSE MISSION:

Low wages, long hours, and dangerous conditions characterized work in turn of the century sweatshops - especially the garment industry. These conditions are back, characterizing more than half the U.S. apparel industry. The seminar will explore the rise and decline and then the rise of the new sweatshops, with special attention to the ways in which child labor and super-exploitation in developing countries effects conditions here in the U.S., and what we can do about the problem. The course will develop student skills in using the Internet as a serious research tool to supplement but not replace libraries.

WORK

There will be two brief essay exams and a research paper for the course. 

RESEARCH PAPERS: Students will choose projects from a short list, appended below, and work in teams.You will put together your projects together and all team members earn the same grade.You must choose your project by week 2;and write and an outline by week four. Students will also present their work and papers in class. Very good drafts of the research papers will be due approximately November 30; final versions will be due December 14^th.

RESEARCH PAPERS : Since the project is a collaborative effort, a great deal of your work this term involves the organizing and use of individuals' efforts in relation to a team goal. For instance, you will need to establish some rules regarding meeting times, responsibilities, division of labor, and equity in contribution. Group expectations should be consensually defined and clearly articulated. Failure to meet these expectations, (i.e., persistently "forgetting" meetings, not completing drafts, uncooperativeness and so forth), must be responded to immediately.
However, as in life, each team member must take group responsibility for the product. Each team member will receive for the project the same grade. Choose partners with care and then learn to get the most from each other's work! Since the success of your paper is tied to your ability to work effectively as a team, you must master the principles of group work.
 

ESSAYS: These will be take home essays requiring about four pages, double-spaced typed (word-processed) answers. The first will be distributed on October 5^thand due on Oct. 19^th. The second will be distributed on November 16^th and due on Dec. 7.
 

Books Available for Purchase and on Reserve at the Library:
 

Mc=John McClymer, The Triangle Strike and Fire

NS= Andrew Ross, A.,ed., (no relation), No Sweat: fashion, free trade and the rights of garment workers.Note:This book is on reserve, but not in store – it is being reprinted.Portions are in the packet.

GAO= General Accounting Office, Sweatshops in New York: A local example of a national problem.

NLC=Made In China, National Labor Committee.
 

Available for Purchase will be a Packet of Readings ("Packet"), each of which Should be available at the Reserve desk of Library. It includes (in order of assignment):
 

1)From Ross, A.,ed., Howard: "Labor History and sweatshops in the new global economy."

2)From Varley, "In Defense of Sweatshops

3)Ross, Robert. The New Sweatshops in the United States: How New, How Real, How Many, and Why?with the Assistance ofLisa Grandmaison.To be published in:Global Production, Regional Response and Local Jobs:Challenges and Opportunities in the North American Apparel Industry.Edited by Gary Gereffi, David Spener and Jennifer Bair.

4)Ross, A.,ed., Meza, "Testimony." Su, "El Monte Thai Garment Workers: Slave Sweatshops".

5)Appelbaum and Gereffi: "Power and Profits in the Apparel Commodity Chain." From Bonacich et al, Global Production: The Apparel Industry in the Pacific Rim.

6)Jones, Jackie. 1995. "Forces Behind Restructuring in U.S. Apparel Retailing and its Effect on the U.S. Apparel Industry." Industry Trade and Technology Review. March.. p. 23 U.S. International Trade Commission.

7)In Ross, A.,ed., Kernaghan, "Paying to Lose Our Jobs."

8)Krupat, "From War Zone to Free Trade Zone."

9)National Labor Committee: Miscellaneous Nicaragua Material from http://www.nlcnet.org/press.htm

10)Ross, Robert, “Countdown in Managua,” The Nation, about August 23, 2000

11)Anita Chan: "Boot camp at the Shoe Factory" Washington Post

12)Ross (Robert): "NAFTA and the New Sweatshops", prepared for edited collection on liberation theology and global capitalism.

13)Guess Packet, including, Behar: "Guess What's Behind This IPO?" Fortune, Oct. 14, 1996.

14)Nike Packet: including Glass, "The Young and feckless," New Republic, Chan letter, and Vietnam Labor Watch report on Nike in Vietnam.

15)Ross, Robert: "Restricting Immigration: A sweatshop nonsolution" In Janice McCoart , editor, An Academic Search for Sweatshop Solutions: Conference proceedings. Pages 32-45. Marymount University. Arlington, VA.

16)Material from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

17)In Ross, A.,ed., Cavanagh, "The Global Resistance to Sweatshops."

18)|Shaw: "The Labor Behind The Label: Clean Clothes Campaigns in Europe."

19)The Sweatshop Quandary, ed. by Pamela Varley, Chapter One: "Corporate America on the Hot Seat."

20)Rothstein- Amsden Debate on Labor Standards (Boston Review).

21)Appelbaum, Richard and Katie Quan: Fighting Sweatshops: Problems of Enforcing Global Labor Standards.Paper given at ASA Annual Meeting, 2000.

In the Table of Assignments below, "Read" indicates material on Reserve or available for purchase at the Bookstore. "Packet" indicates material distributed at the Sociology Office. Most of it is also on Reserve. Please Note: "Browse" does not mean walk through casually, it means, strictly, "read material lodged on the Internet."

Research Papers
 

Each seminar participant will be part of a Research Paper team.The maximum size of a team is four.

Each team will choose a topic from this list:

1.Guess Jeans

a.Corporate portrait 

b.History of the union's(UNITE) campaign

i.Why did it fail?

c.Current situation

2.Nike

a.What are the typical conditions of workers who work for Nike contractors in:

i.Indonesia

ii.Vietnam

iii.China

b.How have activists changed Nike behavior

c.Is Nike different from other shoe companies?

3.Gear For Sports

a.Corporate description

b.Board of Directors:

i.Social characteristics

c.Response to sweat free campus campaign

4.The new (Student) movements

a.Who is involved in new (post-Seattle) anti-corporate, anti-global capitalism campaigns?

i.What groups

ii.Social characteristics of individuals

b.What do they want?

5.Nicaragua

a.The nature of the union struggle 

b.The background on the Free Trade Zone

i.Growth of exports, employment

ii.Growth of apparel industry

c.Political background to current situation

d.The allies' strategies

6.The Decline of sweatshops in the US:1940-1980

a.Earlier:The NIRA

b.Factors

i.Union growth

ii.Fair Labor Standards Act and 

1.Homework prohibition

2.Minimum wage

3.child labor

c.Apparel Wages in relation to:

i.Average manufacturing wage 1950 - 1960 1970 1980 1990

7.The Decline of Unions in Apparel

a.Membership levels in ILGWU/ACTWU/UNITE

b.The role of Geographic dispersion to the South

i.The roleof small contractor shops

c.What were conditions like in the Fifties in the South? In NYC

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