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February
4, 2002
John Chuckman
American
Politics of Grief
February
3, 2002
Zoltan
Grossman
War
and New Military Bases
February
2, 2002
Francis
Schor
Carlucci's
Strange Career
February
1, 2002
Dr. Susan
Block
The
Great Ashcroft Cover Up
Jeremy
Voas
Why
We're Suing Ashcroft
David
Vest
10
Things I Know About Him
January
31, 2002
Rahul
Mahajan
The
State of the Union:
A New Cold War
Dave Marsh
Miles
Copeland, War
and the Future of Music
John Pilger
The
Colder War
Alexander
Cockburn
American
Journal:
Killer Dog, Weird Couple
Dr. Susan
Block
Blowback
and Daniel Pearl
January
30, 2002
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Linda
Lay, Hill and Knowlton and the Tears of a Clown
Jack McCarthy
Free
Noelle Bush!
Michael
Ratner
Memo
to Bush: Adhere to
the Geneva Convention
Jay Moore
Proud
to be an American?
Susan
Block
The
Great Pretzel Swallower
and Guantanamo Porn
January
29, 2002
Gary Leupp
Why
This War Was, and Remains, Utterly Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Birds of Kandahar
Patrick
Cockburn
Afghan
Opium Trade
Back in Business
January
28, 2002
Larry
Chin
Brosnahan
for the Defense
Mokhiber/Weissman
Tyranny
of the Bottom Line
George
E. Curry
Civil
Rights Nominee Called Affirmative Action "Racist"
Sen. Russ
Feingold
Campaign
Finance Reform?
Think Enron
John Chuckman
Liberal?
Media?
January
27, 2002
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Enron's
Drip, Drip, Drip
Tom Turnipseed
MLK
Jr.'s Dream Perverted
January
26, 2002
Norman
Madarsz
Adieu,
Bourdieu
January
25, 2002
National
Lawyers Guild
Know
Your Rights
Alexander
Cockburn
You
Call This Terrorism?
CounterPunch
Wire
Cal
Energy Crisis Hoax:
It Wasn't A Shortage,
It Was a Shakedown
Tariq
Ali
Kashmir,
Klinghoffer,
the Kurds and Chomsky
Nadine
Strossen
Protecting
MLK Jr.'s Legacy:
Justice and Liberty After 9/11
January
24, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Turkey
Targets Chomsky
Dean Baker
Lying
on Top:
Ken Lay One of Many
David
Vest
Idiot
Wind
January
23, 2002
Terry
Waite
Guantanamo
Prisoners:
Justice or Revenge?
Molly
Secours
The
Case of Abu-Ali:
Racism and the Death Penalty
Robert
Jensen
Speak
Out, Get Slimed
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
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February 4,
2002
Why I Rejected the Reebok
Human Rights Award
By Dita Sari
The driving forces of globalisation are the movement
and expansion of capital and technology, through multinational
companies. Globalisation, some people argue, has contributed
a lot to the creation of a new world, with a global welfare and
justice for all.
But in practice, globalisation is producing
neither universal welfare nor global peace. On the contrary,
in reality, globalisation has divided the world into two sides,
which are  antagonistic towards
each other. There are wealthy creditors and bankrupt debtors,
there are super rich countries and underdeveloped countries,
super wealthy speculators and impoverished malnourished children.
Globalisation intensifies, not a higher paid and a better life
for workers in the third world, but the growing gap between the
rich and the poor.
And this also happens in Indonesia, among
Indonesian workers who work in multinational shoes companies,
including Reebok.
In November last year, I was informed
that I was selected as one of the awardees of the annual Reebok
Human Rights Award program and ceremony. The Reebok Human Rights
Foundation then has officially announced the names of the awardees.
I have taken this award into a very
deep consideration. We finally decide not to accept this. On
the one hand, this is a kind of recognition of the struggle and
the hard work that we have done for years. But on the other hand,
we are very conscious of the condition of the Reebok workers
from the third world countries, such as in Indonesia, Mexico,
China, Thailand, Brazil and Vietnam. As a trade union, we strongly
put a lot of pressure to achieve what every worker deserves:
higher wages, better working conditions and a brighter future
for their children.
In Indonesia, there are five Reebok companies.
80% of the workers are women. All companies are sub-contracted,
often by the South Korean companies such as Dung Jo and Tong
Yang. Since the workers can only get around $1.5 a day, they
then have to live in a slum area, surrounded by poor and unhealthy
conditions, especially for their children. At the same time,
Reebok collected millions of dollars of profit every year, directly
contributed by these workers.
The low pay and exploitation of the workers
of Indonesia, Mexico and Vietnam are the main reasons why we
will not accept this award. Some of our members in the union
work in companies producing Reebok shoes.
The decision I have made is not merely
based on data, report, statistics or assumptions. In 1995, I
was arrested and tortured by the police, after leading a strike
of 5000 workers of Indoshoes Inti Industry. They demanded an
increase of their wages (they were paid only US$1 for working
8 hours a day), and maternity leave as well. This company operated
in West Java, and produced shoes of Reebok and Adidas. I have
seen for my self how the company treat the workers, and used
the police to repress the strikers.
We believe that accepting the award is
not a proper or a right thing to do. This is part of the consequences
of our work to help workers improve their life. We cannot tolerate
the way multinational companies treat the workers of the third
world countries. And we surely hope that our stand can make a
contribution to help changing the labor condition in Reebok-produced
companies.
Dita Sari is
an organizer with the National Front for Workers Struggle in
Jakarta, Indonesia.
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