Advocacy Across Borders : NGOs, Anti-Sweatshop Activism and the Global Garment Industry

The clothing and textile industry employs nearly 30 million people worldwide, mostly in Asia and Central America. Workers frequently face long hours, inadequate wages, harassment and abuse. While some resist such conditions by joining labor unions, many are prevented from doing so or find it difficult to adjust to transitory manufacturers. Because of these challenges, garment workers have reached out to allies across political borders in order to apply more pressure on garment manufacturers. The transnational anti-sweatshop network is at a critical stage in its development and is due for serious analysis. Advocacy Across Borders reveals the relationships that Northern-based NGOs forge in order to exert influence on powerful actors in the industry. An exhaustive dissection of the strategies of many organizations involved in this extensive network, Garwood's study points the way forward for civil society actors reaching across borders to advocate for a better world. Advocacy Across Borders focuses on the role of globally Northern-based NGOs in transnational advocacy networks aimed at improving working conditions and ensuring workers' rights. Drawing from campaign materials, NGO websites, corporate documents, and interviews, the book includes case studies of four NGOs: FairWear, United Students Against Sweatshops, STITCH, and the Clean Clothes Campaign. Shea Garwood unravels these NGOs' links with the transnational anti-sweatshop network and the types of politics activists use to influence powerful actors in the industry. She argues that anti-sweatshop NGOs have been creative, dynamic, and largely unrecognized political actors whose influence and accomplishments are notable given their small size, the scant resources available to them, and the scope of the problems ""hey confront. Yet the concentration of power among large retailers and a general unwillingness to regulate the industry place considerable constraints on activists' abilities to achieve their goals Annotation The clothing and textile industry employs nearly 30 million people worldwide, mostly in Asia and Central America. Workers frequently face long hours, inadequate wages, harassment and abuse. While some resist such conditions by joining labor unions, many are prevented from doing so or find it difficult to adjust to transitory manufacturers. Because of these challenges, garment workers have reached out to allies across political borders in order to apply more pressure on garment manufacturers. The transnational anti-sweatshop network is at a critical stage in its development and is due for serious analysis. Advocacy Across Bordersreveals the relationships that Northern-based NGOs forge in order to exert influence on powerful actors in the industry. An exhaustive dissection of the strategies of many organizations involved in this extensive network, Garwoods study points the way forward for civil society actors reaching across borders to advocate for a better world