Sweatshop warriors : immigrant women workers take on the global factory

In this up-close and personal look at the heroines who make family, community, and society tick, Miriam Ching Yoon Louie showcases immigrant women workers speaking out for themselves, in their own words. While public outrage over sweatshops builds in intensity, this book shows us who these workers really are and how they are leading campaigns to fight for their rights. In-depth, accessible analyses of the immigration, labor, and trade policies, which together have forced these women into the most dangerous, poorly paid jobs, dovetail with vivid portraits of the women themselves. Louie, a longtime writer/activist and well-known figure in feminist, immigrant, and labor circles, is uniquely poised to make her case: that the labor of immigrant women worker-activists not only sustains families and communities, but the vibrant social activism that undergirds democracy itself. With chapters on successful campaigns against Levi-Strauss, Donna Karan, and restaurants in Los Angeles; Koreatown, among others. Miriam Ching Yoon Louie is a longtime writer/activist in campaigns to organize women of color. She is national campaign media director of Fuerza Unida, a board member of the Women of Color Resource Center, and former media director of Asian Immigrant Women Advocates. Her essays and articles on immigrant women and labor issues have been widely anthologized, including in the 1997 collection Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breathe Fire (South End Press) and she speaks at public events internationally. She is the co-author, with Linda Burnham, of Women’s Education in the Global Economy (Women of Color Resource Center, 2000). Listening to the women The real experts Chapter 1. Holding up half the sky Chinese immigrant women workers Chapter 2. iLa mujer luchando, el mundo transformandol Mexican immigrant women workers Chapter 3. "Each day I go home with a new wound in my heart" Korean immigrant women workers Chapter 4. Extended families Chapter 5. Movement roots Chapter 6. "Just-in-time" guerrilla warriors Conclusion Returning to the source. Sandwiched between produce shops overflowing with honey tangerines, fuzzy melons, string beans, ginger, and tong choy in New York City's Chinatown, a small grubby sign reads "Chinese Staff and Workers Association" (CSWA). Summarizing the histories of Chinese, Mexican, and Korean immigration, Sweatshop Warriors examines the practices and policies that propel women, men, and children into dangerous and poorly paid jobs