By: Garat Ibrahim

The following is a post from the Imagine 2050 a
group of activists, immigrants, artists and students who are invested
in a future nation that embraces multiculturalism and tolerance.  

It is very difficult to have a good understanding of the hands that feed us every day and the harsh reality that workers undergo daily in the meat packing industry. These are some of the hardest jobs in the food industry and most dangerous in any industry. So it falls to the newest immigrants, refugees and people of color in general to fill these jobs and bear the burden of their risks.

As we have explained in the past, government procurement can have major effects on workers here in the district and abroad.  Using government procurement we can either perpetuate abusive practices by paying immoral and criminal companies millions of dollars for their services or we can protect DC employees and workers abroad by supporting companies that treat their workers fairly or who source their products, such as apparel and footwear, from Sweatfree factories.  By refusing to buy apparel and footwear made in sweatshops, the district is also helping to create a market for sweatfree goods which will make treating workers fairly a profitable business model.  To learn more about government procurement and Sweatshops and the campaigns working to end their connection check out

The area now known as Subic Freeport Zone, within the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), remains much as it was before its conversion from a US naval base– a playground for the fluctuating-depending-on-the-number-of-troops-in-town population of 3,000 who get to enjoy duty-free department stores, mega strip clubs, and American-style burger shacks and schools, all just a Japanese-sponsored superhighway from Manila. Nothing much has changed either for its 200,000 neighbors in the adjacent city of Olongapo. Hidden behind an unusually militarized gated entrance, Olongapo might go unnoticed by its Subic neighbors if not for its crucial supply of prostituted women and exploitable labor, many of the latter who work at Hanjin.