Besides heightening awareness about sweatshops and child labor in general, Trina and I were gaining supporters for the Norfolk sweatfree campaign.  The Friday preceding the festival, December 4th, Trina and I met with the Sacred Heart Catholic Church globalization community, a local Norfolk region faith based group interested in learning more about the social justice issues that sweatshops raise and more importantly, what concrete actions they could take as individuals and a community to both raise awareness and effect change.  We expected to be addressing a group that knew little about the global problems that lead to the use of Sweatshop labor but instead what we found was a well informed group of highly active ind

 Here is the company's public statement, issued today:  "Since this issue was brought to our attention by the International Labor Rights Forum, we have begun contacting suppliers to convey to them that we do not intend to use Uzbekistan cotton. We have also agreed to join a coalition of organizations working with ILRF to develop next steps toward the elimination of Uzbekistan cotton in the supply chain. This is a complex issue that we believe is best addressed on a collaborative basis. We are pleased to work with ILRF, and others, to find solutions. "
 

Tim Newman, Campaigns Director, International Labor Rights Forum

While it can often be difficult to fully understand where a product we purchase comes from and all the steps that are involved in the supply chain, there is hope.  This hope comes in the form of the 2010 Shop with a Conscience Consumer and Wholesale Guide release by the International Labor Rights Forum and SweatFree Communities today.  The guide features apparel companies that are committed to workers rights by either sourcing or producing their products from factories where workers have independent unions or worker-owned cooperatives.  The guide offers consumers an opportunity to purchase well-made and fashionable apparel along with the knowledge that their purcha