I am not a regular reader of Ms. magazine; in fact I don't think I have ever read it. But last evening I was listening to Fresh Air on NPR and Ms. magazine reporter Rebecca Clarren and executive editor Katherine Spillar were discussing the latest issue's cover article about the sweatshops of the Northern Mariana Islands. The Northern Marianas Islands, located in the Pacific, are a U.S. territory. Because its a U.S. territory, the clothing made there can be labeled made in the USA.
But thanks to unusual legislation, the Islands are exempt from the usual American laws regulating minimum wage, tariffs, quotas and immigration. According to the Ms. article, female guest workers are brought from other Asian countries to work in the sweat shops that make the "American-made" clothing. They are also brought in to supply the sex trade that thrives on the islands. And thanks to the lobbying efforts of Jack Abramoff and the legislative maneuvering of his best budy Tom Delay, bipartisan efforts to change the laws were routinely killed in a House committee while Abramoff was arranging junkets for Delay and other House members and their families to enjoy the tourist side of the islands.
You can read the Ms. article, Paradise Lost: Greed, Sex Slavery, Forced Abortions and Right-Wing Moralists here.
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