Sweatshops
More than 2 million people in 150 countries are estimated to be working in garment sweatshops around the world (Behind the Label). These factories routinely violate labor laws governing minimum wage and overtime, child labor, safety and health, workers compensation or industry regulations (US GAO, 1994). Yet despite highly publicized exposes of deplorable factory conditions around the world, sweatshops persist. Even the US Department of Labor reports that the number of domestic sweatshops has actually increased and conditions have worsened (US GAO, 1994). Efforts to monitor factories around the world have been largely symbolic, and it is clear that garment workers continue to suffer in silence.
In contrast to the standards (or lack thereof) outlined in recent trade agreements, Comamnuvi is a human-centered model of globalization - a model for “sweatshop free,” sustainable economic development. NGWF believes that it has become increasingly important to have such exemplary illustrations of what globalization could be as we move through the 21st Century.
Globalization
There are many understandings—positive, negative, and neutral—of the term globalization. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines globalization as “the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets.” Proponents of neo-liberal globalization claim that the flow of ideas and money across borders will lead to higher profits and more jobs, resulting in decreased poverty around the world. Critics such as The New Economics Foundation point to a "multitude of interconnected fatal consequences--social disintegration, a breakdown of democracy, more rapid and extensive deterioration of the environment, the spread of new diseases, increasing poverty and alienation," which they claim are the unintended but very real consequences of globalization (Fritjof Capra, 2002).
No matter how globalization is defined, it is clear that we are living in a global economy. Almost everything we eat, wear, and use on a daily basis was harvested, assembled, or developed in a foreign country. One of the signature policies to the era of globalization is the "Free Trade Agreement" (FTA). The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), enacted in 1994, is one of the most notorious and highly criticized of these policies. This agreement signaled more economic integration of large world markets. Unfortunately, however, it also set precedents for poor labor and environmental standards and has done little to help small business owners or other marginalized groups, instead bringing economic gain to those primarily in corporate sectors.
Despite an increase in rural poverty and a decrease in real wages (AFL-CIO). NAFTA has been used as a template document for other US-negotiated FTAs, including the Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). This landmark agreement was negotiated between the US and Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic and was passed in 2005 as the next step towards a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Like NAFTA, DR-CAFTA does not require countries' labor laws to comply with International Labor Organization core standards and contains an even weaker version of NAFTA's environmental protections (Citizen Trade).
While the shift towards a more cohesive global marketplace has caused economic hardship and suffering for the poorest of the poor, globalization can still be seen as an opportunity to creatively address world poverty. With improved communication, technological advancement, and shorter transportation times, it is now possible for a consumer to see the faces and working conditions of those producing his or her goods. The NGWF and the workers of COMAMNUVI are harnessing the vast potential of globalization in order to circumvent its disadvantages. By promoting environmentally sound, labor-focused, high quality production processes, the NGWF and COMAMNUVI are carving out a new space in the rhetoric of globalization that includes concepts of justice, sustainability, and development in addition to profit generation.