the smell of capitalism

[Robdawg]

The president of Gap North America says a subcontractor accused of using child labor to sew Gap clothes in India has been fired and the Gap will not sell clothes made in the New Delhi sweatshop.

"It's deeply, deeply disturbing to all of us," Gap President Marka Hansen said after watching video of the children at work. "I feel violated and I feel very upset and angry with our vendor and the subcontractor who made this very, very, very unwise decision."

Hansen blamed the alleged abuse on an unauthorized subcontractor for one of its Indian vendors and said the subcontractor's relationship with the Gap had been "terminated."


"In 2006, Gap Inc. ceased business with 23 factories due to code violations. We have 90 people located around the world whose job is to ensure compliance with our Code of Vendor Conduct."


The Observer spoke to children as young as 10 who said they were working 16 hours a day for no pay. The paper described the workplace as a "derelict industrial unit" where the hallways were flowing with excrement from a flooded toilet.

One 10-year-old boy told the paper he was sold to the company by his parents.

"'I was bought from my parents' village in [the northern state of] Bihar and taken to New Delhi by train," The Observer quoted the boy as saying. "The men came looking for us in July. They had loudspeakers in the back of a car and told my parents that, if they sent me to work in the city, they won't have to work in the farms. My father was paid a fee for me, and I was brought down with 40 other children."

Another boy, 12, said he worked from dawn until 1 a.m. and was so tired he felt sick, according to the paper. But if any of the children cried, he told The Observer, they would be hit with a rubber pipe or punished with an oily cloth stuffed in their mouths.

The children were producing hand-stitched blouses for the Christmas market in the United States and Europe at Gap Kids stores, according to the newspaper. The blouses were to carry a price of about $40, The Observer reported.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapc...bor/index.html

[uscitizen]

Darn! Now clothes will cost more, not that I shop at Gap anyway

I avoid Malls whenever possible.

[Cancel7]

The president of Gap North America says a subcontractor accused of using child labor to sew Gap clothes in India has been fired and the Gap will not sell clothes made in the New Delhi sweatshop.

"It's deeply, deeply disturbing to all of us," Gap President Marka Hansen said after watching video of the children at work. "I feel violated and I feel very upset and angry with our vendor and the subcontractor who made this very, very, very unwise decision."

Hansen blamed the alleged abuse on an unauthorized subcontractor for one of its Indian vendors and said the subcontractor's relationship with the Gap had been "terminated."


"In 2006, Gap Inc. ceased business with 23 factories due to code violations. We have 90 people located around the world whose job is to ensure compliance with our Code of Vendor Conduct."


The Observer spoke to children as young as 10 who said they were working 16 hours a day for no pay. The paper described the workplace as a "derelict industrial unit" where the hallways were flowing with excrement from a flooded toilet.

One 10-year-old boy told the paper he was sold to the company by his parents.

"'I was bought from my parents' village in [the northern state of] Bihar and taken to New Delhi by train," The Observer quoted the boy as saying. "The men came looking for us in July. They had loudspeakers in the back of a car and told my parents that, if they sent me to work in the city, they won't have to work in the farms. My father was paid a fee for me, and I was brought down with 40 other children."

Another boy, 12, said he worked from dawn until 1 a.m. and was so tired he felt sick, according to the paper. But if any of the children cried, he told The Observer, they would be hit with a rubber pipe or punished with an oily cloth stuffed in their mouths.

The children were producing hand-stitched blouses for the Christmas market in the United States and Europe at Gap Kids stores, according to the newspaper. The blouses were to carry a price of about $40, The Observer reported.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapc...bor/index.html

The Observer spoke to children as young as 10 who said they were working 16 hours a day for no pay

And? Is there some problem? This is what Dano wants to bring here. This is pure freedom. No collectivists mucking things up.

Viva la free market! In the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost...amen.

[Epicurus]

Children being unwillingly sold into corporate slavery by their parents is in no way reflective of a free market.

[Cypress]

Children being unwillingly sold into corporate slavery by their parents is in no way reflective of a free market.

If universal healthcare is a symptom of stalinism, as you asserted elsehwere, then child slave labor is the natural result of unfettered capitalist free markets. Right?

[Cancel7]

If universal healthcare is a symptom of stalinism, as you asserted elsehwere, then child slave labor is the natural result of unfettered capitalist free markets. Right?

Well, wait a minute. Child labor (and only one of these kids said they were sold by their parents), at low or no pay, long inhumane hours, and terrible working conditions IS the natural result of unregulated markets.

One only need go back pre-progressive era, right here, in this country, to find the proof of that.

and of course, then one could go looking throughout the rest of the world, right up to today, for more proof.

[Epicurus]

I always love your phrasing Cypress...

"unfettered" free markets.

So our government is a noble defender of liberty, and fetterer of free markets all at the same time.

[Topspin]

asswholes to the left of me asswholes to the right
stuck in the middle with the nomal people.

[Crashk]

asswholes to the left of me asswholes to the right
stuck in the middle with the nomal people.

so does this mean you agree that children should be bought and sold into slavery or do you agree that this is typical of unrestrained capitalism? or maybe it doesn't matter cause it's happening in a shit hole like India?

if you are surrounded by asshole then you must be a turd.

[Diuretic]

Well I don't know why I logged in tonight,
I got a feeling something's not right...

Sounds like piss poor risk management by GAP.

[uscitizen]

Children being unwillingly sold into corporate slavery by their parents is in no way reflective of a free market.

It is the ultimate free market without those pesky bleeding heart govt regulations.

[uscitizen]

so does this mean you agree that children should be bought and sold into slavery or do you agree that this is typical of unrestrained capitalism? or maybe it doesn't matter cause it's happening in a shit hole like India?

if you are surrounded by asshole then you must be a turd.

yeah one of Americas fastest growing outsourcing countries...

Those darn 10 yr olds can't write good code at all though.

[Panda Hugger]

so does this mean you agree that children should be bought and sold into slavery or do you agree that this is typical of unrestrained capitalism? or maybe it doesn't matter cause it's happening in a shit hole like India?

if you are surrounded by asshole then you must be a turd.

Yeah. Capitalism = forcing children into slavery. Completely logical argument.

[TheDanold]

The Observer spoke to children as young as 10 who said they were working 16 hours a day for no pay

And? Is there some problem? This is what Dano wants to bring here. This is pure freedom. No collectivists mucking things up.

Viva la free market! In the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost...amen.

Who on earth would make their kids do that here? They do that there because they are desperate for money.
That is sad and wrong, no one is allowed to be bought in a free market, that contradicts being free.

The sadder thing is that probably that kid in his village was working 16 hours a day in the field doing subsistence farming or malaria infested rice paddies, so he's hardly any better off in his old life.

It's only economic freedom, that will bring more jobs, better pay and a better life for people as it has for much of southeast Asia that will put a stop to this.

[uscitizen]

Umm Dano free market and free people are not the same thing.
Plus I doubt that there has ever been a truly free market.