FAMILY COURT
REFORM
MARIN COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
Peter
Romanowsky 300 Napa St. # 40
Sausalito, CA
94965 tel./fax (415) 451-8663
Please send tax
exempt contributions to New Covenant Evangelistic Association Inc.
For
Family Court Reform in California and America!
Harvesting The
Grapes Of Wrath
"They
stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being
killed in a ditch and covered with quicklime, watch the mountains of oranges
slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the
failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath."
In this wrath
the people have but one choice: obey or be beaten. Obey or suffer malnutrition.
Obey or be put in jail. Obey or die. Not many options were left open for
farmers in the 1930s. Now, in the dawn of a new millennium, the cries of poor
factory workers in Saipan, El Salvador, and Hong Kong are still being silenced.
These issues have been left unspoken, behind closed doors, under the carpet.
There they continue to infest, breed and thrive. They thrive on the souls of
plastic workers, toys, and contraptions, otherwise known as human beings. What could
possibly cause this horrendous torture? Who subjects these people to such
inhumane conditions?
The Gap shirt
you wore yesterday, the Nike shoes you continue to buy, the amusement park you
visited last summer. Unfortunate as it may be, these companies are the
predators. The lower class workers act as prey. Labor abuse has become a
recurring complaint from Gap sweatshops in Saipan and Russia where factory
workers are paid 11 cents an hour, cheated out of pay, and kept in slave-like
conditions. Over 56 percent of Indonesian Nike apparel/shoe manufacturers have
reported slapping from supervisors, verbal abuse, beatings, wage deductions,
intimidation, excessive temperatures, and sexual discrimination. Workers have
lost fingers as well as hands in machinery due to the poor safety conditions.
Walt Disney Company's subcontractors have consistently violated Chinese labor
laws by requiring overtime from workers, paying 13-36 cents an hour, working
between 11-16 hours a day for 6-7 days a week. These unsanitary, unstable,
unhealthy, degrading conditions are no better than that of a slave. It is a
shock and disappointment to imagine such ridiculous treatment of factory
workers who cannot even speak on the job in fear of termination. It is a
critical issue which must be addressed. Without awareness, conditions will only
worsen as rich companies become stronger and poor workers become weaker. There
is only so much time before this hunger boils to an anger beyond a simple
boycott, protest, or even newspaper article. Something must and will be done.
"In the
souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing
heavy for the vintage."
Sarah Romanowsky, age 16
PUBLISHED IN
THE COASTAL POST MAY 2000
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