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Sweatshop Workers Speak Out: Building Solidarity Between U.S. Communitees and Workers in Bangladesh and Pakistan (Photo Essay Highlights from the Speaking Tour)

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Sweatshop Workers Speak Out 
Building Solidarity Between U.S. Communities  
and Workers in Bangladesh and Pakistan 
 
Photo-Essay Highlights from the Speaking Tour 
 
From  April 15 to May 5, 2010, the International Labor 
Rights Forum and SweatFree Communities conducted a 
speaking tour to raise awareness about the realities that 
Bangladeshi garment workers and Pakistani soccer ball 
stitchers face on the job, and to encourage local action 
for sweatshop workers’ rights. The tour took us to 15 
cities in eight states. We gave 29 presentations for stu-
dents, union members, environmentalists, and other com-
munity members. In addition, we held 11 meetings and 
briefings with a variety of government officials, includ-
ing purchasing department staff and elected officials, to 
discuss the new Sweatfree Purchasing Consortium and 
how government purchasers can support workers’ rights.   
 
Kalpona Akter and Zehra Bano brought stories of dismal 
working conditions from Bangladeshi garment workers 
and Pakistani home-based soccer ball stitchers. But they 
also brought stories of worker power and inspiration and 
showed their own fierce commitment to struggle for 
change.  
 
 
 
 
 
In Chicago Ms. Bano and Ms. Akter learned 
about key events in the history of working peo-
ple’s struggles in the U.S. at the memorial of 
the 1886 Haymarket Massacre, raising their 
fists in solidarity with workers everywhere. 
In Wisconsin we spoke to a packed room at Milwaukee 
Area Technical College and met with the Milwaukee 
Sierra Club. We discussed fair trade, workers’ rights, 
and the impact of unscrupulous corporate practices on 
the environment. Ms. Akter shared concern about the 
overuse of water used for the dyeing and washing of 
clothing in preparation for shipments from Bangladesh 
to the U.S. The workers face the double burden of un-
safe drinking water and poverty wages. 
Our road trip started in St. Paul, Minnesota, where we 
met with students at Macalester College.  
At McCall Elementary School in Philadelphia, we spoke 
with over 50 fifth graders who came prepared with a list of 
questions for us.  The students were eager to hear our sto-
ries and plan to stay in touch as penpals. 
We met with government officials of the cities of 
Madison, Wisc., Pittsburgh, Penn., and Washington 
D.C. and the states of Maine, Maryland, Ohio, and 
Pennsylvania. They were often visibly moved by 
Ms. Akter and Ms. Bano, and felt newly motivated 
and energized to pursue their sweatfree work. (Here 
we gather with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 
procurement staff in Harrisburg.) 
In Cleveland, Ohio, we met with John Carroll Univer-
sity’s women’s soccer team. Ms. Bano described the 
conditions faced by the soccer ball stitchers.  The team 
decided to bring the issue to the attention of their coach 
and school, and plan to write to their current soccer ball 
supplier to inquire about the conditions under which the 
soccer balls were made. The students said that, now that 
they had seen pictures and heard the stories of women 
who sew the balls by hand in their homes, they would 
never again look at a soccer ball in the same way. 
At the Labor Notes Conference in Detroit, 
we networked with labor activists from 
many places and joined Andiamo restau-
rant workers in their campaign against 
wage theft, racial and sexual discrimina-
tion, and retaliatory firings. 
In addition to Cleveland, we also held 
events in Delaware and Columbus, 
Ohio, with the goal of securing a 
commitment from the State of Ohio to 
join the Sweatfree Purchasing Con-
sortium. Our visit built on ongoing 
sweatfree organizing in the State. 
At the May 3rd International Workers Day briefing 
on Capitol Hill we were joined by Cesar Estacio 
who had been fired for trying to form a union on his 
cut flower plantation in Ecuador.  This briefing was 
sponsored by the International Workers Rights Cau-
cus and brought together staff from Hill offices in 
addition to labor unions and nongovernmental or-
ganizations.  
In Maine we held a gubernatorial candidate roundta-
ble discussion on the role of the Maine State govern-
ment to create a just and sustainable state and global 
economy. Three Democratic candidates for governor 
and a representative for a Republican candidate joined 
the discussion with Ms. Akter and Linda Fairbrother, 
a paper mill worker and member of the United Steel 
Workers union.  After the roundtable and media brief-
ing, which was covered by the Associated Press and 
public radio, we headed upstairs for a meeting with 
staff of the Maine Division of Purchases, discussing 
the labor practices of state suppliers that contract in 
Bangladesh.  Finally, labor and immigrant rights 
groups came together at the Solidarity Community 
Center for an evening discussion on global trade, im-
migration and worker rights issues, and how the 
movements for worker rights in the U.S. and Bangla-
desh can connect.  What does this solidarity, crossing 
boundaries of geography and language, look like? 
Throughout our trip we met with union 
members, noting the similarities and differ-
ences between the conditions and repres-
sion that workers face in the U.S., Bangla-
desh, and Pakistan. 
In Pittsburgh, we met people from a variety of commu-
nity organizations, including the Black Political Empow-
erment Project, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, 
Western Pennsylvania Jobs with Justice, the National 
Labor Committee, among others.  Thanks to our local 
affiliate, PASCA,  we also brought our message to a city 
council hearing, urging the city to join the Sweatfree Pur-
chasing Consortium. 
 
Speakers’ Biographies 
 
Kalpona Akter, a former child factory worker, directs the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity estab-
lished in 2000 by garment workers struggling for their rights. The Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity 
(BCWS) is a non-profit, non-political women’s organization that works for the empowerment of working women, 
the rights of children, and the security of working families and communities. 
 
Zehra Bano is the General Secretary of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation of Pakistan and the 
Research and Education Secretary of the National Trade Union Federation. Ms. Bano has been an outspoken 
leader in the fight for women workers’ rights in Pakistan, and has intimate knowledge of the plight of soccer ball 
workers especially related to home-based and stitching center workers. 
 
 
 
Many Thanks to Our Hosts, Organizers, and Sponsors 
 
21st Century ILGWU Heritage Fund * Baltimore Industrial Workers of the World * Battle of Homestead Founda-
tion * Black Political Empowerment Project * Coalition of Black Trade Unionists * Columbus Jobs with Justice * 
Debley Fund * Eau Claire Unitarian Universalists Congregation * Food AND Medicine/Worker Center of Eastern 
Maine * Eastern Maine Labor Council * Freedom Unlimited * Global Village Collection * Indiana University of 
Pennsylvania Labor Center * JCU Campus Ministry * Labor Education Program of Michigan State University’s 
School of Labor and Industrial Relations * Lauren Sukal * LFC Amnesty International * LFC Ethics Center * 
LFC Mojekwa Fund * LFC Office of Intercultural Relations * LFC Student Government * Macalester Asian Stu-
dent Alliance * Macalester College Departments (Asian Languages and Cultures; Anthropology; Center for Reli-
gious and Spiritual Life; Geography; History; Human Rights and Humanitarianism; International Studies; Philoso-
phy; Religious Studies; and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) * Milwaukee Area Technical College * 
Milwaukee Clean Clothes Campaign * Michigan State University Departments/Colleges (Asian Studies Center; 
Center for Advanced Study of International Development: Center for Gender in Global Context; Center for Latin 
American and Caribbean Studies; Chicano/Latino Studies; Department of Political Science; Department of Sociol-
ogy; James Madison College; Peace and Justice Studies; Residential College for Arts and Humanities; Julian 
Samora Research Institute) * Maine Fair Trade Campaign * MSU Students for Fair Trade *  National Labor Com-
mittee * New York State Labor-Religion Coalition  * Ohio Conference on Fair Trade * OWU Amnesty Interna-
tional * OWU Peace & Justice * OWU Student Initiative for Global Development * OWU WSCA * Pittsburgh 
Antisweatshop Community Alliance (PASCA) * Pittsburgh Coalition of Black Trade Unionists * Pittsburgh Fed-
eration of Teachers * Pittsburgh IWW * Red Emma's Coffeehouse and Bookstore  * Power in Community Alli-
ances (PICA) * Resource Center of the Americas  *Sierra Club, Greater Waters Club * State Senator Jim Ferlo * 
Steel Valley Printers/USW Local 3403 * Three Rivers Community Foundation *Twin Cities IWW * UAW Local 
879 * UMBC Solidarity * UWEC Amnesty International * UWEC College Feminists * UWEC Human Rights 
Coalition * UWEC Human Trafficking Abolitionists * UWEC Progressive Student Association *  Western PA 
Jobs with Justice * William Robinson Consulting 


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Sweatshop Workers Speak Out: Building Solidarity Between U.S. Communitees and Workers in Bangladesh and Pakistan (Photo Essay Highlights from the Speaking Tour)

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