We shop by the sweat of their brows.

Most Americans link sweatshops with an earlier period of history, but new generations of workers face the same poor conditions both in the United States and abroad. And a number of recent initiatives have sought to bring attention to and improve the situation of these laborers.

In early December the Global Sweatshop Coalition convened a "People's Tribunal on Corporate Crimes Against Humanity." The meeting, which drew 150 people, featured an "arraignment" of Disney, Kmart, Nike, and Wal-Mart "for their complicity in sweatshop abuse, union busting, consumer deception, unfair monopolistic practices, and cultural manipulation." Witnesses testified against abuses but also stressed the progress that organized efforts against sweatshops have made. A full-dress trial is scheduled for the spring.

Meanwhile, a U.S. student group--United Students Against Sweatshops--completed a fact-finding mission to Central American garment factories, which make clothes sold in the U.S., and released a report detailing wages averaging well below poverty-level survival standards, employer denial of benefits, and harassment over union organizing. As reported by Corporate Watch, they also called for university procurement policies to include the implementation of living-wage policies.

In the U.S., soccer teens and parents protested the manufacture of soccer balls by children in Pakistan. In response, international sporting-good firms--like Adidas, Reebok, and Nike--have pledged to eliminate child labor from factories and have donated $1 million to monitor labor conditions and provide education to Pakistani children.

The National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice also investigated conditions in Mexican denim-apparel factories, where they found labor-law violations, unjust working conditions, and continued low wages. A "Challenging Sweatshops Organizing Guide" is available from the NICWJ (773-728-8400).