This story is not so far away, it is skin close. Take a look at the label on your clothing. Where was it made? While reading one of Dengre's diaries, some intuitive voice told me to look at the label on the old tattered favorite sweatshirt I had on. It was an old Liz Claiborne. I had it gotten years ago, because the brand had the reputation of being well made and that it would last. I remember vividly taking it off, turning it around and reading the label, it said "Made in the North Mariana Islands". Many labels will be more deceptive and say "Made in the USA", but this one said" Made in North Mariana Islands". It brought the whole CNMI (Common Wealth of the North Mariana Islands) close, skin close.
This old favorite sweatshirt with its frayed holes is sacred to me now. It is a link to the women in the sweatshops in the CNMI. As I look at the stitching and feel the fabric, I can hear the noise in the factory. I hear the sewing machines, see the numbers on the garment counters - feeling the pressure to meet the quotas, breathing dust, the hours drag on, the heat and humidity - endless swaths of fabric pass by. This sweatshirt was handled by many sweatshop workers. There are individual stories of each woman imbued in each stitch - the loneliness, sorrow, grief, and of missing family members so far away. There is a longing for something better, but the same forms of repression they are trying to flee from are inescapable. as they sit day in day out pushing fabric you can almost hear their thoughts, "This isn't what I thought it would be." There is worry concerning earning enough to get back home and the feelings of imprisonment, unable to leave, forced to stay in factory dorms. There is barbed wire fencing them in. Then there are the stories the women tell of friends who disappeared into the world of prostitution and strip clubs. These girls are kept under guard by the owners of the strip club; they cannot interact freely in public. You can hear the whispers as shared knowledge is passed between workers about the abortion policy and the cruelty of bosses. Their bodies hold the memories of muscle stiffness, sore necks, lower back pain, and the piercing pain from the needle sewing through fingers.
This old sweatshirt from the sweatshop is what brought this issue home. It links my heart to those who suffer at the hands of those who do not yet feel the connection to all of humanity. What makes it worse is these same exploiters wrap themselves up in the flag and call themselves Christians. This is truely a form of flag desicration.
We are now seeing more "Made in China" labels as the garment industry is moving out of the Commonwealth of North Mariana Islands and into China, since they lost Abramoff and the DeLay's protection. The Tan Family Holdings and others like them continue to seek new crops of people to exploit. The Republican Congress of Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, John Doolittle, Bob Ney, Ralph Reed, and Team Abramoff assisted in the Un-American exploitation of these women and men. See Dengre's diaries for further explanations of these atrocities and how they profited from it. They prevented the US Labor Laws and Immigration Laws from becoming law in the CNMI; thereby, allowing a foreign company to set up sweatshops on a US Territory.
The sweatshops of the CNMI are not far away issues out in the Pacific; it is close to your skin and touches you daily.