4 Thestrong smell of sweat in our own backyards

e

Source: The Varsity (University

of Toronto)

By Petty

W Bozonelos

TORONTO (CUP) - For most Canadians, the word sweatshop

conjures up images of factories in developing coun- tries where women are paid pennies a

day to work in tiny,

hot rooms. Win- dows are painted over, the air is stiflingly hot and the work is tedious.

But what most

of us don’t know, or refuse to ac- knowledge, is that similar sweatshop conditions are found right here in Canada, in places like Toronto.

The image of Canada as the “true north strong and free” does not hold true in regards to

our continued

immigrant garment

_workers.

“It’s often assumed that sweatshop opera- tions and homeworking are a third world phe- nomenon,” Roxanna Ng, an anti-sweatshop activist, told a press conference this past summer. “When in fact garment work- ers around the world face similar predicaments.”

Roxanna Ng’s report on home. sweatshops sent shock waves throughout Canada when it was re- leased this past June. Ng argues that an overwhelm-

women in the garment industry work under sub- standard condi- tions, especially those that eke out their living at home.

“All of the 30 women | inter- viewed were Chi- nese immigrants who worked below the standards provided by the Employment Standard Act, and anybody’s working conditions that do not meet up to these standards are illegal,” Ng af- firmed in an inter- view.

One worker, who appeared with Ng at the June press conference, chose to remain nameless out of

sions for describing her working condi- tions. She was earning $3-4 per hour and working six hours per day to support herself and her four-year-old child.

Ng says that one of the key problems with the garment industry is that employment contracts are not written in stone. It is a piece-work business where the seamstresses gets paid according to each piece, 1.e. a sleeve or a collar, that is completed.

Theoretically, the faster one sews the more pieces one can accomplish by the hour, and hence

Continued on

Source: The Link (Concordia

Univesrity) By Ariel Troster

MONTREAL (CUP) - Libérez Mumia. If you live in Montreal you

may have seen the slogan sprayed on buildings and in alleyways speckled across the city. The image of a dread locked man, his face weathered by 17 years on death row,

posters and printed on buttons worn by artists and activists all over Montreal.

The case is complex and many questions remain unanswered. But two things are for sure: a Philadel- phia police officer was murdered, and the man sentenced to death for the crime claims he’s innocent. And an international coali- tion of activists, writers, politicians and lawyers agree with the man.

Abu-Jamal is guilty or innocent, the case highlights issues of systemic racism, police brutality and a justice system with little regard for the

underdog.

Still, casual observ- ers can't help but wonder what rel- evance the case has to activists in Mon- treal - where the reality of the death penalty only reso- nates through newspaper and television reports.

While Jamal’s case is

remarkable in a state where the percent- age of African American men on death row is nearly 700 per cent higher than the population at large. The ques- tion is why Mumia? And why in Mon-

treal?

Before his convic- tion, Jamal was a radio journalist in Philadelphia, known as “the voice of the voiceless,” for his’ reports on police brutality and sup- port for minority communities. He

sects ing majority of fear of repercus- ioe'S exploitation of eet acne page ahha Whether Mumia striking, it is not attended Godard

College, won the Major Armstrong Award for radio journalism and was named one of Philadel phia’s “peopic to watch” in 1981 by Philadel- phia magazine. Jamal was the president of the Association of Black Journalists and had no prior criminal record.

In December 1981, while moonlighting as a cab driver,

~~ Continued on page 5