Christ Crucified

What if the Lord were to gather us together, look us in the eye, and say the following: "Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land. You who deal deceitfully with false balances and sell the needy for a pair of sandals. Your feasts will be turned into mourning, your songs into lamentations. Your land will tremble on this account, you will wear sackcloth and your end will be a bitter day."

These paraphrased lines come from Amos, and I see only one interpretation: poor people are being exploited and we are either doing it directly or participating in an economy that permits it. I can see no other meaning in this passage, unless of course we never benefit by buying cheap products produced by the poor. But that is not the case. All over the world U. S. corporations use workers who produce goods at starvation wages under wretched working conditions. According to the National Labor Committee, the worst corporations are Wal Mart, Guess, Walt Disney, Nike, K Mart, J.C. Penny, Esprit, May, and Victoria's Secret. Their workers live in such places as the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, Haiti, China, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. How do these people live? I have lived among them. They live like dogs. Haitians produced goods for Disney at 28 cents an hour, amounting to 6 cents on each 101 Dalmatians outfits selling for $19.99. Nicaraguans receive between 19 and 23 cents an hour making J.C. Penny products, with labor on a $14.99 pair of jeans amounting to only 6 cents. Dominicans make garments for Victoria's Secret, and are paid 3 cents on articles selling for $12.OO. In China, Nike uses children ages 13 15, pays as low as sixteen cents an hour, and requires a work schedule of seven days a week, eleven to twelve hours a day.

One could hope that the market will bring the needed adjustments. I am skeptical. For example, U.S. corporations entered Central America in the 1880's. After a hundred years of "development," most workers in Central America are still terribly paid. The problem is political. Workers can scarcely organize for better wages and working conditions. On January 15, 1988, Honduran newspapers showed two men slumped forward in a car, their bloody bodies riddled with bullets. The caption read: "Miguel Angel Pavon president of the Committee on Human Rights (CODEH), of Cortes and labor leader Moises Landerverde were assassinated." That's been the history for over a century in Central America.

Around the turn of this century, sectors of the American public supported U.S. workers in their successful quest for unions, decent working conditions, a living wage. Living standards rose, but only because the market was modified by political action.

It would be a mark of greatness if U.S. citizens could pressure North American corporations and our government to show some decency to workers in other countries. At present, a national movement has formed and is gaining strength. It is supported by over 150 organizations, including the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, American Friends Service Committee, and the National Catholic Social and Justice Lobby. More about this campaign can be found at the National Labor Committee web page at www.nlcnet.org. I recommend writing the worst companies and boycotting the very worst. Boycott Nike. This could hurt their workers, but conditions are so miserable that the loss is worth the hope of improvement. Their address is: Michael Eisner, CEO. One Bowerman Drive. Beaverton, OR. 97005 (Plenteous Harvest, February, 1998)

The Rev. Robert J. Sanders, Ph.D.