March 22—Some of the official merchandise for the Bush–Cheney campaign is made in Burma, even though Bush last year signed a ban on Burmese imports because of that country’s use of forced labor and violations of human and workers’ rights, according to a March 19 report in Newsday. The newspaper ordered several items from the campaign’s official merchandise website and found a fleece pullover embroidered with the Bush–Cheney ’04 logo and bearing a label stating it was made in Burma.
Last July, Bush signed the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, which banned the import of products from Burma. He also signed an executive order freezing the assets of senior Burmese officials and banning virtually all payments to Burma. At the time, Bush said, “These measures reaffirm to the people of Burma that the United States stands with them in their struggle for democracy and freedom. The United States will not waver from its commitment to the cause of democracy and human rights in Burma.”
Last year alone the U.S. textile industry lost 50,000 jobs, primarily because of cheap foreign imports, according to the American Textile Manufacturers Institute, an industry trade association.
Kerry Campaign Merchandise Made in USA
Official merchandise for the John Kerry campaign is made in the United States by union members, says Mark Weiner, president of Financial Innovations, which licenses and markets the Kerry gear. As president, Kerry says one of his first priorities will be to restore lost jobs. Nearly 3 million private-sector jobs—including 2.8 million manufacturing jobs—have disappeared under the Bush administration. This week, 51 workers will begin traveling the country to highlight the nation’s jobs crisis in the Show Us the Jobs™ tour.
“It says a lot about [President George W.] Bush and [Vice President Dick] Cheney that they would have for sale items made by 7 cents-an-hour slave labor in a venture operated jointly with the Burmese military,” says Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the National Labor Committee, a workers’ rights advocacy group. “To do it when the United States has lost 337,000 textile jobs under George Bush’s watch shows an indifference and callousness towards U.S. workers who have lost their jobs.
“It would only have taken one staff person to make sure human rights were observed [in producing the merchandise,]” he says. “Clearly, human and worker rights are not being discussed in the Bush administration.”
The disclosure that the Bush campaign is buying merchandise from a country where forced labor is used follows the withdrawal of Nebraska businessman, Anthony Raimondo, from consideration as assistant secretary of commerce for manufacturing. Named by Bush for the new post, Raimondo withdrew after the media reported he laid off 17 percent of the workforce at his Behlen Manufacturing plant before spending $3 million to build a plant in China.
More
