CAN WE PUT AN END TO SWEATSHOPS?

If Kathy Lee Gifford had read this brief but potent and provocative book, not only might she have avoided her public humiliation as a sweatshop profiteer off the labor of underpaid women in Honduras, but she might even have had a few intelligent solutions to the problem. After mid-1990s political activists advertised that firms like Nike, BUM and Montgomery Ward were making huge profits from slave-like factory labor in Third World countries, many consumers (as well as stockholders) were shocked enough to want to seek an end to the practice, but solutions were both elusive and complicated, as factories, standards and economies differed widely from country to country. Fung, O'Rourke and Sabel (who teach at Harvard, MIT and Columbia Law, respectively) propose a program called racheted labor standards "to ensure the most ambitious and feasible labor standards for workers given their economic development context." This plan "encourages the incremental realization of demanding labor standards" that would take into consideration cultural and economic differences as well as account for varying types of labor (such as home or factory-based). Cogently argued and enjoyable, their arguments are countered or supplemented by eight short responses from academics and activists in the field who critically gauge the viability and effectiveness of such a plan. The respondents present informed, engaged and well-argued positions that, combined, create a deeply thought-provoking volume. This heady mixture of economics, politics, theory and activism is an important addition to a heated debate. (Oct. 16)