Third Thoughts On A Museum of Tolerance Exhibit

Eric H. Roth
Special to the Mirror

What clothes are you wearing? Where did you buy that stunning outfit? Who made that blouse? Do you care?

SEWING CONTROVERSY AT MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE

"Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American

Sweatshops 1820-Present," the provocative special exhibit at the Museum of Tolerance, in West Los Angeles, examines exploitive working conditions in the garment industry and the new global economy. This controversial exhibit illuminates some of the global economy's darker aspects, and provides a compelling introduction to the complex issues debated on Seattle's streets and in the suites at the recent World Trade Organization conference. It deserves to be seen by Santa Monica residents.

Originally shown at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History in 1998, the show has sparked controversy and an often unwelcome spotlight on labor issues since its inception. Sponsored by the UNITE union during a media campaign against clothing sweatshops in the third world, the exhibit's objectivity has been correctly challenged by the fashion industry. Besides, there's little doubt that "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" raises difficult questions and sides with workers against producers -- and consumers.

WHAT'S IN THE EXHIBIT ANYWAY?

"Between a Rock and A Hard Place" examines the origins of sweatshop production and speculates on why they persist in several industries. What is a sweatshop? Do sweatshops still exist in America? Can national, let alone global, fair labor and health and safety standards be enforced?

"A sweatshop is more than a lousy job," begins the exhibit.

"Although there is no single, precise definition, it generally refers to a workplace where relatively unskilled workers toil long hours for meager pay in unhealthy and unsafe conditions." Certainly, many immigrants working in Los Angeles fall within that broad definition. Noting that the term originated in the "tailoring trade" during the 19th century, an exhibit brochure notes that "sweatshops exist in other industries as well."

The opening section, "1820-1880: The Seamstress," however, exclusively displays items and newspaper illustrations from the 19th century apparel industry. Juxtaposing visuals of middle class women wearing fancy dresses and poor women working at sewing machines, the display establishes a somber theme. The display text asks, "Who makes the clothes? Who wears the clothes?"

Section two, "1880-1940: Tenement Sweatshops" also examines garment industry practices and reform efforts from 1880-1940.

Highlighting the role of Jewish and Italian women, the panel describes how "fierce competition among contractors for work and immigrants' desperate need for employment kept wages down and hours up." The Triangle Shirt factory fire, union efforts to organize the apparel industry, and the Franklin Roosevelt Administration's pro-labor policies are documented with photographs, shirts, and union posters. A 1938 LIFE magazine cover, showing "Garment Workers at Play" has been blown up announcing the end of the sweatshop era.

Ironically, UNITE's sponsorship also illuminates the relative impotence of union movement in Los Angeles. Of course, as many union activists told WTO demonstrators in Seattle, unions are often outlawed in developing countries and union organizers often disappear. Some corrupt third world leaders, enamored by the attention of Wall Street, provide business friendly zones with zero environmental regulations.

The huge surplus of unskilled labor and pervasive global poverty will continue to make even third world sweatshops look like a stepping stone to a better life for millions. The exhibit's curators failed to mention, for obvious reasons, that Thailand's state-run television stopped showing videotape of the 73 freed El Monte Thai workers after two days. Too many Thais looked at the living conditions inside the El Monte "slave" factory, saw the air conditioners, noted the expensive American consumer products, and felt envy. Despite Landsat photographs and the wishes of mystics, there's not really one world. Truth is, there's not even one Los Angeles.

A large pool of people want to be exploited, even temporarily imprisoned, as illegal immigrants in the United States. Southern California remains the brightest beacon for millions of illegal immigrants and wannabe illegal immigrants. Hope runs eternal. El Monte symbolizes the desperation of undocumented workers more than any problem inside the garment industry.

Perhaps the exhibit could have included a few visualizing exercises. Imagine you are a 14-year-old Thai girl living without electricity in the countryside. Your family wants electricity and to eat meat more than once a week. Father and Mother demand you help your family survive and bring in some money.

Do you want to: a) work six days a week, 72 hours a week in a factory for 50 cents and hour; b) work seven days a week in rice fields from sun up to sundown; c) be sold into servitude to work as a prostitute in Bangkok; d) become a local prostitute; e) kill yourself; f) study English and fantasize about legally immigrating to the United States; g) pay a smuggler, become an indentured servant and work in an American sweatshop to pay back your travel expenses. There is no "one of the above" choice.

Does the current exhibit reflect those complexities? Not really. But it provides some guideposts to the expanding global economy. Fashion industry spokespeople make excellent arguments about the danger of American sweatshops. Illegal American sweatshops produce the cheap 4 for $10 T-shirts sold downtown and on Venice Beach boardwalk. Local sweatshops often "forget" to pay their workers often by threatening their undocumented workers with deportation. California sweatshops provide ruthless competition for valuable consumer dollars.

Finally, the only way to save the American industry is by raising the standards at home and raising consumer awareness of the feudal conditions abroad. As President Clinton suggested in Seattle, the United States might have to impose sanctions on countries that engage in primitive, brutal and inhumane working conditions for their factory workers.

It's time to close all American sweatshops. And let's pray for option F for that 14-year-old Thai girl.

The exhibit runs through March 2000. The Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Plaza, 9760 West Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 553-9036.

Eric H. Roth, a freelance journalist, has covered environmental and labor issues for a over a decade. Roth also reviewed the controversy over the Museum of Tolerance's decision to mount this exhibit in the Jewish Journal.

Santa Monica Mirror
January 5, 2000

 

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