Join in the no-fun and games as flop athletes from all over South London and even as far afield as Finsbury Park, run the race-to-the-bottom; throw-the-towel-in; and play for-the high-jump from Adidas to the Chinese Embassy.

The character of this ‘logistics revolution’ occupies the first part of the book. At its heart are increasingly global and economically integrated supply chains governed by a new ‘pull’ model of production. Here ‘point of sale’ data capture at the retail end dictates new production runs (their scale, unit cost, design, quality and timing) and compressed delivery and inventory schedules. Independent businesses are now more closely integrated in these networks, through electronic data interchange, with the mega retailers (as translators of consumer preferences) in the driving seat overall.

Press release from Clean Clothes Campaign. Brussels, 2 July 2008:

A month before the start of the Beijing Olympics key sporting goods brands including Nike, adidas, New Balance, Umbro and Speedo are forming a ground breaking joint working group with trade unions and NGOs to explore amongst other issues how to promote trade unionism and collective bargaining as well as improving wages across the sector.

Demand the reinstatement of the workers of Mink Tekstil and the right of freedom of association! Take action now at: http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/08-06-26.html#action

There will be a SOLIDARITY PICKET of STARBUCKS, New Oxford St, London (nearest tube Tottenham Court Rd) On SATURDAY 5th JULY at 1pm, to protest against the latest illegal firings of union activists in Starbucks organising for a better life in Michigan USA and Seville Spain.

The attack on labour rights today: Iraqi, US and UK union solidarity
against war, occupation and enforced privatisation

A meeting with Gene Bruskin Co-Convenor of the over 3 million strong trade union anti-war organisation US Labor Against War,

“If you don’t want to do the whole session, you can just buy parts. Three pounds for touching her face and hair, £10 for touching the upper part of her body, £20 for fondling the lower part of her body. Would you like a cup of tea first ?

- a Chinese female housekeeper at a brothel in Cheam , Surrey- February 2007

From brothels in London to a lettuce farm in Sussex and Chinatown kitchens, this courageous and heart-wrenching book documents the super-exploited lives of the army of undocumented Chinese workers living in the UK. Hsiao-Hung Pai goes undercover for the Guardian to expose the secret hell of fear and sweat that exists in a subterranean twilight world .Everywhere she goes, Hsiao-Hung Pai finds that illegality itself multiplies the misery and that all attempts to improve their lives are doomed as ‘illegal’s’ move from one terrible job to another.

Her concern is to show how groups situated outside the AFL-CIO mainstream have struggled and organised themselves to achieve economic justice through the creation of ‘poor workers’ unions’ (PWUs). In so doing these independent organs have shown the wider labour movement a more expansive, democratic option that represents “the best possibility for the future” (229), a ‘social justice’ unionism which has now established a foothold in the mainstream. Within the hidden history she reconstructs Tait also points to the misunderstandings in our views of relations between labour and other social movements.

Leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions Hassan Jumaa Awad has sent the following message urging action against the decision of the Iraqi Oil Minister to transfer 8 union activists - a move which has been defined as 'a human rights crime'. This marks an escalation in repression against the Union which is a potent anti-occupation and anti privatisation force in Iraq This comes at a time when serious military, economic and political pressure is being exerted by occupying powers for the ratification of the Oil Law. More moves such as this can be expected and must therefore be resisted now.

From KIPTIK:

1. ATTACKS ON ZAPATISTA COMMUNITIES
There has been a change in the nature of the threats, intimidation and aggression against Zapatista communities recently. While the paramilitary groups remain active, there has been a very worrying increase in incursions from the forces of the state and municipal authorities: a recent gathering in Mexico City itemised more than 20 acts of aggression and harassment from the military and police forces that had taken place against Zapatista communities so far this year.

On May 21, the Antorcha Campesina organization, linked to the PRI political party, attempted to take over the independent union at the Mexmode (formerly Kukdong) factory in Atlixco, Mexico.

The creation of SITEMEX, the independent union at Mexmode, was a huge victory for the Mexican workers movement and was a seminal moment in the development of the international anti-sweatshop movement. One of their activists toured the UK with No Sweat and we met with workers there on our return trip. Please read on and take action below.

Workers won big last week. After intense pressure, Burger King agreed to give Florida farmworkers a penny more per pound of picked tomatoes. That means an annual raise of 71% for the farmworkers who, on average, earn only $10,000 a year under the old wage, and are among the USA's most exploited workers.

From the Worker Communist Party of Iran:

Shush, Iran – Monday, May 19, 2008

Thousands of Haft Tapeh sugar cane workers marched again on Sunday and Monday through the town of Shush ahead of the sham trial of five of their colleagues tomorrow, which the workers are fighting to revoke. As in the last few days, the people of the town also joined the march today. At one point the workers blocked the main highway in the area.

Film and discussion of young workers organising experiences in New Zealand, France and the UK.

Jean Paul Faubert started sacking workers in December 2007, and then he closed down the factory, just like that, on 26 March 2008. Around 800 male and female workers were left unemployed. He simply attached a notice on the gate notifying them to go and collect their pay at the Labour department of the Ministry of Social Affairs. To this day, those workers have not been able to get what they are legally owed, in spite of several television and radio reports concerning this case.

Workers in a number of cities in Iran held, or attempted to hold, May Day rallies despite a heavy clampdown by the government. Rallies were held in the western cities of Sanandaj, Kermanshah and Saqez. However, the planned rally in the industrial zone of Asalooye was broken up when the security forces moved in to arrest the organisers and remove placards. Those arrested include Javanmir Moradi and Taha Azadi, from the leadership of the newly formed Free Union of Iranian Workers.

No Sweat Benefit Gig featuring:
Rhizomes (conscious roots reggae 9-peice);
The Lockup (Two smoking barrels of ska from Newbury);
The Ruby Kid (Political Hip Hop – “Like Percy Shelley tripping off of vicodin”);
Jakal (PUNK.SKA.REGGAE);
Press1 (Hip Hop Poet from SE London)

Saturday 17th May 08, 7.30pm @ The Cross Kings

JOIN NO SWEAT & FIGHT SWEATSHOP LABOUR BEHIND THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
No Sweat, the UK’s anti-sweatshop campaign, is calling on people to come down to the Cross Kings and get involved with protests against the companies exploiting workers in sweatshops producing merchandise for the Beijing Olympics!

The first main theme of the collection to note is its mapping of the scale of Wal Mart’s operations. It is the largest private employer in the US, Canada and Mexico; successfully established in Europe; key driver of manufacturing in China; now eyeing the prospects for conquering the vast, untapped consumer markets of the Asian giants (China, Russia, India). This extensive web of suppliers and retail outlets is highly integrated and subject to a striking degree of centralised control, ruthlessly marshalled by Wal Mart’s own IT and logistics systems right down to individual shop floor level. As David Hoopes notes this ‘big box’ retailer has deployed advanced satellite communications networks for over two decades now - plotting sales, inventory and replenishment - and then used such information to steadily exert its influence over suppliers and distributors. Part of this has been the shift to a global sourcing of its products from East Asia, where new manufacturers were willing to dance to Wal Mart’s tune in exchange for access to the mass US market.

From US Labor Against War www.uslaboragainstwar.org

U.S. Labor Against the War is pleased to be able to share with you two important communications from the working people of Iraq to the workers and people of the world. The first is a statement of solidarity from the General Union of Port Workers in Iraq to the members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in support of the decision by ILWU members to shut down all the ports on the West Coast as a demonstration of their opposition to the war and occupation of Iraq.

The second message is a May Day greeting from a broad cross-section of union leaders from many different unions and labor federations in Iraq as an expression of their appreciation for the solidarity demonstrated by organized labor, working people and all peace-loving people of the world in support of their efforts to end the foreign occupation of Iraq and the sectarian violence that occupation has spawned.

A short film about child carpet workers in Bihar, India.

At the Cowley Club, London Road, Brighton. 7-9pm. Wed April 30.

To commemorate the anniversary of 1968 and the murder of Martin Luther King, No Sweat will be showing "At the River I Stand"

Cowley Club, London Rd, Brighton.