The Clean Clothes Campaign has been in existence for 10 years.
To mark this milestone we thought it was high time for an evaluation
of our aims and activities, and their impact and of the way in
which the campaign functions and is organized. During these years
the campaign has grown and the context in which it operates has
changed, therefore we also felt that any evaluation process should
be coupled with a joint redefinition of CCC strategy for the coming
years. What should be the main aims and activities of the Clean
Clothes Campaign? How should it be organized?
To fulfil this aim, from March 7 to 11 the "International
CCC Evaluation and Strategy Conference" was held in Barcelona.
The CCC is a network organisation, and the Barcelona conference
was organized to bring together the partners that make up that
network. A guest list was developed jointly by the CCCs and partners.
Prior to the conference a consultation process was set up to gather
the opinions of those who could not be present and to prepare
the conference. The Spanish CCC got to work organizing the logistics
at the local level. Meanwhile, an international survey was conducted
to gather input to evaluate CCC activities and develop strategy
ideas. Using this material two discussion papers were drafted
and widely distributed. In the end, 85 people from 35 countries
came together in Barcelona to participate in the conference.
The
international secretariat brought a team of six, while each of
the other European CCCs was represented by approximately four
people. Representatives also came for European countries that
have only recently started campaigns (Portugal, Bulgaria, and
Romania). Other participants came from related campaigns and organizations
(NGOs and trade unions), from all regions around the world. The
Barcelona meeting was five days of hard work -- lots of discussion,
brainstorming, and debate -- but also a great deal of fun. While
old acquaintances and friendships were renewed, many new contacts
were made. Plus there was a great backdrop to all this activity:
Beautiful Barcelona.
While a more extensive report of the entire conference with detailed
reports on the various workshops and plenaries and the full text
of the relevant discussion papers will be available shortly, here
are some of the highlights of what was discussed.
Evaluation Comments
The evaluation was conducted in two major sessions: the first
one identifying what had been successful strategies; the second
one discussing and finalizing the paper that was written in preparation
to the conference. These were the final conclusions:
Success!
The campaign's main successes are seen to be raising awareness
on the issues, networking, and information provision (though failure
to communicate our successes).
Urgent appeals
The CCC's urgent appeals network is seen as one of the campaigns
strengths, both as a system for distributing information and motivating
action. But there is a belief that the follow through on cases
needs more attention (in terms of strategy, given that companies
often "cut and run" when campaigning draws attention
to labor rights violations at a particular factory, and in practical
terms, i.e. how long do we continue to follow a case). More strategic
thinking is required and better communication throughout the CCC
network.
The international network
The
CCC is recognised for it's contacts and co-operation with Asian
groups - this is an accomplishment in itself, but points to the
need to strengthen links with other regions (Africa, Central &
Eastern Europe, Central America, North America). There is concern
that the issue of violations of labor rights in developed countries
have not been addressed enough.
Better links need to be build between North & South and South
& South -- in terms of decision-making processes, strategizing,
input, and awareness raising (should go both ways, ex. on globalization
-- make connections between those working in Northern and Southern
economies). Some Southern groups would like the campaign to do
more education work (on codes for example). More attention should
be put on language issues (translations, use of jargon-free language).
The relationship between trade unions and NGOs, within and outside
of the campaign, deserves more attention. More trade union representation
is needed in campaigns and also a strengthening of the information
network between NGOs and unions in the South. Furthermore, dialogue
at the national CCC levels can be improved.
Strengthening
and expanding content
In terms of content, people believe that gender issues and homeworking
need more attention. A gender audit of the CCC could be a first
step. More CCC research on the informal sector is also needed.
There is interest in covering environmental concerns and issues
of sustainable development as well. Co-operation with other "product-sector"
campaigns and/or the environmental movement or anti-globalization
movement could be a way to strengthen the campaign.
Codes of conduct, monitoring, and verification
There were mixed messages on codes of conduct. Some felt they
were not appropriate or even a failure, and others felt they were
one of the most important campaigning tools and strategically
useful for creating space for debate, publicity and enable pressure.
Codes can be a good tool if they include: core ILO conventions,
a process of monitoring and verification that includes workers,
labor NGOs and unions in production countries. They can also be
useful if they are seen as a tool to empower workers and are implemented
in countries where there is democratic space for independent organisations
to participate in the process. But codes can also involve risks,
for example, that company-monitoring usually only goes as far
as the first supplier and does not monitor the whole chain and
that it is often workers and not companies who pay the cost of
the professionalization of monitoring and verification processes
by the corporate sector. Finally, our involvement in developing
monitoring systems should be based on a perspective of moving
out of this work and towards supporting the empowerment process
of workers and playing the role of watchdog over companies.
Lots of legal work to be done
The interplay between codes (often voluntary mechanisms) and public
regulation (local labor law, international legal measures, trade
negotiations, national legislation affecting national production)
at different levels was mentioned as an area needing attention.
In some countries new laws are being discussed concerning TNCs
operating abroad. Furthermore, WTO negotiations pose a big danger
for the CCC work, for example, in government procurement. The
preparation of several court cases has started. These are relatively
new areas for the CCC and it was stressed that there was a need
for better information sharing.
Surprise -- we're overloaded!
Capacity (human resources and material resources) problems were
noted at all levels (the CCC needs to do more, but we don't currently
have the capacity to do so; we ask our partners to do more than
they can, etc.) Capacity problems have an impact on other issues
(for example capacity to expand communications between North and
South -- language and communication problems slow down or limit
effectiveness/participation in the urgent appeals system and other
campaign activities/resources). Participants agreed that it is
important to map the resources of the CCC network to facilitate
a better division of labor amongst the network in order to relieve
pressure points.
Some evaluation observations
Generally speaking people felt that all four areas of CCC work
(raising public awareness, solidarity work, pressuring companies
and legal initiatives) were useful and should be maintained. People
are cautious about (but not willing to dismiss) the CCC's strategy
of working with codes and monitoring/verification projects. The
key seems to be to proceed in a way that takes these concerns
into consideration, and ensures that we don't end up spending
a disproportionate amount of our resources on this work (just
because codes are getting so much attention in the public arena).
Related a bit to the code work, but more specifically to our involvement
in several multi-stakeholder initiatives to learn more about monitoring
and verification (see the article on this project elsewhere in
this issue) is the question of reconciling the campaign's two
somewhat contradictory roles -- campaigns that target companies
vs. organizations that sit down and work with companies (ex. in
pilot projects on monitoring and verification).
Many believe the campaign should put more effort into lobbying
governments and pursuing legal initiatives.
The evaluation process highlighted the need to specifically consider
all CCC strategies in relation to several important issues that
the campaign is already committed to working on, such as gender,
the informal sector/homeworking, and cooperation between NGOs
and trade unions.
Specifically on the gender perspective, it was decided that next
to the already mentioned gender audit it was essential to take
the gender issue as a starting point for judging each new activity
or campaign. It should be made much more clear that we are talking
about women workers, they have to be named as such and support
actions have to be geared more to their needs. The focus on the
workplace is important, but linking with the community and the
household has to be stronger, as this is also part of the reality
that shapes the experiences (including rights violations) of women
workers. At the Barcelona meeting the participants stressed that
the obligations of companies should be reconsidered in this light.
Expanding the CCC?
In the preparation papers and at the conference we also wanted
to hear how people felt about the campaign's focus on labor issues
in the garments and sportswear sector. Did people want to maintain
this focus?
What came out during the preparation was that most CCCers and
other groups in the North felt that we should maintain the focus
-- it gives us strength and there's still a lot of work to be
done in this sector. There was the feeling that while we could
stick to this sector, we should consider environmental issues
in the context of garment production. Groups in the South favored
expanding to cover other product sectors, and taking up environmental
issues.
At the Barcelona meeting it was confirmed that across the board
there is a strong feeling that the CCC needs to take on environmental
concerns in the context of garment and textile production because
these issues are linked to the social issues we currently tackle
and because this will broaden/strengthen the CCC's base of support.
However, given the capacity problems mentioned above and the importance
of maintaining focus, the conclusion is that we will take up this
work through cooperation with other (environmentally focused)
networks, and not as a central activity of this network. The work
that is done on the promotion of the use of biological (organic)
cotton, involving member organisations of the CCC, is a good example.
On the expansion to other sectors the feeling at the Barcelona
meeting was also that if at all, this should be done in a controlled
manner and via cooperation with other networks and organizations.
In fact the only sectors that were under discussion were the toy
sector and the textile sector. Strategic linking with the toy
sector organizations will not be difficult (they are mainly the
same organisations already active in the CCC). The French CCC
is planning a toy campaign to start at the end of 2001. Expansion
to the textile sector was both an interest of those wanting to
work on environmental issues and of many of the partners, for
example those from Africa, India, and Eastern Europe where garment
and textile production are often concentrated.
Structure
Another expansion issue has more to do with the structure of the
CCC. The present organizational structure of the CCC is as follows:
in nine European countries coalitions of NGOs and trade unions
together form the national level CCC. They operate autonomously,
but work together where possible under the umbrella of the European
CCC. The international CCC network of partners consists of trade
unions, NGOs, and networks or similar campaigns in producer and
consumer countries. It was noted that there is no formal organization
or structure, and that often cooperation is structured via projects.
Sometimes links are maintained via active organisations in the
campaign and sometimes via the international secretariat.
Though generally people are satisfied with the structure there
is a certain amount of confusion on the extent to which partners
is non-western European countries can "take up the clean
clothes campaign" or start their own. Where this happens
(ex. The Philippines, or now the Bulgarian/Romanian initiative)
there is no clarity on the status of decision making or communication
structures. Organizations who see themselves as partners in a
specific project or activity of the CCC are also confused to have
the campaign referred to as European, thereby excluding them,
also from possible future activities. Related to this is the interest
of Southern (ex. Asian) groups to further the development of the
consumer movement outside of Europe.
At the Barcelona meeting people made their interest clear on having
more cooperation among regions, via internationally coordinated
projects and exchanges. Some campaigns/actions were prioritized
that will be international from the start (for example, a "Right
to Organize" campaign). People see the campaign as international,
but the involvement of the different regions (and accompanying
decision making and communication structures) will have to be
defined per activity or project. There is a marked hesitancy to
over-formalize a structure, with instead a preference to having
the growth occur "naturally," and be regionally led.
Trends
To develop effective strategies we need to understand what is
happening in the world around us: we need to look 'outside'. Participants
were asked to join workshops focusing at the main actors (companies,
workers, trade unions/NGOs, consumers) or at the main themes (gender,
environment, informalization/homework) and discuss what developments
are we facing, what major concerns do we see, what demands do
different actors make of us? The main trends related to garment
companies, legislation, consumer campaigns, the civil society
movement, monitoring and verification of codes, and worker organizing
in the context of increasing flexibilitization and repression
were discussed (again, more details on these trends can be found
in the full conference report).
Regional perspectives
To get further input for the strategy discussion, participants
in the Barcelona meeting met in regional discussion groups to
consider these trends and to give input on what issues they think
the campaign needs to address at the international level. These
regional priorities -- from Asia, Central America, Western and
Eastern Europe, Southern Africa, Morocco, Canada, the United States
and Australia -- are outline in the full conference report.
An agenda for action
For the last day of discussions, participants went back into
groups based on trends/areas of activity (supporting worker organizing;
legal initiatives; codes, monitoring and verification; the garment
industry; brand-focused campaigning and awareness raising; and
the growing civil society movement). With participants bringing
with them the different ideas that were raised by the regional
groups, these sessions yielded many useful ideas for the campaign's
work in the future. Watch the newsletter and the CCC website for
more information on the new initiatives the campaign will be pursuing
in relation to the priorities for action outlined in Barcelona.
