In May of 2004, the Nike Taiwan branch invited Michael Jordan to Taiwan for advertising its products. A large amount of Jordan's fans bought very expensive tickets for his show. On that day Jordan only showed up for a few minutes and then disappeared. The fans felt very angry and cheated. The media all-out attacked the business faith of Nike. Additionally a couple of news reports, but not many, mentioned the labour rights violation records of Nike.

For me, this shows that the anti-sweatshop campaign is still a new thing for most Taiwanese people. Consumers only care about the realistic value of what they buy but have little idea about the corporate social responsibility.

My name is Tsai, I work for Ching-Jen Labor Health & Safety Service Center in Taiwan. In the past few years, we have participated in several international solidarity campaigns to support the labor's struggles in Taiwanese investments abroad. Since it is difficult to mobilize many people to attend the campaigns so far, we believe young students should play an important role to raise the awareness of the general public. And they did help a lot during the past campaigns, including actions and propaganda.

This time, to echo with Play Fair at the Olympics, Ching-Jen and Coolloud Collective again cooperated with student clubs to have anti-sweatshop photo exhibitions and forums in some universities. In total we held such activities in 3 schools during May and June.

The scale of the photo exhibitions and forums is not very big. But the activists in the universities put the photos at the places where many students would pass by. We also produced a small booklet to introduce our points of views regarding to anti-sweatshop. It really got a certain effect, so that a lot of students stopped in front of the photos and saw what's going on. They were somewhat shocked by the photos and figures that the exhibitions have shown. Before they seldom thought about the labour rights behind the labels that the sportswear on their feet stood for. Now it's a good chance for them to spend some time at the exhibition and find out through the photos and the booklet. The famous weekly news magazine Journalist also invited the student activists to write two pages of articles on Nike for the no. 900 issue.

That event also brought some students to look through the things behind the logos. In our anti-sweatshop forums held in the universities, students were eager to know how the brand names make huge profits by using super sport stars and cheap labor forces. The anti-sweatshop issue is new even for most Taiwan students. But we believe we could get more activists to be involved in anti-sweatshop campaigns in the future, if we give them enough relevant information and activities to take part in.

Tsai, Ching-Jen Labor Health & Safety Service Center, Taiwan

 

Another Play Fair at the Olympics campaign in Taiwan was held on May Day 2004 as a coalition of the Kaohsiung City Human Rights Association, the Taiwan Democratic Labour Party, the Taiwan Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Association and the Institute of Industry and Labor Study gathered in front of the Kaohsiung City Hall to appeal for worker's rights in the sportswear industry.

Also, in Kaohsiung city in Taiwan the "Play Fair" campaign featured in a march and rally organised by the Kaohsiung City Human Rights Association, Taiwan Democratic Labor Party, Taiwan Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Association and the Institute of Industry and Labor Study. The theme of the event was Anti-Exploitation, Anti-Discrimination, Anti-Bullying.