Nike sweatshop collapses in Bangladesh, killing 200. Credit to NYT

On July 29th, I drove to Castle Rock, Colorado to protest at the Nike Factory Outlet over their use of sweatshop labor. The company, which claims to have rigorous ethical standards, and is regularly cheered by liberals for its accepting corporate culture, pays foreign workers 50 cents an hour to create Nike products — all while they endure verbal and physical abuse. In 2013, more than 200 workers died after a factory in Bangladesh crumbled on top of them. Mass faintings are near ubiquitous in Nike’s sweatshops, and workers are often denied pay for the crime of collapsing on the job.

My outrage at these abuses is beyond words. For that reason, when I was presented with the opportunity to stand against them, I took it without hesitation. Working together, a small group of activists distributed flyers, presented a letter to management, and stood with a banner just beyond the storefront. To our credit, we managed to draw some attention, and garner much more support than we had expected. In spite of this, our success was short lived.

The banner reads “Just Do the Right Thing”

After standing with our banner for just under 10 minutes, we were approached by a security officer and told to remove the banner, and ourselves, from the property. You see, the Castle Rock Outlets are leased on private land. Our humanitarian efforts were disrupting Nike’s business, and as such, could not be tolerated.

Such obscene immorality is the inevitable result of living in a nation which values the right to profit above the right to exist. We live in a country, and largely a world, in which we can be punished for standing against slavery. I was punished for standing against slavery.

Beyond Nike

Earlier this year, Purple Mattress launched a lawsuit against a mattress reviewer over an article which disparaged their brand. While the reviewer was later found to have direct associations with a competing mattress company, one detail of the case stands as another disturbing testament to the power of corporations in our “democracy.”

Among the damages claimed against the reviewer was several million dollars worth of “lost profit.” To speak plainly, they were suing over money that they never had, on the assumption that the review prevented them from earning it. An apt metaphor would be imprisoning a man for stealing merchandise that doesn’t exist. If that sounds absurd, it should, because it is.

This kind of governmental subversion is universal in the global market. In February of 2015, John Oliver reported on Australia’s then-recent lawsuit with the tobacco industry. The nation was sued in international court over money the tobacco companies never made, but might have were Australia more willing to encourage addiction. The suit argued that because Australia’s plain packaging laws were effective at saving lives, they were also costing corporations money. And has already been established, that is not to be tolerated in any god-fearing free nation.

We live in a world in which the right to profit comes before the right to live. And as the wealthy get wealthier, corporations get stronger, and governments are torn apart, that trend will only continue. If we do not fight this battle on every front, and overturn a legal system which has been built to protect profits, misery will only grow. If we fail, the cost will not be measured in dollars, but in lives.