Introduction

Globalization and labor : from abolition to the antisweatshop movement

Plan of the book

1. Globalization versus labor standards?

Evaluating the debate

Core standards and cash standards

Do globalization and growth make labor standards unnecessary?

Do labor standards undermine comparative advantage?

Catch-22 : protecting international capital and intellectual property but not labor

Implementing labor standards and globalization

2. The market for labor standards

Consumer demand for labor standards

The supply of standards

Activists in the market for standards

3. Vigilantes and verifiers

The work of vigilantes : antisweatshop campaigns

The work of the verifiers : code development and monitoring

Competition among codes, a race to the top?

The missing element : the voice of developing-country workers

4. Labor standards and trade agreements

What do sanctions do?

The danger of protectionist capture

Labor links in US trade agreements

A role for the WTO

5. The ILO to the rescue?

The ILO's tools

The Burma case

The role of the United States

6. Globalization and labor standards in action

The Bangladeshi garment sector

Pakistani soccer ball

West African cocoa

The US-Cambodia textile and apparel agreement

Can globalization improve labor standards in China?

A bottom-line assessment

7. When does doing good do good?

Assessing the achievements of the antisweatshop campaigns

Increasing the effectiveness of antisweatshop campaigns and spreading the benefits of globalization

Final thoughts

Appendix A. US-based transnational labor rights activist organizations

Appendix B. Timeline of antisweatshop activities in the 1990s

Appendix C. Worker's rights conditionality in the US generalized system of preferences.