More than 1,000 March to End Child Labor & Sweatshops -
5th Annual Holiday Season of Conscience Candlelight
March & Rally a Big Success!

5 December 2001 - New York City - At 5:00 p.m. over 1,000 people--the overwhelming majority of them high school students, together with university students and members of the religious and labor communities--rallied in front of Niketown on 57th Street and 5th Avenue in New York City chanting, holding candles aloft and carrying banners and posters. It was loud, lively and effective.

We then marched down 5th Avenue passing the Disney Store--chanting "Shame on Disney", and GAP and Gucci. It was right in the midst of rush hour, with people pouring out of work, with tens and tens of tourists looking on...a thousand young people chanting, handing out leaflets to end child labor and sweatshop abuses. Some students were dressed as Santa Claus, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and in prison uniforms with the Nike "Swoosh" on them.

Delegations of students delivered letters to the management at Niketown, the Disney Store, GAP and Gucci. We marched to the Tree at Rockefeller Center for a religious convocation, by a Baptist, a Rabbi, a Jesuit and a Presbyterian--all of whom expressed, in the language of their own faiths, that there will never be real peace without social justice. We listened to the terrific gospel chorus from Judson Memorial Church and to Hip Hop artist Africa the King. High school students came from as far away as Vermont to be part of the event. And any company that thinks (or hopes) that United Students Against Sweatshops chapters on college campuses across the country are about the slow down--well, they are in for a disappointment. These high school kids are fired up, and they are all going to college.

The event was organized by the NLC and NYPIRG, with the help of People of Faith Network, UNITE and the NY Labor Religion Coalition. NYPIRG did a terrific job of getting students out-especially considering that NYPIRG staff were unable to enter their office for weeks after September 11. The event was covered by "Democracy Now," WNYC's "New York & Company" and the "New York Daily News." People left the march excited, uplifted and ready to carry the work forward.

National Labor Committee
275 7th Avenue, 15th Floor New York, NY 10001
Tel: 212/242-3002 Fax: 212/242-3821
Email: nlc@nlcnet.org Website: www.nlcnet.org