Made in the USA above, at Gallery 181, Lawrence, MA, June 2006.
inkjet print on transparent film adhered to cement bricks with matte medium, 3.75" high/deep - 7.5" wide. Click on the images for detailed view.Top Image is a 4x6" card from the Balance of Power Series.


Gallery 181 Press Release: May 2006

Gallery 181 is located in the textile mill district of Lawrence, MA. The renovated mill buildings now house shops and galleries. Early in the 20th century, this area was the site of a huge labor rights uprising, the Bread & Roses Strike of 1912 , led mostly by women. http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45b/073.htm.

Today, most textile manufacturing has moved off the continental US although garments manufactured in the US territories are allowed to sport the "Made in the USA" labels. The Republican led Congress and administration have blocked all movements to establish fair labor practices in these territories. Clothing is made mainly by women under brutal semi-slave labor working conditions in places such as Saipan.

From Witness.org
Field: Trafficking, Indentured Servitude
Location: Saipan, U.S. Northern Mariana Islands
Problem: Clothing manufacturers based on the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, exempt from certain U.S. minimum wage laws, exploited Chinese and Filipino women brought to the island to work in clothing factories denying them wages, forcing them to work in unsafe conditions, and work overtime without additional pay.
Action: WITNESS collaborated with producer/director Tia Lessin and Oxygen, a U.S. cable channel, to produce "Behind the Labels: Garment Workers on U.S. Saipan", a film that explores and exposes the conditions under which Chinese and Filipino women are recruited and brought to the U.S. territory of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands. The film focused on both the recurring abuses of worker rights, and a number of specific legal cases.

http://www.witness.org/option,com_rightsalert/Itemid,178/task,story/alert_id,7/