By Camille Dodero

Capitalism comes in many shapes and sizes; it’s positively Whitmanesque in its diversity.

There is the bygone capitalism pictured in PBS specials—the heavy industry captured on black-and-white newsreels, which saw our grandparents and great-grandparents trudge off to the Herbert Hoover Manufacturing Plant to work long, demanding hours making big, clunky things in cavernous, dangerous, smoky, smelly environments.

As we've reported extensively here, countries such as China use unfair and often inhumane labor practices in order to gain competitive advantage in world trade. Now state and local governments all across this country are taking action to protect American workers from similar conditions. A movement called SweatFree Communities is promoting new legislation, and that movement is gaining momentum. Lisa Sylvester reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Statement In Support of Peaceful Means

of Resolving The Conflict In Colombia

March 2005

BY OLGA ALICIA TUTILLO

This Valentine's Day, many of you will be buying roses or other flowers for your loved ones. But probably many of you don't know that the workers in Ecuador and Colombia who produce those roses are working under increasingly precarious conditions. I have been working in Ecuador's rose plantations for 22 years and visited the United States this month for the first time to share my experiences in the flower industry and the concerns and hopes of my fellow workers.