Hypocrisy — they just keep doing it
The script of a currently screening television advertisement goes: "Why is there no "Friday Night Netball"? Why are girls who like sport called tomboys? Why are women who play sport accused of being lesbians? Why isn't it men who get dressed up in bikinis and streamers and become cheerleaders for women on the field?"
These questions accurately describe the lack of attention and seriousness paid to women's sport by the media and many in the sporting industry.
So far so good. It was only at the end of the ad, when the familiar image of the "swoosh", accompanied by the advice "Just do it" came on screen, that my blood started to boil.
Yes, this was another offering from Nike's multi-million-dollar advertising budget, shamelessly using every angle possible to feed the corporation's grotesque need for profit.
In a change from its usual "buy Nike to be cool" marketing strategy, Nike is now trying to push its "street cred" into the progressive movements, in this case by exploiting feminist consciousness among young people, especially women.
What shameless hypocrisy! While seeming to support moves for equality of women, Nike is engaged in appalling exploitation of women workers, especially its half a million workers in Asia, many of whom are in Indonesia.
Women work extraordinarily long hours in Nike's factories in Indonesia. They have to run, not walk, to and from the bathroom so as not to waste work time, and they are frequently harassed and abused. For their efforts, they are paid less than the wage needed to sustain life in that country.
Jenni Devereux, a campaigner against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), describes a Canadian tour of a young Indonesian former Nike worker who was arrested along with 23 co-workers for attempting to protest working conditions and wages. She was then fired from her US$1.20 a day job gluing soles on Nike shoes.
The young woman said: "I question why Nike spends so much money in the US and Canada while they are exploiting the workers who work very hard to produce the shoes. It has nothing to do with goodwill or care. It has everything to do with raising their profits ...
"They have a slogan — Just do it. And "Just do it" on the factory floor is different from the "Just do it" they portray on television ... On the factory floor, that means work really hard, do as much overtime as you can. The people who sew the swoosh sign have to stand up for hours and hours. Some of them faint just to sew that swoosh sign. I do hope that there will be some changes."
This is just one of many advertisements opportunistically tapping progressive consciousness in the population to sell products. Profit-hungry companies are increasingly exploiting public concerns about sexism, environmental destruction, racism and homophobia to sell their products.
However, Nike's hypocrisy is among the most stark. While all privately owned companies exploit their workers to increase profits, their level of exploitation does vary. Nike is among those companies that have shown the least regard for workers.
Women, along with the rest of the working class, do have the potential to change the way society is organised, to put people before profits. Those who benefit disproportionately from the profits produced by workers recognise this, and are keen to tame any progressive ideas or movements for change. One means of doing that is to commodify them.
Despite their efforts, however, many people cannot ignore the information Nike doesn't want revealed. These people are growing in number and getting more organised in their worldwide fight against Nike's greed.
It is through such movements against exploitation that the lives of millions of women will be improved and women's struggle for liberation will be strengthened.
By Margaret Allum