At 6:22 AM -0500 22/2/12, Anne Cuneo wrote:
>I have to agree with Geoffrey, and disagree with you, Paolo and Andrus.
>True, THIS TIME the focus is on Apple. There is 
>a reason. Tomorrow, people who can do something 
>about this are meeting.
>I am going to write a terrible platitude here, 
>but once conditions were ripe, it only needed 
>ONE victim burning itself to death to wake up 
>the whole Middle East.
>I am not going to list the people who, 
>single-handed, changed the world after having 
>been called absurd or mad, orŠ orŠ orŠ, and 
>their actions useless.

Thanks for your support on this issue, Anne. Your 
story of the Swiss company is heartening, Anne, 
to say the least. Did you know that IKEA has 
moved some of its furniture manufacturing to the 
USA because factory working conditions there are 
so appalling? Half the Swedish rate of pay, etc., 
etc.

According to Truthout, just the fact that the 
Apple petition is happening around the world 
through MoveOn (in Australia, GetUp), is having 
an effect even before it is completed and 
presented.

I just saw on the Truthout site:

"Apple's main supplier - and habitual human 
rights abuser - FoxConn announced plans to give 
their employees a pay raise (of 25%). The move 
comes after more than a quarter-million people 
signed a petition on MoveOn.org demanding that 
Apple crack down on its suppliers who are 
engaging in abusive labor practices.

"Recent reports out of Chinese-based FoxConn 
describe a factory where workers toil for 14-hour 
shifts, collecting abysmally low pay, and share 
cramped dormitories with other workers.  Suicides 
are so prevalent at the factory that nets were 
installed to catch people who jumped off the roof.

"Apple is one of the largest and most powerful 
corporations in the world -- achieving its 
success through modern-day slave labor."

Cheers, geoff