union

No Sweat Apparel is a company I have plugged before and which I purchase clothes from. I have shoes, flip flops, shirts and pants from them. Their products are all fair trade and/or union made. Most of their stuff is good quality (though occasionally shoes wear out fast) and their flip flops are really cool, designed by Indonesian children with some of the proceeds going to fund the education of that child. All in all, a good company with cool products that are fair to workers.

They are starting a new project that ideally will help peace between Palestine and Israel. This appeals to me because during my one trip to Israel I had the chance to talk to many people and it made me realize that one major key to peace is economic prosperity. While my wife and I were there (between the assassination of Rabin but before violence broke out...and on the same trip we got engaged on Santorini in Greece and where we almost got caught in the big Turkish earthquake...) everyone, Arab and Israeli, was tensely optimistic. Everyone we talked to WANTED peace. Why? "Because it's good for business." This is the key. If people feel they have stake in peace, they will work for peace. I have written about this before and discussed companies and organizations that work to further economic cooperation and prosperity in Israel/Palestine. I also have written about another important facet of peace in the Middle East: environmental projects that can help the prosperity of all concerned.