Details on Irregular Times International Microloans and Progressive Political Donations made from sales through Skreened

For some time, we've sold political shirts through Skreened that are made in the USA by American Apparel. We've stuck with t-shirts made in the USA because in the United States there are clearly defined labor and workspace protections, and because American Apparel goes above and beyond them in its domestic production facilities. Apparel made in places like China has been determined by the U.S. Department of Labor to be plagued with child labor and forced labor among other abuses of human dignity, and we don't want to take part in that. Shirts that are made and shipped domestically are also lighter on the environment than shirts shipped across the ocean.

While we're happy with the ethical parameters of our shirt sales, we've decided we'd like to do more to directly impact progressive political organizing in the United States and economic development outside the United States. And so, for every t-shirt we sell through Skreened, Irregular Times will donate $1 to a progressive political organization and issue an additional $1 in the form of a Kiva microloans to developing world. When working with Kiva microloans we will exercise diligence to work with lending programs charging low interest rates. The proceeds we receive from these microloans will be reinvested into more microloans to the developing world.

All this is on top of the 10% of profit dedicated to Kiva microloans by Skreened itself. Ever an admirable company for their ethical commitments, Skreened has a head start on us in this regard. We hope to be able to rival their efforts in scale soon.

Our program begins on January 1, 2010. As we make donations through this program, you can follow the progress of our donations as a blog thread. For Kiva microloans, check out our team page here.