Top 10 Reasons to Support SCW

1. SCW is a values-driven rather than profit-driven small business. We are more NON PROFIT than most not-for-profits! At the same time, we provide incomparable customer service!
2. Our products provide a vision of a better, more just world. Students and young people see this vision in their classrooms, community centers and homes.
3. We “walk the talk.” SCW has always paid for health insurance for full and part-time workers. Several years ago, with ever-rising costs, we reluctantly went to a high-deductible plan. Obamacare and expanded Medicaid have helped us.
4. Our posters, calendars, cards and bookmarks are probably the only ones published in the USA that are 100% post consumer waste (PCW) and printed by union labor right here in Syracuse, NY. As of May 2014, SCW has begun using New Leaf Reincarnation 100, the first coated paper made in the USA from 100% PCW; processed chlorine and dioxin free.
5. Our beautiful T-Shirts are organic cotton and sweatshop free, and thus cost more than commercial shirts. 25% of all pesticides used in the US are for cotton. The recent Bangladesh atrocities illustrate the cost of sweatshops.
6. We compost. We recycle. We re-use. We've installed LED lighting, saving over 60% on electric energy.
7. We are not a chain like WalMart that exploits its workers and the environment so that the Waltons can be multi-billionaires. No one is getting rich at SCW! Our top full-time salary is $31,225, our lowest is $21,000. That’s a 1.5:1 ratio. Many companies are 300:1 or more!
8. Over 200 progressive groups across North America sell SCW products to raise money for their valuable work. Our products support and inspire grassroots activism which is desperately needed.
9. We work with over 75 progressive artists each year. SCW provides one of the few outlets for their work which your purchases support.
10. In Syracuse we have been instrumental in renewing our corner of the Hawley-Green neighborhood, including the creation of the ArtRage Gallery (artragegallery.org).

…you knew we couldn't stop at 10, didn't you?!


11. You support a "supply chain" of alternative producers which SCW buys from. All are trying to make a difference just like SCW.

"No matter what our attempts to inform,
it is our ability to inspire that will turn the tides."
—Jan Phillips, SCW co-founder

11/12/13 Dik Cool, publisher/founder