[...] So yes, technically, Ria could sew; socially, she could organize; and theoretically, Ria could think political economics: Marx and C.L.R.James, to be specific; she did her MA thesis on the Haitian revolution.

Of course, this information was scratched from her resume, and the manager, who couldn't tell the difference between a Japanese and a Chinese, gave her the job because he thought if she could speak English, she could be an interpreter. What did he know? His factory had forty seamstresses, three cutters, and three packers, all Chinese. By the time he figured out that Ria couldn't speak Chinese, she had convinced two other college students to join up who could speak Chinese, and they were agitating for a higher pay scale and better benefits. Once, they got almost all forty seamstresses to go to a union meeting of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. But that was once. The Chinese ladies humored the students and went back to work.

Mrs. Lee explained things to Ria. "Union or no union, it's all the same. You got to get paid by the piece. Sew faster. Make more money."