Bangladesh garment industry: how do we choose

[fl0wer]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/apr/bangladesh-shirt-on-your-back

Am re-posting links about cheap consumer goods because I believe every ordinary shopper will want to assess their next course of action.

When it is so hard to avoid buying things which are made in sweatshops, and the market is flooded with cheap clothing, whose responsibility should it be to bring about change?

Purchaser's, to withdraw their sponsorship directly, by not buying?

Or shop's, to ensure their buyer researches and deals only with fairtrade?

Could local Chambers of Commerce deny High Street space for chains with known links to this kind of industry?

Should it be the government's, to exert power abroad and insist on workers having rights?

What stops the workers themselves forming unions?

[El Pibe]

Just make it a criminal offence.

Any company that has business in the city of london, if found complicit in bribing a foreign official, even if that ws done by a foreign intermediary, is criminally responsible, and individuals can go to jail.

I can't see why a company using indentured labour abroad can't be sinilarly held to task.

It's stop UK firms doing it quick smart.

Poor working conditions is a tougher nut to crack obviously.

Ultimately the consumer is at fault and the consumer is a selfish beast.

You didn't see many boycotts of irish wheat during the famine did you?

[fl0wer]

Agree with you re: City

and that reminds me - many investors get entangled with these unwanted businesses, eg pensions, stocks and shares schemes purchased without our permission, knowledge of their profit-making style remaining a closely kept secret.

About the Irish wheat.

In that story, as in this one, ignorance as well as propaganda play their part.

From Cecil Woodham-Smith's book [The Great Hunger] she describes in exact, chilling detail how the government of the day eventually sent rations to prevent starvation from Ireland's potato crop blight. But the starving people couldn't cook these unfamiliar new grains like rice & maize, having been subsisting on one-pot potatoes for centuries....ever since the English ousted them from their mixed farms inland.

[david_carnell]

Sadly, I just don't think the vast majority of consumers care.

They are too busy piling their baskets high in TopShop or Primark with cheaply made tat that is fashionable this year.

The bottom line is that it would cost consumers more and they won't pay it. Primarks whole business model proves that price point is the biggest factor. Their items are poorly made in poor quality fabrics but they ape catwalk trends and cost peanuts. Ergo, huge profits.

And this has been known about for decades. Everyone now knows how you get cheap consumer goods (and I say this typing on my Chinese labour made iphone) - by exploiting poorly paid foreigners.

I care. I try not to buy this stuff. Sometimes I fail (see iphone). And it costs me. That's difficult. Not everyone has that luxury.

It's the entire attitude of consumerism and excess consumption that needs addressing, not just the use of low paids overseas factories.

[fl0wer]

Yes david but we cannot possibly stop there.

Looking at the range of options to avoid unfair trade, its process can be interrupted at any point along its length.

Anywhere - until responsibility is exercised at all possible levels.

Everyone, from the beginning to the end of its chain, has a part they could play, once alerted to the consequences of inaction. Because each individual chooses, a 'group permission' exists.

Schools could open teenagers' eyes about production methods for the cheap fashion goods they see in the shops. It could be tied in with some other study by any skillful teacher. E.g. many parallels in 19th century industrialisation and what had to happen in Victoria's reign. Mass migration into factory towns took place because people lost the means to thrive in their rural working lives running small family businesses. How they lose independence, and why, is almost a whole A level in itself.

[Mason]

The reality is we cannot stop this, beacuse of our wanton need for fashion at the prices that Britain cannot compare with. The worker, for example in The eastern countries are paid a wage that int their eyes can feed their family, and pay for their rent.

By stopping this and asserting the values of the western way off life, just cannot happen it is an economic disaster to them, they would be out off a job, and replace by someone who can do it more cheaply. You can see the same conflict that is happening here.

Unions inthese countries are unable to ammass the power as they have had within the western nations as populas, and need for money outstrip the need to survive over the need for greed.

If Primark increased it childwear product to the similar price comparison to Mothercare, which would you choose? I personally would choose Mothercare, beacuse I think this is quality, and longer lasting, but the same product proberbly originates from the same country that Primark produces it's clothes, but is more stringent.

So as we go back to basics it is value of what we can afford or what we can spend that will drive the market.

[DaveR]

If the argument is that companies should stop manufacturing in developing countries, or that they should pay wages equivalent to Western wages, then it's not going to happen, and would be positively harmful for lots of countries and millions of people. There's a fair amount of evidence that both wages and working conditions tend to be better in factories in developing countries operated by or contracted to multinationals than in purely local businesses, and that factory workers are better off than subsistence farmers whatever the working conditions.

I think enough consumers do care (or at least companies believe that enough care) that the most effective short term action is for journalists and others to keep exposing bad practice and embarrassing the businesses associated with it. This is largely what has been responsible for big companies adopting codes of conduct re overseas contracts, and the key is to get them to stick to them. It would be more effective if there was a legal obligation for UK companies (broadly defined) to adopt a code of conduct, audit compliance with it, and publish the results.

fyi

http://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/

[charlesfare]

They do teach stuff like this in history and geography. I don't think there are many people who aren't at least vaguely aware of where their clothes come from. People like to talk a big one about the evils of consumerism and how we're all brainwashed by today's fashion and cheaply made tat and what have you, but the bottom line is that the average person doesn't really have a great deal of choice when it comes to buying clothes ethically.

It seems to me that all things that are morally sound, green, ethical and generally good for the world are often sold at a premium.

fl0wer Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Yes david but we cannot possibly stop there.

> Looking at the range of options to avoid unfair

> trade, its process can be interrupted at any point

> along its length.

>

> Anywhere - until responsibility is exercised at

> all possible levels.

>

> Everyone, from the beginning to the end of its

> chain, has a part they could play, once alerted to

> the consequences of inaction. Because each

> individual chooses, a 'group permission' exists.

>

> Schools could open teenagers' eyes about

> production methods for the cheap fashion goods

> they see in the shops. It could be tied in with

> some other study by any skillful teacher. E.g.

> many parallels in 19th century industrialisation

> and what had to happen in Victoria's reign. Mass

> migration into factory towns took place because

> people lost the means to thrive in their rural

> working lives running small family businesses. How

> they lose independence, and why, is almost a whole

> A level in itself.