Should people do more the ensure their clothes don't support slavery?

[timmothy]

I am struggling lately to get the mentality of people. All these protests for a criminal killed on the other side of the world but the same people protesting are wearing clothes made by modern day slaves. People paid so little they can't support their families, they work in terrible conditions and often have to force their children to work with them so they can feed their family.



I see there is an article on the BBC about prisoners in Peru making clothes and they can send their earnings to their loved ones on the outside. Their earnings a week are more than a garment worker in Ethiopia makes yet that worker has to pay for food, transport and housing.



https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53234485



Now I have been hearing about sweatshops, child labour and slavery in the fashion industry for years. The only time it comes up is when people die on usually a large scale. Even when 1134 people died in one building due to poor conditions nothing was really done, I didn't see mass protests of brands. The likes of Twitter, Reddit and others did nothing to stop the brand's on their platforms advertising.



It seems such a kick in the face to these poor people who struggle everyday that the people fighting for so called justice in the world wear the brand's that mean they are paid such low wages. I see just giving pages setup in the UK to help various BLM issues in America where the people donating are wearing Nike and Reebok clothes and trainers. So they have the cash to help black lives in America but don't care to spend slightly more on their clothes to help the black lives in Ethiopia?

I can't believe the world has gone so mad and all the double standards. Even the famous people now saying how much they care have clothing brands supporting the poor pay and conditions in these countries. Countries that have been effected by Western European takeover at some point so surely you would think they would want to help?

 

[Begbie]

It's an actual crying shame.

The same goes with apple, Samsung and electric cars. Cobalt mining being done by child labour in Africa.

It's led me to do more and more research, and the I'll be making life changes.

The same goes with chocolate/coffee etc too.

 

[Semple]

Yep I certainly see the irony.

 

[Hagar]

Yes we have given the world M&S, Primark and all the other crap brands, in the process changed their economy from agrarian to industrial. Then we withdraw contracts and bankrupt them.

Buy fewer clothes and buy from places that support their workers properly.

 

[timmothy]

Yes we have given the world M&S, Primark and all the other crap brands, in the process changed their economy from agrarian to industrial. Then we withdraw contracts and bankrupt them.

Buy fewer clothes and buy from places that support their workers properly.

The worst culprits supposedly for buying cheap throwaway clothing and shoes are millennials. The people protesting on the streets in their now cheap clothes are the millennials.

Also have people seen the videos where they are speaking to the poor neighborhood resident in the USA but they still manage to have the latest iPhone. It's the same here, people claiming they need school dinners as they can't afford to pay for food but have the latest phone. I always have a cheap Chinese phone or secondhand phone even though I work. Having the latest phone is not a necessity like they seem to think.

 

[Stu999]

Definitely. People don't want to pay the actual price for what consumer items would cost if everyone in the supply chain was given a fair wage. We're not given much of a choice as consumers either as it's a race to the bottom on price. I'd imagine a lot of the stuff I own was made by people earning very little.

 

[timmothy]

Definitely. People don't want to pay the actual price for what consumer items would cost if everyone in the supply chain was given a fair wage. We're not given much of a choice as consumers either as it's a race to the bottom on price. I'd imagine a lot of the stuff I own was made by people earning very little.

It's exactly the same for me and I do very little to help. What I don't get is why sites like social media don't help by banning brands like they are doing now for other causes.

 

[marti996]

It seems such a kick in the face to these poor people who struggle everyday that the people fighting for so called justice in the world wear the brand's that mean they are paid such low wages. I see just giving pages setup in the UK to help various BLM issues in America where the people donating are wearing Nike and Reebok clothes and trainers. So they have the cash to help black lives in America but don't care to spend slightly more on their clothes to help the black lives in Ethiopia?

MSM and social media era we live in picks the subject and the virtue signallers jump aboard, BLM this month. Expect it will be something else before long, shine a spotlight on an issue distort it and demonstrate how progressive you are then move on. Think they did Africa in the 80's around band aid.

Look at some of the despicable acts HSBC have been involved in South America, no one cares they still put their little sunshine and rainbow adverts out on the TV.

 

[Efour]

Its the natural order of the world. I think deal with it.
If you have the personal ability to live morally better then go for it.
Sure if you could wave a magic wand and correct all the injustices and future inequalities of humanity, id do it but its not going to happen until after WW3.

I dont own a car, i dont buy disposable junk, but i am a realist and the world cant support everyone having a middle class lifestyle. If these people wernt working for Apple or Gucci they would be tilling the soil or paddy fields or just ...starving mouths.

Honestly boohoo, it is bad and im happy you have time and money to be in a position to consider the bigger picture.

 

[Theophany]

its not going to happen until after WW3.

Are we the goodies or baddies in this one?

 

[alchal]

I think about it and try not to buy stuff made in countries with dubious practices but in this day and age it's almost impossible to do so.

I really wish we could move manufacturing back here but can't see it.

It will never change I fear.

 

[almoststew1990]

Us PC nerds are not exempt from this - remember the videos or photos of the foxconn factory (who make all sorts of bits for lots of manufacturers) having suicide nets outside their Windows?

 

[cheesyboy]

I guess we shouldn't try to make anything better unless we are also trying to make everything better.

I am struggling lately to get the mentality of people. All these protests for a criminal killed on the other side of the world

And this ^ is a bad-faith, knowingly reductive read of the BLM protests.

 

[ttaskmaster]

I used to buy most of my clothing from one of the top brands in America, where all their stuff was "Proudly made in America, by Americans, paid a fair American wage in American money. God Bless America"...... and to their considerable credit, every inch of the process was done in the US by US citizens, from the cutting and assembly of the items, to the weaving of the cloth to the making of the thread. They were always completely open about their stuff, where materials were sourced and who was doing it.

But after many years in business, they were starting to lose money (their stuff was pretty ******* expensive) and were forced to relocate their production to Vietnam, like all their cheaper competitors.

 

[Amnesia]

Does anybody check the source of every item they purchase incase the brand has dubious practices ?
Yea i didnt think so.

 

[ianh]

Protesting for a "real" change is hard and requires effort, sacrifice and an actual knowledge of the issues whereas it's easier for so many of these current "protestors" (but not all) to just pick something that only requires a hashtag and a selfie on Social Media instead which, in the end, does nothing but make the "protestor" feel good for getting a lot of Likes they get whilst doing nothing in reality to actually enact any change on the cause they've chosen.

I think the term is "slacktivism" for this type of lazy protesting and the excuse of "it raises awareness" is empty when the outcome is that nothing changes.

 

[MikeTheNative]

This is definitely something people of the west need to be more aware of. But there's so much unjust in the world you can't protest everything.

 

[adolf hamster]

Its the nature of the capitalist system that someone's got to be the poor sod on the bottom of the pile.

We dont see it so much since its been globalised, the work houses of yester year became the sweat shops of somewhere far away.

Very difficult call, because if we play devils advocate for a moment and assume everyone buys from better sources then what happens to those who are already locked into that life? Suddenly they've gone from poor wages to no wages because the company isnt making sales.

Whilst hitting these places in the money is an effective motivator for change, it's not a guarantee of ending the suffering. I dont know what the answer is, but i suspect nobody does.

 

[ttaskmaster]

Its the nature of the capitalist system that someone's got to be the poor sod on the bottom of the pile.

It wasn't so bad back in the days when people did all the spinning and weaving and knitting locally, but modern businesses have found that there are millions of poor sods who are so poor that they will willingly work for far less money than even the poorest sods in our own countries.
It just pushes our poor sods slightly higher up the chain, and possibly even increases the demand for slave workers, as our sods still need clothes but at an even lower price as they're not high up teh chain enough to buy the stuff they would have been producing under their workhouse taskmasters.

 

[413x]

I think most people are hypocritical, me included.

Price talks, and slavery etc is out of sight , out of mind. Like animal cruelty in meat products etc.

I think people like to think they are doing something (protesting etc) but still will make excuses about the things they buy.

Oh I can't afford better, I didn't realise, it won't make a difference.. Etc etc

From phones to clothes to everything really.


I think if people are truly honest they don't really care enough. It's easier to go on a protest with everyone else than to give up your iPhone (when everyone else doesn't)

If I'm honest, I don't care enough to research. It would be life consuming. I care about a few things, like animals and environment, and I still cause harm here I could avoid.

Its easier to say 'that practice is terrible' than to compromise your life to make a difference.

Not having kids is by far biggest impact you can have on many things, but very few would give that up. We are selfish by nature. An extreme example. But I think it makes the point

Vast majority of people can make a reason to justify thier actions.

 

[ttaskmaster]

I think people like to think they are doing something (protesting etc) but still will make excuses about the things they buy.
Oh I can't afford better, I didn't realise, it won't make a difference.. Etc etc

I used to know a guy that ran a Fair Trade clothing shop.
A simple pair of jeans would cost you over £400. This was in Bradford too, not London.

He himself was an utterly stereotypical Guardian-reading Mac-fag guitar-playing hipster type vegetarian (except when his wife wasn't watching), who drove a car worth over £80k but would still cadge cigarettes, food and drinks off everyone, while also proclaiming judgement upon them for all their life and lifestyle choices in the very same sentence... How no-one had proprly cleaned his clock, I'll never know.

I'm assuming not all Fair Trade clothing costs this much, but it's still not exactly encouraging either.