What has the Rana Plaza collaps taught us?

When the Rana Plaza factory complex in Bangladesh collapsed on April 24 media attention was finally drawn to the horrible working conditions of the garment industry. The knowledge is spreading with headlines in the major newspapers and finally friends of mine who have never considered where their clothes from, sign the Change petition and some ask me what they can do. The attention to the long-standing problem is great and we need to create momentum now that we have the attention of the media.

Some of the most disturbing factors surrounding the incident is that the entire first floor which functioned as a shopping mall was evacuated the day before. The risk was evidently known by the factory owners, but a pressing order was in production and the deadline had to be met. Furthermore, two of the factories in the complex were certified by BSCI and one by SA8000. BSCI is not a very well-known certification, but it covers working conditions and worker's rights. They both certify against child labour, forced labour and a legal minimum wage. Therefore they use the argument that their certifications are not designed to cover building integrity, however, when two days before the building was condemned unsafe, the factory owners forced the workers to continue working with the threat that by leaving they would give up their wage for the month.

Now comes the big question, what have we learnt from this and what will we do to prevent such disasters from happening again? Many are calling for industry leaders to make suggestions, including BSCI and EFF. The Accord on Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety is a great answer to this question. All certifications up until now are privately held, this one is legally binding. Adding to that it makes it a requirement that brands make their audit reports publicly available. This is a ground-breaking idea which would set Bangladesh apart from any other country. The garment industry is audited time and time again, several times a year by every company that they supply, but the heaps of information is kept secretly in the databases of the companies and their auditors. What if a company was legally bound to act upon or report unsafe working environments to the local authorities? What if the information gathered could be looked over by the National Garment Workers Federation?

Firoz Ahmed: the National Garment Workers Federation campaigns for safer work environments.

The things to take with us from such a disaster is that auditors close their eyes to the real dangers. The factory owners and the powerful buyers with the pressing orders are the decision makers in instances like this. It is crucial to doubt certifications, even the ones we love - like fairtrade and organic certifications of coffee and cotton. Shirahime is a new blog that I have just found, who in this blogpost shares some gruelling facts about the certification system. We need to make a paradigm shift away from private for-profit certification systems whose auditors are paid for by the authority itself and change our perception of the problem.

The issue is just as much the issue of ourselves and our governments as it is a problem for Bangladesh/China/Vietnam/India/etc. By trading with these countries we move problems of labour safety away from our own country and into the world marketplace. The globalised world marketplace becomes our territory.

We need to make a revolution in the mindset of the entire supply chain of the fashion industry. Not only the CSR board need to understand the importance of fire safety, working conditions and living wage. The buyers, merchandisers, factory owners, factory production managers and the supervisors of the seamstresses need to understand that foreign money should raise the bar for pay, working conditions and thereby the living standards of everyone implemented. Their own governments encourage and lobby for these investments under the hope that the country's economy will improve and poverty decrease. But if the money stays with the rich that just won't happen.

Read more of the Clean Clothing Campaign's extensive coverage here and sign their petition to urge brands who source in Bangladesh to sign the Fire and Safety Agreement and make the brands who placed orders with the factories involved compensate for their loss.

The turn of a grim Monday

Today felt pretty grim in a proper Monday mood until I went swimming in the Lido and felt a little better about the world - and then I sat down in front of the computer to find that a major reform of the Bangladeshi labour laws is about to start and now I feel like it's the best day in a long time.

To me it seems that finally the global attention towards labour issues have given the NGWF the power to pressure the Bangladeshi government into talks of raising the minimum wage. The retailers are in defence and any comment or lobbying against would be of interest to the media - meaning that the power is finally distributed in favour of the workers. H&M actually signed the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement - pushing Primark and several others who had previously refused because they can't afford to pay for the factory buildings upgrading work into safe working environment. (Either it tells you something about the state of these buildings and what the retailers know about that, or it tells you just how greedy they are).

It has been announced that the minimum wage will be raised (currently at $37), which is roughly half of what it is even in India (Rs. 2500 vs. India: Rs. 4500). It is extremely important that we help press for the biggest increase possible and that the new freedom in joining unions is praised so that factory owners and the middle management understand that there is industry support behind their government's laws.

Important times are ahead of the NGWF and any consumer interested in raising living and working conditions of the 4.5 million workers in the Bangladeshi garment industry. Let us all show our support and hope that the momentum will build and spread.

Source: NyTimes, Jim Yardley

Webinars and other events worth tuning in on

Webinars seem to be the newest craze for businesses to spread information about sustainability. In this summary of events for the following weeks and months of sustainability and ethical fashion events there's an overweight of webinars. Here's a few of the ones I'm looking forward to.

Textile Exchange Collaborative Learning Series - Topic 3 Holistic Value Chains

May 13 or 14. This one is a great perk I get for working at a member company of the Textile Exchange. Last session on sustainability measurements was very interesting and I'm sure this one will be too. The conversation will be on how vertically integrated textile businesses benefit from a shorter and more secure supply chain. There's a cost if you're not a member, check it out here.

Accenture Sustainability24 - one day to set the future for business

May 15. This global broadcast is a 12-hour marathon of industry-wide discussions on sustainability including titles such as "Driving business growth while solving the global food challenge" and "Circular business: Value Generation in a resource constrained world". Panels will consist of senior executives based in the 12 chosen business hubs around the world. It may be clever marketing, but it's great insight into how big business think and talk about sustainability. I'll be listening in on the following sessions:

1. Sustainable Consumption: Engaging Tomorrow's Consumer
2. Sustainable Supply Chain: Why it is Good Business
3. Innovative Business Growth: How Sustainability is Reshaping Businesses for the Future

Register yourself here. It's totally free and so far I haven't had to sign up to any irrelevant newsletters.

Better Lives lecture series at London College of Fashion

My university have just recently appointed a psychologist who has put together this series of lectures exploring the link between fashion and psychology. Over the course of 4 free lectures held at the Oxford Circus building leading psychologists are brought in to discuss fashion's impact on our well-being with the researchers at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. You can read more and register here.

Source Summit: Momentum

Following the Bangladesh building collapse the different ongoing campaigns to raise awareness of the working condistions in sweatshops across the developing world have finally received the attention they deserve. However, building momentum is a challenging task that this Source Summit will focus on. How can we accelerate the momentum created around this incident and ensure that sustainable fashion becomes larger than a fad? The event is expensive, but considering the influence of the Ethical Fashion Forum members and the programme there is no excuse to miss this highlight in the ethical fashion calendar. Read more.

Women hit back at India's rape culture

Being in India in that crucial period while the 23-year-old medical student was gang raped and struggling for her life in hospital was an experience that will stay with me forever. The general righteousness and fairness that i expect to meet in life is a prerogative. My sense of security in life stems from the fact that I was born and have grown up in a Western society where the law is reality. So many women live in a society where even if they do have the right of sexual consent or reproductive rights, the society or police will not act upon allegations with due respect to the woman.



This is the story as I've gathered it from BBC and general articles around: The case of the student in the Delhi-rape was that she and her friend were walking around looking for an auto (tuk-tuk) outside the biggest mall Select City-Walk. Seeing as they were going far none of the drivers were willing to take them. This type of night time haggling is a pastime that you will end up spending a lot of time on if you decide to live in Delhi. Then they jump onto a bus - the decision that turned out to be the worst thing they could do. The driver had simply invited his friends for a ride after hours. It was a mistake of the couple to jump on that bus, and it was awful what those psychos did to her. But the awful thing doesn't end when they are kicked out of the bus. The scary part was for me to realise that naked, beaten up and blood streaming down their bodies they were running around the streets looking for help and not finding any. Auto's, taxis, trucks, people in their shiny white cars all refused to help them get to a hospital.

Getting involved in a case like this would take up your time and money - you could end up being suspect if you don't pay enough bribes with the way the Indian justice system malfunctions. When finally they manage to get hold of the police, the poor incompetent officers had to decide which hospital to bring the couple to. Because of the bureaucracy involved they couldn't bring her to the nearest (private) hospital, but had to take them to a propped government hospital with a queue that didn't exactly help getting her to a doctor any faster. The story shows that not only are there too many rapes happening in Delhi, but there is a profound fault with the justice system and bureaucracy involved even in emergencies.

The amazing thing that happened after the sad death of the victim December 29th was that women of all backgrounds started caring. They joined forces and told the men that they would no longer accept the treatment as sex objects any longer. I experienced how men would stare, lick their lips in lust and grope my privates as I passed by. I learned to lower my eyes and by New Years Eve I was prepared for the party scene in Goa where we accidentally ended up in a not-so-touristy club with way too many men. Twice in the first 15 minutes on the dancefloor i managed to grab the arm touching my ass and hit the guys. I seemingly got respect from that and as far as I remember the strangers left me to dance the night away with my friends.

The Red Brigade is a group of women in Lucknow who has gathered to end sexual harassment and abuse by learning self-defence and exercise punishment of the local men. Now, I'm not in favour of taking the law into your own hands as the Red Brigade do when they beat up men. But upon the realisation that the police really is corrupt, that the legal system does not function and this is the only realistic option for these women I have come to the conclusion that it has to be the way of India's women. Women in India need to prove their strength and unison. Until the legal and bureaucratic system gets fixed, physical come-backs and threats will have to educate the men of India on women's worth.

Speaking of rights and in the terms of third wave feminism will not help in India. India will go through their own waves of feminism, and all feminists in the west can do is to look at this in awe and write long blogs about it. We can show our support and facilitate learning, but it's their own fight with a part of their own culture that we can only try to understand. The women need to learn their rights and the men who don't get it need to be retaliated upon. It's a fantastic new era for these women and their daughters.