A second-hand clothing store in the southern Spanish city of Málaga. Credit: Inés Benítez/IPS

By Inés Benítez
MÁLAGA, Spain, Feb 13 2013 (IPS)

The Spanish public is well aware of the widespread exploitation of workers in the globalised garment industry. But low prices, shrinking buying power and the lure of brand names act as strong disincentives to responsible clothes shopping.

“We know about the kinds of things that go on, but what can you do? In times of crisis like these, you can’t afford to buy much, and what you do buy has to be cheap,” says Virginia as she leaves a shop in a large shopping mall in the southern Spanish city of Málaga. “Those clothes are from Bangladesh, aren’t they?” she asks, pointing to a nearby window display.

Eva Kreisler, the coordinator of the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) in Spain, finds it “repugnant” that the women who manufacture clothing in countries like Bangladesh for big companies “subsidise low production costs for the companies and the low prices paid by consumers” by working for meagre salaries and in highly precarious conditions.The other day I was in a fair trade store and all I could do was look, because everything was so expensive...

Although Kreisler believes that there is greater awareness among the general public of the abuse and exploitation suffered by garment industry workers, “there is still a great deal that needs to be done.”

“The problem is that labour exploitation is structural,” and therefore requires the adoption of “structural measures” by big companies, she told IPS.

The CCC does not promote boycotts of specific brands or store chains. Instead, it calls on consumers to question the employment practices of garment manufacturers and to participate in campaigns to demand better pay for garment workers and compliance with international standards established by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The CCC is an alliance of NGOs, trade unions and consumer advocacy groups in 14 European countries, which works in conjunction with a partner network of organisations and unions in garment-producing countries in Asia, Africa, Central America and Eastern Europe and cooperates extensively with similar labour rights campaigns in the United States, Canada and Australia.

Lourdes has worked for 11 years as a sales clerk at a shop run by the Spanish group Inditex, one of the world’s largest fashion retailers and owner of a number of different store chains including Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka and Stradivarius.

But Lourdes does not know what a code of conduct is, and has no idea if the company has adopted one or complies with it. She says that she has never been asked by a customer about where the clothes come from, and admits that she herself buys clothes without reading the labels.

When questioned by IPS about the working conditions of the people who manufacture the clothes, like a dress made in Romania and a tank top made in Turkey hanging in a nearby display, she replied, “I don’t know anything about that. The workers here are happy with the company.”

In the last three months, fires have broken out in factories in Bangladesh that manufacture clothing for Inditex, Gap, H&M and Levi’s, among other brands. Hundreds of women factory workers were killed in the fires.

In the latest, on Jan. 26, seven women died, four of them only 17 years old, reported Kreisler, who is pushing for companies with factories in Bangladesh to adopt a safety programme proposed by local and international unions to prevent tragedies like these. Two days after the fire, Inditex announced that it was cutting ties with suppliers in this South Asian country.

Ninety percent of workers in these factories are women, and most of them are from rural areas and are unaware of their rights, said Kreisler. There is also a strong anti-union climate in the country, she added. “Only one percent of workers in Bangladesh are unionised.”

“Workers are dying to produce the clothes we wear,” she said.

Purchasing “clean” clothes that are manufactured without these injustices can cost a bit more, however, and buying power in Spain is currently at record low levels.

“The other day I was in a fair trade store and all I could do was look, because everything was so expensive,” Virginia the shopper tells IPS while standing in front of a shop window in the mall announcing clearance discounts of 70 percent.

María, a salesperson in a cosmetics store, said she used to be more selective about where the clothes she purchased were made. “But not anymore.” And for one simple reason: she has less money to spend.

Mercedes walks between bins of clothing items that are all priced at just three euros. She says she reads the labels on clothes, knows about the cases of exploitation in the garment industry from the media, and wonders to herself, “How can they possibly charge such low prices?”

The power of large clothing chains and big name brands to demand low production costs has repercussions on the garment workers in supplier countries, explained Kreisler.

This is why she calls for a “change in mentality” when it comes to clothes shopping, which is quite often “compulsive and unnecessary” and overly influenced by fashion trends.

But the economic crisis in Spain has had other impacts on shopping behaviour. “It has made people more interested in second-hand clothes,” said Pepe Morales, a journalist who has also been managing a used clothing store in Málaga for the last year and a half.

Second-hand clothes shopping is not as widespread and well-established in Spain as in the United Kingdom and the Nordic countries, “but this is a good time for things to change,” said Laura Rubio, coordinator of the Spanish Association of Social and Solidarity Economy Recyclers.

The association is an alliance of non-profit groups that provide environmentally friendly services, like the reuse and recycling of used clothes, while also offering job training and employment opportunities for disadvantaged sectors of the population.

“We try to increase the useful life of clothing by promoting reuse,” through a chain of second-hand stores, Rubio told IPS.

In Málaga, the Cudeca Foundation operates a dozen second-hand shops stocked with donated clothes and uses the profits to help finance a hospice for cancer patients.

The shops are run by a network of more than 400 volunteers. UK native Katie O’Neill, who is the coordinator of the shops, stressed the importance of “giving clothes a second life”.

Clothes should not be thrown in the garbage, because this harms the environment, she said. Instead, they should be placed in containers designated for textile recycling, she told IPS, while nearby a man hands a volunteer a jacket that is still “in perfect condition”.

According to business owners consulted by IPS, the crisis has also given a welcome boost to services such as clothing alterations and shoe repairs, which are in growing demand as people seek to make their clothes and footwear last longer.

*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the World Bank.

“Carrying development”. Credit: Claudius/IPS

By Federico Mayor Zaragoza and Mario Soares
BARCELONA, Jun 1 2012 (IPS)

We are all going through a period of great confusion and uncertainty.

On the one hand, part of the world is dramatically affected by the consequences of governments’ total submission to the financial markets. These markets, supposedly anonymous, are not subject to any kind of control, due to the deregulating policies of the last decades. They have even overthrown democratically elected governments and substituted them with “technocratic” ones.

On the other hand, the speculative nature of a great part of these markets is harshly affecting the price of commodities, including food, thus pushing millions more people to hunger and malnutrition. This fact, in addition to chronic failure in the fulfillment of international agreements related to development cooperation, is aggravated even more by the current financial and economic crisis.

Parallel to this, the world is immersed in yet another crisis that is threatening its own survival. The challenges of climate change and environmental degradation, together with unsustainable production and consumption models, are growing alarmingly, something that the present structures of global governance are not able to face, as shown by the repeated failures of the last COP meetings.

In this framework, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20, will take place in Rio de Janeiro from Jun. 20-22, twenty years after the celebration of the first “Earth Summit” in the very same city. This will be a key moment in the international agenda to which everybody – including citizens, of course – must pay special attention.

There are several topics on the agenda resulting from intense negotiations that are still underway. In this context, the World Forum of Civil Society Networks – UBUNTU wishes to underline the following regarding the two main themes: a green economy and an institutional framework.

The green economy concept must refer to a model of sustainable development that includes a holistic approach, with deep social roots and a strong commitment to the environment. We shall reject the promotion of any other model that conceals an option for an increased commodification of nature.

Secondly, the need for reforming the institutional framework is obvious and more urgent than ever. We shall move beyond the organisational details of the new framework, though they too are important; now, the priority is to ensure that the resulting structure has the resources, independence and powers necessary to guarantee the implementation and fulfillment of environmental agreements, including the capacity to impose sanctions.

This must go hand in hand with a process of promoting a system of democratic multilateralism. This is the only possible option for those who truly believe in the transition towards a model of real, global democratic governance that is both participatory and fair.

Another key issue to be raised at the Summit is the idea of basing progress in all aspects related to the concept of climate justice on the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility”.

In this sense, the issue of financing is essential, highlighting once more the need to move forward with respect to innovative mechanisms of financing for development, particularly the proposal of a Financial Transaction Tax.

In the framework of a comprehensive proposal regarding the concept of sustainable human development, it is imperative to establish a legal framework that prevents speculation affecting food prices.

Moreover, the debate regarding new ways of measuring development and sustainability must help us, in line with the Human Development Index, to overcome the current model based on gross domestic product (GDP). This model shuns basic criteria such as equity, sustainability or respect for human rights. In this sense, the proposal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may be a positive one, but only if the Goals go in the abovementioned direction, and if they complement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with which in any case they must never compete.

It is also extremely important that the Summit renews and re-launches agreements as essential as the Agenda 21, which includes topics of utmost significance, such as commitments regarding greenhouse gases; or the conventions on climate change, biological diversity or desertification.

Therefore, we call for the mobilisation of all involved actors, and especially citizens and civil society – at all levels: local, regional and global – in order to ensure that this new “Earth Summit” measures up to the severity of the crisis we are going through.

The world cannot afford another fiasco in Rio. It is time for responsibility. And, above all, it is time for action.

(END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

(*) Federico Mayor Zaragoza is ex director-general of UNESCO, president of the Culture of Peace Foundation and former president of IPS. Mario Soares is ex-president and ex-prime minister of Portugal. Read full text and list of adhesions to the appeal at UBUNTU – World Forum of Civil Society Networks.