'Made in Bangladesh'
on From Banglatown to Bangladesh (Bangladesh), 01/Jul/2010 11:20, 34 days ago
A break from the positives today.The StrikesAfter weeks of violence, The Guardian has picked up onstrikes by garment workers in Dhaka. The men and women cutting, stitching, sewing so many of the clothes on the UK high-street are, according to the article, the most poorly paid textile workers in the world. Receiving less than£18 a month (and almost seven times less than my ‘volunteer’ salary), workers are currently demanding wages they can actually live on.The ViolenceThe police reactions described in the article are similar to those I witnessed a few weeks ago. I was travelling back to the hills from Dhaka, snoozing, as we sat stuck in what I thought was a traffic jam. Eventually, I awoke up sufficiently to realise this was not just another glut of cars and buses. From my window, I could see an injured woman being carried out of sight. The other side of the road was empty of people and vehicles. Policemen were there, carrying sticks. And the shutters of the tea-stalls lining the road were pulled tight.As I tried to work out what was happening, a group of women, young and in a rainbow of salwar kameez shades, walked quickly alongside my bus. A few minutes later I saw them running past, back the direction had come, closely followed by the policemen, sticks held high. A few of the slower ones, or those who turned to look back, were beaten. One or two collapsed amongst the grass. And my fellow, mostly male, bus passengers laughed, clapped and cheered the policemen on.Eventually traffic started on the other side of the road again. First it was people, carrying bags and baskets. Empty buses with broken windows came, the smashed glass covering the dusty seats inside. Eventually too, our bus turned on its engine, and we were on our way, passing two smoking buses, their interiors burned, alongside police and Army trucks.An article inThe Daily Star, a national English-language newspaper, informed me that this was violence instigated by garment workers. I still don’t really know what had happened. But as my bus journey that morning, and the Guardian’s article highlights, there are so many unseen struggles behind our favourite high-street bargains.The Ethical DilemmasOf course, I knew this before. These are not new, these stories of the pay and working conditions of the people constructing the clothes we wear. In London, I regularly faced the ethical dilemmas of someone both campaigning on issues of trade and human rights, and someone living on a student’s budget, brought up in a generation of disposable fashion. I struggled to find a way to balance the two, and – too often – succumbed to the second.Living in Bangladesh, with its plethora of factories churning out cheap textiles, makes these dilemmas all the more personal. In a Brighton shopping centre at Christmas, I examined a pair of£4 leggings, and saw the standard ‘Made in Bangladesh’ label. This time, I could picture the factories, or their outsides at least. Driving past them, along with cement factories, steel works, and vast, broad rivers, is a essential part of any journey in or out of Dhaka.Living in Bangladesh has, however, not given me an answer to the dilemmas. Newly-returned to the UK at Christmas time–overwhelmed by the bright lights and festive panic-buying of the mall and its contrast to the country I had just left – I put down the leggings, and left the store.The CampaignsRealistically however, I can’t say I will never buy high-street again. The rise in so-called ‘ethical fashion’, which has taken off even more in the 20 or so months I have been away, offers a much-welcomed greater selection of guilt-free alternatives. But this itself won’t change the wages and lives of those women Isaw, or of the workers inthese photographs. For that to happen, pressure must be given to the governments, the factory-owners, the companies that are turning a blind eye. And to me, that starts with shoppers, myself included, taking a moment to look at those struggles behind the price tags, and to remember that‘Made in Bangladesh’ is much more than just a label.People and PlanetandWar on Wantare just two of the organisations leading campaigns against worker exploitation in fashion. Lots more information, including on how to join the campaigns, is on their websites.