Your Role in Sweatshops
GAP, Inc. is once again in hot water over subcontracting the production of many garments in their Christmas 2007 line to Indian sweatshops engaged in child slavery. (Check out the story here.)
It’s certainly easy to blame the slavetraders who force impoverished Indian children to work 16 hours a day in unsanitary conditions. It’s certainly easy to blame GAP for parading an image of tidy ethics while subcontracting the production of their apparel to slavetraders. And they certainly deserve blame, condemnation and public outcry; however, a system that allows for children to be sold into sweatshops doesn’t occur solely between the slavetraders and unscrupulous corporations like GAP.
No, the shame of child sweatshops is a larger issue. The blame extends beyond evil and exploitative sweatshop proprietors and it extends beyond the mega corporations. It extends to the public.
Sure, perhaps you believed GAP’s stance on social responsibility was more than a facade and purchased clothing from the company, but in your heart did you really believe that you can purchase hand-embroidered imported clothing made by adult workers being paid liveable wages at affordable prices when the company has a bottom line to respect? What about if that company has a known history of sourcing to sweatshops?
We are living in a society that is not content with what we have. We are living in a society that is nearly obsessed with living beyond our means. And we’re living in a society that is focused on projecting an image of success and affluence even though there may be nothing to substantiate that image. So when a corporation with a shiny image like GAP tells us that we can get a full wardrobe of the season’s best outfits and look just like the celebrities hawking the style on television, we jump at the opportunity without considering its true cost. After all, we have an image to keep up.
Think about it–is your average family really meant to afford hand-made clothing from expensive fibers? Or expensive cars? Or exotic foods? Or second homes? The median income in the US is only about $48,000. While that’s enough or that should be enough, it’s not enough to be able to live as though one were affluent.
So when you see an item of status that is affordable, like cashmere sweaters from GAP, we ought to consider why it is affordable. Who had to lose so that we could gain?
Instead of wrestling with socially responsible purchases on a moderate income, let’s learn contentment. Let’s celebrate how much is already here.
Stop buying from GAP and stop buying new altogether there is already enough to go around. Instead of visiting GAP or any other mega retailer and risk contributing your part to the child slave trade, head to your thrift store and buy used. It’s quite possible that the used item is also stained with the sweat of enslaved children, but at least you won’t be contributing to the continuation of the practice.
It’s time to take responsibility.
October 30th, 2007 at 2:05 am
Amen! Very well said and so sad, but true. There is more than enough clothes in all of our closets already. I am making some babylegs for my baby with my hardly used bright colored socks. If everyone stopped buying there would be no demand for child labor in distant lands. The same goes for chocolate and sugar productions who practice child slavery for our addictions.
October 30th, 2007 at 5:19 am
Thanks for sharing this thought-provoking post! There’s so much child labor going on which I read about in the news at least every 2 months or so. But it seems that SO MANY people turn a blind eye to it. I must say there are times when I am in that store admiring the clothes and thinking that it can’t be so, because I would just love to have that white Indian cotton shirt with the lovely beads. The difference is, we are educated and we know that if we turn a blind eye then what hope is there for these children? We must keep fighting the fight of educating people about the cold hard facts that this is happening for real. Thank you for putting this out and educating the mass.
October 30th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
I’m playing devil’s advocate here because you know I am a Thrift Store Junkie (ahem), but:
Re: Gap at the thrift store. I see two sides to it: on one hand, the damage has already been done because the previous owner bought the shirt, and you’re actually doing a good deed by keeping the clothing out of the garbage; plus, if you buy at a charity shop, your money is going to a good cause. BUT: are you still supporting Gap even if there is no logo on the shirt (just a tag)? Because I’ll admit: a lot of T’s cutest clothes are (used) baby Gap from the thrift store. They tend to make clothing that isn’t covered in strange little animals, sports logos, etc. - lots of stripes.
Another brutal question from the devil’s advocate: who can afford to buy clothing that is made in the USA? I did a search for “children clothes made usa” and came up with a number of hits but the prices are WAY out there. Like $25 for a pair of pants. I can buy an outfit for T made by my friend in Burbank, CA, but I have to pay $30 for that outfit. If we were not used clothing buyers, and we had a budget to stick to, I have no idea how on earth we could afford to buy clothing for our kid where we could support union labor and know that the ADULT who made the clothing earned a relatively fair wage. But American Apparel wants $6 for a pair of underwear, and they don’t even carry sizes large enough for me (their underwear sizing stops at about a size 14).
I have to say that I snorted quite loudly and made the employee at the Gap look when I read the write-up on their INSPI(RED) shirts for kids, about how they were making such a difference in our world with this clothing line, and then lifted the tag to read that the item was made in the Phillipines.
I would love to sit down with people on all sides of this discussion and drink coffee and talk about this ALL NIGHT, until we were all talked out, because it seems like there are so many facets to this topic!
October 31st, 2007 at 12:21 pm
This is a great post and I echo lissadell’s comment about educating the masses. Most people just don’t know and it is important for bloggers like yourself to get the word out. Kudos.
Also, Jen, that is an amazing comment post. My brain stopped working like that awhile ago. The fact that I can spell correctly is a big thing for me these days!
As a suggestion, perhaps blast this post on social networks so that others will know.
Also, besides thrift shops, try and connect with older moms who have lots of clothes from children who have outgrown their clothes and would love to give them away. I am in that situation and looked for another mom who would take care of my once loved children clothes and use them with happiness. I find it very sad to let go of those clothes because each piece has memories. I know it is silly but this is why our parents held onto our treasurers as kids. Now I understand.
I did find a mom who has twins and is using my kids clothes. I could not sell the clothes. That’s just me. Green Mommy, keep enlightening us. anna http://www.green-talk.com
November 6th, 2007 at 7:21 am
Oh! This has been on my mind a LOT lately. For some reason before I had a hard time wrapping my mind about ‘made in China’ and how I could get around it. Excellent post.
The living above your means especially. I feel like we do so much, with the food we eat, how much is in our closet.
I just checked our jeans (hubby and mine)- made in the USA and they are $20 each. Clothing for hubby and I is somewhat easy to do ethically, it’s the babe who’s growing a mile a minute and gets dirty where it gets expensive. We find what we can at thrift stores, and I’m really watching the labels when I buy new, and I recently made her a pair of pants that were super cute and fit her better than store bought.
Thinking about the conditions of the people working to make my clothing has taken all the fun out of mall shopping… and while my mom is disappointed, I think that’s a VERY good thing!
November 15th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I read this post way back when you wrote it, but I’ve been a little deliquent at commenting on blogs lately.
It is a great post. I’d also like to sit down with a group and discuss it over coffee (or wine!). I have thought about this post everytime I’ve seen a cheap cashmere sweater in the stores.
I think that thrift shopping is great. I wish I was better at it. My sister comes out of a thrift shop looking so cool. I come out looking like a bag lady. Because bag lady really isn’t they look I am going for, I almost always buy new. I do however try to buy environmentally friendly fabrics and from companies that support social change.
I also have such a tough time just getting my parents to recycle, I can’t imagine if I told them to start buying at a thrift shop (actually the image of my parents shopping in a thrift shop is pretty entertaining). However, I can encourage them to pay more attention to the hidden prices of the products they are buying.
So while agree that thrift shopping is the best option, I think it is going to require a HUGE cultural shift before it becomes the norm. Most of our society (inlcuding myself!) probably needs to start with smaller steps of buying responsibly. One of those steps is being aware of where your clothes are being produced. I know that I am going to be more aware. I’m also going to check out a few local thrift shops!
December 2nd, 2007 at 4:09 pm
I love you. My husband and I have made organic cotton baby clothes in the US for 14 years. When I started, I was super naive, and I wanted to make a pure and beautiful product for all our children, and I really wanted it to be affordable FOR EVERYONE. I started by sewing myself, which was really lame, because sewing is really hard and I am just not that good. But after walking with my baby on my hip I found a great family owned and operated factory to sew for me. But they were expensive. But they were clean. But they were expensive. But the workers there were fairly paid. But they were….OK you get it. I hired them and took a hit on my margins. My clothes sold to stores, but they were not affordable to everyone. But I was happy we were selling organic and I knew the people and the conditions of who were doing our labor. Years passed, mostly very very lean years, because no one knew about organic cotton (or cared it seemed) but we stuck to it (my husband joined me in our business). I do believe we are the oldest organic cotton clothing company in the world. But as soon as organic finally began to take hold, seemed like there were so many copiers of our hard work, so many designs i stayed up nights sketching were ripped off and sent to Egypt, India or Southeast Asia to be made, by someone else, into a different line of organic cotton, by workers, who frankly it seems clear, were not so well paid. We also didnt have the extra budget to say how wonderful ours were, since we took a lower margin to pay our sewers better. Anyway, we decided to stay here in the US, and keep the focus on what we started. And we were right, we have a wonderfully successful business and I am sleeping oh so well. So thanks for reminding all of us that we have something to do with everything we patronize and support.