Celebs turn out in support of LFHS
18 September 2009
As London Fashion Week opened, the charity unveiled its new drive for 50,000 names demanding that UK prime minister Gordon Brown regulates the industry.
The initiative is backed by Jo Wood, the former wife of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, hours before viewers see her debut when the BBC series Strictly Come Dancing returns to Britain's television screens.
The Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops push is also endorsed by pop singer Little Boots, actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Ashley Jensen and designer Betty Jackson, who stages her own catwalk show at Somerset House in London on Sunday (20 September).
Among other backers are television personality Tony Robinson, actor-playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah, comedians Victoria Wood, Jo Brand and Francesca Martinez and gardener Bob Flowerdew.
Supportive public figures include Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of Unite, the UK's largest trade union, Mary Turner, president of the GMB union, Queen's Counsel Michael Mansfield, the leading human rights lawyer, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, journalist John Pilger and cartoonist Martin Rowson.
Ruth Tanner, campaigns and policy director at War on Want, said: "We want exploitation-free fashion which makes us look good without feeling bad. This campaign gives people a chance to make a real difference to the lives of workers who produce our clothes. Now is the time for the government to take action."
Amirul Haque Amin, president of the charity's partner, the National Garment Workers' Federation in Bangladesh, said: " Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest countries and relies on the garment industry for three quarters of its foreign earnings. But the British retailers selling its clothes are making huge profits by exploiting workers struggling to survive on poverty pay. This campaign gives them hope for a living wage through UK government regulation."
Models in campaign T-shirts and carrying Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops placards launched the drive at Somerset House minutes before the first catwalk show opens there as the curtain raiser to London Fashion Week.
The models were joined by Stacey Dooley, a campaigner against clothes sweatshops since her appearance in the television series Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts.
In the series she lived and worked alongside people in India making clothes for UK high street retailers.
According to War on Want research, workers making clothes for Primark, Tesco and Asda factories in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka received on average only £19.16 (2280 taka) a month, under half a living wage. Some employees were paid only the minimum wage, £13.97 (1663 taka) a month, far less than the £44.82 (5333 taka) needed to escape dire hardship.
The vast majority of employees live in small, crowded shacks, many of which lack plumbing and adequate washing facilities. Though forced overtime is illegal in Bangladesh, employees said they were made to toil extra hours, often unpaid. Workers complained that in the fast fashion rush to produce the latest styles, many of them suffered verbal and physical abuse as they struggled to meet unrealistic targets. Yet the Dhaka workers said none of their factories was unionised.
Lina earns just £16 (1850 taka) a month, toiling 12 hours a day producing Tesco clothes. "It is not enough," she said. "I can only afford to live in one room with my husband, two-year-old boy and mother-in-law."
Ifat, who toils in a factory supplying Primark, Tesco and Asda, said: "I can't feed my children three meals a day."
Jo Wood, shocked by garment workers' hardship when she visited Dhaka with a further LFHS backer, fair trade fashion company People Tree, said: "The conditions that they lived in in the slums were appalling: the rubbish, the smell and the poverty. Up to six people live in a tin room on bamboo stilts above heaps of rubbish. Yet I was humbled by the people and their attitudes."
Little Boots said: "I love fashion, but loathe how some retailers deny a living wage to the people who make their clothes, condemning them to a lifetime of misery and poverty. Join the Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops campaign and help stop high street chains stitching up their workers."
Jack Dromey said: "Global economic crisis threatens the most vulnerable, with a race to the bottom. But shoppers in British high streets will not accept modern day slavery in sweatshops producing cheap clothes. Reputable retailers should insist on high standards. Rogue retailers will be exposed if they try to take advantage."
People Tree director Safia Minney said: "The government must work with local partners to review a living wage in developing countries. They must increase funding of initiatives that promote responsible consumerism and awareness and start to hold companies legally accountable for human rights violations overseas committed in their name."
Another supporter, Livia Firth, founder of ethical retailer Eco Age, said: "I love fashion and am trying my best to wear only garments from designers who are sweatshop free. I hope this campaign will encourage both consumers like me and designers and producers to always make sure that what we wear comes from a chain of production which is 100% fair."
War on Want is encouraging people to support the campaign by adding their name at www.lovefashionhatesweatshops.org.uk
It also urges them to submit their photograph and personalised message to the Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops web gallery.
The charity will take names, messages and pictures to Downing Street.
And War on Want is appealing for people to contact their MP, asking them to support the campaign.
CONTACT: Paul Collins, War on Want media officer (+44) (0)20 7549 0584 or (+44) (0)7983 550728
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