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Tag Archives: textile workers

Who made your clothes?

12 Thursday Oct 2017

Posted by gpevans in environmental impact of textiles, social history, social impact of textiles, textile history

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ethical textiles, fair trade, textile workers, weaver

Fashion. Revolution.

No, this is not about Punk Safety Pins or Grunge Flannel. It’s about your t-shirt and your jeans. It’s about your silk blouse and your Nike running shoes. Who made your clothes? Do you know?

Increasingly we are advised to be more aware of where our food comes from – cage-free hens give us ethical eggs; grass-fed, pasture-raised cows give us tastier, healthier beef.

But what about your clothes? You many know from the label that your shirt was “Made in China … Bangladesh … Vietnam … India…” So far, so good. And maybe that it was made of 100% … 50% … 20% …cotton … wool … polyester … viscose… Wait. What? What the heck is “viscose”? See what I mean? In other words, it’s like knowing about where your food comes from. You know that your eggs come from chickens, but are they cage-free hens…? Do you care? If you do, then you should care about where your clothes come from as well. You know where India is, but you don’t know if the cotton used is organic or if it is full of pesticides. You may even know – or guess – that the reason your t-shirt in made in Laos or Bangladesh is because companies can pay their workers less than in the U.S., or even, increasingly, China.

But: did you know that the fashion industry is one of the most lucrative industries in the world? Did you know that a garment that is “Made in China” may have started with cotton grown on a Texas farm? Did you know that cotton can be one of the most environmentally unfriendly fabrics due to pesticide use and the huge amount of water used in processing it?

Yes, unfortunately, your choices in the apparel department of a store are at least as important as your choices at the grocery store. Not convinced? Consider what the organizaton, Fashion Revolution, says about the sociological impact of clothing:

Fashion is our chosen skin. On an individual level it represents how we feel about ourselves and what we want to tell the world about who we are. (So, in one sense we could be talking about the Punk safety pin or the Grunge flannel!) On a community level, it tells a story about our history, culture and social customs.

How could the “skin” on our bodies not be just as important as what we put inside them?

It will not take much to begin a revolution. All that is needed is this: tomorrow morning when you are getting dressed, give a thought to the factory worker in Bangladesh or Los Angeles who cut or sewed your t-shirt. OR consider the amount of water that was used to grow and process the cotton. That’s all. Be aware. Want to go further? Consider going to your local consignment store for your next pair of jeans. They will be already soft and broken in and will not shrink when you wash them! More? Find out about what you can do to promote the growing hemp for fiber in the U.S. We get all of our hemp fiber from other countries, yet hemp textile production is on the rise. You cannot get high from hemp – unless you are so excited to have a high-yield, eco-friendly fiber source that is easy to grow without pesticides.

Look! You’re a revolutionary! That wasn’t difficult, was it? And you’re in good company – we are all around, and we believe in a better, more just world.

Fashion Revolution

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Black Friday Shopping Tip: It’s OK to be a Luddite

27 Friday Nov 2015

Posted by gpevans in textile history, word origins

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fair trade, luddite, textile workers

Are you a Luddite? It’s OK. It’s a good thing. It doesn’t mean that you don’t or won’t shop online. Go for it: stay inside in your PJs on Thanksgiving weekend and cyber-shop. The good part of being a Luddite is that you may be more conscious and conscientious of where you shop. Try Fair Indigo, Heifer Project International, Ten Thousand Villages, or Serrv.

So, where does that leave us? What is a Luddite?

Most of us can relate to the term “spinster,” but most women would take it as a slight, even though its original meaning was simply, “one who spins.” Similarly, “luddite” has changed through the generations to mean someone who is opposed to technology. The history behind the movement is interesting and may change your mind about what a “luddite” really is – and whether it’s OK to be one.

We may have images of the original Luddites as bands of vandals destroying all the textile factories to save cottage weavers. But the movement was much more targeted than that.

They took their name from one “Ned Ludd” (also known variously as “King Ludd”, “General Ludd”, or “Captain Ludd”). Although a “signature” of Ludd appeared on a “workers manifesto” of the time, Ludd, himself, seems to have been drawn from a local folk tale. Whoever he was, he was believed to have been responsible for destroying two large stocking frames that produced inexpensive stockings, undercutting those produced by skilled knitters.

luddites smash

Luddites smashing a “wide” (factory) loom

The motives were linked not to a generalized resentment of the technology itself, but to frustration with a new economic system. . “Set” prices, akin to apartment rent control was being abolished in favor or what we might call “free market” pricing.

A contemporary broadside explains in “General Ludd’s Triumph:”

The guilty may fear, but no vengeance he aims

At the honest man’s life or Estate

His wrath is entirely confined to wide frames

And to those that old prices abate

Many historical accounts tell of Luddite raids on workshops where some frames were smashed while others (whose owners were holding to the old economic practices – not cutting prices) were left untouched. One might think of them as the 19th century version of activists who put bananas in the gas tanks of construction machinery on the site of a new Wal-Mart going up in town. They were fighting for a fair wage for workers; cutting prices on goods inevitably leads to cutting wages for workers.

Are you a Luddite? If so, I’m glad. If not, consider the benefits of “smashing” the machinery of businesses that support low wages and unhealthy working conditions. Celebrate the season with joy and prosperity for all.

 

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