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Sweatshop Fashion Statements Not Attractive

The US fashion marketplace is a $300 billion industry, but ifAmericans are what we wear, then we--even rebel youth, trade unionmembers, and progressives--are increasingly corporatized. The fashionstatement is that we don't care. A look at the labels in our clothingor the corporate logos on our shoes reveals that the brand namebullies, the transnational giants in the garment and apparel industry,reign supreme.

There is no garment label in the US that says "Union made in the USAwith organic cotton (or hemp or wool)." It is not even possible topurchase hemp clothing made from fiber grown in the US. The US stillprohibits the growing of industrial hemp by American farmers, forcinghemp clothiers to import hemp from abroad.

There are, however, a growing number of clothing companies, mainlysmaller ones, which offer non-sweatshop and organic clothes. Thesecompanies include: Patagonia, Gaiam, Maggie's Organics, MountainEquipment Co-op, Hempy's, Globalwear, and over a hundred others.Unfortunately, most US consumers, even organic consumers, have neverheard of these socially and environmentally responsible clothingcompanies.

In the absence of widespread public awareness and marketplacepressure, corporate agribusiness, Monsanto, and transnational clothingcompanies are doing business as usual. Levi-Strauss, once held up asbeing the most pro-worker and socially responsible of the largegarment companies, the largest cotton buyer in the world, continues tobuy only pesticide drenched and genetically engineered (GE) cotton,and has recently announced that they will be following the lead ofother US brands and moving all their production overseas to low-wageareas. The Gap, despite years of protests by anti-sweatshop activists,buys GE cotton, pesticide cotton, and relies upon a notorious networkof sweatshop sub-contractors. Companies like Ralph Lauren and Wal-Martdrape themselves in the flag, while selling non-union-made clothingproduced in overseas sweatshops. Finally Nike, one of leaders of thepack, in terms of sweatshop production, is held up by many in theorganic industry as a shining light--for greenwashing themselves byblending six percent organic cotton into its clothes. Sweatshop Nikehas now ironically become the largest buyer of organic cotton in theworld.

The Organic Consumer Association is launching a new public educationand marketplace pressure campaign to raise awareness about thenegative social and environmental effects of conventional and biotechcotton production and the institutionalized exploitation of clothingsweatshops. While we pressure the brand name bullies, we willhighlight the Organic and Fair Made alternatives already on themarketplace. Our basic plan is to unite organic consumers, anti-GEactivists, trade unionists, church social justice advocates,progressives in the fashion and garment industry, and the Fair Tradeanti-sweatshop community into a potent force for fundamental change,both in the marketplace and in politics and public policy. The demandsare that major clothing retailers and manufacturers:

Stop buying and selling clothes that contain GE cotton.
Start blending in organic and other sustainable fibers such as hempin their clothing.
Stop using sweatshop labor.
Guarantee that they meet independently verified Fair Trade(non-sweatshop) standards as outlined by the United NationsInternational Labor Organization.
Sell union-made and US-made organic clothing whenever possible.

-Organic Consumers Association
See www.organicconsumers.org/organiccotton/html for a partial list ofcompanies selling organic apparel.