#rana plaza

[infocrazebyrepwoop]

Committee to Reassess Compensation for Rana Plaza and Tazreen Victims

Labour and Employment Adviser Asif Mahmud has announced the formation of a committee to reassess the funds allocated to the victims of the Rana Plaza collapse and the Tazreen Garments fire. The directive was given during a press briefing at the Secretariat on Wednesday afternoon. Asif Mahmud stated, “We will review the implementation of support provided to the families affected by the Rana Plaza…

[sidewalkchemistry]

As story after story of clothing factory disasters kept filling the news, it was now the case that 3 of the 4 worst tragedies in the history of fashion had all happened in the last year [i.e. 2013]. As the death toll rose, so did the profits generated. The year following the disaster at Rana Plaza was the industry's most profitable of all time.

- The True Cost - The Truth of the Clothing Industry

[newsbites]

Fashion Revolution Week is an annual seven-day campaign of action, aimed at revolutionizing the fashion industry towards a safer, fair and transparent model. The event takes place from April 22 to April 29 in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Clermont-Ferrand and Angers.

This year's theme is “Manifesto for a Fashion Revolution” to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, which claimed the lives of 1,138 people. The Good Clothes, Fair Pay campaign is also promoted to demand revolutionary living wage legislation for garment workers worldwide.

[metamatar]

There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate - died of malnutrition - because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.

Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck

[indizombie]

Working conditions are poor, unhygienic and unsafe since a large number of sweatshops are located in poor nations with weak labour laws and little government control; as a result, if workers attempt to challenge their rights or work conditions, they risk losing their jobs. Workers in the garment industry are required to put in 14 to 16 hours per day, seven days a week, and endure verbal and sometimes even physical abuse from managers. Oftentimes, workers are exposed to harmful substances while working without enough ventilation. Accidents and injuries are also frequent. In 2013, over 1,000 garment employees in Bangladesh lost their lives while at work as a result of the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory. While these businesses rely on the poor, they particularly target underprivileged kids. According to a survey on mills in India, 60% of the employees were under the age of 18 when they started working. These kids are particularly vulnerable to being compelled to work in sweatshops because they are caught in the cycle of poverty.

Lei Nguyen, ‘Sweatshops and Fast Fashion: The Human and Environmental Cost of Cheap Clothing’, Earth.org

[sauolasa]

Com'è cambiata l'industria della moda europea dopo la tragedia del Rana Plaza nel 2013?

Il crollo del 24 aprile del 2013 dell'edificio di otto piani, che ospitava diverse fabbriche di abbigliamento, uccise più di 1.100 persone e ne ferì altre 2.500. Un disastro che ha portato all'attenzione di tutto il mondo le pessime condizioni lavorative del Bangladesh

[dresshistorynerd]

The Real Cost of the Fashion Industry

Atacama Desert, in Alto Hospicio, Iquique, Chile. (source)

The textile industry is destroying the world. The industry is wasting massive amounts of energy and materials, and polluting the air, the ground and the water supplies. It overwhelmingly exploits it's labour and extracts wealth from colonized countries, especially in Asia. I assume we all broadly understand this, but I think it's useful to have it all laid out in front of you to see the big picture, the core issues causing this destruction and find ways how to effectively move forward.

The concerning trend behind this ever-increasing devastation are shortening of trend cycles, lowering clothing prices and massive amount of wasted products. Still in year 2000 it was common for fashion brands to have two collections per year, while now e.g. Zara produces 24 collections and H&M produces 12-16 collections per year. Clothing prices have fallen (at leas in EU) 30% from 1996 to 2018 when adjusted to inflation, which has contributed to the 40% increase in clothing consumption per person between 1996 and 2012 (in EU). (source) As the revenue made by the clothing industry keep rising - from 2017 to 2021 they doubled (source) - falling prices can only be achieved with increasing worker exploitation and decreasing quality. I think the 36% degrees times clothing are used in average during the last 15 years (source) is a clear indication on the continuing drop in quality of clothing. Clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2015, while 30% of the clothes produced per year are never sold and are often burned instead (source), presumably to prevent the returns from falling due to oversupply.

These all factors are driving people to overconsume. While people in EU keep buying more clothes, they haven't used up to 50% of the clothes in their wardrobe for over a year (source). This overconsumption is only made much worse by the new type of hyper fast fashion companies like SHEIN and Temu, which are using addictive psychological tactics developed by social media companies (source 1, source 2). They are cranking up all those concerning trends I mentioned above.

Under the cut I will go through the statistics of the most significant effects of the industry on environment and people. I will warn you it will be bleak. This is not just a fast fashion problem, basically the whole industry is engaging in destructive practices leading to this damage. Clothing is one of those things that would be actually relatively easy to make without massive environmental and human cost, so while that makes the current state of the industry even more heinous, it also means there's hope and it's possible to fix things. In the end, I will be giving some suggestions for actions we could be doing right now to unfuck this mess.

Carbon emissions

The textile industry is responsible for roughly 10% of the global CO2 emissions, more than aviation and shipping industry combined. This is due to the massive supply chains and energy intensive production methods of fabrics. Most of it can be contributed to the fashion sector since around 60% of all the textile production is clothing. Polyester, a synthetic fiber made from oil which accounts for more than half of the fibers used in the textile industry, produces double the amount of carbon emissions than cotton, accounting for very large proportions of all the emissions by the industry. (source 1, source 2)

Worker exploitation

Majority of the textiles are produced in Asia. Some of the worst working conditions are in Bangladesh, one of the most important garment producers, and Pakistan. Here's an excerpt from EU Parliament's briefing document from 2014 after the catastrophic Rana Plaza disaster:

The customers of garment producers are most often global brands looking for low prices and tight production timeframes. They also make changes to product design, product volume, and production timeframes, and place last-minute orders without accepting increased costs or adjustments to delivery dates. The stresses of such policies usually fall on factory workers.

The wage exploitation is bleak. According to the 2015 documentary The True Cost less than 2% of all garment factory workers earned a living wage (source). Hourly wages are so low and the daily quotas so high, garment workers are often forced through conditions or threats and demand to work extra hours, which regularly leads to 10-12 hour work days (source) and at worst 16 hour workdays (source), often without days off. Sometimes factories won't compensate for extra hours, breaching regulations (source).

Long working hours, repetitive work, lack of breaks and high pressure leads to increased risks of injuries and accidents. Small and even major injuries are extremely common in the industry. A study in three factories in India found that 70% of the workers suffered from musculosceletal symptoms (source). Another qualitative study of female garment workers and factory doctors in Dhaka found that long hours led to eye strain, headaches, fatigue and weight loss in addition to muscular and back pains. According to the doctors interviewed, weight loss was common because the workers work such long hours without breaks, they didn't have enough time to eat properly. (source) Another study in 8 factories in India found that minor injuries were extremely common and caused by unergonomic work stations, poor organization in the work place and lack of safety gear, guidelines and training (source). Safety precautions too are often overlooked to cut corners, which periodically leads to factory accidents, like in 2023 lack of fire exists and fire extinguishers, and goods stacked beyond capacity led to a factory fire in Pakistan which injured dozens of workers (source) or like in 2022 dangerous factory site led to one dead worker and 9 injured workers (source).

Rana Plaza collapse in 2013 is the worst industrial accident in recent history. The factory building did not have proper permits and the factory owner blatantly ignored signs of danger (other businesses abandoned the building a day before the collapse), which led to deaths of 1 134 workers and injuries to 2 500 workers. The factory had or were at the time working for orders of at least Prada, Versace, Primark, Walmart, Zara, H&M, C&A, Mango, Benetton, the Children's Place, El Corte Inglés, Joe Fresh, Carrefour, Auchan, KiK, Loblaw, Bonmarche and Matalan. None of the brands were held legally accountable for the unsafe working conditions which they profited off of. Only 9 of the brands attended a meeting to agree on compensation for the victim's families. Walmart, Carrefour, Auchan, Mango and KiK refused to sight the agreement, it was only signed by Primark, Loblaw, Bonmarche and El Corte Ingles. The compension these companies provided was laughable though. Primemark demanded DNA evidence that they are relatives of one of the victims from these struggling families who had lost their often sole breadwinner for a meager sum of 200 USD (which doesn't even count for two months of living wage in Bangladesh (source)). This obviously proved to be extremely difficult for most families even though US government agreed to donate DNA kits. This is often said to be a turning point in working conditions in the industry, at least in Bangladesh, but while there's more oversight now, as we have seen, there's clearly still massive issues. (source 1, source 2)

One last major concern of working conditions in the industry I will mention is the Xinjiang raw cotton production, which is likely produced mainly with forced labour from Uighur concentration camps, aka slave labour of a suspected genocide. 90% of China's raw cotton production comes from Xinjiang (source). China is the second largest cotton producer in the world, after India, accounting 20% of the yearly global cotton production (source).

Pollution

Synthetic dyes, which synthetic fibers require, are the main cause of water pollution caused by the textile industry, which is estimated to account for 20% of global clean water pollution (source). This water pollution by the textile industry is suspected of causing a lot of health issues like digestive issues in the short term, and allergies, dermatitis, skin inflammation, tumors and human mutations in the long term. Toxins also effect fish and aquatic bacteria. Azo dyes, one of the major pollutants, can cause detrimental effects to aquatic ecosystems by decreasing photosynthetic activity of algae. Synthetic dyes and heavy metals also cause large amounts of soil pollution. Large amounts of heavy metals in soil, which occurs around factories that don't take proper environmental procautions, can cause anaemia, kidney failure, and cortical edoem in humans. That also causes changes in soil texture, decrease in soil microbial diversity and plant health, and changes in genetic structure of organisms growing in the soil. Textile factory waste water has been used for irrigation in Turkey, where other sources of water have been lacking, causing significant damage to the soil. (source)

Rayon produced through viscose process causes significant carbon disulphide and hydrogen sulphide pollution to the environment. CS2 causes cardiovascular, psychiatric, neuropsychological, endocrinal and reproductive disorders. Abortion rates among workers and their partners exposed to CS2 are reported to be significantly higher than in control groups. Many times higher amounts of sick days are reported for workers in spinning rooms of viscose fiber factories. China and India are largest producers of CS2 pollution, accounting respectively 65.74% and 11,11% of the global pollution, since they are also the major viscose producers. Emission of CS2 has increased significantly in India from 26.8 Gg in 2001 to 78.32 Gg in 2020. (source)

Waste

The textile industry is estimated to produce around 92 million tons of textile waste per year. As said before around 30% of the production is never sold and with shortening lifespans used the amount of used clothing that goes to waster is only increasing. This waste is large burned or thrown into landfills in poor countries. (source) H&M was accused in 2017 by investigative journalists of burning up to 12 tonnes of clothes per year themselves, including usable clothing, which they denied claiming they donated clothing they couldn't sell to charity instead (source). Most of the clothing donated to charity though is burned or dumbed to landfills (source).

Most of the waste clothing from rich countries like European countries, US, Australia and Canada are shipped to Chile (source) or African countries, mostly Ghana, but also Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire (source). There's major second-hand fashion industries in these places, but most of the charity clothing is dumbed to landfills, because they are in such bad condition or the quality is too poor. Burning and filling landfills with synthetic fabrics with synthetic dyes causes major air, water and soil pollution. The second-hand clothing industry also suppresses any local clothing production as donated clothing is inherently more competitive than anything else, making these places economically reliant on dumbed clothing, which is destroying their environment and health, and prevents them from creating a more sustainable economy that would befit them more locally. This is not an accident, but required part of the clothing industry. Overproduction let's these companies tap on every new trend quickly, while not letting clothing the prices in rich countries drop so low it would hurt their profits. Production is cheaper than missing a trend.

Micro- and nanoplastics

There is massive amounts of micro- and nanoplastics in all of our environment. It's in our food, drinking water, even sea salt (source). Washing synthetic textiles accounts for roughly 35% of all microplastics released to the environment. It's estimated that it has caused 14 million tonnes of microplastics to accumulate into the bottom of the ocean. (source)

Microplastics build up into the intestines of animals (including humans), and have shown to probably cause cause DNA damage and altered organism behavior in aquatic fauna. Microplastics also contain a lot of the usual pollutants from textile industry like synthetic dyes and heavy metals, which absorb in higher quantities to tissues of animals through microplastics in the intestines. Studies have shown that the adverse effect are higher the longer the microplastics stay in the organism. The effects cause major risks to aquatic biodiversity. (source) The health effects of microplastics to humans are not well known, but studies have shown that they could have adverse effects on digestive, respiratory, endocrine, reproductive and immune systems. (source)

Microplastics degrade in the environment even further to nanoplastics. Nanoplastic being even smaller are found to enter blood circulation, get inside cells and cross the blood-brain barrier. In fishes they have been found to cause neurological damage. Nanoplastics are also in the air, and humans frequently breath them in. Study in office buildings found higher concentration of nanoplastics in indoor air than outdoor air. Inside the nanoplastics are likely caused mostly by synthetic household textiles, and outdoors mostly by car tires. (source) An association between nanoplastics and mitochondrial damage in human respiratory cells was found in a recent study. (source)

Micro and nano plastics are also extremely hard to remove from the environment, making it even more important that we reduce the amount of microplastics we produce as fast as possible.

What can we do?

This is a question that deserves it's own essays and articles written about it, but I will leave you with some action points. Reading about these very bleak realities can easily lead to overwhelming apathy, but we need to channel these horrors into actions. Whatever you do, do not fall into apathy. We don't have the luxury for that, we need to act. These are industry wide problems, that simply cannot be fixed by consumerism. Do not trust any clothing companies, even those who market themselves as ethical and responsible, always assume they are lying. Most of them are, even the so called "good ones". We need legislation. We cannot allow the industry to regulate itself, they will always take the easy way out and lie to their graves. I will for sure write more in dept about what we can do, but for now here's some actions to take, both political and individual ones.

Political actions

Let's start with political actions, since they will be the much more important ones. While we are trying to dismantle capitalism and neocolonialism (the roots of these issues), here's some things that we could do right now. These will be policies that we should be doing everywhere in the world, but especially rich countries, where most of the clothing consumption is taking place. Vote, speak to others, write to your representative, write opinion pieces to your local papers, engage with democracy.

Higher requirements of transparency. Right now product transparency in clothing is laughably low. In EU only the material make up and the origin country of the final product are required to be disclosed. Everything else is up to the company. Mandatory transparency is the only way we can force any positive changes in the production. The minimum of transparency should be: origin countries of the fibers and textiles in the product itself; mandatory reports of the lifecycle emissions; mandatory reports of whole chain of production. Right now the clothing companies make their chain of production intentionally complex, so they have plausible deniability when inevitably they are caught violating environmental or worker protection laws (source). They intentionally don't want to be able to track down their production chain. Forcing them to do so anyway would make it very expensive for them to keep up this unnecessarily complex production chain. These laws are most effective when put in place in large economies like EU or US.

Restrictions on the use of synthetic fibers. Honestly I think they should be banned entirely, since the amount of microplastics in our environment is already extremely distressing and the other environmental effects of synthetic fibers are also massive, but I know there are functions for which they are not easily replaced (though I think they can be replaces in those too, but that's a subject of another post), so we should start with restrictions. I'm not sure how they should be specifically made, I'm not a law expert, but they shouldn't be used in everyday textiles, where there are very easy and obvious other options.

Banning viscose. There are much better options for viscose method that don't cause massive health issues and environmental destruction where ever it's made, like Lyocell. There is absolutely no reason why viscose should be allowed to be sold anywhere.

Governmental support for local production by local businesses. Most of the issues could be much more easily solved and monitored if most clothing were not produced by massive global conglomerations, but rather by local businesses that produce locally. All clothing are made by hand, so centralizing production doesn't even give it advantage in effectiveness (only more profits for the few). Producing locally would make it much more easier to enforce regulations and it would reduce production chains, making production more effective, leaving more profits into the hands of the workers and reducing emissions from transportation. When the production is done by local businesses, the profits would stay in the producing country and they could be taxed and utilized to help the local communities. This would be helpful to do in both exploited and exploiter countries. When done in rich countries who exploit poorer ones, it would reduce the demand for exploitation. In poor countries this is not as easily done, since poor means they don't have money to give around, but maybe this could be a good cause to put some reparations from colonizers and global corporations, which they should pay.

Preventing strategic accounting between subsidiaries and parent companies. Corporate law is obviously not my area of expertise, but I know that allowing corporations to move around the accounting of profits and losses between subsidiaries and parent companies in roughly 1980s, was a major factor in creating this modern global capitalist system, where corporations can very easily manipulate their accounting to utilize tax heavens and avoid taxes where they actually operate, which is how they are upholding this terrible system and extracting the profits from the production countries. How specifically this would be done I can't tell because again I know shit about corporate law, so experts of that field should plan the specifics. Overall this would help deal with a lot of other problems than just the fashion industry. Again for it to be effective a large economic area like EU or US should do this.

Holding companies accountable for their whole chain of production. These companies should be dragged to court and made to answer for the crimes they are profiting of off. We should put fear back into them. This is possible. Victims of child slavery are already doing this for chocolate companies. If it's already not how law works everywhere, the laws should be changed so that the companies are responsible even if they didn't know, because it's their responsibility to find out and make sure they know. They should have been held accountable for the Rana Plaza disaster. Maybe they still could be. Sue the mother fuckers. They should be afraid of us.

Individual actions

I will stress that the previous section is much more important and that there's no need to feel guilty for individual actions. This is not the fault of the average consumer. Still we do need to change our relationship to fashion and consumption. While it's not our fault, one of the ways this system is perpetuated, is by the consumerist propaganda by fashion industry. And it is easier to change our own habits than to change the industry, even if our own habits have little impact. So these are quite easy things we all could do as we are trying to do bigger change to gain some sense of control and keep us from falling to apathy.

Consume less. Better consumption will not save us, since consumption itself is the problem. We consume too much clothing. Don't make impulse purchases. Consider carefully weather you actually need something or if you really really want it. Even only buying second-hand still fuels the industry, so while it's better than buying new, it's still better to not buy.

Take proper care of your clothing. Learn how to properly wash your clothing. There's a lot of internet resources for that. Never wash your wool textiles in washing machine, even if the textile's official instructions allow it. Instead air them regularly, rinse them in cool water if they still smell after airing and wash stains with water or small amount of (wool) detergent. Never use fabric softener! It damages the fabrics, prevents them from properly getting clean and is environmentally damaging. Instead use laundry vinegar for making textiles softer or removing bad smells. (You can easily make laundry vinegar yourself too from white vinegar and water (and essential oils, if you want to add a scent to it) which is much cheaper.) Learn how to take care of your leather products. Most leather can be kept in very good condition for a very long time by occasional waxing with beeswax.

Use the services of dressmakers and shoemakers. Take your broken clothing or clothing which doesn't fit anymore to your local dressmaker and ask them if they can do something about it. Take your broken and worn leather products to your local shoemaker too. Usually it doesn't cost much to get something fixed or refitted and these expert usually have ways to fix things you couldn't even think of. So even if the situation with your clothing or accessory seems desperate, still show it to the dressmaker or shoemaker.

If it's extremely cheap, don't buy it. Remember that every clothing is handmade. Only a small fraction of the cost of the clothing will be paying the wages of the person who made it with their hands. If a shirt costs 5 euros (c. 5,39 USD), it's sewer was only payed mere cents for sewing it. I'm not a quick sewer and it takes me roughly 1-2 hours to cut, prepare and sew a simple shirt, so I'm guessing it would take around half an hour to do all that for a factory worker on a crunch, at the very least 15 minutes. So the hourly pay would still be ridiculously low. However, as I said before, the fact that the workers in clothing factories get criminally low pay is not the fault of the consumer, so if you need a clothing item, and you don't have money to buy anything else than something very cheep, don't feel guilty. And anyway expensive clothing in no way necessarily means reasonable pay or ethical working conditions, cheep clothing just guarantee them.

Learn to recognize higher quality. In addition to exploitation, low price also means low quality, but again high price doesn't guarantee high quality. High quality allows you to buy less, so even if it's not as cheep as low quality, if you can afford it, when you need it, it will be cheaper in long run, and allows you to consume less. Check the materials. Natural fibers are your friends. Do not buy plastic, if it's possible to avoid. Avoid household textiles from synthetic fibers. Avoid textiles with small amounts of spandex to give it stretch, it will shorten the lifespan of the clothing significantly as the spandex quickly wears down and the clothing looses it's shape. Also avoid clothing with rubber bands. They also loose their elasticity very quickly. In some types of clothing (sport wear, underwear) these are basically impossible to avoid, but in many other cases it's entirely possible.

Buy from artisans and local producers, if you can. As said better consumption won't fix this, but supporting artisans and your local producers could help keep them afloat, which in small ways helps create an alternative to the exploitative global corporations. With artisans especially you know the money goes to the one who did the labour and buying locally means less middlemen to take their cut. More generally buy rather from businesses that are located to the same country where the production is, even if it's not local to you. A local business doesn't necessarily produce locally.

Develop your own taste. If you care about fashion and style, it's easy to fall victim to the fashion industry's marketing and trend cycles. That's why I think it's important to develop your personal sense of style and preferences. Pay attention at what type of clothes are comfortable to you. Go through your wardrobe and track for a while which clothing you use most and which least. Understanding your own preferences helps you avoid impulse buying.

Consider learning basics of sewing. Not everyone has the time or interest for this, but if you in anyway might have a bit of both, I suggest learning some very simple and basic mending and reattaching a button.

Further reading on this blog: How to see through the greenwashing propaganda of the fashion industry - Case study 1: Shein

Bibliography

Academic sources

An overview of the contribution of the textiles sector to climate change, 2022, L. F. Walter et al., Frontiers in Environmental Science

How common are aches and pains among garment factory workers? A work-related musculoskeletal disorder assessment study in three factories of south 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, 2021, Arkaprovo Pal et al., J Family Med Prim Care

Sewing shirts with injured fingers and tears: exploring the experience of female garment workers health problems in Bangladesh, 2019, Akhter, S., Rutherford, S. & Chu, C., BMC Int Health Hum Rights

Occupation Related Accidents in Selected Garment Industries in Bangalore City, 2006, Calvin, Sam & Joseph, Bobby, Indian Journal of Community Medicine

A Review on Textile and Clothing Industry Impacts on The Environment, 2022, Nur Farzanah Binti Norarmi et al., International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

Carbon disulphide and hydrogen sulphide emissions from viscose fibre manufacturing industry: A case study in India, 2022, Deepanjan Majumdar et al., Atmospheric Environment: X

Microplastics Pollution: A Brief Review of Its Source and Abundance in Different Aquatic Ecosystems, 2023, Asifa Ashrafy et al., Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances

Health Effects of Microplastic Exposures: Current Issues and Perspectives in South Korea, 2023, Yongjin Lee et al., Yonsei Medical Journal

Nanoplastics and Human Health: Hazard Identification and Biointerface, 2022, Hanpeng Lai, Xing Liu, and Man Qu, Nanomaterials

Other sources

The impact of textile production and waste on the environment (infographics), 2020, EU

Chile’s desert dumping ground for fast fashion leftovers, 2021, AlJazeera

Fashion - Worldwide, 2022 (updated 2024), Statista

Fashion Industry Waste Statistics & Facts 2023, James Evans, Sustainable Ninja (magazine)

Everything You Need to Know About Waste in the Fashion Industry, 2024, Solene Rauturier, Good on You (magazine)

Textiles and the environment, 2022, Nikolina Šajn, European Parliamentary Research Service

Help! I'm addicted to secondhand shopping apps, 2023, Alice Crossley, Cosmopolitan

Addictive, absurdly cheap and controversial: the rise of China’s Temu app, 2023, Helen Davidson, Guardian

Workers' conditions in the textile and clothing sector: just an Asian affair? - Issues at stake after the Rana Plaza tragedy, 2014, Enrico D'Ambrogio, European Parliamentary Research Service

State of The Industry: Lowest Wages to Living Wages, The Lowest Wage Challenge (Industry affiliated campaign)

Fast Fashion Getting Faster: A Look at the Unethical Labor Practices Sustaining a Growing Industry, 2021, Emma Ross, International Law and Policy Brief (George Washington University Law School)

Dozens injured in Pakistan garment factory collapse and fire, 2023, Hannah Abdulla, Just Style (news media)

India: Multiple factory accidents raise concerns over health & safety in the garment industry, campaigners call for freedom of association in factories to ‘stave off’ accidents, 2022, Jasmin Malik Chua, Business & Human Rights Resource Center

Minimum Wage Level for Garment Workers in the World, 2020, Sheng Lu, FASH455 Global Apparel & Textile Trade and Sourcing (University of Delaware)

Rana Plaza collapse, Wikipedia

Buyers’ compensation for Rana Plaza victims far from reality, 2013, Ibrahim Hossain Ovi, Dhaka Tribune (news media)

World cotton production statistics, updated 2024, The World Counts

Dead white man’s clothes, 2021, Linton Besser, ABC News

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 24 April 2013, the 8-storey Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed, killing over 1,100 mostly women garment workers, as bosses in the country's largest industry put profits before people. The first people on the scene to render assistance were local workers and relatives of those trapped, who began desperately trying to rescue survivors before emergency service workers arrived. The building had been evacuated the previous day after cracks appeared in walls, floors and pillars, but the owner of the building, Sohel Rana, claimed that an engineer declared the structure safe and workers should go back to work the following day. At 9 AM, one hour after the morning shift began work, a quality inspector named Mahmudur described to the Daily Star what happened next: “Darkness engulfed the entire place with thick clouds of debris. I heard screams around me. My heart started pounding… I lay down near a pillar, thinking that perhaps I was going to die. We were being roasted inside”. Rana, who was an official in the ruling Awami League party, had the building constructed without any supervision from engineers or architects in 2008, and in 2010 added three more floors of the building without planning permission. At the time of the disaster he was planning on adding an additional ninth storey. On April 25, the day after the collapse, hundreds of thousands of workers in the area walked out on strike, built barricades on major highways, attacked working factories and battled police before besieging the headquarters of the garment employers' federation, demanding prosecution of Rana and the factory bosses. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9625/Rana-Plaza-collapse https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=614209984085554&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[crippled-peeper]

What's wrong with temu, friends keep recommending it

It’s sweat shop goods that fall apart in 1 wash and pollute the planet. Buying things from Temu is like hitting a “destroy a life for my convenience” button over and over

Ask yourself if paying 2.50$ for a dress is worth it if the people making it are paid pennies by the hour, they subjected to extremely long working hours (12h days, 6 days a week) unsafe working conditions (have you heard of the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh? it happened in your lifetime) and workers are often abused & exploited as well

In addition Temu, just like Wish and other cheap online shops like them, steal from artists and designers and independent creators. They make knockoffs. It’s their business model

Ask yourself and your friends if Temu is really worth it, knowing all of this

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Case Study: Rana Plaza Collapse

In April 2013, in Bangladesh, the commercial building known as the Rana Plaza collapsed due to structural failure. The confirmed death toll was over a thousand people, with thousands more injured; it is considered to be one of the deadliest accidental structural failures in recent history. Multiple reasons were given for the cause of the collapse, including:

The foundation; the building was constructed on an in-filled pond

Illegal construction; the top floors of the building were added after the fact, exceeding the weight limit of the already existing lower floors

And the use of substandard construction material

Even worse was the fact that cracks had been discovered in the building the day before the collapse but workers in the building were ordered to return the next day regardless.

Sources/Further Reading: (Image source - Wikipedia) (Rethinking the future) (Independent) (International Labour Organization)

[mikunology]

Locations in Sapporo

things in my personal life has calmed down somewhat for the time being so I figured I'd write up an easy lore post that I completely forgot I could make so here we are

I wanted to list some common locations found in Sapporo as featured in Vocal Android! I haven't actually talked about the setting too much and while I'm kinda bad at designing locations, I figured I could at least talk about them a little

But, yeah, I'll do my best to explain, so some lore under the cut?

Crypton Laboratories HQ/Crypton Towers: The place where the CVs live and where Meiko and Kaito work. A huge white, gray, and cyan building shaped like a C if you look at it from above, it's home to Crypton's various research labs. The building has floors entirely dedicated to be Miku, the twins and Luka's living spaces, and they each have their own color-coded rooms and living areas. There's a recording and dance studio in the building for the CVs to do their idol work and music playing, as well as a virtual reality training room. There's also the CVs' very own superhero base of sorts, which Gumi helped design, and allows the crew to oversee the city in case danger makes itself known (it's also a convenient place to hang out and take a nap). There's also a sizeable garage below the building, where Rin keeps the road roller.

Kenmochi Academy High School: Miku, Rin and Len's school. A large, clean campus made of three V-shaped buildings with their points pointing towards each other and hexagon-shaped windows. A pretty high-bar school with a lot of recent technology, it's one of the more popular and well-known high schools in town (and thus, an excellent candidate for Meiko's goal of having the CVs interact with humans their age). It is headed by Principal Sasaki. (Current Student List: Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Len, Kobayashi Matcha, Masaoka Azuki, Yumemi Nemu, Hibiki Lui, Akira Kano/Arsloid, Otomachi Una, Sato Sasara, Suzuki Tsudumi, Kokone Aime, Kizuna Akari, Futaba Minato, Hoshino Ichika, Tenma Saki, Hinomori Shiho, Mochizuki Honami, Koharu Rikka (formerly), Suzune Ring)

Ichikawa Academy High School: Gumi's school, a high school on the eastern side of the city. It's a more "normal" high school, less flashy than Kenmochi and looking more typical, but still has a few good programs to its name, including its science program (which Gumi tries to participate in). (Current Student List: Megumi "Gumi" Nakashima, Kotonoha Akane and Aoi, Tohoku Zunko, Gahata Meiji, Kamishiro Rui, Kusanagi Nene, Tenma Tsukasa, AiSuu, Tsuina-chan)

Utahako Elementary School: The local elementary school a block or two away from Kenmochi. It's a modest little elementary school, having been newly refurbished from an older building. Many of the students that go there end up graduating to Kenmochi later. Kiyoteru teaches here. (Current Student List: Kaai Yuki, Oliver Twitchell, Rana, Macne Petit, Tohoku Kiritan, Otomachi Unagi, Ryuuto Nakashima)

The Macne Cafe: A fresh-looking little internet cafe that sits in the town plaza and is the CVs' favorite hangout spot. Established by the Macne Family, it's become slowly but surely known around town for its delicious green apple cheesecake and desserts. Nana has been trying various ways to spread their customer base further.

The V5: A swanky nightclub and bar that is also in the plaza, run by four friends: Amy, Chris, Kaori and Ken. Many of the adult characters come there to drink and chat a bit.

UTAU Studios: A record label company and radio studio stationed in the industry hub of town, notable for its large staff and loooong list of talents. The studio runs a daily radio broadcast that's fairly popular, and their top talent is Namine Ritsu (or it was, anyway).

Sapporo University: The local college. A bit of an older building since it's been there basically forever compared to a lot of the rest of futuristic city. Has a small, colorful dormitory community next to it where students stay. (Current Student List: Galaco, Po-uta, Tsurumaki Maki, Shirosaki Yuudai; Utatane Piko isn't a student but he lives there)

Kamukura Shrine: A humble shrine that's only a little ways away from the beach, and is where most of the cast goes for holiday celebrations (such as New Years). It's headed by Kigashima Sourin and his protégés, Kurono Takehiro, Wakamatsu Akashi, Aoyama Ryuusei and Shirakami Koutarou, who are training to be proper priests. They also have their shrine maiden, a fussy teenage girl named Lumi who claims to be a jellyfish kami from the sea. Her antics tend to bring a lot of visitors.

SEKAI Auditorium: A venue a few blocks away from Crypton HQ and the main place where Miku and friends perform locally. Very spacious and known to host tons of acts, including smaller ones like local bands, singers and theater shows. Also functions as a sort of convention center at times. However, it's tendency to get raided by supervillains (mostly in pursuit of Miku and co.) has given it a bit of a weird reputation.

The Nebula: A recently-established nightclub in the plaza run by American DJ CYBER DIVA (and her partner CYBER SONGMAN), who is also the headlining act of the place. Used to have a bit of a rivalry with Miku, but they're both over it. Gets a lot of younger customers than the ones at the V5.

Dr. Momone's House: A modern house in a quiet neighborhood next to the industrial part of town where Dr. Momone, Momo and Defoko live. Their neighbors consist of Yufu (who lives down the lane), Eru (who lives at the far end of the lane), Tsukishiro Hakupo and his servant bot Kunishiki (who live next door) and Sensei.

Gumi's Apartment: Gumi, Gakupo and Ryuuto's small apartment in a building not too far from Crypton HQ. Not the nicest apartment that ever was, but it's homey.

Gin no Hana: A old-fashioned restaurant that has reasonable business and is popular due to the comfy atmosphere. Managed by Ginsaki and his wife, Koharu.

The Old Soul Theater: An old theater in town that's mainly still in the city for the sake of preservation, but still has small plays and acts now and again. Has been turned into an acting school of sorts by Miriam Stocks, a theater connoisseur.

Ruko's candy shop: A hole-in-the-wall shop in an alleyway managed by Yokune Ruko, where they sell candy, snacks and cheap cups of drip coffee. Totally not shady in the slightest. Is almost constantly out of coffee-flavored hard candy because Ruko keeps eating it.

Meiko's apartment: Meiko's home, a simple apartment in a simple complex where she crashes after a long day at the lab. The CVs have never been to it.

There's probably more than this but yeah :>

[rhaenyrasplotarmor]

To say "but they wouldn't be able to get an higher paying job" or "well the country is underdeveloped so it's normal" or even "they are doing a simple job, sewing isn't dangerous" when talking about how fast fashion ruined and is still ruining millions of people's life is insane.

"From an American or an European point of view we are surprised to see how those people make 2 dollars a day, but it's normal there" NO IT'S NOT.

The people there wash in unclean water, entire families of 6/7 people live in deranged houses that even if restored would be able to contain just two of them, they don't have good healthcare and their job certainly doesn't help help on that matter. They eat what they can provide which is NOT ENOUGH if you make 2 dollars a day!

Calling "accidents" things like the Rana Plaza collapse is even more insane. People that worked there already informed the factory owners of the bad conditions of their workplace, even the same day of the collapse.

Calling it an accident is also an insult to the 1134 people that lost their life while being crashed on by the building or suffocated by the absence of air. After 8 hours they were still finding corpses and also injured people, about 2500 people.

But why does this kind of things happen?

Because a shirt cost 5 dollars and there are a lot of people that desperately need a job. If a factory can't afford to produce a shirt for 5 dollars, be sure that another one will take that job. When the prices start to drop again a fast fashion brand needs to keep up with the competition. The factory, that will be payed less, needs to save money and eventually the owners will start caring less about the conditions of their workers and their workplace.

Rana Plaza was not the first or these events:

In 2012 the Alì Enterprises fire in Pakistan caused 289 deaths and the Dhaka factory caused 112 deaths the same year. To this day people are still suffering because of underpaid jobs and of dangerous workplaces. The danger that they have to experience also extends not only to the collapsing of the building, but to the chemicals in the air.

No human being should be living in those conditions and no human being should be able to blatantly ignore those people.

And this includes the people that keeps buying on shein and other sites like that one.

[polybbiuss]

thinking about how in 1911 the triangle shirtwaist factory set fire in new york, killing 146 people, which immediately led to more regulations and better working conditions in the US garment industry. thinking about how in 2005 a garment factory in dhaka, bangladesh collapsed, killing 73 people. thinking about how in 2012 two garment factories in pakistan burned down, killing 314 people. thinking about how only two months later, another garment factory in dhaka, bangladesh burned down, killing 117 people (124 including unconfirmed deaths). thinking about how in 2013 yet another garment factory in dhaka, the rana plaza, collapsed, killing 1134 people. thinking about how nothing has changed for the workers in bangladesh, in pakistan, in all the other countries whose labor we exploit, in the aftermath of these tragedies. thinking about how things have only gotten worse. thinking about how every time these workers try to ask for better wages and better working conditions they get brutally attacked, and sometimes killed, in response. thinking about how things may never improve for all of these people because doing so would cause the fashion industry to make less money. thinking about how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

[racefortheironthrone]

first off, I'm sorry if i'm annoying you with my badgering but i really love to pick your brain on stuff. I recently found this subreddit called r/neoliberal that proudly takes up the name and as someone who gets most of their economic takes from your tumblr and the realignment project i was wondering what your thoughts were. they seem reasonable and humorous

As someone who's studied the hstory of neoliberalism, I think this is an overly twee celebration of an ideology that ignores the very ugly history of how that ideology was imposed on many countries and the effects that it's had.

Do they want to make memes about Pinochet tossing leftists out of helicopters or what happened to Russian life expectancy after the Harvard boys got done with it? Or what about some funny jokes about paying poor countries to store toxic waste or the Rana Plaza collapse? Because if we're going to talk neoliberalism, let's get into the stinking guts of the thing.

But as a general matter of life advice, I don't think spending your time on political ideology subreddits is a good use of one's time and energy.

[rosehipmarmalade]

really want to start a newsletter for the people i study fashion with to get them to care about sustainability and socio-politcal things in fashion that they absolutely should care about. like starting with an essay on the significance of the keffiyeh. but also just basic knowledge they should have like the rana plaza tragedy etc.