Cheap fast fashion
Panorama puts Primark’s claims that it can deliver cheap, fast fashion without breaking ethical guidelines to the test. Posing as industry buyers in India, the programme’s reporter Tom Heap and his team find some of India’s poorest people working long, gruelling hours on Primark clothes in slum workshops and refugee camps far away from the Primark approved and inspected factories; breaking promises on child labour, working hours and wages. When presented with the results of the investigation Primark sacked 3 suppliers and announced it was setting up a children’s foundation.
Primark said it was unaware of the actions of its suppliers. They say they represent a tiny proportion of their supply chain and that its reinforcing its stringent ethical standards in meetings with suppliers. Primark statement released June 16th 2008 below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/18_06_08_primark.pdf
Their direct response to the Panorama programme will be on the Panorama
website after the programme airs on BBC1: http://www.bbc.co.uk/panorama
i watched this, my main thought was: has this affected me? You know, sadly i’m not sure it has. Right now i think right i won’t go there again but i wonder in a few months time will i remember. it would be interesting to use this thought with the Bible’s words on the poor- does it effect our heart? when we’re so detatched watching the news about this world, how does it/does it not effect us? secondly what is our response as Christians to this?
Really interesting and honest thoughts there Louise, thanks. I am reminded of some retreat days I did last year with year 8s, and our topic was ‘freedom’. We looked at the exploitation of children particularly in the Ivory Coast and exploring the way cocoa beans were harvested there. As well as activities all around freedom in the children’s own lives and in our world, there was a challenge for us throughout those days to think deeply about the choices we make when considering what we spend our money on, and the implications of those choices. I have to say though, over a year on I’m not sure the message of those days has sunk in deep enough into the way I live my life and what I choose to spend my money on. I’ve just come out of a meeting with some other local youth workers and we chatted for a bit about this very thing, and about what has to be affected before we see change in our outward behaviour (and indeed with the young people we’re working with), and it comes back to it being a ‘heart’ thing. Until we are impacted at the core of who we are, then we have no real motivation or reason to change our behaviour. I think we live in a society where it’s very easy to ‘switch off’ when thinking about our global responsibilities and yet, (and I say this next sentence to myself) if we believe that Jesus showed us what it is to reach out to the poor and demonstrated a way of life that we should follow, then surely, in the words of Brian McLaren, ‘Everything Must Change’…
i was thinking. is it because of our consumer worldview that we act this way. if our worldview was based on God’s justice and love for the poor, maybe we would be more moved. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind”