Does it Matter Where Your Clothes Come From?

A few years ago, I bought a Joe Fresh shirt that was, in my eyes, perfect: comfortable, the right color, the right fit and also the right price. I walked to the checkout with a sense of accomplishment. By saving money, I felt I was practicing Christian stewardship. Each good deal would give me margin, I thought, to meet other needs and give more generously elsewhere. What I didn’t realize at the time, however, is that low prices often have a high cost. On April 24, 2013, the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed with about 3,500 workers inside. Large cracks had been discovered in the walls the day before, but the workers were told if they did not enter the building, their month’s wages would be withheld. Some were even threatened with beatings. So the workers filed back to their work stations. Hours later, the building crumbled, killing more than 1,100 people. Joe Fresh, The Children’s Place and Benetton were some of the labels manufacturing their products in the factory that collapsed. Many other companies, including Wal-mart as the largest, also manufacture their clothing in Bangladesh. The average monthly wage of a garment worker in the region is $37, and this low cost of labor is what gives companies higher profit margins.What’s more, Rana Plaza is one of many factories where safety violations have caused such disasters. This is the backstory on the other side of the price tag many consumers never see. Here is where the finger pointing begins. The race to the bottom, a byproduct of unchecked capitalism, ensures that no one is “really responsible” for what happened. It becomes a classic case of plausible deniability, the condition in which a party can believably deny knowledge of a reality because the system has deliberately shielded them from the full picture. The owner of the plaza that housed the garment factories won’t claim responsibility because the factory owner chose to operate in the building without demanding structural upgrades first. The owners of the the garment factories won’t claim responsibility because they are only trying to meet the demands of the their multinational corporation clients. The corporations who sell clothing in their stores won’t claim responsibility because they assume the Bangladesh government is enforcing labor laws that align with their company codes of conduct. The government of Bangladesh won’t claim responsibility because if they start to reinforce labor codes, international corporations will pull out of Bangladesh, with significant economic ramifications. The customers buying clothing won’t claim responsibility, because they assume companies are monitoring their factories. And in the end, a stylish outfit for a low price trumps further questioning. In essence, the landlord blames the factories, the factories blame the multinational corporations, the multinational corporations blame the government, the government blames the economic climate and the customers claim their ignorance. No one is left to take responsibility for the hundreds of people crushed under the weight of concrete. Of course, the reality is every player in this sequence is responsible. Evangelist Charles Finney once said he never witnessed a revival that didn’t include public confession and restitution. This means if we want change to happen, we must be willing to look in the mirror. Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of clothing in the world, and the U.S. is its biggest buyer. If you have purchased an item made in Bangladesh or the product of any unjust labor anywhere, you are responsible. Yet here is the paradox of justice: We are individually responsible, but to enact real change, we must change more than our individual actions. We must work together to create systemic solutions, because the problem is systemic. The impact of the Rana Plaza factory collapse has affected thousands of families who have sustained the loss of a loved one, the loss of income, the fear of going back to work at any factory and more. Sex traffickers even prey upon such tragedies. Dr. Abrar Chowdhury, coordinator of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit in Bangladesh, told the Dhaka Tribune that in times of chaos, “traffickers can easily lure [the unemployed] with promises of jobs abroad.” And because 80 percent of the country’s garment workers are women, the Border Guard Bangladesh has been on high alert since the factory collapse. But if families are made vulnerable to human trafficking and extreme poverty when a factory shuts down, then wouldn’t the absence of a Western market leave these families in a vulnerable place? The system is so broken, it makes workers dependent on their own exploitation. Yet to reverse this will require action at a systemic level. Restoration must begin with fostering sustainable opportunities for people in developing countries so workers are no longer dependent on their exploiters for a quasi-livelihood. This isn’t an abstract hope, either. The Worker Rights Consortium estimates that it would only cost 10 cents more per clothing item to uphold factory safety standards in Bangladesh. In the wake of the Rana Plaza factory collapse, many global retailers have signed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety, backed by the International Labour Organization, in an effort to prevent future disasters. Participating companies are signing up for a five-year commitment to factory safety inspections and paying up to $500,000 a year toward safety improvements. However, some major retailers have resisted the act. As representative George Miller, the senior Democratic member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said in an official statement after the factory collapse, “If they fail to sign an enforceable agreement, they are declaring that they accept blood on their labels.” The clothing production system is complex, but wherever one plays a role in the process, we all have an opportunity to move in the direction of redemption. 10 Things You Can Do 1. Go through your closet. For every piece of clothing made in Bangladesh, donate the amount that you paid for it to the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, which has set up the Bangladesh Worker Relief Fund at globallabourrights.org 2. Sponsor a child. Organizations like World Vision (worldvision.org) and Compassion (compassion.com) offer community-based child sponsorship programs that equip children for life, thereby reducing the likelihood that they will end up in sweatshops or other vulnerable situations. 3. Inform yourself of the connection between your personal purchases and unjust labor practices. Discover your own slavery footprint at slaveryfootprint.org. 4. Run an ethical business, motivated by people over profit. Go to madeinafreeworld.com for ideas. 5. Buy used clothing, and therefore avoid contributing to the demand for new clothes that are factory-made. 6. Buy fair-trade certified products whenever you can. See your dollar as a vote, and put it toward good and just causes. 7. Research where your clothing comes from by Googling the company name with the word “labor practices” or searching the database at free2work.org. Then write a letter to the company and advocate for them to source their products ethically. Go to change.org to start your own petition. 8. As a church, start a clothing co-op or become a distributor for fair-trade products in your region. 9. Write a letter to your political representatives. Let them know that corporate accountability is important to you, and ask them what they are doing to promote this on a government level. 10. Pray that God would break the chains of greed and injustice, and ask Him to show you how to be part of that process. Because wherever you buy your clothes from, injustice doesn’t look good on anyone.

11 Questions Every Twentysomething Should Ask

Questions to help move on from “what now?”

7 Cures for Your Quarter-life Crisis

What to do when “what am I doing with my life?” feels overwhelming.

5 Lies Every Twentysomething Needs to Stop Believing

Sarah had been told all her life she could do anything she wanted, that success was right around the corner. But now, stuck in a menial job at 25, with no big career in sight, she—like many twentysomethings—was feeling the pangs of disillusionment. This sense of disillusionment often stems from the lies we’ve been told and have told ourselves. We’ve been lied to, and these lies are holding us back. Too many twentysomethings are driving through the twists and turns of their twenties with windshields covered in mud, lies and half-truths. And then we wonder why so many of us have crashed? We need to hose these lies off right now or spend our twenties stuck on the side of the road. If we’re going to walk forward with the answers to the major questions we should be asking, successfully navigating our twenties, then we need to stop believing the following lies right now: ###1. I’m the Only One Struggling I would love to lock this lie away in a Serbian prison and give the key to a pack of Arctic wolves to defend. You are not alone in your struggle, questions, wondering what’s next?, now what? or do I have what it takes? Our twenties are tough. That’s the truth. Too many twentysomethings are struggling through a quarter-life crisis all alone. We all need help. We all need support. We all need nudges, prompts, advice and encouragement. No one has it all figured out. The twentysomethings who think they do are in for the biggest shock of all. ###2. I Should Be Successful by Now! Like Right Now! I fully expected to walk straight into a crazy-successful twentysomething life with accolades, salaries, bonuses, a big-old-fat-book-deal, and a plethora of people who wanted to learn my secrets to success, all by 23 years old. Maybe 25 if I really hit some serious setbacks. I didn’t realize that success takes time—loads of time. Success is not an Egg McMuffin, delivered to us for a $3, three minute investment. No, success is the Sistine Chapel—it takes years, pain, frustration, thousands of brushes, colors and crumpled up sketches before you have your masterpiece. Countless famed figures we idolize—such as Abraham Lincoln—failed drastically in their twenties. Even Jesus, who never failed at anything, didn’t begin his active, recorded ministry until he was in his thirties. Success is not a sprint, it’s an Ironman marathon, and our twenties aren’t really about running the actual race. No, our twenties are simply about building our endurance so that we can run the race in the future. If you take one step towards your dream today, you are a success. Success happens in the details. ###3. Life is Not Turning Out Like it Was Supposed To Well, kind of. Yes, life is not turning out like it was supposed to, but what the heck is supposed to? There is no supposed to. Supposed to is a lie. Supposed to is built on the perception of someone else’s perceived success. Live your life right now exactly as it is and do your best to keep moving forward into where you want to go. That’s what you’re supposed to do. ###4. I Don’t Have What it Takes I 100 percent guarantee you have what it takes. I triple-stamp a double-stamp, 100 percent money-back guarantee you have what it takes. It’s just going to take some time to figure out what exactly “it” is. Our twenties are a process, not a surprise party. You don’t just walk into the door and all of the sudden your calling jumps out from behind the couch. God has put all of us on a journey and as much as we might want to dash to the finish line, we’re going to have to take our time to let Him teach us what exactly that finish line is. You are extremely talented at something. We just need to start pulling off the layers to get a glimpse of what that something is. ###5. I am a Failure The only failure of our twenties would be if we never had any. The only failure of our twenties is if we fail and then call ourselves failures. Our twenties are going to be riddled with failure. Anyone that tells you otherwise is a liar. But you don’t have to define yourself by your failures. Failure is not a period, it’s a comma. And only if you stop trying will you really fail. There’s only one way to be successful in our twenties—fail, tweak, then try again.

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