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Schools Implement Pesticide 'Right to Know' Act

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Sweatshop Fashion Statements Not Attractive

Tough Winter for Montana Buffalo

Universal Health Care Pursued by Initiative

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Sweatshop Fashion Statements Not Attractive

The US fashion marketplace is a $300 billion industry, but if Americans are what we wear, then we--even rebel youth, trade union members, and progressives--are increasingly corporatized. The fashion statement is that we don't care. A look at the labels in our clothing or the corporate logos on our shoes reveals that the brand name bullies, 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 USA with organic cotton (or hemp or wool)." It is not even possible to purchase hemp clothing made from fiber grown in the US. The US still prohibits the growing of industrial hemp by American farmers, forcing hemp clothiers to import hemp from abroad.

There are, however, a growing number of clothing companies, mainly smaller ones, which offer non-sweatshop and organic clothes. These companies include: Patagonia, Gaiam, Maggie's Organics, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Hempy's, Globalwear, and over a hundred others. Unfortunately, most US consumers, even organic consumers, have never heard of these socially and environmentally responsible clothing companies.

In the absence of widespread public awareness and marketplace pressure, corporate agribusiness, Monsanto, and transnational clothing companies are doing business as usual. Levi-Strauss, once held up as being the most pro-worker and socially responsible of the large garment companies, the largest cotton buyer in the world, continues to buy only pesticide drenched and genetically engineered (GE) cotton, and has recently announced that they will be following the lead of other US brands and moving all their production overseas to low-wage areas. The Gap, despite years of protests by anti-sweatshop activists, buys GE cotton, pesticide cotton, and relies upon a notorious network of sweatshop sub-contractors. Companies like Ralph Lauren and Wal-Mart drape themselves in the flag, while selling non-union-made clothing produced in overseas sweatshops. Finally Nike, one of leaders of the pack, in terms of sweatshop production, is held up by many in the organic industry as a shining light--for greenwashing themselves by blending six percent organic cotton into its clothes. Sweatshop Nike has now ironically become the largest buyer of organic cotton in the world.

The Organic Consumer Association is launching a new public education and marketplace pressure campaign to raise awareness about the negative social and environmental effects of conventional and biotech cotton production and the institutionalized exploitation of clothing sweatshops. While we pressure the brand name bullies, we will highlight the Organic and Fair Made alternatives already on the marketplace. Our basic plan is to unite organic consumers, anti-GE activists, trade unionists, church social justice advocates, progressives in the fashion and garment industry, and the Fair Trade anti-sweatshop community into a potent force for fundamental change, both in the marketplace and in politics and public policy. The demands are 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 hemp in their clothing.
Stop using sweatshop labor.
Guarantee that they meet independently verified Fair Trade (non-sweatshop) standards as outlined by the United Nations International 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 of companies selling organic apparel.