Fair Trade and You - Part 1

Natalie Armstrong has devoted countless hours to her role as the Volunteer Coordinator for 10 Million Clicks For Peace. A recent graduate of Life and Spiritual Coaching and Curative Hypnotherapy, Natalie is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Metaphysics with majors in Healing and Teaching. She has dedicated the last 10 years of her life to bridging the gaps between fashion, consumer education and social justice for the employees of the worlds garment factories.This is Part 1 of a 3 part series.

Fair trade is a term you have likely heard before, and you may have a good idea as to what it is about. You have probably even tasted the benefits at one time or another. However, let us investigate just what fair trade actually is.

Fair trade, as laid out by the World Fair Trade Organization, is explained in the following terms:

“A trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South.

Fair Trade organizations have a clear commitment to Fair Trade as the principal core of their mission. They, backed by consumers, are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising, and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade. They can be recognized by the WFTO logo.

Fair Trade is more than just trading: it proves that greater justice in world trade is possible. It highlights the need for change in the rules and practice of conventional trade and shows how a successful business can also put people first.”

This valuable information is an excellent summary of fair trade, but it hasn’t yet provided us with the ‘on the ground’ representation of what is, or what is definitely not the result of fair trade. This is where I’m stepping in!

Having seen and experienced both sides of this issue first hand, I will recount some important ‘what is not fair trade’ signs, an easy task for me since my experiences are based mostly in Bangladesh and India. Both countries are renowned for their child labor and corruption issues, with the majority of their populations subsisting on under a dollar a day. Having stated this, however, I will also share with you my observations of the stark and obvious difference and impact fair trade makes on populations.

The fashion industry is rife with unethical behavior. Therefore, when I first arrived in India to start my own ethical fashion label, I decided not only to connect with ethical producers, but to take the back street tours of factories to discover and observe the situation for myself. What I found was expected but far more wide spread than I was previously led to believe.

After all the years of abuse from external and internal power, countries like India and Bangladesh were so rife with child labor as well as modern forms of slavery and poverty, that it took my breath away. And although it was all there for me to see, I knew of course there was far more hidden that I was not witness to. My thought was, “if this is what I am exposed to, then I shudder to think what the ugly truth might be that is left hidden in the shadows?”

I decided that I had to be involved in its change. It was then, although without my full understanding of the movement that my relationship with fair trade over ethical trade began. Recently, I began working in Bangladesh, and although I thought I had seen and experienced a good deal in India, Bangladesh proved to be a far worse horror.

Bangladesh is the most overpopulated country in the world. The country won independence after a long and bloody conflict in 1971, and is today a land embedded in shocking poverty and corruption. In India, at least, there are rays of hope, whereas in Bangladesh, the light has nearly been snuffed out. As I struggle to identify it, I can only imagine how the Bangladeshis must be feeling as a desperate people in their equally desperate land.

Within days of arriving, my business partner Amanda took me to the slums of Dhaka. She had been working in Bangladesh for over two years, and felt I was ready to see the worst it had to show me. Amanda knew I had travelled through India extensively, and this previous experience would hopefully help to prepare me. It was also her way of making sure I was fit to work for these people, perhaps like a test I needed to pass. Truthfully, I had no idea what was coming; that I was about to face some of Dhaka’s darkest secrets.

June 14th 2010 is a day engraved forever in my memory. Taken to the slums of Islampur on the edge of the Buriganga River, I found myself in a putrid hell, a never ending pit of vile stench that would make even the strongest constitution quake and retch. It was clear I was not prepared at all…

A queasy nausea began to fill my whole body. Subtlety failing me, I looked up from my retching to ask my companion, “Why am I being shown this?”

Amanda pointed out that I was probably ill from the chemical fog belching from the leather factories, in front of which our rickshaw had stopped. This fetid air, polluting the slums which are home to thousands upon thousands, was the air these residents breathed and lived in every day. It was then I realized just why I was there and why I had to see this.

We were in the area in Dhaka, where most of the leather factories operate. Amanda pointed them out as we continued along in a rickshaw. As we proceeded, she began relaying her experiences inside one of these factories where she had worked the year before.

Amanda explained that those ‘lucky’ enough to get employment inside these leather factories were as young as five years of age. Children, she said, slaving away entombed inside the bowels of these dark, hot factories. Their tiny hands were perfect for cutting the smaller parts off the slaughtered cows.

These children were often the only members of their family to earn money, Amanda informed me. The parents of these children sincerely felt that there was no other choice for them or their family to stave off starvation. Sadly, these parents were likely correct in their painful assumption.

As vile effluent poured out of the factories directly into the air and water around the slums, we noticed children playing in the thick stench of rubbish in the water that was clearly being used as a dumping ground. Some jump from one pile of rotting plastic to another, without ever touching the water, while others further out actually swim in it. This is all they have ever known in their short, innocent and unprotected lives.

Official statement by the Bangladeshi government declares that an adult Bangladeshi fashion factory worker, on average, can earn approximately 1,660 taka (US $23.70) per month. But in reality it will often be far less. This amount is not enough to cover the basics of fresh, clean water, soap, appropriate housing and food for one person, let alone entire families.

Consider the fact that one Bangladeshi slum room can cost between 2000 and 2500 taka (or US $28.70 - $35.90) per month in rent. When factory workers’ wages are less than this per month, one can see just how unethical behavior keeps these people just where the corrupt authorities want to hold them. The reality is that whole families are forced to survive on these wages; they must live in the most unhygienic of environments, such as dirt floors, open sewers, barely enough clothing, no hygiene products and seemingly no end of misery in sight. Children are forced to beg on the streets, work in factories or pick up rubbish to recycle for a pittance, just to help out.

Most factories, especially the clothing factories in Bangladesh, are located on the fringes of slums like these. They survive by hiring the cheapest and most desperate labor to keep the machines rolling. Sickened by their behavior, I saw this clearly happening while I was there in their hell watching them.

“Those factory owners,” I cried in anger, “are accomplices to sheer evil!” And then I wept.

Part 2 of Fair Trade and You will be posted tomorrow.

Natalie Armstrong is the co-owner and designer of the fair trade and ethical fashion label Bachhara (meaning children in Bangali) and has dedicated the last 10 years of her life to bridging the gaps between fashion, consumer education and social justice for the employees of the world’s garment factories. She has used her extensive experience in creative arts to work towards the Bachhara vision of crafting beautiful clothing with fair trade and heart. Visit www.bachhara.com