Inside the global push for ethical fashion

The garment industry is colossal. Analytics updated in March 2024 project the revenue of the global apparel market at a value of USD 1.79 trillion and is on course to grow annually by 2.81 per cent until 2028. As positive of a trend this may seem, this does not reflect the widespread mistreatment of garments workers.

According to a report published by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2022, Asia makes up the largest workforce with over 60 million people working in the garment manufacturing sector and face poor working conditions, a lack in occupational health and safety as well as violations of fundamental rights, even where pay is considered adequate. 

The ILO further highlights that women, who make up nearly 60 per cent of the global workforce, are also subject to gender pay gaps and are more likely to face discrimination, harassment and violence, often with their voices going unheard.

Garment production has also been linked to forced labour, including child labor, as documented in a 2022 report by the United States Department of Labor.

Fast fashion - affordable clothing produced quickly to keep up with trends - is believed to significantly contribute to this issue due to its labour-intensive nature and has also faced criticism for its ecological impact. Despite these concerns, fast fashion is booming, with one report indicating an annual market growth of 9.45 per cent, while another predicts the market will "rise considerably in the coming years."

However, data on garment production remains limited. A 2024 report by Fashion Revolution revealed that 89 per cent of the largest global brands do not disclose their annual production figures, though estimates suggest it ranges between 80 to 150 billion items.

Despite these damning statistics, garment workers globally are at the forefront of driving change, with support from campaign groups, NGOs and consumers.

NoSweat (NS) is a UK-based solidarity campaign that operates with a non-hierarchical approach, consisting of a small group of volunteers. The campaign follows a consensus model and aims to build solidarity with garment workers and their trade unions worldwide.

In an interview with FairPlanet, Jay Kerr, the convenor, campaign administrator and head of garment wholesale, along with Mick Duncan, the founder, former organiser and general secretary, discuss the challenges facing the industry, the initiatives being undertaken by the labour force, and the international support they receive.

Getting organised

The origins of NS are unique. In the run-up to their formation in the UK in 2000, Duncan was part of Workers’ Liberty; a socialist labour movement organisation. Together with other colleagues, and alongside other anarchists and socialists involved in the anti-capitalist movement at the time, he was involved in the campaign against the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which sought to restrict the right to protest. 

"When that bill passed into law," he explained, "we wanted to carry on with some of the more fun, inventive direct action campaigning we had been doing and were looking around for inspiration."

Influenced by the work of United Students Against Sweatshops in the US, which supported sweatshop workers to unionise and pressured brands to change their practices, "we decided to give it a go," he added. 

Since its formation, NS has relied on the efforts of volunteers and operated on a small budget. But what they lacked in funding, they made up for with creativity and enthusiasm, often focusing on stunts, demonstrations and direct actions. This included supporting workers organising in Mexico by drawing attention to conditions in factories used by global brands like Nike, which had been embroiled in scandals involving sweatshops, child labour and poor working conditions - issues notably documented in a detailed research by American labour organiser Jeffrey Ballinger.

Though Phil Knight, then CEO and chairman of Nike, pledged to end child labour and "apply US rules abroad," labour rights groups were left disappointed. A comprehensive and damning report concluded that Nike had "treated the sweatshop issue as a matter of public relations rather than human rights."

"We would go into [the] Nike Town [shop in central London] and stick '50 per cent off - wages and workers' rights' stickers on clothes and tuck leaflets into pockets then make speeches and get thrown out," Duncan joyfully reminisced. 

Another example involved installing a subverted advertisement on a billboard during a Nike-organised fun-run event, boldly displaying "No to Nike naked greed!" using iconography similar to the brand's. NS also channeled their creativity into producing and publishing a comic book themed around the successful Kukdong strike.

Puma also became a focus of NS, leading to the occupation of their flagship store and headquarters in London in support of workers organising to form a union at the Mexmode factory in Mexico. Despite being the factory's main client, Puma initially refused to take responsibility, Duncan explained. However, they later agreed to negotiate with the workforce through the Centro de Apoyo al Trabajador (CAT) union, which resulted in improved working conditions.

From there, a transatlantic network of solidarity began to take shape, becoming the model for NS. They organised a joint speaking tour in the UK, featuring a CAT representative, to share experiences and exchange ideas. Similarly, Duncan traveled to Mexico with trade unionists, activists and renowned anarchist writer and musician Alice Nutter to visit workers, lobby politicians and participate in media interviews, all aimed at applying pressure on the brands exploiting the factory workforce.

Duncan is confident that NS was making an impact, but believes it was particularly important that connections were being forged between unions internationally, including in Mexico, Indonesia and Iraq, and that UK-based activists were able to support them. 

For Duncan, sometimes that meant getting into trouble. "We had a lot of fun and got up the brands' noses!" he recalled, making light of being thrown-out of buildings and getting arrested. 

However, following the Conservative Party's victory in the 2010 general election, NS went on hiatus as members focused on campaigns against the government's austerity measures. Kerr, who had been part of NS since 2001, continued similar work abroad with the MAP Foundation, a grassroots NGO supporting Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. Upon his return in 2015, NS reemerged.

Back to work

NS regrouped and analysed the anti-sweatshop movement both in the UK and internationally to determine how they could best contribute once again.

"Since we started," Kerr explained, "there had been a cultural shift [in the UK] about what sweatshops were, as well as the environmental impact that goes into producing our clothes."

He believes that the growth of fast fashion coincided with a rising demand for ethically produced fashion. However, he maintains that while many major brands signed up for various accreditation schemes to showcase their ethical and eco-friendly practices, the problem was it was all a facade.

A testament to this is a 10-year study published in 2020 by MSI Integrity, which examined 40 different organisations providing accreditation schemes and concluded that they are "not fit for purpose." The study highlighted the lack of worker involvement as a major point of failure and a key issue to address. For Kerr, the solution is simple: strong, independent trade unions. This is where NS directed their efforts.

In 2015, Kerr launched No Sweat Clothing (NSC).

Initially, they explored sourcing garments from workers' cooperatives but encountered technical, economic and bureaucratic complications. However, solutions were found. They then turned to trade unions they had previously collaborated with for recommendations on factories where they had successfully organised workers and established collective bargaining agreements.

"The main premise of [NSC] was to put workers rights front and centre," Kerr stated. And now that they had established a source of garments from fully unionised factories, he proudly began promoting their garments as union-made. 

The launch of NSC coincided with a collaboration with Punk Ethics, an anti-sweatshop campaign within the UK’s do-it-yourself punk scene. This partnership included the release of a short campaign film titled Punks Against Sweatshops.

Kerr explained that the target audience was the politically progressive music scene, which he felt had largely overlooked the origins of band t-shirts and the conditions under which they were made. The campaign aimed to raise awareness and offer an ethical alternative.

Available in 12 different languages, the film was well-received. "We were contacted by punks from across Europe and as far away as South America and Japan," Kerr said.

Since then, NSC has provided garments internationally not only to bands but also to trade unions in the UK and Europe, charities, campaigns, brands and others who, as Kerr stated, "want to take ethical fashion seriously." Amnesty International is one of their most notable clients.

As NSC is a non-profit entity, any profits made are reinvested into NS, its campaigns and are also distributed to the trade unions they support. Kerr said, "that means when people use [NSC]…they are not just buying an ethical T-shirt, they are actively contributing to the fight against sweatshop labour."

Additionally, they established the Garment Workers Solidarity Fund, which provides small amounts of unrestricted funding to unions as needed. Examples of beneficiaries include Batay Ouvriye in Haiti (through the Haiti Support Group) and NGWF in Bangladesh.

Reflecting on the last two decades, said that "there’s a lot of stories" about the work they have done, the achievements that have been made and the people they have met.

According to Kerr, one campaign stands out: Myanmar. Drawing on his experiences working with the MAP Foundation in northern Thailand and connections made with the Burmese punk band The Rebel Riot, NS established a relationship with a growing trade unionist movement in Myanmar. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they collaborated with the band to fundraise for garment workers who lost their jobs due to lockdown measures, channeling the support through local trade union groups.

Additionally, they carried out similar work for Operajeo, an NSC garment supplier in Bangladesh. While this support made a meaningful impact, the situation in Myanmar deteriorated significantly following the military coup in 2021.

In addition to the thousands killed and many more arrested, trade unions were outlawed, with reports indicating that union members were "killed, arbitrarily arrested, subjected to sham trials, convicted, detained, abused and tortured, threatened and intimidated."

Despite living under military control, the systemic abuse and murder of garment workers and other civilians are closely tracked and well-documented. Yet, internal worker solidarity and organising continue underground, and international pressure has persisted. NS has actively supported these efforts.

"The strategy was to undermine the regime in any way possible, and as the military had its connections in every aspect of financial life in Myanmar they called for the burgeoning garment industry to be closed down and demanded that international fashion brands stop sourcing from Myanmar," Kerr explained. 

NS worked to amplify this call for action in the UK and globally by launching the "Myanmar Military: Never in Fashion" campaign.

"We gathered over 200 signatories from trade unions and civil society groups from over 100 countries and called on fashion brands to leave Myanmar," he said. NS continues to support the struggle against the military junta. 

Stronger together

Even those outside Myanmar's military rule are not guaranteed safety from repression, as " lack of union representation comes with a host of problems."

Kerr added, "poverty wages, harassment and intimidation, sexual violence, forced labour through unpaid overtime, as well as dangerous conditions such as poor ventilation, unsanitary conditions and locked fire exits are all reported regularly."

He is realistic about the scale and severity of human rights abuses within the garment industry, and though proud of NS's achievements, he admitted, "workers' rights are still severely lacking in the industry across the globe." But NS is not alone in addressing these challenges.

War on Want, an anti-poverty and human rights charity, and Labour Behind The Label, a non-profit cooperative organisation campaigning for garment workers' rights, have also collaborated with NS in campaigns such as the Rana Plaza Solidarity Collective. This collective organises annual commemorative protests for those who lost their lives in the 2013 collapse of a garment factory.

Garment manufacturers like Continental Clothing, Stanley & Stella and AS Colour offer alternatives that go much further than others, such as Fruit of the Loom and Gildan, in maintaining fair working conditions and minimising environmental impact. However, Kerr highlights an important consideration: many workforces remain non-unionised.

This focus on unionised labour is one factor that sets NS apart from others. Unlike NGOs or businesses, NS is a solidarity campaign. "[NSC] is the only non-profit operating in this field that has a policy of exclusively working with unionised factories recommended by trade unions on the ground in garment-producing countries… and we provide no-strings-attached money directly to the fight against sweatshops," Kerr shared. 

While acknowledging that other initiatives have good intentions, Kerr remains cautious about the role of the consumer. He explained, "People need to speak up against abuses and should aim to buy from places that are genuinely doing things to improve conditions. [But] we can’t change the world through shopping."

These concerns and reflections align with sentiments expressed by others in the field.

Muhammad Azizul Islam (Aziz), a professor of sustainability accounting and transparency at the University of Aberdeen Business School and an expert in sweatshops and the garment industry, told FairPlanet that within the context of global trade and supply chains, he views garment workers as victims of modern-day slavery.

"[In my] 18 years of research on the livelihood of garment workers, both retailers in the global north and suppliers in the global south have become rich and ballooned their profits, while workers’ economic, social and even environmental conditions have not changed," he said.

For him, even legislative measures have proven ineffective. The Modern Slavery Act 2015, for example, is "disclosure driven" and serves more to "assist risk management for retailers rather than helping workers." In fact, his 2021 report highlights that the Act lacks any penalty provisions for non-compliant retailers.

He believes a way forward would be to introduce legislation requiring companies to enforce specific standards throughout their supply chains, similar to the German Supply Chain Act. While he acknowledges that this approach is not without flaws, he considers it a step in the right direction. He further suggests that this could be complemented by the establishment of an international fashion watchdog.

Islam acknowledges that despite the lack of "real actions" being taken by retailers and regulators to eliminate exploitation, NGOs, charities and activist groups are playing a crucial role in amplifying the voices of the workforce.

"Without [them]," he explained, "we living in the Global North would hardly know what is really happening." He emphasised that these groups are a vital catalyst for creating demands for transparency and accountability. However, he does not shy away from acknowledging the limitations and challenges that arise. Despite the positive work being done, he believes a consistent problem is the constraint in resources.

In contrast, Islam observed that considerable resources are available for businesses to reinvest in maintaining a cleaner image. He noted that "in the neoliberal and self-interest driven economy, businesses and regulators are maximising their own interests." This, he explained, creates additional challenges for grassroots campaign groups like NS, which he described as "radical in nature."

Reflecting on the future, Islam stated that the way forward lies in a combination of activist and civil society monitoring groups, alliances, coordinated trade unions and worker solidarity initiatives on the ground. While NGOs and charities also play a role, he sees other avenues for contributions, including "pro-worker academics," who, he affirmed, "should come forward and work together to make a difference."

This aligns with the lessons Kerr has learned throughout his journey with NS and beyond: "together, we are stronger."

Correction [22/8/2024]: an earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that No Sweat donates money to the TTCU in India. 

Image by No Sweat.