From Unity, 16 June 2007

Clean Clothes Campaign in Ireland at last

by Marion Baur


Ireland is one of the last EU countries to establish a branch of the Clean Clothes Campaign. After a successful stall as part of the May Day celebrations in Belfast, and quite a lot of media interest, a meeting on 9 June at the Flax Mill in Dungiven, Co. Derry, decided to form a functioning committee of what is now the world’s largest campaigning organisation against sweatshop and child labour and for workers’ rights in the garment industry.
     Founded in 1991, the CCC has grown ever since and is at present supported by more than 250 NGOs, coalitions of consumer organisations, church groups, political organisations, world shops as well as countless individuals. Trade unions play a leading role in the activities and the support of the campaign.
     The CCC has no illusions about being able to change the system on short notice but their success in a number of projects (such as the boycott of the German retail giant Tschibo for their selling of textiles from the “death mills” in Bangladesh) has been remarkable. Their main aim is raising awareness amongst consumers about the conditions their garments are being produced under. This is also the major task we are going to focus on here in Ireland.
     John Dallat, member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, who was at the meeting in Dungiven, said: “This has been a learning exercise for me and others. We have had to learn about fair trade and are now at a stage where Coleraine, for example, is a fair trade town, the council buying only such produce. We should and we can do the same in the textile sector, and I will put my weight behind this.”
     Councillor Michael Coyle (Limavady Borough Council) is intending to push in the same direction. We are going to raise public awareness about the conditions that garments are made under, show the connection between the loss of jobs in the local industry and companies using cheap labour in other countries, research on local manufacturers and their outsourcing of production: where did they go, what are the conditions for the workers there?
     As a first practical step the CCC will offer information in the form of literature and speakers to all political organisations, church groups, union branches, trades councils etc. about its work and the urgent necessity of a change of attitude to garments’ origins.
     Support by the trade unions will be crucial, and Peter Bunting, assistant general secretary of the ICTU, sent a signal in the right direction to the first meeting, which he couldn’t take part in: “I wish the campaign all the success, these are very important issues, keep us informed . . .”
     We will for sure.

“It is by taking action in our everyday lives, by provoking consumers to question what they are buying and as they buy, that we will move forward.”—Marie-Francoise Le Tallec, CCC France.
     “Thousands of young people have become involved . . . and have helped expose irresponsible companies and put pressure on them.”—Johanna Ritscher, CCC Sweden.

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