Sunday, November 04, 2007

Gap plans 'sweatshop free' labels - now that's an "oh shit, they've found out" response if ever I saw one......

According to this article in the Guardian, Gap Inc is drawing up plans to label its products 'Sweatshop Free'.

Yes, this is all well and good. And from reading further about the success Rugmark has had eliminating child labour in the carpet industry in India, it could have a huge impact.
But lets not let all this backslapping get in the way of what we all know:
Gap knew child labour was going on. And they're only doing this wonderful humanitarian thing because they got found out.
In the same way that all major corporations in the worl know about the various human rights abuses being carried out in the production of their clothes/trainers/soft drink/food/toys/anything you can think of.

But then again. The same could be said of us. We knew that Gap knew. We know that Corporate Entity X knows. But we still buy their clothes/trainers/soft drink/food/toys/anything you can think of.

It's tough being a grown up with a brain sometimes.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12:36 PM

    It's true. We are all complicit in allowing child labour to an extent. Lets hope it doesn't come to this:

    http://www.4continentscapitalmanagement.co.uk/

    ReplyDelete