York P&P hangs out Topshop’s dirty laundry on the highstreet
Get your refund on workers’ rights on Saturday 1 March!
On Thursday 6 December P&P groups in 16 cities around the country hung out Topshop’s dirty laundry on the high street as part of our national day of action to Redress Fashion. Saturday 1 March, during Fairtrade Fortnight, is the next national day of action to put pressure on Topshop to make a serious commitment to improving labour conditions in its supply chains. We are calling for a refund on workers’ rights!
Take action now!
What are you planning?
Here are some action ideas…but we also want to hear from you!
Refund on workers’ rights
Not satisfied with the quality of the pay and conditions for the workers making Topshop clothes? Why not buy some things from Topshop and immediately take them back for a refund … over and over again? Make sure you explain why the products are unsatisfactory so that the message makes it up Topshop’s management chain. If lots of people, all over the country, do this it could be really effective.
Activists taking part in a ‘Whirl-mart’ action to reclaim corporate-dominated space and create a symbolic spectacle.
This kind of ‘till-jamming’ tactic has been used around the world by anti-corporate activists on Buy Nothing Days. A ‘Whirl-Mart’ participant reports:
Picture a team of jammers in lab coats, quietly pushing empty shopping carts up and down Wal-Mart aisles. Fun enough; definitely Zen. Or, take it to the next level. Fill the carts with junk and buy it all. “On buy nothing day?” you ask. Yes. Did you know that Wal-Mart has a guaranteed return policy? Get your refund and start again. And again. And again. The line-ups can get a bit long, but hey, it’s a great opportunity to talk with shoppers.
An advantage of of in-store action is that it allows your group can protest even if your local store is in a shopping centre - security guards should not be able to kick you out as, after all, you are just shopping!
No Sweat activist awards Topshop the ‘Golden Arse’ award for coming bottom on workers’ rights.
No Sweat
High street stunts
There are loads of eye-catching stunts your group could organise to grab people’s attention and get your message across:
- In 2006 No Sweat awarded Top(Bottom)shop the ‘Golden Arse’ outside stores around the country for coming bottom on workers’ rights.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers illustrate the poverty wages paid by the big fast food brands.
CIW
In protest at the poverty wages paid to farm workers picking tomatoes for the big fast food brands, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers made a giant pyramid of all the tomatoes a worker would have to pick just to earn $50. A massive pile of clothing could also be a powerful representation of poverty pay for workers producing for Topshop.
In ‘No Logo’, Naomi Klein reports on the activities of anti-sweatshop campaigners protesting against Nike:
Campaigners have dramatised Nike’s labour practices through what they call ‘sweatshop fashion shows’ and ‘The Transnational Capital Auction: A Game of Survival’ (the lowest bidder wins) and a global economy treadmill (run fast, stay in the same place). In Australia, anti-Nike protesters have been known to parade around in calico bags painted with the slogan ‘rather wear a bag than Nike’. Students at the University of Colorado dramatised the difference between the legal minimum wage and a living wage by holding a fundraising run in which ‘participants pay an entrance fee of $1.60 (daily wages for a Nike worker in Vietnam) and the winner will receive $2.10 (the price of three square meals in Vietnam)’. Meanwhile, activists in Austin, Texas, made a giant papier mache Nike sneaker pinata…
Banners, leaflets, action cards and petitions
Banners with slogans and key bits of information make sure your message is clear to passers by. As well as raising awareness about the injustice, it is important that there is something people can do about it. You could hand out action cards, collect signatures for a petition, invite people to join in the action and your group’s future activities. Oxford P&P collected a petition asking their local Topshop manager to support the campaign’s demands.
Another thing to think about is bringing along some flyers/ info for shop staff - so they know what’s going on and that the campaign is not against them, but against the exploitation of workers throughout the supply chain - from the fields to the shop floor. In fact, many Topshop workers in the UK (who may also be P&Pers…) will not be earning a living wage or have trade union representation either.
We will put together a webpage where you can share your resources - watch this space!
Email us with details of what you’re up to - we’re compiling a list so local groups can link up and interested people can be put in touch with what’s going on in their local area.