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Further reading, watching and web-browsing


Contents

Below you’ll find a list of links to websites, books, reports, and films which provide information, advice and resources on various issues relevant to People & Planet’s Redress Fashion campaign. This is a growing resource, so do check back, and if you’ve read or watched something useful that we haven’t included here, please do let us know.

Cotton

Cotton and International trade rules

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Impacts of Reductions in US Cotton Subsidies on West African Cotton Producers Julian M. Alston, Daniel A. Sumner, and Henrich Brunke for Oxfam America, June 2007.


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Redressing a global imbalance: The case for Fairtrade Certified Cotton, Fairtrade Foundation, November 2005


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Truth or Consequences: Why the the EU and the USA must reform their subsidies, or pay the price, Oxfam, November 2005


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A round for free: How rich countries are getting a free ride on agricultural subsidies at the WTO, Oxfam, June 2005


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Who will be left to cheer the end of illegal US cotton subsidies? Why African cotton farmers cannot afford US inaction on cotton subsidies, Oxfam, March 2005


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WTO Sub-committee on cotton. “WTO members on 19 November 2004 set up a body to focus on cotton, as required in the 1 August 2004 decision — sometimes called the “July Package” — covering all the WTO negotiations. The agreement to create a body to focus specifically on cotton is part of WTO member governments’ response to proposals from four African countries — Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali — to tackle the sector … The proposal described the damage that the four believe has been caused to them by cotton subsidies in richer countries, called for the subsidies to be eliminated, and for compensation to be paid to the four while the subsidies remain, to cover economic losses caused by the subsidies.”


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WTO documents on US-Brazil Cotton dispute:


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Cotton and the Environment

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The Deadly Chemicals in Cotton, Environmental Justice Foundation in collaboration with Pesticide Action Network UK, 2007, London, UK. ISBN 1-904523-10-2. This report “exposes the human health and the environmental cost of pesticide use in global cotton production. US$2 billion worth of chemicals are sprayed on world’s cotton every year, many are classified ‘extremely or highly hazardous’ by the World Health Organisation.”


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Wear Organic, Pesticide Action Network. “Wear Organic is a project from Pesticide Action Network UK aiming to reduce the problems from pesticides used in cotton, particularly by promoting organic and fair alternatives.” The site includes the report My sustainable T-shirt: A guide to organic, fair trade, and other eco standards and labels for cotton textiles; an information resource centre with “everything you need to know about cotton and sustainability, including pesticide, health and GM issues; information on [where cotton is grown throughout the world] and a consumer guide and directory.


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The Water footprint of cotton consumption, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, September 2005. “The aim of this report is to assess the ‘water footprint’ of worldwide cotton consumption, identifying both the location and the character of the impacts.”


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Soil Association UK. “The UK’s leading environmental charity promoting sustainable, organic farming and championing human health”.


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Cotton and Human rights

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The Curse of Cotton: Central Asia’s Destructive Monoculture,, International Crisis Group , February 2005. This report from the International Crisis Group “examines the corrosive role cotton plays in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Comprehensive reform of the industry is desperately needed to address the political, economic, social and environmental problems facing the region. The international community, which has a direct stake in Central Asia’s cotton sector, has a responsibility to get involved.”


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Uzbekistan: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, 2006, United States Department of State, March 2007. Each year, the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor, in the US Department of State “develops, edits, and submits to Congress a 5,000-page report on human rights conditions in over 190 countries”


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Uzbekistan, Country Brief 2006, World Bank, The World Bank Group, updated September 2006. Key statistics on Uzbekistan, data and analysis of the economy, and details of World Bank programs in the country.


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Watch ‘White Gold, The True Cost of Cotton’ an eight minute film from the Environmental Justice Foundation, online.


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Craig Murray’s weblog on Uzbekistan “As Britain’s outspoken Ambassador to the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan, Craig Murray helped expose vicious human rights abuses by the US-funded regime of Islam Karimov. He is now a prominent critic of Western policy in the region.”


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The garment industry and the environment

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Well dressed? The present and future sustainability of clothing and textiles in the United Kingdom, University of Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing, 2006, ISBN 1-902546-52-0. “This report presents the outcome of a five person-year study conducted at the Institute for Manufacturing on the future supply of clothing and textiles to the UK. The bulk of the work of the project was a scenario analysis of various future means to meet the UKs demand for clothing and textiles. The scenarios were developed with three case study products, and analysed according to the “triple bottom line”, including environmental life cycle costs, calculation of national accounts and prediction of employment changes.”


Labour Rights

Organisations and initiatives to improve labour standards

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The International Labour Organisation. The ILO is a UN agency which aims to promote social justice and human and labour rights.

Find out more about international labour standards and which countries have ratified ILO conventions.


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The Ethical Trading Initiative. “The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) is an alliance of companies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and trade union organisations. We exist to promote and improve the implementation of corporate codes of practice which cover supply chain working conditions. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that the working conditions of workers producing for the UK market meet or exceed international labour standards.”


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The ETI code of labour practice: Do workers really benefit?, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 2006


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ETI Annual Review 2006-7 ETHICAL TRADE: MEASURING UP?, ETI, November 2007.


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House of Commons International Development Committee report on Fair Trade and Development, Seventh Report of Session 2006—07, The Stationery Office, 14 June 2007. From the report’s summary: “Growth in awareness of fair trade in the UK has led to increased demand for fair trade products and an increase in the number of companies and retailers offering them. Fair trade has also had an impact on raising levels of corporate social responsibility across the board. However some retailers in the UK are engaged in fierce price competition to gain a greater share of the market. This takes place amidst reports of low wages and poor working conditions for many workers and farmers supplying UK retailers and raises questions about whether the monitoring of such standards is sufficiently robust.”


House of Commons International Development Committee, Fair Trade and Development: Government Response to the Committee’s Seventh Report of Session 006—07, Eighth Special Report of Session 2006—07, The Stationery Office, 18 October 2007.


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The Clean Clothes Campaign is “an international campaign, focused on improving working conditions in the global garment and sportswear industries, and empower the workers in it. There is a Clean Clothes Campaign in 11 European countries. These are Austria, Belgium (North and South), France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.”. Their [reference section on code implementation and verification]9http://www.cleanclothes.org/codes) “presents an overview of eight years of code related work. It provides links to materials that were developed by the CCC and others related to code content, implementation systems and mechanisms for verification. The guide also includes materials regarding the discussion on the usefulness of codes as a strategy for improving the application of international labour standards throughout supply chains, and the primary challenges for the future.”


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Labour behind the Label is the UK platform of the Clean Clothes Campaign . Read more about codes of conduct on their website.


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JO-IN, The Joint Initiative on Corporate Accountability and Workers Rights brings together the Clean Clothes Campaign, Ethical Trading Initiative, Fair Labour Association, Fair Wear Foundation, Social Accountability International and Workers Rights Consortium to “maximise the effectiveness and impact of multistakeholder approaches to the implementation and enforcement of codes of conduct, by ensuring that resources are directed as efficiently as possible to improving the lives of workers and their families; to explore possibilities for closer co-operation between the organizations; to share learning on the manner in which voluntary codes of labour practice contribute to better workplace conditions in global supply chains.”


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Fair Labour Association


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The Responsible Purchasing Initiative is co-ordinated by three European fair trade organisations, IDEAS, Oxfam-Wereldwinkels, and Traidcraft, who *”share a commitment to fighting poverty through trade and seek to influence conventional trade policies and practices constructively to also improve their impacts on developing countries.” It aims to stimulate debate with stimulate debate with companies about how to improve their buying practices from low cost countries; governments on how to create a business operating environment that supports business’ contribution to the respect of international human rights; and consumers. The site includes a series of useful reports which among other things consider what responsible purchasing is, guides to good practice, competition policy, and the tea industry.


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Corporate regulation

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The Corporate Responsibility (CORE) Coalition works to change laws improving the environment and society at large.


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Act Now! A campaigner’s guide to The Companies Act. On 1 October 2007 is the date on which the Companies Act 2006 starts to come into force. After lots of hard work over the past few years it’s important to take the time to stand back and celebrate our success in getting the UK’s reformed companies legislation to include provisions for people and the environment (a world first!). The CORE Coalition and the Trade Justice Movement have produced a campaigner’s guide to the Companies Act. This guide provides advice and ideas on how activists and campaigners can use the new opportunities available because of the Companies Act to help improve the social and environmental performance of companies.


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Corporate Abuse in 2007: A Corporate Responsiblity (CORE) Coalition Discussion Paper, 22 November 2007. CORE. This in depth discussion paper reviews a range of legal instruments to tackle corporate abuse.


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Universities and Labour Standards

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Universities and Labor standards in the global economy, Lecture/discussion featuring Auret van Heerden, Pres. and CEO of the Fair Labor Association, and Scott Nova, Exec. Dir. of the Worker Rights Consortium, Jagdish Bhagwati, University Professor, and Mark Barenberg, Professor of Law, April 2007, Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). “Over the last decade a number of non-governmental organizations have sprung up to fill the need for transparent monitoring of labor conditions for some of the most vulnerable workers. Universities have been at the forefront of this movement. The Worker Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association have been active in these efforts, but each takes a different approach. This university-wide event is dedicated to exploring the neutral enforcement of fair labor standards and what role, if any, universities should play.”


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Workers Rights Consortium


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Public procurement

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Buy Fair: A Local Government’s Guide to the Public Purchasing of Fair Trade Products, The International Fairtrade Association, October 2006. *”Many public authorities have already begun to purchase Fair Trade products but a number of barriers exist to more widespread mplementation. This guide provides clear and simple advice for European public authorities wishing to buy Fair Trade products and contains: * An introduction to Fair Trade * Advice on minimising legal uncertainties in procurement * topical texts that can be used directly in public tenders * Suggestions for other complementary activities


Improving supply chain conditions

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Let’s Clean Up Fashion: the state of pay behind the UK high street, 2007 update. Labour Behind the Label, 2007 A report looking at what efforts UK high street retailers are making to improve conditions in their factories.


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Progress not perfection: 10 years of making an impactt, impactt Limited, 2007. “Impactt helps companies to improve labour standards in their supply chains in a way that makes business sense.” This report reviews work on labour standards and ethical supply chain management over the last ten years. It “Reviews how the debates and issues have evolved over the past ten years; Explains Impactt’s model of working; Analyses some important data drawn from all of Impactt’s site visits since January 2006; Draws key lessons from a series of case studies covering the most entrenched issues in tackling labour standards, migrant labour, child labour, overtime, and worker empowerment.”


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Buying your way into trouble? The challenge of responsible supply chain management, Insight Investment, in conjunction with Acona, 2004. Insight Investment is the asset management of UK financial services company HBOS, (which owns 8% of the Arcadia Group). Acona is an international consulting group focused on understanding risk and improving performance. “Insight has an explicit commitment to act as a responsible investor … principally by engaging proactively with the companies in which we invest…” This report explores the impact of companies’ supply chain management practices and the drive for greater efficiency on suppliers factories and farms and whether they are forced to “contravene some of the ethical standards in order to meet the buyers’ requirements”, and asks whether “in order to find practical ways to improve labour standards in suppliers’ businesses, do we need to look at the very nature of corporate buying practice?”


Labour Rights abuses

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The Sweatshop high street. More brands under fire, The Guardian, Karen McVeigh, 3 September, 2007

Asda, Tesco and Primark accused over clothing factories, The Guardian, Karen McVeigh, 16 July, 2007


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Fashion Victims: The true cost of cheap clothes at Tesco, Asda and Primark. War on Want, 2007. A report exposing exploitative practices at factories in Bangladesh, produced by War on Want and researched by Labour Behind the Label.


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Who Pays For Cheap Clothes? 5 questions the low-cost retailers must answer. Labour behind the Label, 2007. A report on the purchasing practices of retailers, and what effect these have on workers in garment factories.


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Who pays? The real cost of cheap school uniforms, ActionAid, 2007 “£450million is spent on school uniforms in the UK every year, as supermarkets compete to get parents through the door you can now buy a whole school uniform — including shoes — for less than £10. But as the prices are cut who is paying the real cost? ActionAid’s film shows the impact supermarket price wars are having on the women in Bangladesh who are making school uniforms.”


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Who Pays? How British Supermarkets are Keeping Women Workers in Poverty. ActionAid, 2007. A report exploring the supply chains that link the products we buy in supermarkets to the people in developing countries who produce them.


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‘Trading Away our Rights: Women working in global supply chains’ Oxfam, 2004. This report examines how corporate rights are becoming ever stronger, while poor people´s rights and protections at work are being weakened, and women are paying the social costs.


Gender and labour rights

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Made by Women, December 2005, Clean Clothes campaign International Secretariat. This 128-page publication includes feature articles on important themes relating to gender and labour rights and 17 profiles of women involved in different ways in the movement for garment workers’ rights.


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Campaigning organisations

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People & Planet’s Redress Fashion campaign focuses on what we can do as students to support the struggles of garment workers worldwide.


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Labour behind the Label a campaign that supports garment workers’ efforts worldwide to improve their working conditions, through awareness raising, information provision and encouraging international solidarity between workers and consumers. Labour behind the Label coordinates the UK platform of the Clean Clothes Campaign, an international campaign, focused on improving working conditions in the global garment and sportswear industries, and empower the workers in it.


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United Students Against Sweatshops is an international student movement of campuses and individual students fighting for sweatshop free labor conditions and workers’ rights. “We define ‘sweatshop’ broadly and recognize that it is not limited to the apparel industry, but everywhere among us. USAS’ three major areas of campiagn work are the Sweat-Free Campus Campaign; Ethical Contracting campaigns which includes the fight against Killer Coke and Nestle; and Campus-Community Solidarity campaigns, which include Living Wage and the Right to Organize.”


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No Sweat is an activist, campaigning organisation, fighting sweatshop bosses, in solidarity with workers, worldwide.


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Coalition of Immokalee Workers - a membership-led organization of mostly Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian low-wage immigrant workers based in Southwest Florida.


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Student/Farmworker Alliance - a network of students and youth organizing with farmworkers to eliminate sweatshop conditions and modern-day slavery in the fields. You can also download campaign resources.


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Alliance for Fair Food is “a network of human rights, religious, student, labor, and grassroots organizations who work in partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). We promote principles and practices of socially responsible purchasing in the corporate food industry that advance and ensure the human rights of farmworkers at the bottom of corporate supply chains.”


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Anti Slavery International - the world’s oldest international human rights organisation and the only charity in the United Kingdom to work exclusively against slavery and related abuses. Anti Slavery International work at local, national and international levels to eliminate the system of slavery around the world.

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Action Aid’s Who Pays? campaign. “highlights the cost to the poorest workers of supermarket power and is calling on the government to put in place binding regulation to ensure supermarkets can be held accountable for their social and environmental impact overseas.”


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Corporate power

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The Corporation. “Taking its status as a legal “person” to the logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist’s couch to ask “What kind of person is it?” The Corporation includes interviews with 40 corporate insiders and critics - including Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Milton Friedman, Howard Zinn, Vandana Shiva and Michael Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.”

You can also download extras from the movie, transcripts of particular sections from the movie and questions to prompt discussion.


Buy from amazon and raise cash for P&P

We'd prefer you to buy the books from your local independent bookshop, but if you'd probably buy online anyway then using these links will earn some cash for People & Planet. Note that any other goods (e.g. course books) you buy from amazon will also benefit P&P as long as you got to amazon through one of these links.

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The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power Joel Bakan, 2005, ISBN: 1845291743. This book was published to coincide with the release of the film (above).


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ActionAid’s Power Hungry report (2005) highlights “the growing power of many global food companies and how such companies have gained control of the global food chain, threatening the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of poor farmers and undermining their basic rights.”


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Walmart: The high cost of low prices. “The film dives into the deeply personal stories and everyday lives of families and communities struggling to fight a goliath. A working mother is forced to turn to public assistance to provide healthcare for her two small children. A Missouri family loses its business after Wal-Mart is given over $2 million to open its doors down the road. A mayor struggles to equip his first responders after Wal-Mart pulls out and relocates just outside the city limits. A community in California unites, takes on the giant, and wins!”


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Corporate Watch. “Corporations have gained a power out of all proportion to their original purpose. We are a research group supporting the campaigns which are increasingly successful in forcing corporations to back down. Corporate Watch is part of the growing anti-corporate movement springing up around the world.” Corporate Watch “examine the oil industry, globalisation, genetic engineering, food, toxic chemicals, privatisation and many other areas, to build up a picture of almost every type of corporate crime and the nature and mechanisms of corporate power, both economic and political. We have worked with and provided information to empower peace campaigners, environmentalists, and trade unionists; large NGOs and small autonomous groups; journalists, MPs, and members of the public.”


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No Logo Naomi Klein, 2001, ISBN: 978-0006530404


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Consumerism

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Global Culture Industry: The Mediation of Things Scott Lash and Celia Lury, 2007, ISBN: 0745624839. This book “tells the compelling story of how material objects such as watches and sportswear have become powerful cultural symbols, and how the production of symbols, in the form of globally recognized brands, has now become a central goal of capitalism. Global Culture Industry provides an empirically and theoretically rich examination of the ways in which these objects - from Nike shoes to Toy Story, from global football to conceptual art - metamorphose and move across national borders.”


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Consuming Life Zygmunt Bauman, 2007, ISBN: 0745640028. This book “examines the impact of consumerist attitudes and patterns of conduct on various apparently unconnected aspects of social life politics and democracy, social divisions and stratification, communities and partnerships, identity building, the production and use of knowledge, and value preferences.”


Make your own

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Craftster. “Craftster.org was started in August 2003 as a repository for hip, off-beat, crafty diy (do it yourself) projects … Special emphasis is placed on projects that involve recycling, reusing and repurposing existing objects. The thinking is that whenever an object can be reused rather than buried in a landfill, it’s a worthy venture — not to mention an interesting challenge!”