A group of representatives from the National Labor Committee has just returned from another trip to Bangladesh to monitor the conditions of garment workers in factories and sweatshops. There, we met ordinary workers in the textile industry, trade unionists close to their interests and concerns, as well as experts researching labour issues in Bangladesh.
As a result of this trip, here is a brief response to Farida Kahns openDemocracy article Getting real about globalisation in Bangladesh.
Farida Khan argues that the garment industry continues to form a vital part of Bangladeshs gradual and uncertain emergence from poverty, and that without it, the conditions for millions of people would be a lot worse, and calls for the buying houses that deal directly with small-scale producers to be required to buy only from factories where labour rules are followed. But, she continues, focusing on working conditions is only one way, and probably not the best way, to improve the lives of workers in Bangladesh. Better to lobby for increased market access for Bangladesh within the World Trade Organisation framework.
The problem with this approach is that it ultimately relies on the goodwill of corporations and powerful global agencies like the WTO to improve the conditions of those who make the worlds clothes (see Anita Roddicks original openDemocracy article If shirts could speak and we the people would listen). But these are precisely the forces that guarantee these workers existing poverty and degradation.
The corporations who benefit from the global trading system in which Farida Khan reposes such faith would never settle for an agreement that would weaken their trademarks or their right to roam free in the global economy. These corporations have demanded and won all sorts of enforceable laws, backed up by sanctions, to defend their trademarks, products, and ability to function without let or hindrance.
Such companies argue that without such laws, there would be no level playing-field and everything would descend into chaos.
But why shouldnt the very human beings who sustain the global economy the workers who toil in factories and sweatshops have at least as much legal protection and rights as are afforded the products of their labour? Wouldnt the free-market system operate more truly in respect of its professed principles and best outcomes if it embodied checks and balances to ensure that workers themselves have rights that protect their interests in the face of massive corporate power?
Farida Khan emphasises the growing participation of women in the workforce in Bangladesh, and that many are aware of their interests, ready for struggle, able to organise and engage in various forms of resistance. But she underestimates how difficult it is if not impossible for workers in the developing world to organise to win their rights if there is not simultaneous pressure in the marketplaces where corporations sell their products. We agree completely that the women garment workers are heroic in their struggle. All they are asking for is a helping hand from international solidarity, which is what we are dedicated to giving them.
We all realise how critical these jobs are to Bangladesh. All we are saying together with our partners in Bangladesh is that these women deserve to be treated as human beings and not animals. This is not too much to ask of the rich and powerful of this world.
