Dear [!FirstName!],

As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the inspiring history of the anti-sweatshop movement and celebrate the achievements of international solidarity: most recently a win for Honduran workers and committed student activism.  Over in Asia, thousands of resourceful workers are demanding their rights from the lingerie giant Triumph.  Meanwhile, as thousands negotiate greenhouse emissions targets in Denmark, environmentalists have linked sports shoes with deforestation in Brazil.  But here’s a link you will welcome: visit Oxfam Unwrapped to give garment workers something to celebrate this festive season.

“In this place, there is no boss taking advantage of us.  There is no threat and insult.  Most importantly, we are in a factory of our own.” Manop Kaewpaga, Solidarity Cooperative member, Bangkok, Thailand.  Photo: Junya Yimprasert

You may have ‘received’ a goat or chicken from a friend or relative before – the wonderful alternative to Christmas consumerism where you donate to a good cause instead of to the cash registers in the mall.

Not every good cause involves livestock, however.  Oxfam’s Unwrapped catalogue offers a unique opportunity to fight urban poverty by ‘buying’ the gift of Oxfam’s international advocacy for garment workers' rights.

More than 20 million workers in the developing world make the fashions the rest of the world wears – but are paid too little to support themselves and their families.  As a result of pressure by Oxfam Australia and others, there have been some improvements, and by purchasing Oxfam Unwrapped’s fair trade fashion gift you will help us keep the pressure on big brands to make sure their clothes and shoes are made under decent conditions.

Giving for the good of others is always in fashion!  In good taste and good conscience, check out our entire catalogue to send an e-card anywhere in the world, or buy the real thing in any of our 23 Oxfam Shops around Australia or at these extra locations:

• Sydney: Bondi Junction mall, opposite Gelatini
• Canberra: Woden mall, opposite King of Knives
• Adelaide: Oxfam Books in Hutt Street
• Melbourne: Gasworks market (19 Dec) or Abbotsford Convent Market (23 Dec)

Triumph workers take to the streets.  Photo: CCC

In dramatic events in the Thai capital, employees of Triumph lingerie have responded to mass sackings by occupying a government building and turning it into a garment workshop.

During the year Triumph International fired a total of 3,660 people at 3 of its subsidiaries in Thailand and the Philippines, many of them denied the severance pay required by law.

Triumph is blaming the economic crisis, yet its latest annual report claims its Asian subsidiaries are profitable and investments have increased.

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that workers were targeted for their brave and very rare success in organising to defend their rights, since the only factories Triumph closed were those boasting a union.

As further evidence of Triumph’s intent, the layoffs in the Thai factory occurred only in those selected departments where unions were most active.

Meanwhile, other Triumph factories in Thailand without a democratically elected union are expanding. Punishing workers for organising is a violation of their universal human rights as enshrined in international law.

This Jakarta protester accuses Nike of being ‘anti-environment’. Photo: Chris Wangkay/OxfamAUS

A damning Greenpeace report has prompted Nike and Adidas to boycott leather from the Brazilian Amazon where cattle-ranching is huge – and a huge cause of deforestation.

Brazil is home to over 200 million cattle.  Three-quarters of those added between 2003 and 2008 are located in the Amazon, where laws against clearing the rainforest are rarely enforced, according to Friends of the Earth.  At current rates, a hectare of Amazonian rainforest is lost to cattle ranchers every 18 seconds.

Other clothing and footwear companies found by Greenpeace to source their leather from the Amazon include Boss, Clarks, Geox, Gucci, Hilfiger, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Reebok and Timberland.

Most of the world’s leather goes into making shoes.  Nearly 37 million pairs of leather shoes were imported to Australia in 2006 and another 800,000 pairs were made onshore.

Environmentalists have welcomed the brands’ boycott, but warn that without an effective system of monitoring and labelling, it is meaningless.  About 12% of Nike’s leather comes from Brazil.  Without a tracking system, Nike can’t be certain it’s not from the Amazon, so it’s given its suppliers until 1 July 2010 to establish full ‘traceability’ procedures.

Our close ally in Europe, the Clean Clothes Campaign, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Dutch writer and photographer Liesbeth Sluiter has written a history of the movement called Clean Clothes to mark the occasion.

Duncan Campbell, co-director of the International Labour Organization says “there is much insight to be gleaned from this book.”  Clean Clothes is a “masterful account” of the growth of the anti-sweatshop movement from an ad-hoc feminist coalition in the Netherlands to an international network of labour-rights activists that put corporate accountability on the fashion industry’s agenda.

In Australia, the NikeWatch campaign was begun by Community Aid Abroad (which later became Oxfam Australia) in 1995.  We have worked with the Clean Clothes Campaign from the earliest days and still rely on their support and inspiration. Clean Clothes is published this month by Pluto Press.

1,200 garment workers get their job back in this ground-breaking agreement Photo: Honduran General Workers’ Confederation (CGT)

While the overall political situation in the country remains difficult, we have exciting news from Honduras.  A massive effort by Honduran workers and supporters around the world has resulted in a big win for workers who make Russell Athletic sportswear for the US market.

Along with its parent company, Fruit of the Loom, Russell Athletic is Honduras’ biggest private-sector employer and a leading supplier of T-shirts to the US.  It was widely believed to be union busting when, in January this year, it closed its Jerzees de Honduras factory in the northern city of Choloma and fired 1,200 workers.

In a remarkable turnaround, Russell agreed last month to open a new, unionised clothing factory nearby, re-hire all the former workers and pay substantial compensation.  It will conduct labour rights training for management and establish third-party dispute-resolution mechanisms in all Russell and Fruit of the Loom Honduran factories in Honduras – a human rights win for over 10,000 people.

How did they achieve these gains? Read more to find out.

Oxfam Australia  works with communities to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice.
ABN: 18 055 208 636. Oxfam Australia, PO Box 1711, Strawberry Hills NSW 2012, Australia.
Phone 02 8204 3901, 9am - 5pm AEST | Email contact form
Web: www.oxfam.org.au/labour