Justice
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justice
unspooling injustice
Thinly veiled behind a sheen of glitz and glamor, fashion perpetuates environmental and social injustice across the globe. The impacts of fast fashion’s environmental destruction are not distributed equally. Those who are already marginalized and often contribute the least to environmental devastation suffer the greatest impacts by the negative aspects of the fashion system—from the devastation of local ecosystems, pollution of water supply, and low paying factory jobs with abhorrent conditions.
Bringing an environmental and social justice lens to sustainable fashion is imperative to name and resist the power dynamics at play and work towards a future where relationships—between people, between worker and labor, and ourselves and our clothes—are guided by empowerment, care for the environment, and mutual respect rather than degradation, violation, and neglect.
neocolonialism in garment production
Fashion and sustainability writer Aja Barber discusses at length how fast fashion directly parallels the dynamics of colonialism in her book Consumed: The need for collective change; colonialism, climate change & consumerism. As wealthy fashion companies from the Global North increasingly outsource labor to the Global South to drive down costs, the exploitative dynamics of Western colonialism are re-inscribed on this sphere of exchange. Attention to histories of oppression and exploitation provides historical insights into the present moment, informing efforts to break out of cycles of domination and move toward social justice.
Environmental Justice
Environmental justice as a movement was born out of a swell of activism in the late 1980s and has historically been used to discuss the disproportionate number of superfund-sites near communities of color in the U.S., leading to greater negative health and wellbeing outcomes in those communities. It has since gained purchase as a powerful global movement demanding the right of all people to participate actively in decision-making processes related to the built and natural environment.
Some have extended this lens to the global fashion industry, in order to convey the injustice of young women of color in low to middle income countries across the globe bearing the brunt of the negative labor and social impacts of the fashion industry. The negative environmental impacts of clothing production are centralized in the Global South, where much of the textile and garment production labor has been outsourced from the Global North. The potential of sustainable fashion can only be realized when seen in conjunction with the broader systems of oppression operating in the labor dynamics of the fashion world and those most marginalized are able to exercise their agency in determining decisions about.
Labor justice
Our clothes are made by human hands. Even in our rapidly technologizing world, garment production remains one of the most labor-intensive industries, employing an estimated 75 million people globally. (Emphasis on estimated, as the size of the industry and high levels of informal workers complicates assessing employment numbers.) Human labor forms the backbone of textile and garment production, spanning farming and processing raw materials, producing textiles, and finishing garments on factory assembly lines. This is not to romanticize the conditions of labor as idyllic, handcrafted operations—these workers face a high probability of exploitative and unsafe conditions. To create a more environmentally-conscious and just relationship to clothing, we have to first address the labor dynamics of the current system. Doing so will allow us to identify paths out of this cycle of exploitation.
Overview of labor in garment industry
The majority of garment workers are young women of color working long hours in unsafe factory conditions, paid far below a living wage and are often victims of wage theft. Women garment workers are vulnerable to sexual harassment and assault in the workplace and many face retaliation when attempting to report and seek compensation. Threat of retaliation and limitations from varying local labor laws also present obstacles for workers attempting to unionize. The work, often involving repetitive tasks at great speed with attention to detail, is particularly taxing under these circumstances.
Fast fashion hinges on producing more goods to be sold for cheaper, which requires cutting costs in production and often exacerbates exploitative conditions. Sustainable fashion author Aja Barber discusses the “race to the bottom,” the pressure for suppliers (factories) to provide lower prices than competitors when fulfilling requests for higher quantities of garments on a faster timeline.
Barber also challenges how brands use the complex web of outsourced labor supporting the fashion system to deflect responsibility for violations of worker’s rights. Barber argues that as those paying, brands hold leverage over factories. The power imbalance in brand-supplier relationships should not be ignored when we attempt to assign accountability for ethical supply chain practices.
[listen: Garment Worker Diaries podcast]
Towards labor justice
Assigning accountability for protecting worker’s rights and safety is a complicated task in a global industry notorious for opacity. One effort on the part of consumers and activists to address the needs and demands of garment workers has been the “PayUp” campaign launched by the nonprofit re/make, whose work focuses on supporting labor advocacy and environmental justice in the fashion industry.
In response to several brands refusing to pay for completed orders in 2020, the campaign leverages consumer pressure to convince brands to pay for orders neglected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Members advocate for a more comprehensive suite of reforms aimed at securing a living wage for all garment workers. They also act as a sort of self-appointed watchdog for the industry, tracking the progress of individual brands. Re/make’s efforts demonstrate one avenue for attempting to leverage collective power to hold brands accountable and to center the needs of garment workers in reform efforts.
Case studies:
Local regulation| CA SB 62 (“Garment Worker Protection Act”): This new law will place greater responsibility on employers to ensure fair compensation for workers.
increases employer liability for wage theft
prohibits the “pay by the piece” system (in which one is compensated by task rather than an hourly wage)
creates stronger enforcement practices for each
International regulation| International Accord for Health and Safety: This extends an agreement developed in the wake of the tragic Rana Plaza collapse. This model of regulation seeks to bring together both garment factories and brands to share the task of monitoring and develop more comprehensive accountability measures.
personal power: purchasing or political?
Purchasing power and lifestyle changes are valuable messages and play a role in broader cultural change, but significant change needs to happen at the level of companies, governments, and international regulations to truly enforce sustainable and ethical practices in the fashion industry. Political advocacy supporting labor organizing, environmental regulation, and legislation regulating the fashion industry is equally necessary to jam the gears of fast fashion. Over-emphasizing the role of “voting with our wallets” runs the risk of creating a sense of complacency with purchasing sustainable products, obscuring the need for political action.
[Read: “The Twilight of the Ethical Consumer,” Elizabeth Cline, Atmos]
