but in working in textiles myself [sewing/needlework] I had some knowledge of the detailed history of labor/exploitation and land rape through textile industry. Something about the ‘new trend’ of beige consumption, just kept nagging at me but I didn’t know why,

Until I came across some good info on some anti-consumption blogs from Australia and a few other places…first was the knowledge of the vast amounts of water wasted, growing cotton and the slavery In that. Second was the other side of the industry that is NOT even considered by many who work on the union side–what happens to those who work in the lowest paid of industries IF and when those industries go out, most of them children,

sure enough, trafficking into sex slavery, fact…NOT that it’s ANY justification for supporting the textile consumption trade, it isn’t, but what it Did show me, that the SILENCE of this reality by many of those who Utilize the Misery of slave workers in textiles [most of whom are children in countries where women have little to no human rights] for a political agenda, spoke volumes,

and I had to ask myself, Is the concern the worker’s conditions [and the communities in which they live and conditions that Drive the incentives/and make it possible for corporations to come in And exploit] OR was it simply, Just another means to an end?

The more I researched, the silence screamed in my ears, not only that, but the more I researched the more I realized, that this exploitative slave industry of textiles [sister to the sex/arm trade] was just another part of the raping of Mother Earth, and that Until there is a replacement of those economies that are earth and female friendly, all the consumption ‘solutions’ are merely just switching fabric.

IF the goal was to truly assist in the creation of slave free, earth friendly economies then that is what the means would be aimed at, it seems that in most of the areas where textiles [using slaves] is huge, that same land could be used for growing food, conserving/and finding ways of saving water [that is so direly needed in many of these areas], and elevating the status of women. And there IS a need for economies that are women/child friendly, but economies that do NOT strip from them, precious land and water resources, that result in them being dependent upon piece meal work [including the green kind] and upon consumption of food markets that are controlled by big brother while their land/water is polluted and pillaged beyond any ability to sustain Any life, much less their own,

so I’m not surprised at these adds, the whole green/organic market, for Many [not all there are some good ones out there], seems to me to be More about reconciling consumption Guilt, while still perpetuating the same systems of patriarchy, sexism and class/race on the global pyramid. All the while, of course, throwing a rock of ‘salvation for the earth’ into a cesspool of black mire that is way beyond repair,

while landfills just in This country, are full of garments, sales racks full of garments, I mean HOW many garments do we truly need? Then I saw this, doing just some browsing, on the largest ships in the world, and loe and behold, look at what the majority of those ships are carrying [while contributing to mass pollution] that effects water/land and animal life.

so I did some research, I was shocked at the amount of pollution just from the cruise ships, bad enough, but the freight ships as well, and THAT is the level of our consumption, much of it Textiles, a.k.a. clothes,

never mind that these same ships, when no longer used, are sent to India, to be dismantled [dangerous work] and the pollution from that alone, horrid,

and this Does have a huge detrimental impact on Women and Children, in those developing nations.

This got me to thinking, that so many of the anti-this and anti-that aren’t really anti anything, they are simply just the same ole sexist patriarchal capitalist industries Pacifying a Questioning public, the consumer, into buying into the lie that Now corporations have gone Green and Human Rights Friendly,

and NOT that some of them haven’t, I do believe there are good coops and grass roots groups. But maybe we do need to look beyond just the sweatshop, and see the larger picture, simply replacing sweatshop with micro shops that use Porn and Child Porn to promote some false sense of Ethical Consumption–is just that,

that Question I had, sure enough, if those industries are removed from many of those nations, those Very unions and Global Ethics [so they say] controllers, would do the same thing, Take those children and women and Exploit them sexually–

Empowerment, for the millions of workers will not come from the Paternalist consumer who continues to insist on their right to rape/pillage land for the garments of prestige, no matter how much they attempt to sackcloth them down, oh no,

empowerment comes, from giving Back the economies and land to the people, and respecting Fair Trade with those people, encouraging earth and woman and child friendly economies…and building them up, rather than

more water for cotton, more fertilizer for fabric, leaving mass amounts of pollution, no land fit for food and numerous landfills, that those who are Not working in the sweatshops of fabric hell, are wading through [many of them children] or lining up the brothels of hell sex torture clubs, for the tourist, business man and vacationer, who bought

numerous ‘anti-sweatshop’ clothes and organic sackcloth wear, to show just how ‘ethically’ conscious they are, before hanging out smoking mary jane and buying a ‘sex slave’ in one of the numerous cities of Europe or America, lining up the windows, protected by the Very same folks sad to say, who are so conscious of the worker’s revolution,

so they say…..

and it shows, in their advertising, the hypocrisy, is just unreal. But what is sadder, is just how many consumers are buying into this lie, this lie that I have to wonder,

is it that they truly are against slavery or are they simply a mask, of a far worse sinister global feudalism? Maybe this is a form of Imperialist Leftism–just another capitalist face, that protects the industry of sex slavery, and being accomplished through so called ‘progressive’ worker right’s policies, using consumer guilt, as the means to an end…

looking at these advertisements, it sure seems that way, they aren’t much different than the vast amounts of child porn/violent porn, on many of the radical leftist sites on political party forums [who spew equality for women as some twisted iron-y].

Jane

Jane

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1346138/Has-American-Apparel-gone-far-creepy-controversial-new-campaign.html

Now apparently that is ‘creepy’ because the model has underarm stubble. I’d say far more worrying is the fact that – although the copy says she’s 20, she looks much younger. I can’t believe that’s not deliberate.

seems they’re going broke…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/26/american-apparel-sex-ethics

AA opened stores in China about two years ago – toned down their ads or they may get in trouble. I wonder how their business has done here.

Out of curiosity, I took at a part-time position with them when they were preparing for store opening. All I can say after that experience is that they have some pretty funny way of selecting and firing staff. Look “pretty-ish” and shut up about what you don’t like seemed to be two essential requirements despite their claim of treating their staff respectfully and ethically. This puts them right in line with the unethical local employers. Localization is it?

No offense to the models, but I find it hard to convince myself that a young woman posed in rather compromising positions, virtually naked, in AA ad would know much about opening business in China. And yes, that’s the kind of people they sent over here.

“Nine American Apparel security enforcers were also killed during the raid.”

What the F?

Here’s hoping they respond! :)