How do you avoid buying clothes made by child labourers or in sweat shops?

I try to buy used shirts whenever possible and I normally go barefoot, so I don't support the shoe industries who use child slave labor.

 

How clever of you, any suggestions to back up your wit?

 

You're obviously just trying to cause trouble...

And as someone else already pointed out, if people boycott and protest companies they will be forced to change their ways and make working conditions better.

Remember when Gap/Old Navy got exposed for having slave labor back in the late 90s? Now they at least only have sweatshops instead of actual slave labor camps.

 

I wish joe boxer would smack them kids around a bit, fucking stitchings on my drawers are crooked!! WTF!!

 

Causing trouble? Try pointing out fact, it's a simple matter of economics Hun.

Do whatever makes ya' feel warm and fuzzy and self-empowered...

It's not like an overnight process, to change a corporations mindset they need to see months of revenue loss and in that time they would likely lay off workers or cut their wages further to compensate for the market shift. Just look at any U.S. corporation if you don't understand the dynamic. And these families the children are supporting are already so far below the poverty line they will suffer greatly and loose out in the long run.

In any event, even when these corporations stop using child labor this still means that the families are unemployed as the smartest alternative to child labor is to bring in automation to their manufacturing lines thereby eliminating the need for workers once and for all, short of hiring a mechanic or two...

Suggestions?? Hmmm, no suggestions but a simple logical perspective,,,

Company A employs 100 Children making product Y.

People stop buying product Y because Company A employs Children.

Company A therefore needs to eliminate the job's of the child workers.

These Children are therefore unemployed at this point.

As most nations in which child labor is relied upon heavily are either 3rd world nations or "emerging economies" it's highly doubtful that the government infrastructure has developed enough to such a point as to afford things like free healthcare, housing and food for the poor.

Being unemployed and without public welfare systems in place to support your existance will leave you to eat whatever nut's and berries you can forage, perhaps even you too can join in a common practice in some of the poorer south african regions where families will pick through the shit of their local livestock to find the few undigested kernels of grain on which they can supplement their diets?? Or as is common in other tribal regions, simply to eat the dirt as to help stave off hunger pains?

Or perhaps you have some clever suggestions of your own to work around these issues as opposed to just wanting to jump up and take action on what appears to be a problem to you from your perspective without fully considering the longer term ramifications of those actions, you know, past the point of feeling warm and fuzzy inside over having "helped to solve an injustice in the world at large"...

**edit**
On second thought, I do have a suggestion,,,

Rather than a simple Boycott of the individual companies, why not lobby our congressmen and senators to push for trade embargo's with these nations unless they develop better civil service infrastructures and public aid so that these children will be able to collect food stamps and gain housing assistance when they loose their job's?

 

so...which is better

1. buying significantly marked up goods that have ethical practices in place
2. buying cheap goods and then passing on the savings to charity

 

I think, with the corporate goods, there is less overheads because it is heavily streamlined business. I think more money can get to those in need if you pass the savings directly to them

 

i haven't bought anything brand new except for a pair of jeans in around a year now - everything pretty much comes from op shops or is made by friends of mine

whilst i like that this avoids me supporting companies that use sweatshops etc, mostly i just like original or hand made stuff

 

I like how the western POV of child labor differs from the Chinese POV of it.

Western POV: "Poor kids, they have to work and they dont get to enjoy the benefits of a normal childhood."

Chinese POV: *imagine a mother yelling to a dad* "you're good for nothing! all you do is stay home and drink whisky. You dont even ammount to half our son! He goes out everyday to the factory and brings money home so we can eat! You are ten times his size but a hundred times more useless!"

Back on topic, I only wear skate shoes, and by one brand - Fallen. Their shoes are free from animal products. Tight pants too, and other than that I wear a lot of random Tees

 

You would need to go nekid, everybody is somebody's kid.

 

A bit silly aint' we? I always get a kick out of how so many seem to treat the word "Work" as a dirty word. I mean sure, it is a four letter word but not quite the point.

 

Nah its actually really more of a cultural thing rather than a slave thing. Seriously most of the time these kids dont even complain. I know this for a fact. Hell there used to be a Nike factory here and I knew a 12-year-old who worked in there. Low wage but did he complain? Nope. Hell he was bringing home factory reject Nike SB shoes FOR FREE (no difference in quality, only some minor wrong stitchings lol). I'm not saying that this is the standard for every sweatshop around the world, but the fact that the kids are happy with working there is very much ignorable....hell the media wants to portray these kids as down and depressive. Hell sweat shops are bad but if I'm going to be getting free factory rejects that look very much like the ones on sale for 70 bucks, I wouldnt mind working there.

Plus it helps the family's morale knowing that some of the free clothes from the factory they get, Americans are going to be having to pay more than five times as much.

Its a confusing world we live in where the lines between right and wrong is very much a huge grey area. I'm not putting down any of you, but rather I am showing you the insight of people on this side of the world and how the situation is viewed.

 

Yep. I think we see pretty much eye to eye with this matter. Kid's of any age should have the right to work, to help their families etc. provided of course their leg's are long enough to reach the control pedals at the sewing machine and still be able to work the fabric without stitching their fingers into a FUBU Hoodie.
I think the big reason that many Americans have such concerns over child labor is that we are all taught to recall the horrors of the american sweat shops that were everywhere during the Industrial Revolution where the children were treated as little more than indentured servants. (But then what average job's out there dont treat workers like little more than slaves anyway right??! )

We abolished slavery, slave holders and racial prejudice and exchanged it for wage slaving to corporate masters. But much like with Slavery we can still find way's to buy our freedom if we "pick enough cotton".

 

good call. i think ppl really just have a problem with the work to wage ratio with child labour. ridiculous amounts of work hours compared to barely nothing in wages. it's unethical in many ppls' minds because of the laws set in place and the social security systems we're used to in western countries. unfortunately, a job is a job...and there are ppl suffering here as well.

 

Make your own clothes.
Or it can't be guaranteed, but at least if you buy from a charity thrift store,
you'll be helping someone out. It's a sad truth, but most clothing you can find was probably made by some poor Asian kid, I'm no expert though.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXb3dzNLebk"]YouTube- Gap Unveils New 'For Kids By Kids' Clothing Line