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Rana Plaza workers help launch T-shirt that fights sweatshops
Six years on from the Bangladeshi factory collapse, survivors help British activists launch a radical new brand that redefines ‘ethical fashion,’ writes GAVIN O’TOOLE
Oporajeo workers making clothes
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FROM the dust of the Rana Plaza garment factory that collapsed six years ago this week, killing 1,134 people, many of them garment workers, a new co-operative has emerged that is now working with British activists as part of a global solidarity project that challenges the sweatshops industry.
Survivors of the Rana Plaza disaster, among them seasoned Bangladeshi trade unionists, have formed a co-operative called Oporajeo — which means “invincible” in Bengali — and have teamed up with British anti-sweatshop campaign, No Sweat, to produce ethical T-shirts for the British market. More than just another ethical fashion accessory, these T-shirts actively fight sweatshops.
“We are creating a radical circular economy based on workers’ rights and campaigning activism,” said Jay Kerr, activist with No Sweat, a British-based grassroots campaign to end the use of sweatshop labour across the world.
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