Covid 19 has brought the issue of international supply chains to the fore. Given an increasing move to online purchasing in clothes, FirstWeds wanted to look at what this means for workers in garment manufacturing.
Exploitation, sweatshops, and dangerous working conditions in the global south continue despite widespread concerns and increasing opposition to ‘fast fashion.’Eight years after the deaths of 1,138 people in the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh, garment workers are still losing their lives in the production of clothes headed for the global north.
Earlier this year in March at least 20 people were killed and 24 others injured in a clothing factory fire on the eastern outskirts of the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
For May’s FirstWeds our panel will explore what supply chain solidarity means today. They will also examine lessons from past examples of workers solidarity in an international supply chain and offer suggestions to strengthen workers’ rights in a world increasingly dependent on transnational labour.
Our panel for the evening are: Ayesha Barenblat & Maeve Galvin - more information can be found here. The discussion is being moderated by Patrick Marren from the Department of International Development.