NEW YORK, NY — Most Americans already own way too much clothing, but when the department stores bring out their new styles for the next season we experience an irresistible urge to buy that shirt, that dress, that sweater or whatever makes us feel attractive. And when it comes to desiring the latest fashion trend, as families strive to live within their household budgets, it is hard to resist a “good bargain.” With that in mind, it is troubling to ponder why American consumers don’t seem to care about purchasing new clothing that comes covered with the blood of Third World workers.
The most recent tragedy at the Rana Plaza factory complex in Bangladesh where over 1100 workers died and thousands were injured in a horrific building collapse is once again an example of how cutthroat international capitalism puts the health and safety of workers behind an insatiable lust for profit. The Walton family, the owners of Walmart, whose combined wealth is greater than the bottom 42% of American families, surely has the blood of Third World workers on their assets. Yet Americans, whether by desire or habit, or lack of other options, continue to shop at Walmart. This fact begs the real question of why Americans, the beneficiaries of governmental regulations that insure their safety on the job, don’t care enough about their brother and sister workers half a world away to stop shopping for cheap clothing.
Perhaps Americans choose not to remember that during the early part of the 20th century in the USA, the cost of their immigrant great grandparents’ labor was ridiculously low and the profits of industrialists obscenely high. Or perhaps Americans have forgotten about sweatshops because capitalists have purposefully hid the story of labor’s struggles from the general public. In order to recognize their solidarity with overseas workers, Americans may need to be reminded of the sacrifices of earlier generations of US workers who perished in preventable factory fires like the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire of 1911. The Triangle fire is still credited with igniting social activism, inspiring unionism, and reaching the public to place pressure on politicians and government to regulate wages and working conditions in the United States, thereby creating safer workplaces and a prosperous middle class.
With each new overseas garment factory tragedy, the need grows for a way to remember our moral obligation to demand that the lives of workers have greater significance than a corporation’s bottom line. A permanent memorial soon to be erected at the site of the 1911 Triangle shirtwaist factory fire, America’s most horrific workplace disaster until the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001, will remind Americans that they too were once victims of capitalism’s insatiable desire for profits over people. The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition mourns the loss of life at the Rana Plaza garment factories in Bangladesh, and hopes that the Triangle Memorial will inspire workers worldwide. For more information visit http://rememberthetrianglefire.org.
Andi Sosin and Joel Sosinsky are with The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition.
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