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Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child labor - 9/4/2012 6:08:33 PM

kalikshama

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http://www.walkfree.org/en/actions/zara

This September, the government of Uzbekistan will close down schools across the country and force over one million children as young as ten to pick cotton. The conditions are so brutal that exhaustion and heat stroke are common – yet the Uzbek government continues to ignore international protests.

In response, over 60 of the world’s leading clothing retailers, from Gucci to Wal-Mart, have joined an industry boycott against cotton from Uzbekistan until the government stops using slavery. But Zara, the flagship of the world’s leading fashion group, won’t join the boycott.

Together we can send a message to Zara that they should be one of the brands rejecting child slavery in their clothes. Will you call on Zara to join the boycott to get child slavery out of our clothes? When we get to 100,000 signatures, we’ll deliver the petition to the CEO, Pablo Isla, at their headquarters in A Coruña, Spain.

Sign the petition: http://www.walkfree.org/en/actions/zara

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RE: Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child ... - 9/5/2012 2:07:48 AM

LanaDeVille

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Signed.

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RE: Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child ... - 9/5/2012 4:42:25 AM

calamitysandra

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Done

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RE: Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child ... - 10/26/2012 2:04:47 PM

kalikshama

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Progress with this "stupid Internet petition:"

Thousands of Walk Free activists, concerned that Zara was using slave-picked cotton from Uzbekistan, called on Zara to join over 70 retailers pledging to boycott Uzbek cotton.

And this week, Inditex (the parent company for Zara) has responded that they will join the boycott and sign the Responsible Sourcing Network’s pledge to get slavery out of our clothes!

Please join us in thanking Inditex for their leadership and in urging them to take the next step to ensure their products are not made with slave labour: walkfree.org/en/actions/ThankYouInditex

Every September, the government of Uzbekistan has forced over one million men, women and children as young as ten to pick cotton. The conditions are so brutal that exhaustion and heat stroke are common – yet the Uzbek government continues to ignore international protests.

In response, over 90 of the world’s leading clothing retailers, from Gucci to Wal-Mart, have joined the Responsible Sourcing Network, an industry pledge to boycott cotton from Uzbekistan until the government stops using slavery.

Joining the Responsible Sourcing Network brings Inditex into line with their industry peers that are now taking the critical next steps to audit their supply chains. But it’s just the first step, now Inditex needs to take the next.
http://www.walkfree.org/en/actions/ThankYouInditex

Finally, thank YOU for taking action and spreading the word on email, Facebook and Twitter over the last couple of months. Your action was clearly the deciding factor in this campaign and we’re excited to continue to work together to end modern slavery in all forms, everywhere.

Thank you,
Debra, Hayley, Jacqui, Nick, Fiona, Amy and the Walk Free team

PS: Join the conversation on Zara's announcement on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/XuMKCi!

< Message edited by kalikshama -- 10/26/2012 2:15:48 PM >

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RE: Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child ... - 10/26/2012 2:10:57 PM

FantasyKisses

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As a member of Walk Free, I'm confused as to how this is a stupid petition, as the OP has with quotations in their first post with the full body of the petition below that.

Also the OP is obviously on the news list to include the thank you notice Walk Free wants to send to Inditex. So ... how is this stupid?

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RE: Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child ... - 10/26/2012 2:14:58 PM

kalikshama

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Sorry for the inside joke - that was a dig at the posters who give me a hard time for posting petitions.

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RE: Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child ... - 10/26/2012 2:22:08 PM

crazyml

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quote:

ORIGINAL: kalikshama

Sorry for the inside joke - that was a dig at the posters who give me a hard time for posting petitions.

They outlawed the use of child labor for cotton-picking earlier this year?

And cotton accounts for nearly half of Uzbekistan's exports.

So we want to make Uzbekistan poorer now?

<confused>
[ED to remove garbling]

< Message edited by crazyml -- 10/26/2012 2:25:47 PM >

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RE: Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child ... - 10/26/2012 2:34:16 PM

kalikshama

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Ideally, workers world-wide will get paid a fair wage and children will be in school.

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RE: Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child ... - 10/26/2012 2:39:33 PM

crazyml

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quote:

ORIGINAL: kalikshama

Ideally, workers world-wide will get paid a fair wage and children will be in school.

Of course, I totally agree. Ideally that would be the case.

But since things like education, health, and foreign income, are essential in bringing people out of poverty it would be a terrible shame if they had to close even one school because of a fall in their cotton exports, surely?

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RE: Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child ... - 10/26/2012 3:10:25 PM

kalikshama

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The point is to eliminate the use of child slave labor, not to reduce cotton exports. Profits could be diminished rather than exports. I doubt the profits are going into the schools, given the working conditions listed below:

http://www.laborrights.org/stop-child-labor/cotton-campaign/uzbekistan

According to a report released by ILRF in June 2009, Uzbekistan is the world’s sixth largest producer of cotton, and the third largest exporter. For decades, it has used the forced labor of its schoolchildren starting in the early primary grades, college and university students, and civil servants, to harvest that cotton by hand. Unlike child labor in agricultural sectors in some other countries, this practice is organized and controlled by the central government. Each fall, shortly after the start of the school year, the government orders schools to close and school administrators to send the children out to the fields, where they remain until the cotton harvest is brought in.

The conditions in which the children work are appalling. Children are required to engage in dangerous and often unsupervised work. This has led to numerous injuries and even deaths. In a report released by the ILRF, both children and parents made it clear that all tenth and eleventh graders that worked in the fields were forced to stay in barracks. One child called the conditions in the barracks “unbearable.The report stated that the barracks were, “Unheated, uninsulated field barracks, normally used to store crops and/or farm machinery… filthy and flea-infested, while the biting insects prevented [the children inside] from sleeping. Children were fed mostly bread and turnips.

In the fields children are supplied with a minimal amount of food, which they often have to pay for, and have little access to clean drinking water. The lack of clean drinking water and proper food has lead to serious health risks including gastroenteritis and hepatitis.There is little or no medical services provided to either the children or teachers.

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RE: Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child ... - 10/26/2012 3:14:50 PM

kalikshama

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...Who benefits from the institution of forced labor of children and adults?

The government is the sole beneficiary of the use of forced labor of children and adults in its cotton sector.

The cotton sector in Uzbekistan is strictly managed by the central government in Tashkent. Uzbek farmers produce cotton under conditions of bonded labor for the government of Uzbekistan. Cotton and grain planting is mandated on two-thirds of the best arable lands in Uzbekistan. Farmers have neither the right to choose which crops to plant, nor to whom they sell their harvest. The government owns all land, determines the usage of the land, sets production quotas, is the sole buyer of cotton, and sets the price of raw cotton purchased from the farmers. The men and women who farm the state land are contractually obligated to dedicate a certain percentage of the land under their management to cotton production, to produce an annual quota of cotton, and to sell the cotton to the government at the price fixed by the government.

As in Soviet times, the Uzbek government imposes cotton production quotas on all farmers and local governments. The local hokims (governors) are personally responsible for fulfilling these quotas. Farmers cannot trade cotton in the free market at market prices and instead are required to deliver crops to local government cotton gins. Farmers attempting to export produce to neighboring countries are charged with smuggling and face fines and jail.

Cotton is the Government of Uzbekistan’s primary export commodity and main source of revenue. While three trading companies created at the Ministry of Foreign Economic Affairs – Uzprommashimpeks, Uzmarkazimpeks and Uzinterimpeks - trade cotton on world markets, all export revenues remain under direct and strict control of officials appointed by the President.

As the Government of Uzbekistan prevents any transparency in cotton exports, they remain completely unaccountable to the Uzbek public and international observers. No information is made available regarding export revenues or prices Uzbek cotton is sold for in international markets. Even less is known about how cotton revenues are distributed within Uzbekistan, though it is understood that sizable sums are funneled directly to the bank accounts of the President and other high officials.

< Message edited by kalikshama -- 10/26/2012 3:15:13 PM >

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RE: Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child ... - 10/26/2012 3:19:37 PM

kalikshama

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In case anyone else was wondering why they don't machine-harvest:

Is it true, as the Uzbek government claims, that while child labor was used in its Soviet past, the practice has since ceased?

In Soviet times Uzbekistan achieved a comparatively high level of social and economic development, although these achievements coincided with a number of acute social and environmental factors. Almost half the cotton used to be harvested by machines. Today, as a result of mismanagement, lack of reforms, failed incentive systems and inequitable distribution of cotton revenues, the use of machinery has been reduced to zero.

Nowadays, despite some minor improvements (for instance, the introduction of quality control, packaging and stocking systems), the cotton industry as a whole is regressing. The scale of forced labor has correspondingly increased as mechanization has declined. Declining social and economic conditions related to the regression of the cotton sector have been especially devastating in rural areas.

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RE: Tell Zara to boycott cotton picked by forced child ... - 10/26/2012 4:13:12 PM

crazyml

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It's just a lot more complicated than that.

I completely support your desire to see slavery (in all its forms abolished).

I particularly support the cause of child and women's rights in these emerging economies.

But... The government banned the use of child labour this year. So the WalkFree campaign is disingenuous (instead Hospitals are being closed as medical workers are drafted).

Yes, there is massive corruption, but still the government provides a lot of social services (healthcare and schools being high on the list).

I don't know that a boycott will harm the interests of women and children, but I fear that it would.

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