Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Blood, Sweat, Gear: the human cost of the Olympics

pcollins@waronwant.org (Paul Collins) | 15.03.2012 10:55 | Globalisation | Social Struggles | London

International and local speakers will discuss whether the Olympics legacy will be exploited garment workers and the marginalisation of east London communities. The leader of sweatshop workers in Bangladesh and community representatives in east London will speak out this month on the human cost of the Olympics. They will address a major conference staged by War on Want, after the anti-poverty charity accused top sportswear brands of exploiting Bangladeshi staff.

Outside Downing St
Outside Downing St

Outside Primark
Outside Primark

Signs
Signs

The campaign
The campaign


The event on 24 March at Toynbee Hall, in Aldgate’s Commercial Street, follows War on Want’s launch for a report called Race to the Bottom.

It cited poverty wages, marathon hours and harsh treatment for employees producing clothes for the official sportswear Games sponsor Adidas, Nike and Puma.

Adidas just announced record £559 million profits, Nike has cited £1.3 billion profits and Puma recorded £71 million profits.

But, according to Race to the Bottom, workers making sportswear for the three brands earn on average only 16p an hour – in some cases just 9p an hour, well under the statutory minimum – and most toiled beyond the legal minimum of 60 hours a week.

Many employees suffered verbal and physical abuse, with sexual harassment and discrimination widespread.

Most staff lived in a single room with their families, sharing a kitchen and toilet with their neighbours.

Rahima Khatun, 21, who works as a sewing machine operator at one Adidas factory, said: "I had my first child last year, but I can’t spend enough time with her as I have to be work at the factory 12 hours a day, seven days a week. I have no choice, working overtime is compulsory. My managers are constantly swearing at us and pushing us if we don’t work fast enough. Sometimes the factory does not even pay us for three months at a time."

Speakers at the conference will include Tower Hamlets councillor Rania Khan, Amirul Haque Amin, president of the charity’s partner, the National Garment Workers’ Federation, Arifa Akter, its organiser and ex-sweatshop worker, and Sharon Sukhram, who coordinates the TUC campaign Playfair 2012.

Others will be Mzonke Poni, chairperson and founder of Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape, who will describe the fight against evictions over another mega sports event, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and former War on Want vice-chair Niaz Alam, chief operating officer at the organisation UK Sustainable Investment and Finance.

War on Want will hold the conference – entitled Blood, Sweat & Gear - together with the Battersea and Wandsworth trades union council and east London community groups.

Murray Worthy, sweatshops campaigner at War on Want, said: "Lord Coe has called the Games ‘a powerful lever of change, improving lives across the world’. Yet our research shows the appalling abuses committed by a company the Games have endorsed. If the London 2012 organisers are serious about improving lives across the world they must demand that their official partners respect basic human rights, wherever they operate. We hope they will make clear that they believe these conditions are completely unacceptable."

Blood, Sweat & Gear starts at 10.30 am and ends at 5.00 pm.

Admission to the event is free, but with limited space people should book their places at www.waronwant.org

pcollins@waronwant.org (Paul Collins)
- Original article on IMC London: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/11884

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech