What's in a name?

Hello blog readers!

Lets get this properly started! Republic have been the lucky recipients of my first set of emails. Well, actually, to be completely honest I emailed them back in January as i first started to get the idea for this (and the blog only took 10 months to follow!). Those of you that know me will know that i'm not the biggest fan of shopping, i'll wear clothes until they are literally falling apart, i recently had to stop wearing a pair of shorts when the 5th hole emerged in them, they've still not quite made it to the bin yet…

I do, however, have a brilliant technique for shopping, you motivate yourself for one day per year, and you complete all your shopping in this one day! This one day came last January, and so i made plans to hit Southampton hard! However I couldn't forget the story of Shima I mentioned in the blog last time, and the knowledge that that was just one persons story, but there were many many more! I knew i'd probably regret what i was about to start, but i headed over to the internet, googled my favourite shops, and started to read their 'ethical policies', and started to question the retailers on what they've written. I was about to base the blog on these early emails and then expand on them with other shops, but I've decided to re-email places again, in the hope that they have more to tell from the last 10 months!

Before i get into what sort of replies i got, I feel I should say that i never expected shops to really tell me open answers about all their practices, but I think that something in how they answer these questions will shed some light on how important these issues are to them, and how hard their working to improve their practices.

The ethical policy on Republic's website is pretty brief, and so there were a few things i hoped they could expand on for me. One of my issues was with the fact that Republic state factories they use pay workers at least the minimum wage, or a wage that meets the local industry standards, whichever is higher. The problem is, often the minimum wage is actually not set at a place that allows workers to meet basic needs, such as food, healthcare, education and accommodation. And a wage set at 'local industry standards' is a very vague term, which again does not guarantee workers can meet basic needs. Republic claim also to meet all applicable laws in the countries they have factories, but again meeting the laws of these countries does not guarantee workers good conditions. They do however help countries attract big business' to open factories in their country!
Republic is also not part of the ETI (Ethical Trading Institute - I'll look at this another time), they claim that there code of conduct is based on the ETI however. The ETI have their own set of policies that retailers that are members must abide by, such as workers being paid a living wage, a wage set above the minimum wage that is designed to allow workers to cover their basic needs.
I questioned republic on these issues, as well as asking how many factories they use pay workers over the minimum wage, how do republic decide what factories to use, how often the factories are visited and inspected by republic, what countries they have factories in, and why they were not a member of the ETI.

What did they say?
- They are confident they can support their aims without joining the ETI. Although gave no reason why they would/have not joined them.
- They said they have long standing relationships with their 'third party suppliers' and maintain 'regular' contact with them. Without specifying what regular meant.

However the most worrying thing for me was this;

'While we would discuss working practises we appreciate that our expertise is in retailing and not manufacture and would not be able to answer your specific questions.'

If, as the supplier, you don't know the answer to these questions than something is going wrong somewhere! I don't want to buy from a company that don't know enough about where their products came from.

Sorry to go down this age-old christian route of using dictionary definitions of words, but the fact that the shop chose the name Republic intrigued me.

'Republic - a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.'

Ironic how the power in a republic rests in the body of citizens, and yet Republic seem to be unable to answer specific questions about their workers, or even seem to see it as that much of a priority.

A few more emails have been sent, but the only additional piece of information i got from them was that one of their shirts is made in China…..great!

Hello!

Hello world of blogging!

I guess i should start by introducing myself… My name's James, i'm 20 (all too soon to become 21) and i'm a student. Oh yeah, and i love Jesus.

Other the past couple of years I've become increasingly uncomfortable about the injustices in the world (well doesn't that sound very Miss World!). Why should people across the world be forced to take jobs for payment below what they can actually live off, in appalling working conditions, giving up any opportunities to enter education, just so that i can have that morning cuppa and that hoody I want? My reaction a couple of years ago would have been 'well of course i don't want to do that, but that doesn't actually happen right…' wrong!

Last year i read a book called 'Lift the label' written by Esther Stansfield and David Westlake (or as he's known by my friends, the vom man!). It literally (well ok not actually literally….) blew my mind! One of the stories that most stuck with me was that of Shima. Forced to leave school at 14 because her family could not afford to support her education, she found work in a clothes factory. The fans to cool the workers are broken, the rubbish piles up on the window ledges, there is no fire equipment. Her job is stitch buttons on to jeans and jackets, and many of the clothes she helps make end up in UK stores. After three years at the factory, working 8am to 8/9pm, 6 days a week, she earns a grand total of £4.40 a week. Half the amount she would need just to afford basic essentials such as nutritious food and adequate healthcare and accommodation. After work she returns to her slum in Dhaka in a dangerous area, and sleeps until time for work the next day. The slums have no proper toilet facility, piles of rubbish and open sewers stagnate close to where children play. In a single month, thirty-one female garment workers were raped as they walked from their factory shifts to their home in the slums.

Since then I've tried to think more about my decisions, and realise that my actions are important. Ok, so I'm not naive enough to think change can come over night by us all buying fair trade coffee, there are other complex issues here. But for me its about two things, firstly what do i feel comfortable with? I want to make informed decisions on where i shop, and decide if it's somewhere i want to be supporting or not. Secondly, i believe in a powerful god, who loves justice! I do believe changing my lifestyle can start to change the lives of some of the poorest around the world for the better.

This blog will follow my journey as I ask shops about how there products are made, find out where i can get fair trade items, and further explore the issues that keep so many in the world in poverty.

Lets get started!