Representations of a Universal Garment Worker
On this episode of Unspun, Lauren, Danielle, and Catherine sit down with recent NYU Stern School of Business graduate Kelsey Tsuchiyama, to talk about her human and women’s rights approach to the industry’s most pressing issues.
The Universal Garment Worker
In her final semester, Kelsey and her classmates created a zine that explored the question, “How is Bangladeshi organizing represented by international organizations and various stakeholder perspectives?” The zine uses the work of Bangladeshi feminist and labor scholar Dr. Dina Siddiqi as an analytical framework with a specific focus on the trope of the “universal woman and the global worker” – passive, helpless, lacking agency and in need of being saved by labor activists.
“THE PROBLEM WITH [THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSAL GARMENT WORKER] IS THAT IT ERASES SPACE AND PLACE. THERE ISN’T REALLY AN ACCOUNTING FOR THE SPECIFIC RELATIONSHIPS AND POWER DYNAMICS AT PLAY – WHETHER THAT HAS TO DO WITH GENDER, RACE, SEXUALITY, ALL OF THESE GET KIND OF ERASED AND THEY GET PRESENTED AS A MONOLITH.”
Many organizations employ the concept of a universal garment worker, rendering female factory workers as symbols of a movement rather than individuals with their own interests, identities and autonomy. Transforming garment workers into emblems of the labor movement largely ignores the complex power dynamics they experience as workers with varied identities whether it’s gender, geography, race, or class. This narrative also intensifies existing power structures in the industry, such as global hierarchies and consumer-worker hierarchies, which can inadvertently be more harmful to workers.
Creating More Just Solutions
While Kelsey and her colleagues are rightfully critical of NGOs and activist groups who employ the concept of a universal garment worker, she also highlights organizations that avoid harmful depictions of workers and attempt to take into account specific complexities. IndustriALL Global Union is an organization that represents workers and takes into account the context and complex history of each region and country they work in. Another advocacy group, No White Saviors, educates activists and consumers on how to elevate voices that have often been silenced or gone unheard.
In their zine, “Reimagining Solidarity With Bangladeshi Garment Workers,” Kelsey and her colleagues offer a series of questions that every activist or organization should ask themselves before starting a campaign in support of Bangladeshi workers.
“OUR FIRST QUESTION ON THIS LIST IS, ‘WHY ARE YOU STARTING THIS CAMPAIGN?’ AND BEING VERY INTENTIONAL OF WHERE YOU ARE GOING WITH IT, WHAT YOUR GOALS ARE WITH DOING IT AND UNDERSTANDING THE PARTICULARITIES OF SPACE AND PLACE.”
Questions like this and, “How are you using garment workers’ accounts/voices in creating this campaign?” demonstrate the care that Kelsey and her peers have put into avoiding the perpetuation of the idea of a universal garment worker and centering the lived experiences of Bangladeshi workers.
To hear what other questions organizers, campaigners, and WE should be asking ourselves as we stand in solidarity with workers around the world, tune in to the latest episode of Unspun.