The Legacy of Colonialism and a Living Wage
The Future Generations of All People
On this episode of Unspun, Christian Smith, of Inclusi, join Danielle, Lauren, and Catherine for a conversation about the sustainable fashion industry, his thoughts on the white middle-class dominance of the space, and the stakeholder engagement needed to make real progress. He reminds the industry that this should be one of the “most diverse job profiles you could ever see,” as we are ensuring sustainability for the “future generations of all people.”
With a career that spans the corporate business and NGO sectors, Christian built expertise across environmental, social, and governance (ESG) due diligence issues, working at organizations such as Fair Wear Foundation and The Social and Labor Convergence Project, as well as corporations like Toms and PVH.
Christian’s decade in ESG due diligence and stakeholder engagement, makes him eager to see the industry evolve into a more integrated approach to sustainability. He believes honest conversations have to happen for a more just and equitable system to be built, and with these honest conversations comes discomfort. But, the industry must come together to get uncomfortable and work toward solutions to mitigate climate change and the displacement and exploitation of marginalized communities across the world.
Valuing the People in the Supply Chain
The complex issues facing the fashion industry are too interconnected to silo environmental remediations from social and governance, and it takes disparate points of view within an organization to be able to ensure issues are approached as such. Interventions that address the environmental issues alone miss the mark in achieving lasting systemic change. This type of long-term social and environmental progress hinges on one simple fix: valuing the people in the supply chain.
“PAY THEM A LIVING WAGE, JUST PAY THEM.”
When garment workers are paid a living wage they have the power to make decisions that will mitigate climate change on the community level more effectively than any brand or multi-stakeholder-funded initiative or remediation. Instead of the industry’s focus on these temporary band-aids and flashy responses for community impact, Christian discusses the need for brands to step up and be the change.
“EITHER SUCK IT UP IN THE MARGINS…OR INCREASE THE COSTS OF YOUR GOODS AND HAVE HAVE [THE CONSUMER] MAKE A DECISION AS TO IF THEY’RE GOING TO PAY THAT.”
Paying a living wage isn’t as complicated as brands make it out to be. Living wages must be negotiated through unionization and collective bargaining. Raising the minimum wage can take time and can be a progressive process. It takes researching what the living wage is, and union corruption is not a valid excuse not to do this. Calculating the living wage is only part of the process, embedding this commitment and codifying it as part of a brand’s sourcing policies and responsible purchasing practices is what will create real and lasting change in the supply chain.
The Legacy of Colonialism
However, the legacy of colonialism still permeates fashion supply chains, and this is why brand professionals lag in implementing a living wage. The apparel industry is an interesting case study of this legacy, where colonial dynamics are not just played out between the Global North and South, but also between socioeconomic groups within countries: in the U.S., Los Angeles continues to struggle with labor abuses against the predominantly immigrant population in the garment sector.
Despite industry efforts—from brands, auditing firms, civil society, and consumer-driven organizations—progress toward addressing these issues has been slow. This is partly because large apparel corporations place the business case above other strategy considerations. The problem with the business case in the apparel industry is that it is predicated on a legacy of low labor costs through slavery and low raw materials costs through extraction and exploitation. And so the business case for human rights in apparel supply chains falls far short of the need.
People-Centered Solutions
Furthermore, sourcing professionals should question their right to make decisions about a living wage as they are far detached from the impacts of their policies. The stakeholders that are most impacted are rarely centered and listened to in solution development.
“THAT’S WHERE THE PATERNALISTIC, BUT ALSO THE COLONIALISM ASPECT COMES OUT AS WELL. IT’S ALMOST LIKE YOU ARE SLAPPING THESE PEOPLE IN THE FACE AND SAYING I’M SORRY YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOOD FOR YOU, SO WE’RE GOING TO TELL YOU, AND IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, WE’LL JUST GO TO ANOTHER COUNTRY AND SOURCE OUR GOODS THERE.”
A race to the top and a race to the bottom can be equally harmful to garment workers. In the race to the bottom, brands simply move on to the next factory that can offer better margins through lower labor costs. In the race to the top, sustainability professionals abandon factories that do not have the resources to implement more responsible and sustainable practices rather than working toward capacity-building with the facility.
Sourcing professionals must take a people-centered approach that acknowledges the legacies of the past, while seeking solutions that empower garment workers today through a living wage. This is the only way to address the real problem of current-day capitalism and the legacy of colonialism that permeates it: inequality.