On January 22, 2010, the clothing brand No Chains, a joint effort of the Argentine cooperative La Alameda and the Thai cooperative Dignity Returns, held a simultaneous launching in their respective countries. The launch serves to promote the incorporation of other organizations to form a network for a solidarity economy.
In order to advance the fight against slave labor in textile factories, the brand No Chains, driven by the Argentine cooperative La Alameda and the Thai cooperative Dignity Returns, presented three new designs in its clothing line. The global brand continued its project (which was started in June of 2010) and publicized by Página 12, after two years in the making. Among its recent achievements, No Chains managed to link organizations in such diverse sectors of the globe as Nicaragua and the Philippines. By the middle of this year, No Chains hopes to have its own slave labor free clothing store in Buenos Aires.
To get an inside peek of what No Chains has planned, and to explore its brief but intense history, Página 12 spoke with Doris Lee, coordinator of the Asia Monitor Resource Centre. Ms. Lee served as the liaison between the Argentine and Thai cooperatives, which later gave birth to the global brand No Chains, whose name “symbolizes the fight for a world without chains.” According to Ms. Lee, the intention of the launch of the three new models (Messages of Freedom, The Load, and Free) was “to continue promoting fair trade and a solidarity economy.”
Since the work accomplished in 2010, “there has been interest from unions and unemployed workers to join the initiative, which is growing little by little”, proclaimed Ms. Lee, while recognizing that the fight against slave labor is not a simple one. “The markets have to adjust to a solidarity economy”, Ms. Lee defined as being a long term goal of the brand. “We are hopeful about our work, because consumer organizations in both Europe and the United States have been supportive”, said Ms. Lee.
On this side of the world, the Solidarity Economy Market in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina, which will serve as a presentation room for the launch of the new clothing line, members of La Alameda told Página 12about the achievements of No Chains thus far. The organization is maintaining conversations with textile worker cooperatives in the Philippines, Italy, Nicaragua and the United States, in order to expand its global reach. Contact with these workers’ movements developed in the Clean Clothes meeting held last November in Istanbul, where proposals were discussed for combating the brands that subject workers to servitude. In Argentina, progress on future projects has been discussed with a labor organization from Mar del Plata (Si) and Polo Textil de Barracas, which is supported by the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI).
Gustavo Vera and Tamara Rosemberg, both of La Alameda, listed the requisites for a cooperative to become part of No Chains, stating they must “work without a boss, have a direct union democracy, divide the profits equally amongst the workers and join in the fight for the other struggling workers in the world.”
“We are convinced that without a boss, factories can still turn a profit and function”, said Olga Cruz, a No Chains supporter and workers’ rights activist, who speaks from personal experience. “Whichever of the garment workers receives money from the buyers, it is shared equally, we can talk while we work without being scolded, people can enter the shop and watch us work, we are not hidden”, said Ms. Cruz.
Today (January 22, 2011) from 9:30 and simultaneously with the Thai cooperative, La Alameda will reveal the new collection of the No Chains brand to an audience including journalists, artists and models. The venue is in Bonpland 1660, in Palermo, where the Solidarity Economy Market operates. The shirts will cost 60 pesos, but today, as the first day of the launch, they will be sold at half price.
“The aim of this project is to make people aware of the conditions under which garments are made”, said Vera, who also described No Chains as a “militant brand” in the fight against slave labor.
Translation by Daniel Kaplan
Original link in Spanish: http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/sociedad/3-160929-2011-01-22.html
The new T-shirts will be presented today at the Bonpland solidarity economy market, at half price. Photo: Guadalupe Lombardo
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