Rana Plaza seven years on, where are we now and what comes next?

By Beth Meadows

 Bangladesh homes 4,825 factories, and the textile industry is its biggest export. The Rana Plaza building, an eight storey complex, collapsed in Dhaka in 2013. 1,134 people were killed in this horrific incident, and 2,500 were seriously injured and traumatised. The Rana Plaza factories produced clothes for big European labels like Primark, Mango, Matalan and Benetton. Garment workers had complained about the unsafe conditions in the lead up to the collapse, and they were even evacuated the day before it happened. However, threatened to not be paid if they didn’t work despite the visible cracks in the walls, they were forced to enter and continue working; a decision that was to have fatal consequences.

 In the wake of the catastrophe, legislation was established such as the Accord on Fire and Building Safety, which was signed by more than 200 brands to improve factory conditions, and the Rana Plaza Arrangement, to provide compensation to victims and their families. Whilst more than a thousand factories have been investigated and regulated (though not all to the set standard yet), and compensation has (eventually) been paid out to the 2,800 claimants, these actions have done little to actually improve the quality of garment workers lives on the whole. Many Western brands still operate from factories where workers rights are abused and gender-based violence occurs – yet have the audacity to continue to try and financially squeeze the manufacturers as consumer demand for fast fashion soars. Therefore, there is still a long way to go before brands invest in people and the planet ahead of maximum profit.

 In 2020, we can look back on the past seven years since the disaster to track what is still needed in the fight against the fast fashion industry. Sadly, the global outrage sparked by Rana Plaza was not enough for big brands, governments and factory employers to take the necessary measures to enshrine worker’s rights: ensuring fair and equal pay, empowering rights to unionisation, and rights to report sexual harassment (and protections to prevent it in the first place) to name a few examples. These key stakeholders also need to provide real transparency on how garments are made – and inform customers so they can understand who was exploited to make their clothes, and at what ecological cost. Moreover, in the context of our climate emergency, there is a desperate need to create the conditions for a just transition to sustainable alternatives for workers throughout the supply chain as the current rate of (over)production is not compatible with reducing emissions.

 It is also important to acknowledge the role that consumers play in this crisis too, as brands respond to their demands for more cheap clothing. This is not to blame individual shoppers directly, who by in large are kept in the dark about the truth of the industry and many have no other choice than cheap ready-made clothing, but as a collective it must be said that there is a degree of cognitive dissonance. Despite Rana Plaza sending shockwaves throughout the world at the time, fast fashion has continued to increase exponentially. The ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality, grounded in an assumption that the earth has unlimited resources, therefore persists. So, more can be done to raise awareness throughout society of the reality of the industry, whilst challenging the ways that people interact with it in a way that encourages them to stop buying into fast fashion. 

 The future of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety looks uncertain, however. As it enters its final phase this year, members of Bangladeshi political elite, many who are factory owners themselves, have taken responsibility for completing the factory checks and monitoring safety regulations moving forward. This has raised concerns from organisations like the Clean Clothes Campaign, who worry about the motivations of the group, such as wanting to revert back to old habits in order to maximise profits as the work demanded by the Accord has been costly. Due to the globalised nature of the industry, it is common for brands to relocate their work to whichever country can offer the cheapest sources of labour, as many European textile industries did in the 20th and 21st centuries. This is a sad reflection on the state of our capitalistic globalised world, where the countries with more power hold the cards. However, Rubana Huq, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) asserts that worker’s safety is their utmost priority and this change of hands is to bring control of the factory regulations back to Bangladesh. Furthermore, the jeopardy of the Accord begs the question of what will happen to safety regulations once it has finished. Was the promise of a safer, fairer and more sustainable industry in the wake of Rana Plaza was more of a pipedream than structural change?  

COVID-19 and the fashion industry 

 This anniversary it is impossible to ignore the impacts of COVID-19 on garment industry workers. Worldwide lockdowns have seen consumer demand for fast fashion dramatically decline, and high street stores close their doors. Brands have therefore cancelled orders leaving a devastating impact on the supply chain. There are still some big brands that have yet to pay for the orders that had already been made before the industry became paralysed, which displays a total lack of respect for garment workers’ livelihoods. C&A, Mothercare, Bestseller, Tesco, Kohls, Walmart, LPP, JCPenney are among the brands that are yet to respond to public pressure to pay for their orders. Workers in Europe are also being mistreated. Pretty Little Thing, a Manchester based fashion enterprise, has come under fire as reports emerged from workers in warehouses in the UK who are unable to practice social distancing due to a bizarre increase in orders during the lockdown. What is more, for the fashion industry to collapse in this context does not safeguard the rights of its backbone of garment workers, and therefore is not the systemic change to the fashion industry that is needed. A just transition is essential, and this pandemic has highlighted how it must be integrated into the forefront of fashion activism from now.

 A just transition is something that many environmental groups advocate for yet can often slip through the net in narratives about the climate emergency, with the focus being to immediately halt the continuation of mass consumerism. However, we must accept that we live in a capitalist world, created by colonialism, and its unequal structure has ensured workers worldwide are dependent on its continuation in order to survive. Therefore, this must be factored into our approach to the climate emergency. Otherwise we risk intensifying global inequality, and pandering to ecofascism narratives, which is counterproductive to the egalitarian goals of true environmental activists. Moreover, a just transition could have the following characteristics: workers being informed ahead of time of closure to prepare, to always be treated with dignity and respect, to be financially compensated and supported through periods of unemployment by employers and/or the welfare state, and ideally redeployed into a sustainable industry as soon as possible.

 Furthermore, in order to truly honour the victims of Rana Plaza, we need to continue challenging this toxic industry. It should not take a disaster of the scale of 2013 to shock stakeholders into action. Nor should it take a global pandemic to prioritise a just transition for workers. We certainly cannot afford to wait for anything on the scale of these two events to happen again. We must use our privilege to advocate, in solidarity with garment workers movements where possible, for the transformative overhaul this industry needs.

What you can do (from home, today!):

Support Extinction Rebellion Fashion Action Global fundraiser, donating directly to garment workers in India who are being left destitute due to job losses, with these two charities:

·    Aajeevika is a non-profit organization working to enhance the dignity and well-being of migrant worker communities in the informal economy. It works across the western Indian migration corridor of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra but has networks across India. 

·   Traid is a charity working to stop clothes from being thrown away. They turn clothes waste into funds and resources to reduce the environmental and social impacts of our clothes. They have an emergency appeal for garment workers in the suppy chain. 

·   Keep up to date with Fashion Revolution in relation to COVID-19, such as their campaign asking brands to #payup for their orders. 

·  Follow and share the live blog from the Clean Clothes Campaign about how COVID-19 is impacting on garment workers globally.

Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images