| Bienvenido | El Congreso | Norrköping | Documentos | Prensa | Sobre la FITTVC |
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For The Press
Friday June 16, 2000 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE A session on "How second-hand clothing is impoverishing poor communities' will be held at the upcoming 8th World Congress of the ITGLWF, which will be held in Norköpping, Sweden, from 26 – 29 June 2000 under the banner 'Global Solidarity in a Global Economy'. Participating in the session will be trade union leaders from developing countries which have a significant used clothing market. One of the main charities involved in trading in used clothing, Humana/People to People, has also been invited to give its point of view. Every year, Western consumers rid themselves of mountains of unwanted clothes through charity organisations, convinced that their donations will go directly to the poor. In reality, only a small proportion of these articles find their way into charity shops or are used for emergency relief. The lion's share is sold to used clothes dealers and exported to developing countries, where it is sold off at market prices. One of the main clothes-recycling charities in Europe is Humana/Development Aid People to People (DAPP). Known in Sweden under the name U-landshjælp fra Folk til Folk (UFF), Humana is part of the vast Tvind empire, considered a cult by many. Tvind recruits and prepares young people to work in African aid projects, which it funds by collecting and selling used clothing in 26 countries. Humana has been closed down by a number of governments, but a new subsidiary, Planet Aid, has now appeared. Says ITGLWF General Secretary Neil Kearney: "There is no charity when it comes to the trade in used clothing. This is a lucrative business. On the market stalls of most African countries, cast-offs donated to charity command prices about 2,000% over what the wholesalers pay for it". Used clothing is now the leading import market in many developing countries, where a used Chicago Bulls sweatshirt or a pair of old Nikes are seen as better quality and more fashionable than locally-produced items. Local industries are being suffocated by the onslaught of imported used clothing. Explains Kearney: 'This is a scavenging trade, in which the dealers get their products practically free before converting them into huge profits. Unable to compete, local industries are collapsing, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers jobless. If they're lucky, skilled seamstresses and tailors might hope to find work selling used clothing. But many are now destitute". In many developing countries, the textile and garment industries are the main providers of jobs, but in recent years tens of thousands of workers have lost their livelihood as a result of the trade in used clothing. In Africa, workers often support an extended family of twenty or more members, and when they lose their jobs it is a disaster for their family and for the whole community. Concludes Kearney: "Workers and their unions in the countries concerned and internationally have no objection to the collection of used clothing for charitable purposes. However, steps need to be taken to ensure that used clothing donated for the poor is used for that purpose and distributed free of charge, thus avoiding the damage being caused in developing countries. Charities must stop exporting poverty". The ITGLWF is an International Trade Secretariat bringing together 220 affiliated unions in 110 countries, with a combined membership of 10 million workers. The session 'How second-hand clothing is impoverishing poor communities' will be held on Tuesday June 27 at 17:00 at the Louis De Geer Congress Centre in Norrköping, Sweden. Congress sessions are open to the press. Further information on the ITGLWF 8th World Congress is available at www.itglwf.org. For more information, contact: Neil Kearney (ITGLWF, Brussels) at 32/2/512.2606 or 32/75932487 or 32/75932487 (cell)
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Bienvenido | El Congreso | Norrköping | Documentos | Prensa | Sobre la FITTVC |