Just 
Did you know that
cotton is the most important non-food raw material in the world? It grows a bit 'all over the planet, but the larger producing countries are China, India, USA, Pakistan, Brazil, Uzbekistan, which in 2009 produced all together 85% cotton. The cotton is then 40% of the fiber used in textile industry, power industry, involving 60 million workers worldwide, who are often young people (women and children), immigrants, underpaid, unorganized, in unhealthy working conditions and exhausting.
In 2008, however, these workers have led to a total production quota, which reached 600 billion dollars.
Since 2005, with the termination of the Multifibre
agreements, the World Trade Organization has finally liberalized world trade in textiles and clothing, resulting in a competitive war between multinational production and trade of textile products.
chains such as Zara and H & M, whose stores we have seen appear a few years ago in our cities, are just a consequence of this liberalization, and gave rise to the phenomenon of
fast-fashion, or fashion-and-use casts, which is cheap and lasts less. Zara
for example, English brand popular now all over the world, founded by Orange Ortega, tenth among the richest men in the world, has 3000 stores in 64 countries.
But behind the success of Zara, is a production system which, according to Deborah Lucchetti
in his book 'The Consumer's New Clothes', means that "that dress, designed in Spain, may have been sewn into Bangladesh, with fabrics from India and finished in Spain with the quality control unit, or (...) may have been packed on vessels departing from China by Chinese workers with labels "Made-in-Bangladesh, to make up course Madrid, to avoid customs duties and further reduce production costs. "
It 's a fact comunque che anche alcune delle nostre griffe made in Italy si servono del lavoro di asiatici e sudamericani, i quali intascano tra lo 0,5 e il 3% del prezzo finale del prodotto, mentre i grandi distributori e i marchi si riservano l’80% del prezzo.
Un altro aspetto inquietante di questo nuovo sistema globalizzato di produrre e vendere abbigliamento è lo scarso controllo sulla materia prima, che viene coltivata in zone del mondo dove le leggi che regolamentano l’
impatto ambientale della produzione di cotone, per esempio, non sono uniformi.
Pare che circa 2 miliardi di dollari vengano spesi ogni anno per i
pesticidi chimici necessari per scongiurare the attack on the cotton plants (often genetically modified) by pests and weeds. With obvious effects on farmers in terms of threat to their health, given they are constantly at risk of poisoning
contact or inhalation.
And introducing GM cotton, which the big agribusiness (Monsanto in the head) was to promote the yield and the reduction of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, has done nothing but worsen dramatically that the environmental conditions and life farmers.
In the larger producing countries, the GM cotton
was in 2007, already 43% of the total, and India in particular have been seen in these years, many cases of suicides among farmers in debt up to his neck to repay the purchase of GM seeds sterile, toxic pesticides and fertilizers are harmful to the environment, the result would instead be the assurance of well-being of their families.
Today you are trying to act internationally to push for greater awareness on these issues and to defend and improve, where possible, the conditions of textile manufacturers and workers. In particular, the Clean Clothes Campaign
, born in Amsterdam in the 90s, has worked hard to denounce the conditions of exploitation and unfairness of the millions of textile workers, mostly invisible and ignored by everyone, working to provide jeans, shirts and shoes to fashion.
But ultimately, it is from our
individual choice that depends on our future and those who live beside us know the reality of things is certainly a first step, ask, do not rely on official statements and alleged ethical products we consume, because the same ethics is becoming a commodity of trade. In short, our effort is to try each to put our intelligence at the service of a common good.
Utopia? Perhaps, but it's worth a try.
If you want to read more:
‘I vestiti nuovi del consumatore’, Deborah Lucchetti, ed. Altreconomia, 2010
‘Le navi delle false griffe’, Rita Fatiguso, Il Sole 24 Ore
‘Clean Clothes. A global movement to end sweatshops’, Liesbeth Sluiter, Pluto Press, 2009
On line:
Campagna Abiti Puliti Clean Clothes Campaign la rivista mensile Altreconomia Assemblea Generale Italiana Commercio Equo e Solidale 
