Academy Of Ideas

The public outrage that followed the discovery of several ‘forced labour’ labels sewn into clothes stocked by budget clothing shop Primark has brought the issue of the ethics of the supply chain back into the headlines. Just what is the real cost of cheap goods in the West? In April 2013, 1,100 people – including garment workers who had been producing clothes for UK retailers - died when the Rana Plaza commercial block in Bangladesh collapsed. Earlier this year, the Guardian claimed fishmeal used to produce farmed prawns for UK supermarkets was produced using fish caught with slave labour. These revelations fit into a history of claims made about ‘sweatshop’ conditions faced by workers producing everything from fashionable footwear to top-of-the-range consumer electronics. However the problem is not restricted to developing countries, as cases of exploitation and abuse of labourers continue to emerge across the UK, too. Some have called for UK retailers to boycott firms or even entire countrie