Primark Protest
Primark Protest. Photo by Peter Marshall.
Oxford Street Primark Protest. Photo by Peter Marshall.
Oxford Street was the location of an unorthodox fashion show with models bearing chains in a protest against Primark.
Organised by War and Want and No Sweat, the show took place outside the flagship Oxford Street Primark shop on Saturday 4 April and sought to spread awareness about Primark's record for, the campaigners maintain, paying workers as little as 7p an hour for up to 80 hour weeks. Primark continues to flourish and its profits have increased 17% in the last year (up until September 2008). When the flagship store opened on Oxford Street two years ago, one million items were sold in the first ten days.
War on Want's findings on the conditions suffered by Bangladeshi workers make grim reading. The latest report found that the average worker's pay was £19.16 a month, which is less than half a living wage. War on Want spokesman Paul Collins states: “Primark’s flagship store is thriving with clothes at rock bottom prices while workers producing them face deeper poverty. Gordon Brown’s claim that the G20 summit deal will tackle global poverty ignores the reality that UK companies such as Primark are trapping people overseas in dire hardship. Unless he regulates British firms, growing numbers of the poor will pay a terrible price for the world economic crisis.”
There has been some recognition by Primark that it has fallen short on providing conditions for workers and on Friday 3rd April the company published a lengthy statement which begins with the following admission. "Primark shares and recognises many of the concerns raised by No Sweat. We acknowledge that conditions for workers in some factories do not always meet the high standards that we and other brands sourcing from these factories, expect." Primark has now established an Ethical Trade Manager post in Bangladesh.
Primark also came under attack from campaigners surrounding the G20 summit. Mark Thomas appeared at Put People First Protest a Hyde Park and told the thousands of people gathered that he'd stated: "You know we're in the crap - I was in Hackney the other day and Primark had a half-price sale on which is against the laws of physics."
War on Want www.waronwant.org
Mark Thomas video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjKNja3m0zc
Primark's Latest Ethical Statement: http://www.ethicalprimark.co.uk/updates.html
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I don't like primark and i do agree with the protest but there are other places do the same but have bigger names i think we should aim for them first like gap
I've worked in the industry for 6 years and here's the truth. Many of the other retailers in the High Street use the same factories but charge higher prices to diguise how little they paid for them. Primark gets attacked becasue they worked out if they charged punters direct wholesale prices their business would go balastic!
You should be asking all the retailers where their stuff comes from. They are all as bad as each other.
I would like to see more American Apparel type business models. Why don't we buy clothes we make here in England?
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It's easy to pick on primark, but they not doing anything that Nike, H&M, Gap and lots of others arn't doing too.