This is how Levi and GAP practice "Corporate Ethics" in Lesotho, Africa.
How stupid does reality have to get before it simply becomes farce?
Now Levi Strauss, GAP and Walgreens are boycotting Alberta oil.
Really.
Nice to know they have a corporate conscience.
Problem is - theirs is a good example of do as I say, not as I do.
Barely a year ago, we learn of Levi and GAP poisoning water in Lesotho, Africa. Yup.. these giants of "Corporate Ethics" were happily making money off of sweat shops in Lesotho, Africa - and in exchange for abusing their labor market - they repaid the country by pumping chemicals and disposing of waste in rivers, killing fish and putting the extremely poor in that country at risk.
From the Sunday Times, which broke the story August 1, 2009:
A factory that makes jeans for Gap and Levi Strauss is illegally dumping chemical waste in a river and two unsecured tips where it poses a hazard to children.Head office of Levi Strauss? San Francisco, California.
The scandal was uncovered by a Sunday Times investigation into pollution caused by a plant in Lesotho, southern Africa, which supplies denim to the two companies. Dark blue effluent from the factory of Nien Hsing, a Taiwanese firm, was pouring into a river from which people draw water for cooking and bathing.
The firm was also dumping needles, razors and harmful chemicals such as caustic soda at municipal dumps that have attracted child rag-pickers as young as five in search of cloth fragments to sell for fuel.
Many of the children, who work for up to 10 hours a day in the landfills, complain of breathing difficulties, weeping eyes and rashes.
You recall San Francisco don't you? The same city which is the home of Corporate Ethics International. The same city which by diverting water to Southern California has destroyed 98% of wetlands in the San Joaquin delta. The same state were up to 66 people per day are dying due to complications arising from air pollution in Los Angeles.
Is this actually impacting Alberta?
Not really. Not yet. But while we continue to be the largest supplier of oil to the United States, I think the hypocrisy is serious enough that any Albertan, and in fact, any Canadian who detests hypocrisy and small-minded throwing of stones from glass houses should send their own message.
Boycott WalMart, Levi Strauss and GAP.
By shopping in their stores, even as they seek to hurt our economy, it's like watching someone urinate on your shoes, and smiling and handing them money for the pleasure.
Me? I'll pass, thank-you.
Re-Think Gap. Re-Think Levis. Re-Think Walgreens.
Re-Think California.
7 comments:
Are you sure it was Walmart?
Wasn't it Walgreens?
I believe they're a different company altogether.
Mr. Harvie, thank you for posting this. When I read what these three companies were doing, I fumed. Thanks for giving me ammunition. Hopefully Ezra Levant's "Ethical Oil" book will also offer ammunition.
You're right: it's time to push back.
Blame Crash.. sorry.. you're exactly right.
That's what happens when I'm seeing red.
My bad.
Just like the LUSH bodycare company who was campaigning against the oil sands recently, with their staff parading around outside in barrels and nothing-much-else. I kept looking at their shoes in the photos and wondering 'how did you get those? how did you get to work today? if you hate consumption so much, why do you live in a city?' etc etc. When friends of mine were excited that LUSH might finally be opening a store here in Medicine Hat, I said I will never shop there and might just stand outside their doors wearing nothing but a barrel too....
That would certainly keep a few people out of the store :) But seriously, how would LUSH be transporting it's goods down here and how do they make them? Do they sit outside in a mud hole mixing together lovelies for our skin, or do they have a big honking huge factory spewing out all sorts of crud? Gee, I think it might be the latter. These companies are sealing their own fate, whether they see it right now or not.
Glad I havent bought Gap or Levis in a very long time, just by own personal choice of refusing to shop by labels. The label of your clothing does not define who you are, but the Labels are certainly defining themselves ;)
No problem Rob.
But you must still be seeing red because you have left a mention of Walmart near the end of your post.
What ever you do, if you need some Visine, don't buy it from Walgreens. They're kooks!
Well, Well, Well!
I just read a post at "Just Right" blog and guess who has just said that they are not taking part in a boycott of Alberta Oil Sands and they also seem to be implying that they never were part of this campaign by those kooks at Forest Ethics.
“Forsaken Ethics” would seem to be a better description of these characters.
It is not difficult to point out the social justice good corporate citizens as hypocrites.
The Liberal media is failing in providing a counter balance to the left wing advocacy groups and their financial backers.
It is left to bloggers and partisans from other camps.
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