Low-cost fashion still has to pay a price…and that price is slave labor, it turns out. But we knew that anyway. Shein, the viral clothing brand known for producing copies of the biggest fashions at hugely discounted prices, is facing accusations of using forced labor in Ughur camps in China.
Campaigners claim that the budget fashion brand has used Ughur Muslim detainees in Chinese labor camps to produce their low-cost clothing. Those same campaigners say that they have submitted evidence to a London-based watchdog, arguing that the retailer should be blocked from selling any shares on the London Stock Exchange.
The campaigners, who represent the Stop Uyghur Genocide group, described how Ughur Muslims are being subject to sterilization, sexual abuse, violence, and even torture in camps in China – and while the communist government has denied the accusations, it’s something that both Democrats and Republicans seem to agree is happening.
Rahima Mahmut, the leader of the Stop Uyghur Genocide campaign group, argues that the British government and financial authorities should take action because the use of slave labor violates the UK’s Modern Slavery Act – even though the slave labor technically occurs outside of British borders. Mahmut, who is also a Uyghur, argues that the stock exchange in London, and elsewhere in the world, should uphold the standards to which they purport to hold themselves and stop the planned listing of Shein on the stock market.
Mahmut is right, but she may have a tough time with Britain’s new socialist government. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has made no indication that his government plans to tackle the problems in China. Former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson hit international headlines when it was announced that the UK government would place restrictions on the installation of 5G technological components built in China in the UK’s communications infrastructure, but even that conservative government didn’t punish China as much as it perhaps should have done. So why would Labour?
The problem is so real that even Shein has admitted to examples of child labor being used in the manufacturing process of its products. The company claims that the suppliers found to be using child labor were suspended, and that if they find it happening again, they’ll suspend those suppliers too…
But doesn’t that just mean that the company can keep on acquiring cheap goods from questionable sources, so long as they suspend the deal once they’re discovered?
The mind boggles…
