Behind+the+Swoosh


 * PUB209 - Health Culture and Society**
 * Tutor - Abbey Diaz**
 * Philipa Elton**
 * n8598193**
 * Topic - Blood, Sweat and T-shirts**

 BEHIND THE SWOOSH


 * THE CULTURAL ARTEFACT

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 * Behind the Swoosh is the title of an award winning short film, but also the underlying key issue in the founding of Jim Keady’s Team Sweat “an international coalition of consumers, investors and workers committed to ending the injustices in Nike’s sweatshops around the world” The Behind the Swoosh Logo (and cultural artefact) puts a twist on the Nike Swoosh by turning it upside down and creating a sad face which ultimately represents the negative connotations that this corporation brings globally. ||


 * THE PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE ||
 * The globalised fashion industry is negatively impacting people’s health and quality of life. Sweatshop conditions, exploitation, child labour and people living in poverty are the main key issues that need to be addressed in order for an increase in wellbeing across the globe. Behind the Swoosh represents exactly this, “the truth about sweatshops” and what goes on “behind the scenes”, right from the raw materials, to the manufacturing of garments, to exports and imports and consumer purchases. Big brand companies such as Nike, have the power in many countries overseas to increase their profit by exploiting their workers. This is where the problem exists and if something isn’t done about it, it will continue to happen and will result with more people’s lives in jeopardy. ||
 * LITERATURE REVIEW

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 * Over the past 10 years many researchers and theorists have made evident that the globalised fashion industry is a major issue today and an extremely important area within the public health sector that needs to be a prioritised People’s lives are in danger due to dangerous workplaces and faulty infrastructure. In May this year over 1000 people were reported dead after a sweatshop fire in Bangladesh This one statistic shockingly magnifies just how real this issue is. More tragically, it isn’t just happening in Bangladesh, it’s happening right around the globe to millions of people every single day. Much needs to be done in order to help those vulnerable in allowing them to a good quality of life and healthy wellbeing . Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO’s) have played a major role in much research conducted around the public health issue of globalisation in the fashion industry, from manufacturing and production to stakeholders and consumers. NGO’s are an extremely effective method of naming and shaming big brand companies They have the capacity to deploy negative information on critiquing leading brands and can create awareness of positive information to help build new markets for improved products. NGO’s have the ability to identify points of leverage within global production and trading regimes; direct action, coordinate research, and negotiate with brands. NGO’s have the power to identify solutions and advance new multi-stakeholder standards and monitor and certify schemes. Ultimately, much theorists and researchers have proven that it’s not just about shutting the sweatshops down, it’s about creating a safer and healthier work environment for every worker and enabling them to receive standard wage and increase their quality of life . The Sweatshop Campaigns are a prime example of non-governmental organisations in Europe and the United States taking action against global manufacturing practices that are impacting on both social and environmental health aspects on workers in third world countries. The campaigns also look particularly at the adverse impacts on the sweatshop workers and their families in developing countries . These campaigns demand “leading companies to stop specific practises, such as using toxic glues and solvents, harassment of workers in factories and to improve the overall conditions for workers and local communities”. The target was Nike Corporation. In 1997, Nike was well-publicised from its several exposes of poor working conditions in factories in Asia. At this time, anti-Nike rallies were taking place in 50 US cities and 11 countries Nike was the number one merchandiser (over $10 billion in annual sales) and was placed fourth as an industry leader. It was thought at the time, by targeting this franchise, changes would be made throughout the entire industry . The campaigns key advocacy strategies include: exposes, national days of protest, leafleting in front of Nike stores, bringing the Nike workers on speaking tours and letter writing, emails and calls to the CEO of Nike The campaign thrived however, on the exposes. The cases kept popping up in the media and viewed by the public showing the problems with Nike’s long, complex supply chain. The idea was to increase public awareness of the health issue in both the United States and Europe. It is evident that the increased awareness helps to put a stop to sweatshops as many groups have called for boycotts of Nike products and others have lobbied government bodies that require Nike to change its practices. Some of these practices might include paying a living wage, respecting worker freedom and association, protecting workplace health and safety, complying with environmental laws and phasing out specific toxins (such as benzene in the shoe production) . Another important role that the NGO’s have played is seen in the creation of several new institutions to modify and certify code compliance Some of these institutions include: Fair Labour Association, Social Accountability International, Workers Rights Consortium in the United States and the Ethical Trading Initiative and Fair Wear Foundation in Europe. The Fair Labour Association (FLA) for example endeavours to promote and protect workers’ rights globally through the adherence of international standards. Working together with business groups, civil society organisations, universities and colleges helps the association gain insight into sustainable solutions to systemic labour issues . Partnerships like this enable the association to gain the most information in the least amount of time and therefore can work to finding the solutions in the most effective way. A prime example of this is seen here in the complex supply chain of cocoa. [[image:healthcultureandsociety2013/supply chain 2.png width="575" height="291"]] Oxfam Australia is an organisation which is working for a future free from poverty Currently Oxfam is working alongside other international organisations to improve the rights and conditions of workers globally. They are watching companies such as Nike, Adidas, Puma and even Australian Clothing Brands. Much like the FLA, Oxfam supports unions, supports workers’ rights and campaigns. Oxfam also educates, women in particular, to gain knowledge and insight into their rights as workers and also teaches them skills to campaign for these rights. Additionally they provide high school teachers with educational resources so their students can learn the problems and understand what they can to do to help [[image:healthcultureandsociety2013/oxfam graph.png width="511" height="385" align="center"]]

This graph extracted from the 2006 Oxfam Labour Report, shows the proportion of Nike sport shoe production in countries which give legal protection of workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. It depicts that between 1998 and 2005, 14% of shoe production was lost. Considering the extent to which sweatshop conditions are today and Nike’s yearly revenue this wasn’t a very big impact on the Nike Corporation. However, it is not just Nike. Other big brand companies such as New Balance, Adidas and Puma are still exploiting there worker’s rights and should be held accountable for.

Despite the impacts NGO’s have on big brand companies, it is still a problem today. Campaigns have been battled for decades and only minor changes have resulted. The extent of the problem is what makes it so difficult to fix. It needs to be changed on a global scale and this is why it is increasingly problematic. ||


 * CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ANALYSIS

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 * Capitalism is the underlying concept that continues to contribute to the inequality of the economy globally. Whilst western hegemony continues to remain, now more than ever, there is limited accounts of the never ending theft of the world’s resources and more so individual’s human rights and freedoms.

Karl Marx, a German theorist, believed that certain groups sought to dominate and exploit others for their own means. He believed that the ruling classes exploited the working class and that this had terrible implications for society; on both an economic and ethical level. He wrote about divisions between class, gender, race and ethnicity and believed that we needed a revolution to overthrow the capitalism and get rid of these gross inequalities. Still to this day, gross inequalities are being experienced by many individuals’ right around the world due to sweatshop labour. Big businesses own most of the wealth due to being members of the capitalist class and therefore are able to exploit the working class. This is turn, has terrible implications on the health and wellbeing of the population. For example working long hours and becoming sleep deprived, not being paid enough, if anything at all, contributing to starvation and exhaustion, also impairment to eyesight and hand functioning, repeated exposures to toxic chemicals, working with dangerous machinery without the correct safety protection and the list goes on. This same concept can also be portrayed through the McDonaldisation process. The term McDonaldisation refers to “//the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world The primary goal of the McDonaldisation process is to increase profit through efficiency and low cost; hence the beginning of the human exploitation process. By paying workers less, making them do more hours, enables companies to receive products faster and more efficient for a lesser cost to the company and therefore an overall increase in wealth. As a result of the globalised fashion industry, public health professionals need to focus on increasing the general public’s awareness of the issue. Together, activists, workers and consumers can campaign and stand up for individual’s rights and freedoms of those living in poverty with appalling conditions, inhumane work hours and wages that barely exist. Tackling the problem of the globalised fashion industry is a significant one and detrimental at that.As this is a global problem it needs to be solved from a global scale. All companies need to be held accountable for their actions with full public disclosure being backed with independent monitoring of working conditions and pay, and also how and where the products are made. Violations to these actions must be corrected in a way that will be of most benefit to the workers, protecting their jobs. These could include paying adults a living wage and paying for the education of child workers found in factories Ideally, public health experts should be empowering and educating sweatshop workers that don’t have the knowledge or skills to stand up for the individual rights and freedoms. Allowing these communities to rely less on exploitative workplace behaviours and more on their rights as an individual will ultimately increase their health and quality of life. Also public health workers can start to promote the companies who are agreeing to the issue of providing fairer trade and safe work environments and consequently name and shame the companies who are poorly treating their workers to hopefully pressure them into changing behaviours and exploitation practices. Businesses can also help the situation, by opening factories in countries with sweatshops which operate fairly and therefore giving the workers a choice as to where they wish to work. Businesses can also partner with NGO’s and again invest in education and the empowerment of the communities being affected. ||

OWN LEARNING RELFECTION
 * ANALYSIS OF ARTEFACT &

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 * Behind the Swoosh is the ideal way to get the message across to the general public. As the Nike tick is such a well-known logo, the twist Team Sweat puts on it, allows virtually everyone to start to ask questions and think about this significant public health issue. Big brand companies are getting away with exploiting humans and rights and freedoms for their own benefits. It’s unfair and unjust. This artefact I believe, summarises the topic as it looks at the truth behind companies and the extent to which these companies push their workers in order to gain the most profit.

Throughout this unit and assessment piece I have gained extensive knowledge and background information about the globalised fashion industry and how it is such a problem and continues to be a problem in the twenty first century. This topic, I believe, is not one the general Australian public wants to discuss and hence why little has been done to prevent these mass abuses to human rights in developing third world countries. It is a problematic topic as many different levels are involved right from the CEO’s of the companies to the sweatshop labourers in the factories. In order to tackle the problem, action needs to be taken at each level, working with all the companies on a global scale to facilitate change.

From the literature and evidence based research my increased awareness of the topic has already impacted on my consumerism. By knowing these inequalities are happening to that kind of an extent, influences myself greatly on the products I purchase. I believe with this new knowledge and mindfulness I will be able to help in the ongoing battle to fight for the rights of the sweatshop workers to some extent in my future career. ||

To conclude with, the following You Tube (Wings, by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis) clip takes a slightly different approach to sweatshop labour, but instead uses the globalised fashion industry and Nike’s Swoosh to portray a message about American Consumerism and how big brand purchases don’t necessarily bring happiness.

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