No Sweat is a broad-based not-for-profit organisation with HQ in London's Kings Cross, England, which fights for the well-being and protection of

sweatshop A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor, socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions. Some illegal working conditions include poor ventilation, little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting, o ...

labourers, not only in developing countries but also in Britain.

History

Working with the

GMB Union The GMB is a general trade union in the United Kingdom which has more than 460,000 members. Its members work in nearly all industrial sectors, in retail, security, schools, distribution, the utilities, social care, the National Health Service (N ...

in London's East End, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 2005, the organisation infiltrated and exposed sweatshops operating for Topshop and reported those involved to the authorities. No Sweat encourages consumers to choose ethically sourced clothing, whilst firmly rejecting boycotts which only lead to factories being moved further from the limelight, further increasing the dangers to those trapped in the cycle of

wage slavery Wage slavery or slave wages refers to a person's dependence on wages (or a salary) for their livelihood, especially when wages are low, treatment and conditions are poor, and there are few chances of upward mobility. The term is often used ...

Partners

The organisation works variously with parts of the TUC and other trade union organisations, the National Garment Workers Federation and closely cooperates with the Ethical Threads clothing company in Britain. It is also aligned with other campaign groups like Labour Behind the Label, and with "No Sweat Apparel" in the United States. Independent of political influence, the group seeks to reach out to all parts of the global community to help stamp out sweatshop labour fullstop - often dealing directly with groups of workers that would normally have no voice and no support outside their immediate community - for example Batay Ouvriye in Haiti and individuals like jailed union official Ali Nejati in Iran.

Events

They hold numerous events in London, Sheffield, Glasgow, Brighton and elsewhere around the United Kingdom, and have a presence at many events such as Glastonbury Festival's Leftfield and many smaller counter-culture festivals and gigs. Recently the organisation has been running a successful comedy night on the 2nd Thursday of each month in London's Cross Kings basement rooms, guest acts have included

Mark Thomas Mark Clifford Thomas (born 11 April 1963) is an English comedian, presenter, political satirist, and journalist. He first became known as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show ''The Mary Whitehouse Experience'' in the late 1980s. He is ...

Josie Long Josie Isabel Long (born 17 April 1982) is a British comedian. She started performing as a stand-up at the age of 14 and won the BBC New Comedy Awards at 17. In 2006, Long won the If.comeddies Best Newcomer award at the Edinburgh Festival Frin ...

, Rob Newman,

Robin Ince Robin Ince (born 20 February 1969) is an English comedian, actor and writer, known for presenting the BBC radio show ''The Infinite Monkey Cage'' with physicist Brian Cox (physicist), Brian Cox, and his stand-up comedy career. Education After ...

and

Simon Munnery Simon Munnery, also known as his characters "Alan Parker: Urban Warrior" and "The League Against Tedium", is an English comedian. He performs mainly to an alternative audience but has pierced the mainstream both with his BBC Radio 1 show in 19 ...

as well as live podcasts from established acts such as

Richard Herring Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is an English stand-up comedian and writer, whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring (alongside Stewart Lee). He is described by ''The British Theatre Guide'' as "one of the leadin ...

and Andrew Collins and legendary punk filmmaker

Don Letts Donovan "Don" Letts (born 10 January 1956) is a British film director, disc jockey (DJ) and musician. Letts first came to prominence as the videographer for the Clash, directing several of their music videos. In 1984, Letts co-founded the band B ...

. These events all aim to publicise the plight of sweatshop workers (children and adults) around the world as well as giving a platform to other, less prominent groups where appropriate and have developed a reputation as the last bastion of genuine counter culture in the now hyper-developed Kings Cross area.

Fashion parade

In April 2009 the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

news and

Times Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems. Time or times may also refer to: Temporal measurement * Time in physics, defined by its measurement * Time standard, civil time specific ...

newspapers covered a No Sweat fashion parade outside Primark's flagship Oxford St store - an event organised in response to recent outcry over the company's atrocious labour policies and relationships with subsidiary contractors who make regular use of child labour, as highlighted by the

's in 2006.

Goals

The group's activities are primarily two-fold, firstly to organise direct action campaigns to pressure the big brand companies that exploit people through sweatshop labour, secondly to work with independent organisations around the globe to support vulnerable people and help them to unite together and stand up to their employers, demanding safe working conditions, decent hours and a

living wage A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum, or a solidarity wage, which refers to a minimum wage tracking labor ...

as well as independent trade union rights to protect them from malicious attacks and extreme exploitation. They are volunteer-run, and anyone can get involved.

Gallery

File:1903sweatshopchicago.jpg, Sweatshop inspection in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, 1903 File:2008 Olympic Torch Relay in SF - Embarcadero 27.JPG, Women protesting sweatshops,

The Embarcadero, San Francisco The Embarcadero is the eastern waterfront and roadway of the Port of San Francisco, San Francisco, California, along San Francisco Bay. It was constructed on reclaimed land along a three mile long engineered seawall, from which piers extend int ...

, 2008.

References

External links

No Sweat's Myspace

No Sweat's Facebook group

ethicalthreads.co.uk

labourbehindthelabel.or
{{DEFAULTSORT:No Sweat (Organisation) Ethical consumerism Fair trade organizations GMB (trade union)