ABC World News has done two pretty tough reports from Brian Ross on the horrible fire at the Tazreen garment factory in Bangladesh that killed 114 workers.
On November 25, Ross talked about the
shameful record, as previously reported by ABC News, of more than 600 garment factory fire deaths in Bangladesh over the last five years, a place of the cheapest labor in the world and some of the most deplorable conditions.
And Ross named names:
Workers’ activists went into the burned-out remains today to document which major retailers they say were using the Tazreen factory. They say they found labels for Faded Glory, a Wal-Mart private label, along with labels they say tracked back to Sears and a clothing company owned by Sean Combs.
“Walmart and other American companies are looking at a tragedy overseas among workers making clothes for their stores to sell at Christmas,” said anchor Diane Sawyer the next night (11/26/12).
“The Tazreen factory was a death trap,” Ross told viewers. And as he explained, it’s not alone:
As we found in an ABC World News investigation earlier this year, many of the best-known American retailers, including Tommy Hilfiger and the Gap, have been drawn to Bangladesh, drawn by the cheapest labor in the world, as low as 21 cents an hour, producing clothes in often crowded, deplorable conditions that would be illegal most anywhere else, certainly in the U.S.
But anyone who knows anything about ABC knows that it is owned by Disney— certainly among the “best-known American retailers,” and a company that has seen its share of controversy over the “deplorable conditions” for workers at some of its overseas suppliers.
And now the Associated Press is reporting that Disney clothing has been found at the Tazreen factory. The AP story notes that a reporter “also found entries in account books indicating that the factory took orders to produce clothes for Disney, Sears and other Western brands.”
So how do ABC journalists report on a sweatshop tragedy that could implicate their own bosses? Look back at Ross’ March investigation of Bangladesh sweatshops. Disney‘s name doesn’t come up– but Ross did chase down (literally) Tommy Hilfiger for comment about his company’s business practices.
ABC is not unaware of the news. At their website, a story on the fire has been updated with the following:
Late Tuesday the Associated Press reported that Disney was also among the factory’s customers. For its original report on the factory fire, ABC News was told by a Disney representative that the company’s third party supplier assured them none of their orders had been placed at the Tazreen factory. A spokesperson for Disney, parent company of ABC and ABC News, did not immediately return additional off-hour requests for comment on the AP report early Wednesday morning.
This is not a new problem for ABC. The World News broadcast had a series starting last year called “Made in America” that tried to goad consumers into changing their buying habits to build American jobs– as if consumer choice could somehow trump corporate profiteering. ABC named names then too, telling viewers which toy brands were made where.
Except for one company, whose name was never mentioned: Disney. Will this time be any different?
UPDATE: Give credit to ABC‘s Ross, who last night (11/28/12) mentioned the AP‘s findings regarding Disney. He also passed along Disney‘s response, pointing out that the company–just like others linked to the Tazreen factory– claims that the factory in question should not have been used by any of its licensees.
Where dreams come true
And nightmares don’t exist
As long as you have editorial control over the fairy tale
The system and its defenders:
The eighteenth century, the century of revolution, also revolutionised economics. But just as all the revolutions of this century were one-sided and bogged down in antitheses – just as abstract materialism was set in opposition to abstract spiritualism, the republic to monarchy, the social contract to divine right – likewise the economic revolution did not get beyond antithesis. The premises remained everywhere in force: materialism did not attack the Christian contempt for and humiliation of Man, and merely posited Nature instead of the Christian God as the Absolute confronting Man. In politics no one dreamt of examining the premises of the state as such. It did not occur to economics to question the validity of private property. Therefore, the new economics was only half an advance. It was obliged to betray and to disavow its own premises, to have recourse to sophistry and hypocrisy so as to cover up the contradictions in which it became entangled, so as to reach the conclusions to which it was driven not by its premises but by the humane spirit of the century. Thus economics took on a philanthropic character. It withdrew its favour from the producers and bestowed it on the consumers. It affected a solemn abhorrence of the bloody terror of the Mercantile System, and proclaimed trade to be a bond of friendship and union among nations as among individuals. All was pure splendour and magnificence – yet the premises reasserted themselves soon enough, and in contrast to this sham philanthropy produced the Malthusian population theory – the crudest, most barbarous theory that ever existed, a system of despair which struck down all those beautiful phrases about philanthropy and world citizenship. The premises begot and reared the factory system and modern slavery, which yields nothing in inhumanity and cruelty to ancient slavery. Modern economics – the system of free trade based on Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations – reveals itself to be that same hypocrisy, inconsistency and immorality which now confront free humanity in every sphere.
But was Smith’s system, then, not an advance? Of course it was, and a necessary advance at that. It was necessary to overthrow the mercantile system with its monopolies and hindrances to trade, so that the true consequences of private property could come to light. It was necessary for all these petty, local and national considerations to recede into the background, so that the struggle of our time could become a universal human struggle. It was necessary for the theory of private property to leave the purely empirical path of merely objective inquiry and to acquire a more scientific character which would also make it responsible for the consequences, and thus transfer the matter to a universally human sphere. It was necessary to carry the immorality contained in the old economics to its highest pitch, by attempting to deny it and by the hypocrisy introduced (a necessary result of that attempt). All this lay in the nature of the case. We gladly concede that it is only the justification and accomplishment of free trade that has enabled us to go beyond the economics of private property; but we must at the same time have the right to expose the utter theoretical and practical nullity of this free trade.
The nearer to our time the economists whom we have to judge, the more severe must our judgment become. For while Smith and Malthus found only scattered fragments, the modern economists had the whole system complete before them: the consequences had all been drawn; the contradictions came clearly enough to light; yet they did not come to examining the premises, and still accepted the responsibility for the whole system. The nearer the economists come to the present time, the further they depart from honesty. With every advance of time, sophistry necessarily increases, so as to prevent economics from lagging behind the times. This is why Ricardo, for instance, is more guilty than Adam Smith, and McCulloch and Mill more guilty than Ricardo.
http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/df-jahrbucher/outlines.htm
Meanwhile over at Faux Business Channel, guest Charles Payne said the fire was not Walmart’s fault [and blamed “the unions” for trying to pin it on them] and, besides people needed those jobs….
video at the link:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/27/1165008/-Fox-Business-host-Bangladeshi-fire-victims-needed-those-jobs-let-s-not-victimize-poor-Walmart
i know its a cry in the dark but we (Americans,Canadians, Europeans) HAVE TO STOP BUYING produtcs made by cheap Asian African or Latin American exploited labor…..21 cents per hour is not a “job” it is the definition of slavery. Products made by offshored, cheap – labor shops are products made by Slave Labor
“i know its a cry in the dark but we (Americans,Canadians, Europeans) HAVE TO STOP BUYING produtcs made by cheap Asian African or Latin American exploited labor…..21 cents per hour is not a “job” it is the definition of slavery. Products made by offshored, cheap – labor shops are products made by Slave Labor – marc”
Agreed that we need to do our part, and we can as much as possible. The one thing that has to change though is the “ownership tracking system” for the products, so that we can see where our clothing, food, and daily supplies actually come from.
It’s not enough to point and say “21 Cents an hour is wrong”; it might not be wrong if that is a cost of living wage there. I use your number for arguments sake, as I can’t actually believe a country where 21 cents an hour would support one person, let alone be a living wage. But we can’t just say “oh you can’t use the cheapest labor”, if the corporation are paying a fair wage for the labor and materials. We have to name the people (like the article started to do) who are not doing that (paying fair wages), and hold them specifically accountable.
That however is going to require tracking of the garments themselves, because otherwise Wal-Mart (maybe telling the truth this, though they will stretch the truth as far as they can) will step up with another lie and make the claim as they did, “they did not use that factory in the last 12 months”. Never mind they might only have stopped using it last year for whatever reason, I would even bet that reason had nothing to do with ‘poor safety’ or better working conditions for the workers. More likely some one on the floor muttered the word “Union” and they shit their pants and ran for the hills, where they can find someone to work faster, harder and above all cheaper. But since they are so specific, I would have to say, then we need to find out when the last time you did use this area and those factories that are sub-standard, even for this area.
So we need to have better system for tracking our products, not just who shipped them, because you can be anywhere in the world and order from a place that isn’t even in the same hemisphere as the place you are having the product manufactured at. I feel this is the real reason that the Corporation want the globulization of the world. The people selling you the crap can’t be held accountable for the fact they are actually in control and selling you crap as plum pudding, no accountability systems available to hadle that data.
what does he mean, ‘as if consumer choice could trump corporate profiteering’? ……..how couldn’t it?
I hope I’m misunderstanding his sarcasm.
“G Dad
what does he mean, ‘as if consumer choice could trump corporate profiteering’? ……..how couldn’t it?
I hope I’m misunderstanding his sarcasm.”
What he means I believe, is that the idea that consumers have choice is misleading, because we need information to make proper choices.
What happens when the only information we can get here is from a media owned by clothing chains?
Well, if you read the AP you might know more, if you dont read the paper anymore, or read AP online, the tv news media sure dont want you to know if they can help it.
To simplify, when your choice is based on purposefully false/leading info, yes, you have a choice, its just more likely the one the information providers want you to make.
If companies “should not have used the factory,” couldn’t they voluntarily differentiate themselves by paying living wages and circulating business among factores that are not out to replicate the Triangle fire disaster one hundred years after the fact?
Indeed, the major companies such as wal mart can always blame contractors, and often use sub and sub-sub contractors, so that they continue to further distance themselves from the blame.
They would have to leave Bangledesh to resolve this issue as the country just isnt yet ready for factory jobs. Not only have over 500 deaths been caused by such disasters in the last 5 years, this doesnt count major injuries and the country has no inclination to deal with the issue. Considering its continued poverty level (which these factories perpetuate), the new jobs are not helping too much, but it does make the people dependent on a fickle industry capitalistic system that will pull out for the next poorest place as soon as the people ask for humanity from the companies.
Keep pressuring business in this country and you just wait and see how many dangerous sweat shops open to “feed” America, and her peoples hunger for cheap goods.Saw a young black man on TV exited to be doing Xmas shopping.He spent 700 dollars on sneakers that he said could of cost 1200!It is our values that are screwed up.From Obama’s amateur business attitudes, to consumer idiocy on down.Dont blame the business that swims between that soup layer.
Gosh guys – this is just free enterprise with no regulations, no unions – just what the GOP pushes in the good ole USA.
Of all the comments I have read here, the one made by ‘lev’ is the most explanatory. I will go a step further, and advance a hypothesis that the capitalist system is anti-human, and blind to the needs, and the purpose of humanity at large. Further more, that without strict regulations, it is a self-destruct system.
It’s not any different than most other bsinesses. It’s run on the GREED principle. The more profit, the more GREED rules. Remember the only way to fight GREED is to make the effort cost more than the profit. Just be alert and you have a chance to win this battle. 1/2d
Bozidar thank you for that hypothesis.Problem is we ARE a capitalist system.Have been since the get go.Gonna stay that way.If you want to change it….you wont.If you hate it….move.We who live in this country embrace the freedom that is capitalism.The freedom to succeed beyond your wildest dreams.And…….the freedom to fail.Ask anyone who has succeeded which one you learn more from.Always from failing.It is part of the process.Some people want Government to pick winners and loosers.To flatten the playing field, and redistribute the wealth.Everyone gets a trophy.As I said…wrong country guys.
With a dysinformation bent like that one, I’d boycott Disney — If I weren’t already…
Boycott Disney?Think of the milage Obama got from Mitts “Goofy’ remark/Now libs are gonna boycott ALL Disney characters.Ha ha ha.You can’t make this stuff up
No matter if some one searches for his vital thing, so he/she
desires to be available that in detail, thus that thing is maintained over here.