More Bangladeshi Garment Factory Fire Deaths

"On Tuesday there was yet another factory fire in Bangladesh, killing at least 28 workers and leaving many more injured. This factory made clothing for Gap, Abercrombie, JC Penney, Phillips-Van Heusen  and other brands...

2011 marks the centennial of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, a pivotal moment in the movement for labor rights. In 1911, 146 garment workers, mostly girls and young women, died in the fire as a result of abusive labor practices.

...Labor rights abuses are still rampant throughout the world. In Bangladesh, garment factories have been ravaged by a series of fires and building collapses that have killed hundreds of workers.

In February 2010, a fire at the Garib & Garib sweater factory killed 21 workers who died of smoke inhalation because of heavily sealed windows and locked exits". (ILRF)

This has gone on long enough.  Not only deadly fires but factory collapses.  When I worked for Tower Hamlets Council, we use to raise money from the sale of purple Remembrance ribbons on Workers Memorial Day. In 2005 we gave the money raised to support the relatives of the 64 dead and those injured in the Spectrum disaster.

In the UK we have access to very cheap clothes often produced at the expense of other peoples misery.  British Retail stores and pension funds needs to take responsibility for not only financial outcomes but for the human inputs.

Check out International Labour Rights Forum and Asia Times.  Hat tip Ruby Cox, Chair of London UNISON International Committee.

The Great Fire of London

Here is a fascinating article about the Great Fire of London, which was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary yesterday. Most people are familiar with the basic story -that the fire began in Thomas Farriner's bakery in Pudding Lane and was then spread rapidly across the city by a strong wind after a hot summer. However, the context is less known. England was at war with France and the Netherlands at the time and only weeks earlier the Royal Navy had deliberately set alight the Dutch city of West Terschelling. The majority of the people in London therefore assumed the Great Fire was a deliberate act of arson, and angry mobs sought out foreigners in the city to seek their revenge - a Frenchwoman was attacked because people thought the baby chicks she carried in her apron were fireballs.

The authorities believed the fire was an accident, but in September a French watchmaker confessed to starting the fire with 23 conspirators. His confession was deeply flawed but he was eventually hanged. Later it was discovered he was at sea at the time and people returned to the theory it was an accident. This did not stop the London Monument to the fire (Still standing close to London Bridge - see map below) from carrying a plaque blaming the Catholics for the fire. This was eventually removed in the 19th Century. Meriel Jeater, curator at the Museum of London, suggests that the paranoia shown after the Fire must have been very similar to how people must have felt after terrorist outrages like 9/11 and 7/7, and that human nature has changed very little in the meantime...

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