War on Want's Ruth Tanner joins the 'dirty washing' campaign

The Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops campaigners have been at it again.

As Primark’s new London store opened its doors yesterday, they hung out the retailer’s ‘dirty washing’ in public with a clothes line that cited workers making its clothes for as little as 7p an hour.

The charity War on Want staged a demonstration amid the store launch days after Primark announced a 20 per cent jump in sales to £2.3 billion for the year to 12 September and profits up 8 per cent to £252 million. It compared Primark’s growth with declining living standards among garment workers on poverty wages for up to 80-hour weeks in three Bangladeshi factories.

The charity also contrasted the Wood Green store’s 75,000 square feet on two floors with the tiny one-room slum homes Primark garment workers share with four or five family members.

War on Want campaigner Seb Klier said: “Primark has just reported huge sales and profits. But for many Bangladeshis producing its clothes their grim living standards are falling even lower as costs rise. It is high time Gordon Brown introduced regulation to stop this abuse.”

The charity targeted the store opening in north London to step up the biggest-ever call for British government action to stop fashion retailers exploiting overseas workers. Thousands of people have already signed up to the Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops campaign for 50,000 names demanding that Brown regulates the industry.

Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops is also endorsed by TV stars Jo Wood and Jo Brand, pop singer Little Boots, actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Ashley Jensen and clothes designer Betty Jackson. And of course daisygreenmagazine.co.uk.

Sign up to the Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops campaign

Image by Carmen Clammer