The self-indulgence of bourgeois consumer boycotts
Dear Subcomandauntie, In between my bizarre double-life as a financial adviser and Marxist guerrilla, I regularly go jogging and clubbing. Such a lifestyle makes a decent pair of trainers essential. How can I protect my little pinkies in trendy, reliable footwear without wearing expensive branded shoes stitched together by mainly Third-World women or child workers for a few pence a day? Yours, Dancing Queen, Leeds
Dear Dancing Queen,
Subcomandauntie's mailbag has once again been bulging with letters on ethical-consumer issues (don't you people have any real problems?). I"m afraid there's no easy answer, but you mustn't feel guilty about buying sweatshop labour products: half the world's workers are denied the basic right to even join a trade union, so most clothing we buy reeks of exploitation.
Nor should you treat the ethical purchasing of trainers as an act of self-indulgent consumer choice, as many 'bourgeois boycotters' do. Your power to choose is a luxury most of the world's working classes don't have: Chinese or Indonesian workers in tax-free, anti-union export-processing zones cannot suddenly decide to go and work in better conditions.
As a stand-alone act, boycotting sweated labour products in favour of a 'fair-trade label' usually means redistributing wealth from one country's working class to another. This does nothing to eradicate sweatshop labour itself.
There are 'ethical footwear' options out there, however. Ethical Wares is run by vegans who seek to trade goods that are non-exploitative of animals, humans and the wider environment. A similar venture is Vegetarian Shoes. Check out the websites www.ethicalconsumer.org and www.nosweatapparel.com for outlets.
But ultimately, whatever trainers you purchase, someone or something will always be exploited as long as you continue to work for the system. Auntie 'sub-commands' you to cut down on selling dodgy pensions and partying all night.
Visit www.nosweat.org.uk or www.labourbehindthelabel.org, and become an active campaigner yourself. Oh, and Dancing Queen, one last thing: we don't wear trainers for guerrilla warfare. Tut.
The crack pipe of peace Dear Auntie
_ War, famine, economic depression and global warming - the idea that 'another world is possible' seems remoter than ever. Will we ever have a just and peaceful world?
_ Desperate for peace, Preston
Learning by number Dear Auntie
_ At one of the Gaza protests in London, Stop the War put the number of protesters at around 100,000 but the police insisted it was only 20,000. Can Auntie reassure me that the Met has a scientific methodology for estimating crowd numbers?
_ Numberless in London
No hope Dear Auntie,
All my left-wing friends seem to be overjoyed about Obama winning the US election, holding real hope that he will bring change, that he'll stop the wars, and that he'll somehow make America all cuddly and nice. But haven't we been here before? I'm getting flashbacks to the expectations people had of politicians like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, and how quickly they betrayed us. Is it terrible that I think Obama will be just more of the same?
Hopeless, London
Change-a-leujah! Jo Littler interviews Reverend Billy and Savatri D about the politics of anti-consumerism
Doing it for the kiddies Dear Subcomandauntie,
I've just been sent £256 from Gordon Brown's Child Trust Fund (CTF) to invest for my nine-month-old daughter's future, but I don't have a clue what to do with it. I understand I can either invest it in stocks and shares or a bank or building society account. Is there an ethical option?
Yours, Sleepless in E9
Every Lidl hurts The super-low prices of Lidl, Europe's answer to Wal-Mart come at a cost: the rights, wages and dignity of the company's workforce. Chris Leach reports
February 15, 2003: The day the world said no to war Phyllis Bennis argues that while the day of mass protest did not stop the war, it did change history
Egypt: The revolution is alive Just before the second anniversary of the Egyptian revolution, Emma Hughes spoke to Ola Shahba, an activist who has spent 15 years organising in Egypt
Workfare: a policy on the brink Warren Clark explains how the success of the campaign against workfare has put the policy’s future in doubt
Tenant troubles The past year has seen the beginnings of a vibrant private tenants’ movement emerging. Christine Haigh reports
Co-operating with cuts in Lambeth Isabelle Koksal reports on how Lambeth’s ‘co-operative council’ is riding roughshod over co-operative principles in its drive for sell-offs and cuts in local services
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