T-shirt tax campaign launched for Bangladesh factory victims
Shoppers urged to pay voluntary donation representing fairer factory wages towards ActionAid charity helping victims' families
Demonstrators outside
Primark in Oxford Street, London call for the company to take
responsibility for the Bangladesh factory collapse. A different campaign
has launched for a voluntary T-shirt tax for victims. Photograph: Oli
Scarff/Getty Images
A new campaign has been launched to raise money for the Bangladesh factory collapse victims by urging shoppers to pay a voluntary "T-shirt tax".
The cash is going to the charity ActionAid which will distribute it
to the families of victims killed in the disaster, as well as to workers
who survived.
Victoria Butler-Cole, a 36-year-old barrister from Kent who came up with the idea, said: "It seems to me we have a moral duty to help. Everyone has something in their wardrobe from Bangladesh. This isn't just the fault of companies who supply cheap clothes."
Butler-Cole said shoppers should consider donating the difference between what they paid for a T-shirt – and what it would cost if it had been produced by workers treated property. For example, if a T-shirt produced in Bangladesh cost £3, a £3 donation would be fair, she said.
On Saturday demonstrators gathered outside cut-price retailer Primark's flagship store in Oxford Street. A petition has been launched calling for Primark and other brands, including Matalan and Mango, which used businesses based inside the Dhaka building, to compensate the families of workers killed or injured.
Butler-Cole acknowledged struggling families wouldn't be able to pay a T-shirt tax, and often relied on cut-price clothes. But she said others should consider it. The tax was better than a high-street boycott, which could lead to Bangladeshi workers losing their livelihoods, she added.
Butler-Cole's sister Imogen, who lived in Bangladesh, has launched a Facebook page and Twitter campaign with the hashtag #TShirtTax.
Currently ActionAid Bangladesh has 200 volunteers helping with the rescue operation and providing food, water and emergency equipment.
VIKAS KUMAR GUPTA
PGDM 2ND SEM
Victoria Butler-Cole, a 36-year-old barrister from Kent who came up with the idea, said: "It seems to me we have a moral duty to help. Everyone has something in their wardrobe from Bangladesh. This isn't just the fault of companies who supply cheap clothes."
Butler-Cole said shoppers should consider donating the difference between what they paid for a T-shirt – and what it would cost if it had been produced by workers treated property. For example, if a T-shirt produced in Bangladesh cost £3, a £3 donation would be fair, she said.
On Saturday demonstrators gathered outside cut-price retailer Primark's flagship store in Oxford Street. A petition has been launched calling for Primark and other brands, including Matalan and Mango, which used businesses based inside the Dhaka building, to compensate the families of workers killed or injured.
Butler-Cole acknowledged struggling families wouldn't be able to pay a T-shirt tax, and often relied on cut-price clothes. But she said others should consider it. The tax was better than a high-street boycott, which could lead to Bangladeshi workers losing their livelihoods, she added.
Butler-Cole's sister Imogen, who lived in Bangladesh, has launched a Facebook page and Twitter campaign with the hashtag #TShirtTax.
Currently ActionAid Bangladesh has 200 volunteers helping with the rescue operation and providing food, water and emergency equipment.
VIKAS KUMAR GUPTA
PGDM 2ND SEM
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