Hacker News Reader

Comment by dontreact | Hacker News Reader

This makes me want to shop at H&M. The article makes no mention of the cultural erasure, concentration camps, forced re-education in Xinjiang and therefore comes off as propaganda.

View on HN

> However, in the past, companies like H&M (and Primark, Nike, and others) have, for decades, routinely been name-checked as some of the worst offenders when it comes to worker rights abuses. The Clean Clothes Campaign found that, during the pandemic, many fashion names like H&M continued to violate working contacts by failing to pay wages.

H&M doesn't have a great track record when it comes to paying workers [0], so I don't think this article should convince anyone that H&M is a brand to be buying from.

[0] https://cleanclothes.org/news/2020/global-campaign-confronts...

It’s the first large brand I’ve heard standing up to the abuses of the CCP like this though. Not gonna shop there forever, but I want to show support for this rare and commendable action.

If you have some other large brands that are similarly taking a big financial hit to stand up to what’s going on in Xinjiang, I’ll patronize them instead.

They didn't do it voluntarily. If they used China cotton, they would be the target of western campaigners and boycotts. If they don't, they get the same in China.

They were in a lose lose situation. They lost.

Could they have done better? I think so. They could have made a claim that all items would be labelled so consumers could choose. Or they could have said nothing sold in Europe/the west contained Chinese cotton.

But that compromise might have just gotten them boycotted in both places.

I gotta say that if I walk into a store and see shelves labeled "with slave labor" and "slave labor free", I'm walking out the door without either.

I know that the negative consequences of many of my actions are hidden from me, including some that I'm semi-consciously ignoring. But when something credibly rises to my attention, I will at least try to let my conscience take precedence over pricing.

People see "free range chickens" and "caged chickens" in the same shop and don't seem to care...

Nice website but it looks like a collection of articles

Is there a list anywhere listing clothing manufactures with a good track record?

Everyone's got brands they like, but if 1 brand is better than another in the same category (say Express vs Gap) might sway my shopping choices...

I am a proponent of Certified B Corporations [0]. You can look up their directory to see the companies certified for a particular industry [1]. From their main page:

"Certified B Corporations are a new kind of business that balances purpose and profit. They are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment. This is a community of leaders, driving a global movement of people using business as a force for good."

Take a look!

[0] https://bcorporation.net/ [1] https://bcorporation.net/directory

Interesting indeed - as I heard someone point out recently: the Chinese government takes immediate offense at anything perceived as negative said about it, but has no qualms criticizing other nations.

Double standards.

It’s not just double standards, it’s a deliberate strategy to use the western culture of woke-ism against us in the culture/ideology wars.

Note the fake fight now over the term “wolf-warrior diplomacy”, which was a term derived from a Chinese movie, promoted by CCP nationalists, and is now “racist”.

https://twitter.com/kevincarrico/status/1375242361526173697?...

Yup, the lines are starting to be drawn.

The NBA and player's relatively recent encroachment into the CCP's no-go zone was interesting to watch unfold - and clear that money and not ethics or values are driving the people in charge of many organizations.

Edit to add: the first organizations and people to take a stand against abuse are not cowards.

Cold War II will hopefully be more of a culture war than a hot war.

That’s not up to the west though, it’s up to whether the CCP invades Taiwan.

It's already well underway. In my opinion, a combination of tech and the entertainment industry has transformed the populations of many Western countries into atomised, ineffectual and under-developed veal calves.

Cold War 2.0 multicultural rap music piped in public places is sick, awful.

We are already there. Current day communist China has very little to offer in terms of universally appealing culture but they are happy to ride deconstructionist woke to nullify western culture(s)

Sure, arguably re-education camps are worse than factories where young teenagers fingers are bleeding to make you a $4 shirt that won't last a year.. but it doesn't justify supporting the latter.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com