Speech delivered at Sands Films Studio event for THE MAN WITH THE PLAN on 12th and 13th April 2025.
A Campaign film produced by Sands Films studio in London.
The Man With The Plan is a new film about William Beveridge, written and directed by Christine Edzard and starring Simon Callow. Contact: ostockman@sandsfilms.co.uk
A Campaign film produced by Sands Films studio in London.
The Man With The Plan is a new film about William Beveridge, written and directed by Christine Edzard and starring Simon Callow. Contact: ostockman@sandsfilms.co.uk
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00We've got Tansy Hoskins, who's an award-winning journalist, who has worked covering the fashion industry, looking at the outsourcing of the garment industry and the effect and impact on workers.
00:18Would you please welcome Tansy Hoskins.
00:37Wow man, this is just such an amazing event.
00:40I kind of want to just stay in this moment forever.
00:43I feel like we are the revolution right now.
00:46Thank you so much to Sans for creating this.
00:50So, I need to tell you a sad story to begin with.
00:56Because April is an incredibly poignant month within the global garment industry.
01:03And to tell you this story, I need to take you back to a forecourt in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, and to April in 2013.
01:16And I want you to imagine this courtyard, it's hot, it's dusty, there's an enormous building behind you.
01:23And there's a group of workers stood on the forecourt.
01:26And facing them is a group of managers and the people who own the factory.
01:32Now, the workers know there is a serious problem with this factory.
01:38Okay?
01:39Cracks have appeared in the factory.
01:42There's banks on the ground floor.
01:44The bank workers have not gone in to the building.
01:47There's shops on the ground floor.
01:49The shop workers have not gone into the building.
01:52It's common knowledge this building is dangerous.
01:54Okay?
01:55The workers say they don't want to go into the building.
01:58They're frightened.
01:59They know something is wrong with it.
02:01The managers of that factory say to them, say to the young men and women on that forecourt,
02:08they say, if you don't go in there and get to work, we're going to dock you the day's pay.
02:13And if you're a garment worker in Bangladesh, you cannot afford to lose an hour's pay, let alone a day's pay.
02:22So these young men and women, they went into the factory.
02:26They sat down at their desks.
02:29You know, they were sewing on their sewing machines.
02:32They were sorting the bales of cloth.
02:35Sorry, it's horrible.
02:37And at about 11.30 that day, the central pillars of this building cracked.
02:44And this building, there was seven stories tall, collapsed in on itself.
02:49And in that moment, 1,138 people were killed.
02:56And thousands more were left physically damaged and psychologically damaged.
03:02And the name of that building is Rana Plaza.
03:05And that moment on the forecourt is a moment I think none of us should ever forget.
03:13Because that was the moment when capitalism revealed itself and said the clothes that those workers are stitching are more important than the lives of those young women and men.
03:25And that was the moment we saw capitalism red in tooth and claw, not giving a fuck about the people who make the profits for the billionaires.
03:36So I am here to say that I believe passionately and deeply in all of the things that we've talked about today, in the housing and the food and the environment and the right just to live a life of dignity.
03:52But I believe, and I know all of you believe it, but I want to say it out loud, that the rights that we're fighting for here must extend to every single country on this planet and every single person on this planet.
04:06Otherwise it means nothing.
04:08So, you know, it's important, especially important, you know, that we talk about this stuff being here in the United Kingdom.
04:28You know, in a country that was built upon colonialism, that was built upon slavery, that was built upon invasion and taxation and execution of people who stood up to British colonialism.
04:42And, you know, when we look at the things that make up our world, you know, when we look at the clothes we're wearing, the shoes we're wearing, the electronics we're holding, there is no coincidence in the fact that our clothes, our shoes, our electronics and so on came from India, from Bangladesh, from Pakistan, from China and so on.
05:02British corporations, European corporations are tracing the same colonial pathways.
05:08The colonialism has not gone away, it has just changed its face.
05:20And this is a problem for all of us, because we see with the garment industry, the only thing capitalism knows how to do is to extract and exploit.
05:29And what is happening, you know, in Bangladesh, what is happening in India is linked to what is happening here.
05:35We are a global working class and we are united by what's happening.
05:39But I want to make very clear, I ain't talking about charity here.
05:44I'm not talking about all the poor people in Bangladesh and we must help them.
05:47I'm talking about solidarity.
05:49And I want you to remember, I want you to remember that one of the last countries that had a revolution that overthrew its fucking government was Bangladesh.
06:01And before that, and before that it was Sri Lanka.
06:07You know, you want to look at pictures of protesters invading presidential palaces.
06:13You know, you want to look at like prime ministers being rushed onto a helicopter and fleeing the country.
06:19Look at Sri Lanka and look at Bangladesh.
06:22It's possible.
06:23We can do it.
06:24We can do it.
06:25So the fashion industry has many, many, many lessons for us.
06:30But the most important one, in my opinion, is that we experience and we embody the solidarity on a global level and we stick together.
06:39Because we are on one side, the billionaires are on the other side and we are in an existential fight for the climate and for our lives.
06:48So thank you.
06:49Power.