Success in the Triumph/Burma Campaign

Campaign Report on twelve months of FairWear activities in Australia to pressure Triumph International to 'support breasts, not dictators' (ie stop making bras in Burma) and to stop Australian retailers selling 'Made in Myanmar' clothing.

The Australian FairWear Campaign has been lobbying since 1996 for protections for home-based outworkers in the local clothing industry. More recently it has become possible for Fair Wear to expand our attention globally. Following a broad-based letter-writing and postcard campaign, in October 2001 we celebrated the decision of Triumph International Australia to cease sourcing garments for the Australian market from Burma.

It is important to consider the political context in which we have been campaigning. Throughout the life of the FairWear Campaign a conservative Federal government (recently re-elected) has been in power. The official Australian government stance on investment in Burma is "to neither encourage nor discourage it". Meanwhile this same government funds personnel to facilitate such investment (an AusTrade office in Rangoon). It is by no means "forbidden to sell products 'Made in Myanmar' in Australia" (as indicated in a Clean Clothes Campaign e-mail 31/10/01).

Australian retailers are not renowned for taking voluntary stances in support of ethical clothing production. It is only through persistent lobbying and public shaming that companies have signed the Homeworkers Code of Practice. In recent years Australian Burma Solidarity activists have lobbied extensively and ultimately successfully to have major retailers cease stocking Van Heusen 'Made in Myanmar' shirts.

In August 2000, the Mercy Foundation (a member of the FairWear coalition) wrote the first letter to Australian retailer Target regarding the Triumph 'Made in Myanmar' bras. Late in 2000 FairWear also wrote to Target. 2001 was a year of letter-writing and petitions to the various retailers (Kmart, Grace Bros and David Jones) stocking the bras and "Support Breasts, not Dictators" postcards for Triumph International Australia.

Underpinning the FairWear Burma campaign has been the conviction that it is not possible to produce 'fair wear' in Burma at this time. The FairWear campaign supports a living wage, the right to organise and work in a safe and healthy environment for all workers in the textile, clothing and footwear industries, whichever country they work in. These basic requirements for ethical clothing production are incompatible with a country such as Burma, where the most minimum of human and labour rights mean very little.

Democracy leaders in Burma have requested the withdrawal of foreign investment until justice, democracy, freedom and human rights are restored to Burma. Lobbying of retailers and Triumph was aimed at helping them realise the inconsistency of their nice sounding policies and Triumph's choice of factory location. Foreign investment in the Burmese economy has only helped to prop up the oppressive military regime. The withdrawal of companies such as Triumph will hopefully strengthen the Burmese struggle for democracy.

In the free, fair and democratic Burma of the hopefully not too distant future, there may well be a new role for clothing production and the fair trade of such goods.

How did we get here?

The campaign has been guided by the FairWear Burma working group (based primarily in Sydney) with occasional meetings and more frequent e-mail exchanges. This group is representative of church, community and trade union groups. The campaign has been co-ordinated by Lisa Wriley, employed by FairWear NSW to work on global clothing issues. The campaign has worked closely with a group of NSW unions working to end forced labour in Burma and the NSW Labor Council (the peak trade union body).

The working group has benefited from support and briefing from Janelle Saffin, a member of the Legislative Council of the New South Wales Parliament and a member of the Burma Lawyers Council. The Burma Unions Caucus enjoyed the involvement of another parliamentarian Meredith Burgmann, President of the Legislative Council of NSW Parliament, at its action outside David Jones and Grace Bros on 28 August, 2001. Meredith was willing to burn a (Triumph) bra - had it not been for police cautioning!

Friends of National League for Democracy, and members of the Burmese community living in Australia have also been involved and very encouraging of the activities urging Triumph International to leave Burma (see copy of flyer for action and letter to Triumph). Meeting with Burmese activists (many of whom live in exile in Australia) has improved our understanding of the situation in Burma.

Our activities have happened concurrently with international lobbying efforts - primarily from Clean Clothes Campaign, based in Europe. Though we have had a strong sense of working alongside them, indeed we adopted their great 'support breasts, not dictators' slogan, we have not yet successfully communicated with the CCC Triumph campaigners. Website messages and general e-mail updates have kept us informed of their activities, while the update on Australian activities sent to a Clean Clothes e-mail address on 5/9/01, apparently didn't go to the right place. Improvements in communication with the Clean Clothes Campaign will begin with the sending of this report for their records.

Early campaign planning in Australia included consideration of an apparent offer of an inspection of the Myanmar factory. We did not pursue this line of inquiry as we saw the primary aim to be Triumph's withdrawal of production in Burma, not the justification of their manufacturing processes and inevitable charade that happens when invited guests are given tours of factories such as those producing for Nike. Whether or not we would have ever been allowed to pursue the option further, or found the resources needed to make such an inspection a reality, remains unknown.

The enduring issue in our correspondence with Triumph about their Burma operations was the inconsistency of their policy and their practice. On paper Triumph sounds like they are doing all the right things, but without independent monitoring it is impossible to tell. Our correspondence with Triumph and our requests to meet with them were aimed at helping them make the connections between consumers' genuine demand for ethically produced clothing, the role they were having in propping up an oppressive military dictatorship (effecting real peoples' lives) and the need for them to change their practice.

Triumph continued to state that it had the right to produce in a country regardless of the political climate. We asked Triumph how it believed that it could operate in a political vacuum. If trading with a government which is widely accused of allowing forced labour and other human rights abuses to flourish is not considered unethical what do they mean by Triumph's social and ethical responsibility? How can workers in the Triumph factory be free to join a trade union if they so desire when there is no freedom of association let alone freedom of assembly in Burma? What kind of independent inspection is possible in such an environment?

None of our questions were ever answered. The meeting we had asked for for months was cancelled when the Burma Unions Caucus action on 28/8/01, which we supported, offended Mr David Gow, the Managing Director of Triumph International (Australia). It was a very convenient excuse at the time. Mr Gow had been insistent that he did not want our delegation to include a potentially 'emotional' member of the Burmese community. He was waiting for written confirmation of the people to meet with him. This struck us as further evidence of the company attempting to quarantine themselves from the reality that their marketing and production of bras effects real peoples' lives.

Upon reflection, the action certainly raised a reaction from Triumph and though it was disappointing that the long anticipated meeting was cancelled it was probably the turning of the tide. The postcards had been circulated for nearly a month, FairWear's letters and petitions were on Triumph's desk and the Labor Council had corresponded with the retailers (Grace Bros and David Jones) in preparation for the action. Newspaper coverage was more focussed on the fact that we had been prevented from burning bras than on the human rights abuses in Burma - but we were in the news.

Within weeks the retailers were informed of the change in sourcing arrangements for the Australian market and we were left to make phone enquiries trying to confirm the facts before our scheduled rolling actions outside retailers around Sydney and Newcastle. Triumph's factory in Burma would continue to operate but there would be no more Triumph 'Made in Myanmar' garments coming to Australia. We had succeeded in removing this un-fair wear from our retailers' shelves.

In the weeks that this report has been collated there have been major developments as a result of further good works by the Clean Clothes Campaign. Triumph has decided to close down its Burma operations, is implementing a social plan for its 1000 employees and is being asked by Clean Clothes to introduce a complete Code of Conduct, following the Clean Clothes Code, for its operations around the world.

Congratulations and thanks to all those involved with the campaign.