BP Editors
Regarding purchasing cotton from farms using child labor, Forever 21 has said that it “enters into a comprehensive agreement with each of [its] suppliers and vendors under which they promise to utilize legally qualified workers.” This is code for “what we do is none of your business, so quit trying to emancipate our child slaves! They’re the perfect employees!”
Forever 21 fails to pretend that it cares even a tiny bit about the labor laws in Uzbekistan, the country from which most of their cotton is bought. In Uzbekistan, the government actually removes throes of children from school and places them in cotton fields during the harvest season. Who cares? Not Forever 21, Aeropostale, Toys ‘R’ Us, or Urban Outfitters. All of these companies source cotton from Uzbekistan, while over 70 other large retail stores have at least “made commitments to address forced labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry,” whatever that vague and lazy-sounding brush-off means.
In Uzbekistan, the government actually removes throes of children from school and places them in cotton fields during the harvest season. Who cares? Not Forever 21, Aeropostale, Toys ‘R’ Us, or Urban Outfitters. All of these companies source cotton from Uzbekistan, while over 70 other large retail stores have at least “made commitments to address forced labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton industry,” whatever that vague and lazy-sounding brush-off means.
