No, we’re not talking about launching our own brand of antiperspirant, we’re talking about our shirts. Moral Decay is officially moving all our t-shirts over to No Sweat! We’ve always been concerned with keeping it ethical, injecting a big dose of giving a fuck back into the veins of the scene, but now we’re kicking it up a notch.
Until now our minimum standard for Moral Decay Streetwear has been to source all shirts from Fairwear or WRAP certified suppliers. For many, this is considered the highest ethical acreditation clothing can get. It ticks all the corporate boxes, ocasional factory checks, living wage, freedom to join Trade Unions etc. But is it really good enough? Our answer, not really. Not when there’s an alternative that’s so much better. This is where No Sweat! comes in.
No Sweat! is a UK based group looking to make a real difference, alongside Punk Ethics they’ve launched a campaign to kick sweatshop shirts out of the punk scene. You know, those fiver-a-pop shirts being sold by underground bands around the world with all sorts of “right on” slogans printed into shirts that were stitched together by someone making a few pence an hour in a cramped fire trap on the other side of the globe. Yeah those ones, they want to get rid of them.
No Sweat! have their own shirts, sourced from workers cooperatives. No fire traps, no scraping change together so they can afford to eat, a factory owned and operated by the workers for the workers. This cuts out any hollow ethics where companies get accreditation but continue to mistreat workers out of the inspectors’ view, a nice green ethical badge on the same rotten system. The workers decide amongst themselves how much they will be
These are former sweatshop workers who have come out the other side, they’ve been in a position to do away with corporations making money off their back and managed to come together to find a better way. How punk is that? Pretty damn punk if you ask us. On top of that No Sweat! take all of their profits and invest them back into highlighting the abuse of sweatshop workers around the world and supporting the establishment of independent trade u
They want to make this the standard across the scene and we’re on board with that!
So from now, all our t-shirts will be printed on No Sweat! garments. All our old shirts will go on sale,(in a bargain bin on the stall) and some might just get thrown into charity raffles to get them shifted for a good cause. All new designs and future runs of current favourites will be on shirts sourced from workers cooperatives. Great stuff! We will also only stock band t-shirts that meet this standard.
You might have noticed we’ve been promoting No Sweat! and Punk Ethics a bit on the stall, this will also step up now that we’ve made this statement. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in. Our first shirt to get the makeover is our Refugees Welcome Glasgow shirt which is now available as a screen printed black shirt on a No Sweat! base.
We’re throwing down the challenge to all our friends on the scene, are your band’s shirts ethical? If not, why not? We are part of a community that prides itself on unity, but the disregard we’ve all shown to people who make the clothing at the heart of our expression of identity is deafening. It’s time to make a change to the way we look at our clothes. You can read the Punks Against Sweatshops campaign manifesto below, we endorse it fully and will scream it from the rooftops if necessary.
You can find out more about No Sweat! and Punk Ethics using the links
Or find them on Facebook and give them a like to stay up to date on their campaigns!
Stay true, stay rebel.
Moral Decay Crew
