Monday 24th April 2023 marks 10 years since the Rana Plaza building collapse, the deadliest garment factory disaster in history.
No Sweat has joined the Rana Plaza Solidarity Collective, a UK coalition of campaign groups and activists organising a series of events to commemorate this tragedy and highlight the struggle garment workers in Bangladesh have undertaken over the last decade.
Situated in Savar, an industrial district on the outskirts of Dhaka, the Rana Plaza factory complex was an eight-storey building housing five garment factories.
This overcrowded, poorly built complex became a symbol of global inequality when, on 24 April 2013, it collapsed in on itself – its straining internal pillars buckling and cracking under the weight of too many storeys, too many machines and bales of cloth, too many human beings packed in tight rows. The death-toll surpassed 1000 people, quickly climbing to an official figure of 1,138 dead, however activists atBangladesh Garment Workers Solidarity suggest the figure is as high as 1,175.
Join us this April for events that will remember the dead and fight for the living.
The Rana Plaza Solidarity Collective is organising events across the UK, including a march down London’s Oxford Street to protest the brands that were complicit in the tragedy by their aggressive purchasing practices; a memorial in East London; and film screening and photo exhibition at Toynbee Hall, featuring the work of award winning photographer and activist, Taslima Akhter, who was on the ground within hours of the collapse.
The Rana Plaza Solidarity Collective is made up of No Sweat, alongside campaigners such as blogger, Oh So Ethical, journalist Tansy Hoskins, film makers, Rainbow Collective, community activist Nijor Manush, as well as NGOs, Labour Behind the Labour, War on Want, Remake and the charity retailer, Traid.
For more information and to get involved visit:
https://ranaplaza-solidarity.org/