Index
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NEWSLETTER 22,
Oct 2006
Inside a National
CCC: Belgium South
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The Clean Clothes Campaign
is an international campaign, consisting
of a loose, informal international partner
network of NGOs, unions, individuals and
institutions in most countries where garments
are produced, organizations in "consumer"
countries where these garments are sold,
CCC "project groups" in several
garment-producing countries (Eastern Europe,
India), an international secretariat (based
in Amsterdam) and Clean Clothes Campaigns
(CCCs) in nine European countries. These
CCCs are autonomous coalitions consisting
of NGOs (consumer, research, women's, fair
trade and youth organisations, solidarity
groups, churches, etc.) and trade unions,
each with a coordinator and a secretariat.
CCC coalitions can be found in Austria,
Belgium (North and South), France, Germany,
the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
and the United Kingdom.
Although the European CCCs
share a common aim and cooperate on joint
projects, they each have their own flavour
- due to their composition, history, cultural
context and style. We'd like to share with
you the workings of the different campaigns.
Third in this series is the French- and
German-speaking CCC in Belgium: Vêtements
Propres.
Vêtements Propres, or
VP for short, is an informal platform of
46 organisations in southern Belgium, where
French and German are the main languages.
Meeting around eight times a year, it serves
as a think-tank, debating policy, exchanging
ideas for action, and setting the parameters
for "clean clothes" campaigning
in the region.
VP also has a formal association
to service the platform. This is administered
by a board drawn from platform members,
which meets at least three times a year,
and a general secretary who is also the
VP coordinator. They are responsible to
a general assembly of member organisations
meeting once a year. The association does
research and analysis, coordinates actions
by the members, and undertakes activities.
The coordinator also represents the campaign
at a national and international level.
When an organisation wishes
to join the campaign, this is discussed
by the platform. In fact, VP is in a deliberate
process of decreasing the number of member
organisations so as to strengthen ownership
of the campaign by those groups which are
actually active. It is also aiming to diversify
its activities. There are two working groups
within the platform: one on trade unions
and one on companies - the second together
with the Belgium North CCC.
The Belgian
Context
VP is not the only CCC campaign
in Belgium. The Flemish-speaking part of
the country is covered by the Schone Kleren
Campagne, otherwise known as the Belgium
North CCC. Each was born from an autonomous
process, and this is the normal way of doing
things in Belgium, where there are two main
communities. The two structures are quite
different, as is their way of campaigning.
In recent years collaboration has much increased,
bringing together very complementary abilities.
The national working group on companies,
for example, is entering into a very constructive
phase.
The German-speaking part of
the campaign also has formed a separate
informal platform of five organisations
(Frauenliga, Landfrauenverband, Miteinander
Teilen, Weltladen, Verbraucher-schulzzentrale).
This has recently been successful in gaining
good media coverage (for example on the
Spectrum case).
VP is somewhat unusual in
Belgium by being a permanent "single-issue"
campaign. Also, it is one of the few to
make direct demands on companies; public
campaigning in the country is usually aimed
at government to introduce legislative change.
How VP Developed
In the mid-1990s, particularly
after the "Made in Dignity" campaign
carried out by fair trade groups such as
Oxfam Magasins du Monde (World Shops), Belgian
NGOs saw a need to work more on issues of
employment in the developing world. They
also wanted to collaborate more with trade
unions and others. At the same time, the
CCC was trying to expand its campaigning
across Europe. An informal consultation
was held, and the campaign in Belgium South
kicked off in 1996 - exactly ten years ago.
They started with a postcard
campaign, demanding answers from garment
retailers and brands in Belgium about codes
of conduct and implementation. Then campaigning
took place around the 1998 soccer World
Cup and later EURO 2000. From then on, VP
started to work systematically on sportswear,
taking the opportunity of important international
sport events. Also in 1998, VP hosted the
Permanent People's Tribunal on "clean
clothes", the first ever international
forum of the CCC.
In 2001, the campaign to get
the lingerie multinational Triumph to leave
Burma was taken up, in collaboration with
the Belgium North CCC. In one action, 1.2
km of bras were strung up in the Triumph
office garden, an action that received a
lot of media attention.
At the end of 2002, VP joined
international partners in pushing for better
conditions in the global toy industry. In
Belgium, this presented an opportunity to
build closer links with family and consumer
organisations, introducing questions about
(over)consumption and proposing alternatives
for consumer behaviour.
By 2004, VP took part in the
"Play Fair at the Olympics" campaign,
geared towards the Athens Games. This proved
to be a strong campaign, with more than
90,000 signatures gathered and an international
Olympic forum held. In 2006, VP followed
this up with an action in Brussels, in cooperation
with the Belgium North CCC and Brussels
City Council, around the Turin Winter Olympic
Games. Brussels city authorities used the
occasion to announce that they will now
include social standards in their procurement
of work wear.
Also in 2004, VP started working
more on CCC urgent appeals cases. By 2005,
support for the Spectrum workers in Bangladesh
entailed VP developing much deeper cooperation
with trade unions, particularly with delegates
from the Carrefour retail chain, which Spectrum
supplied, who went to Bangladesh to investigate.
VP has also tried to influence
the implementation of the new European law
on public procurement which came into effect
in 2004. In October 2006, local elections
in Belgium will give VP the opportunity
to approach candidates on this issue. It
aims to work closely with a few communities,
supporting them with tools such as a technical
guide, so they can buy more responsibly.
Also, VP will be working on a pilot project
on work wear companies together with the
Fair Wear Foundation.
VP is now working to secure
a more stable financial basis and to motivate
organisations to be more active. Another
of VP's goals is to become more attractive
to young people. Last, but certainly not
least, VP is in favour of opening up the
campaign to similar industrial sectors,
as it has done with toys.
Vêtements Propres
Place de l'Université, 16
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgique
T: +32 (0)10 45 75 27
E: info@vetementspropres.be
W: www.vetementspropres.be
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