Running and stuff

Had another really good one today, even though my legs are super tired. Sometimes all that hard work and sacrifice really pays off. I’m keeping a steady pace through my runs, I’m improving my times, things are good. As I improve physically, I get to relax a little more, which makes more improvement possible. Running when you’re not relaxed is difficult.
But I worry about things, it’s the nature of my mind. Recently, a person who has made some great music and done awesome spoken word tours, and I think has a pretty good philosophy about working people and how to help them out, has done an advertisement for Calvin Klein. I’m not judging him on taking the money because people do need to make money within this system. I’m not going to hate on him for being hardcore and making it big and being famous, and having acting gigs and shit like that. He worked hard for what he wanted, and he got it and good for him on that front. But here’s the problem.
He made a career about talking about workers, hardcore is a working-class thing to begin with. It’s about the struggle, it’s about the streets, it’s about life, and what we deal with. In the end, in the system we live in, it’s about if you put in the work, you deserve to get paid for it. To that end, I can’t disagree with this guy, he’s put in tons of work. The problem I have is with Calvin Klein, and how the parent company, and thereby the brand has treated their workers. Most of the clothes we own in the “western world” are basically made in sweatshops. Some are better than others, but basically, garment workers in the “3rd world” are treated like absolute shit. I can share hundreds of accounts of people being burned to death in shops where the doors were locked to prevent escapes. 15+ hour days, threats, physical violence, it’s all fairly horrific. Particularly with high-end clothing. When I’m buying stuff to hang out in, I try to look at my labels. Most of my shoes are made in the USA, in union factories, including my model of running shoe (although that will sadly change soon due to living in Europe). I try to buy from places I know they have at least moderate protections for workers. Thailand actually has pretty good protections for its garment workers, as well as a few other Southeast Asian nations.
The fact remains, that VanHeusen, Calvin Klein’s parent company has been caught using slave labor:
“Phillips-Van Heusen, the parent company of Calvin Klein as well as one of the largest garment companies in the world, encourages the use of beatings and passport/ID stealing to force people to work for them. What? The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released an article detailing a 200 worker strike fighting for more rights. Six of those workers were arrested for signing a document that said they were beaten, forced to sign blank documents, had their passports taken, verbally abused, threatened to be deported, and just about anything else. The workers had over 15 hour workdays, and since then, the factories were just closed and the workers were moved to another facility.”
If you’re going to talk about worker’s rights, and working class people’s struggles and what should be done to make their lives better, if you’re going to sing about it, then when the time comes, you should stand up for these things. Not advertise for the people who are among the biggest abusers.
I get that people get older and they think they’re not going to end up making a difference and making a change after all, and they should just cash in and call it quits. I understand that, and it’s a self-defeating frame of mind. Because, essentially, most people end up “selling-out” nothing ends up changing. It’s massively disheartening. I’m not going to begrudge him or anyone else. I’m not going to not listen to his music, regardless of what he’s done, the message is still true. His ideas and philosophies on the matter are still valid. I’m just disappointed in him, individually, as a human being. It is what it is, we do what we do to make the life we want in this world. It’s really hard to get through life without losing heart at some point. When you’re admired, when people are watching what you are doing, when you have the attention of a large group of people it’s very hard to ignore the money they are throwing at you.
Another hardcore guy stood up on bookfaces and stated that we would all take the money if we had been offered. I can’t say if I would or wouldn’t. I like to think I wouldn’t. At least not without assurances that they had ended their slave-labor practices. That their workers all over the world were being paid a fair, and livable wage, with reasonable working hours and good working conditions. And not a wage, relative to where they live, a wage relative to the profitability of the company.
I talk about people’s rights all the time, about fair and equal treatment. About what is right and just in this world, for humans, for animals, for the Earth. I could not profit off the suffering of others and be ok with myself. I would either have to demand that the people I am making money off of be treated properly, or as I’ve often said, the whole system needs to be torn down and replaced with something that doesn’t intentionally exploit everyone to varying degrees.
I never asked him for anything more than music that moved me, and he did that. He gave extra with his writing and spoken word. He doesn’t owe me anything, and if he can handle the advertisement in his head then good for him. No advertisement, no spokesmodel will ever move me to buy a product. Even though the parent company surely swears up and down they don’t exploit workers, I’m going to bet they do. In all, maybe the fact I’m even talking about it and mentioning the company name is a win for them. But it’s just what’s in my head.
At the end of the day we have to end how we make clothing, and the only way to do that is to be better consumers and not fall for fashion, and to pay attention to where our clothes are coming from and how the people who make them are treated, and demand they be treated better by buying as much of our clothes as we can from ethical companies, and making sure we state that loudly and proudly everywhere. Fixing this world is hard work, no song, no band, no philosopher, no religion, no company, no businessman, no politician, no government is ever going to fix it. Only we are going to fix it, through hard work and determination, staying positive, and watching what we do, what we buy into, and treating each other with the dignity and respect that all life deserves. Since, I’ve been talking about him without mentioning his name, I guess I should play a song of his:

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!


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