The Devil of the fashion industry ‘HBC’ and our worker rights

Noor Majid of DOT
In the early 17th and 18th century, animal pelts and fur were in high demand among the fashion loving elites of Europe. Its potential for economic returns lured traders and thugs alike from the old world and bought them to the doorsteps of the New, namely the North American continent. In this period, companies and business corporations acted like thugs and murderous associations that bought death, destruction and plight among indigenous native American population, whom we know today as Red Indians. England as the world’s leading naval power and trader of the 17th century was eager to establish their dominance on fur trade into the New World. So the Hudson Bay Company was formed in 1670 by royal charter from England. This gave HBC exclusive right to dominate fur trade in Hudson Bay and its tributary river territories where many indigenous people lived.
To establish their trade monopoly from its inception the company started to eliminate native tribes those who were living in these areas and doing business with their European counterparts, namely the French and the Spanish. In the war that followed, the HBC destroyed many indigenous tribes and abolished their cultures from existence. An industry driven by human greed to look good and fashionable waged its genocidal activities not only against the natives but also the animals of the land. Millions of beavers, wolves, bears and elks were killed en masse. This further destabilized the ecological balance of the once-wild region and the tribes who were dependent on it. The HBC company men not only deprived and killed the indigenous tribe they also bought with them European settlers, who in turn forcedly kidnapped and sold native girls like meat to prostitution. Sometimes abducted native children were forcefully Christianized with the help of the Churches and its missionaries. Both of these parties considered the free men of north Americas, the natives as savages. They showed neither compassion nor any mercy to the natives, regarding them below human and not worth giving human rights.
After 348 years, HBC exists today as a Canadian retailing company. Throughout the years HBC changed its ownership status but never any lawsuit was charged against the company for their human rights violation. These kinds of corporations and their legacy remind us about our own historical plight. The indigo planters of Bengal in British India were no different from their HBC counterpart. Even in modern day, the exploitation of European buyers devastated the ecology of our country and killed thousands of poor garment workers, feeding another type of fashion industry in another era. It’s ironic that history repeats itself but most of us never learn from it. Modern fashion industry is a megalomaniac, profit driven monster that feeds upon the souls of humans and uses workers in the third world as bonded slaves. The owners of the fashion industry in the third world or the suppliers are the primary bidders of this industry, who can be least blamed for their wrongdoings. It’s essential for us to look beyond now, as apparel industry has become our main foreign currency earner. Together with the international right groups and organizations such as UN, Bangladesh should work to create pressure on this blood thirsty buyer groups.