Nismo stroji!* Odsev političnih sistemov v fotografijah delavcev in delavk tekstilne industrije
Photos: Meta Krese
Text: Meta Krese
Poems: Maruša Krese
Design: Aleš Brce
When we start to ask ourselves how our clothes are made, we can discover a lot about how societies are organised around the world. The textile industry walks in harmony with slavery, colonialism, capitalism and even socialism.
By connecting growers, workers, traders, factory owners and consumers in a supply and distribution network that reaches across the world, the textile industry has played an integral role in forging the efficient and ruthless structures of today’s globalized economy.
In Burkina Faso, the USA, Bangladesh, Romania and, of course, Slovenia, I spoke to people who grow cotton, weave cloth, make the shirts, jeans and countless other items that we use every day without a care. The photographs show that the dark history of the exploitative nature of the textile industry has never ended.
*We are not machines! Jeon Tae-il, South Korean textile worker and activist, November, 1970