Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Exploitation - The Life Blood of Capitalism

Textile Factory Fire in Bangladesh:

Dozens of workers jumped to their deaths and more than 100 were injured when a fire swept through a Bangladeshi factory that makes clothes for high street retailer Gap today.

Witnesses said the blaze – at the factory just outside Dhaka – engulfed the multistorey building, forcing some of those trapped inside to leap from the windows. The fire comes after repeated warnings about fire safety at factories making clothes for western retailers.

Authorities said that the fire initially broke out on the building's 10th floor, where trousers were stored for shipment, and then spread up to the 11th floor where there was a canteen and a manufacturing facility. At least 27 people died in the blaze while one witness said that he saw 50 to 60 people jumping off the 10th floor to escape.(1)

The UK Guardian also reports that emergency doors were 'closed' forcing people to jump for their lives.

The Triangle Waitshirt Factory Fire:

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City, New York, United States on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York, and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, most of them women, who either died from the fire or jumped from the fatal height. Most of the workers could not escape the burning building because the managers locked the doors to the stairwells and exits to keep them from leaving early. People jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors as the ladders on the existing fire trucks could only reach the sixth floor.(2)


1'Workers jump to their deaths as fire engulfs factory making clothes for Gap' - UK Guardian
2'Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire' - Wikipedia

1 comment:

The Arthurian said...

Exploitation?

The Wealth of Nations, Book One, Chapter VI.