fashion - take action

Lift the Label creative petition.

The story so far

Lift the Label on Fashion began in 2003 with over 5000 of you sending postcards to the CEOs of high street retailers, asking them to join the Ethical Trading Initiative.

Many of you received written responses, but none of the companies joined the ETI as we asked. Not put off by this, in 2004 you took to the streets, challenging shop managers over the counter using the 'Don't Shop Quietly' postcard.

Throughout the campaign thousands of you cut the care labels from your clothes as a sign of solidarity with garment workers worldwide. These were stitched to a giant creative petition, for presentation to the retailers.

Sadly, despite the thousands of postcards and letters, only Oasis agreed to meet with the Tearfund Youth Team.

We met with Oasis to discuss their ethical policy and Lift the Label, encouragingly they said they had been receiving LTL postcards at an initial rate of around 20 per month. Please keep sending those postcards.

Take action now

The lack of response from retailers is certainly frustrating. It is essential that we continue to take action and here's how:

1. Hand in a fashion action postcard, available to download here. For a list of shop addresses to send your postcard to click here.

2. Shop ethically. The range of ethical clothing is increasing by the day and now includes more than just multicoloured hemp pullovers. Visit our ethical clothing page for more.

3. Pray for garment workers, for the retailers and for the Lift the Label campaign.

Lift the Label creative petition

Run a weekend of action

Throughout the campaign students and young people have been taking to UK high streets to campaign on behalf of garment workers around the world.

Why not put on a weekend of action to pray and campaign for the rights of garment workers.

The aim of the Lift the Label 'Don't Shop Quietly' weekend of action is to get groups all over the country to pray, to campaign and to challenge others to Lift the Label. Why not get your group involved - or if you are not in a group, why not get involved yourself? Whether you plan something for the whole weekend, or one part of it is up to you. Here is a sample plan to get you thinking:

Friday evening: Get praying
Your group could use resources from this website to have a creative prayer night to pray for workers, the retail companies, other consumers and the Lift the Label campaign. This could be a prayer walk around your high street in preparation for the day of action.

Saturday: Get campaigning
A Don’t Shop Quietly campaign day. Blitz the target stores on the high street with as many Lift the Label customer comment cards as possible. These are available to download here.

Sunday: Get challenging
…your church to get active! Have a Lift the Label service – where you give a talk, show the Lift the Label video, and collect creative petition labels and signatures. Or have a short slot to pray, show the video and give a presentation.