On Saturday morning, around 50 activists staged a protest in front of a Brussels H&M store denouncing the "social and environmental abuses of fast fashion."
The demonstrators gathered in front of the store on the popular Rue Neuve shopping street in Brussels. During the action, a rapper criticised the practices of the clothing chain in a song. Alongside a number of activists, Saskia Bricmont, an ecologist MEP, also took the floor.
The protest was organised by the Fair Fashion collective in response to the publication of a survey by the NGO Changing Markets, which highlighted the "greenwashing" of the used-clothing take-back schemes touted by certain brands.
The latter promises to give a second life to old clothes, either by donating them to people in need or by recycling them. However, the NGO's survey shows that the reality is very different: 76% of clothes are in fact destroyed or abandoned.
According to the activists, H&M is a brand that is particularly representative of this environmentally destructive market. In addition to its "greenwashing" practices, the campaigners also criticise the brand for dismissing employees during pregnancy, charging wages below a decent standard of living and overproducing textiles in its factories.
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"The pace of work is hellish. One employee even said that she fell ill once a month on average and that she didn't eat enough... They can't even stop to go to the toilet, and sometimes go back to the factory to finish the work," one of the members of the Fair Fashion collective said.
