Another interesting artist...Jamini Patel, who had a show at the V&A Museum of Childhood in 2007. Can't find out much about her, but this article by Niti Acharya from the 24 Hour Museum (www.24hourmuseum.org.uk) gives a flavour - and there are some photos of the work:
http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/architecture/art52439
"Sculptor Jamini Patel explores the relationship between colonial trade and architecture and the way it has shaped our cityscapes in a new exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood.
"Her early sculptures of buildings remaining from 18th century colonial Britain are highly detailed and thought-provoking. Built using the commodities which financed their construction and were the bedrock of colonial trade, the sculptures provoke a realisation of the riches empire trading brought and the servitude exploited in far-flung colonies.
"The scramble for sugar, cocoa, tea, coffee, spices and tobacco during the sugar and spice era has led Jamini to recreate the Glaswegian Gallery of Modern Art, Sezincote House in Gloucestershire and John Pinney’s Georgian House in Bristol.
"Though small in scale, this exhibition asks questions about the social and economic cost of commodities trading and how the landscape is still dominated by those who have know how to play the financial game to their benefit."
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Other Criteria
My artist friend Maria Clemen sent me this link to Damien Hirst's art merchandising website Other Criteria, who sell limited editions and multiples, clothing, jewellery, photographs, posters, prints and books by Hirst and a number of established and emerging artists...
Specifically, she sent me this page featuring work by Latin American artist Eduardo Sarabia:
https://www.othercriteria.com/browse/all/
Specifically, she sent me this page featuring work by Latin American artist Eduardo Sarabia:
https://www.othercriteria.com/browse/all/
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Global trade
Here are a few selective, slightly abridged or paraphrased excerpts from Tom Standage's book A History of the World in Six Glasses (mentioned in previous post), that I found illuminating (my school history education was very poor) and which sent me down the Tea and Burberry route:
"The (East India) Company's first tea imports from the East Indies arrived in 1669...It was initially a minor commodity as the company concentrated first on importing pepper, and then cheap textiles, from Asia. But opposition from Britain's domestic textile producers encouraged the company to place more emphasis on tea; there was no problem with offending domestic producers, since there were none."
A new approach to manufacturing, pioneered by Richard Arkwright in the 1770s "turned Britain into the world’s first industrialised nation". Skilled labourers and craftsmen were replaced by machines situated together in one place around a source of power such as a waterwheel or steam engine. Employees were housed nearby and use of shifts ensured maximum utilisation of expensive machinery. "Each labourer in Arkwright’s mill could do the work of fifty hand spinners, and as other aspects of textile production were automated...production soared. So cheap and abundant were British-made textiles by the end of the C18th that Britain began exporting textiles to India, devastating that country's traditional weaving trade in the process."
The workers were given tea breaks. "Tea kept workers alert on long and tedious shifts and improved their concentration when operating fast moving machines...Factory workers had to function like parts in a well-oiled machine and tea was the lubricant that kept the factories running smoothly". Tea’s healthy properties also meant the workforce could "be more densely packed in their living quarters around the factories in the industrial cities of the British Midlands without risk of disease".
"The popularity of tea also stimulated commerce by boosting the demand for crockery and bringing into being a flourishing new industry. Ownership of a fine tea service was of great importance for rich and poor alike...The most famous of the Staffordshire potters was Josiah Wedgwood, whose company produced tea services so efficiently that it could compete with Chinese porcelain, imports of which declined and eventually stopped in 1791."
"Wedgwood was a pioneer of mass production...No longer did individual craftsmen in his factories make each item from beginning to end; instead, they specialised in one aspect of production and became particularly skilled at it. Items moved in a continuous flow from one worker to the next. This division of labour enabled Wedgewood to use the most talented designers...without requiring them to be potters too." ***
"The political power of the British East India Company...was vast...The company had many friends in high places, and many of its officials simply bought their way into Parliament. Supporters of the EIC also cooperated on occasion with politicians with interests in the West Indies; the demand for West Indian sugar was driven by the consumption of tea. All this ensured that in many cases company policy became government policy."
"The EIC's fortunes revived in 1784" (after Britain's loss of the American colonies) "when the duty on tea imports to Britain was slashed, which lowered the price of legal tea, doubling the company's sales and wiping out smuggling. But the company's power was gradually curtailed amid growing concern over its enormous influence and the corrupt and self-enriching behaviour of its officials...the company's monopoly on Asian trade was removed, except for China. The company concentrated less on trade and more on the administration of its vast territories in India; after 1800 the bulk of its revenue came from the collection of Indian land taxes. In 1834 the company's monopoly on trade with China was removed too."
"The cultivation and preparation of opium in India was, conveniently, a monopoly controlled by the company, which had been quietly allowing small quantities of opium to be sold to smugglers or corrupt Chinese merchants since the 1770s...the company set about increasing the production of opium in order to use it in place of silver to buy tea. It would then, in effect, be able to grow as much currency as it needed."
"Of course, it would never do to be seen to be directly trading an illegal drug in return for tea, so the company devised an elaborate scheme to keep the opium trade at arm's length...(this was) state-sanctioned drug running on a massive scale, which created millions of addicts and blighted countless lives merely to maintain Britain's supply of tea."
An attempt by the Chinese to clamp down on the trade, resulting in the British being expelled from Canton, "caused outrage in London, where representatives of the company and other British merchants had been putting pressure on the British government to force China to open itself up to wider trade...On the pretext of defending the right to free trade, war was declared."
"...as further wars were waged...in each case Chinese defeat entailed additional concessions to the commercial aims of foreign powers. The trade in opium...was legalised, Britain took control of the Chinese customs service; imported textiles and other industrial goods undermined Chinese craftsmen. China became an arena in which Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the United States, and Japan played out their imperialist rivalries, carving up the country and competing for political dominance."
The beginnings of the cultivation of tea in India began around the time the EIC lost its monopoly on trade with China in 1834. "Proponents of the idea argued that...British consumers would be assured of a more reliable supply...and it would provide plenty of jobs for Indian workers, a great many of whom had lost their livelihoods when the company's imports of cheap cloth from British factories wiped out India's traditional weaving industry. Furthermore...the people of India might be encouraged to consume it, which would create an enormous new market."
"...The traditional Chinese manner of producing tea was anything but industrial and had remained unchanged for hundreds of years." There were also many middle men involved in bringing the raw material from the country to the foreign traders "that brought the price paid for each pound of tea to nearly twice the original producer's selling price. An enterprise that produced its own tea in India, however, could pocket the difference...Furthermore, applying new industrial methods...(would) boost productivity, and hence profits, still further. With the cultivation of tea in India, imperialism and industrialism were to go hand in hand."
By 1851, after difficult beginnings, "a tea boom ensued as dozens of new tea companies were set up in India, though many of them failed as clueless speculators bankrolled new ventures without discrimination...production really took off when industrial methods and machinery were applied. The tea plants were arranged in regimented lines; the workers were housed in rows of huts and required to live, work, eat and sleep according to a rigid timetable. Picking the tea could not (and still cannot) be automated, but starting in the 1870s its processing could be...
The rise of India's tea industry had a devasting impact on China's tea farmers and further contributed to the instability of the country..."
"India remains the world's leading producer of tea today, and the leading consumer...(23%), followed by China (16%) and Britain (6%)."
*** And Wedgwood allegedly got the production line idea from reading Père d'Entrecolles, the French Jesuit missionary whose letters recording the processes of Chinese porcelain production were published in 1735. See my blog: January 8, 2009 - A Note on Wedgwood.
Extracts from Around The World in Six Glasses by kind permission of Tom Standage.
"The (East India) Company's first tea imports from the East Indies arrived in 1669...It was initially a minor commodity as the company concentrated first on importing pepper, and then cheap textiles, from Asia. But opposition from Britain's domestic textile producers encouraged the company to place more emphasis on tea; there was no problem with offending domestic producers, since there were none."
A new approach to manufacturing, pioneered by Richard Arkwright in the 1770s "turned Britain into the world’s first industrialised nation". Skilled labourers and craftsmen were replaced by machines situated together in one place around a source of power such as a waterwheel or steam engine. Employees were housed nearby and use of shifts ensured maximum utilisation of expensive machinery. "Each labourer in Arkwright’s mill could do the work of fifty hand spinners, and as other aspects of textile production were automated...production soared. So cheap and abundant were British-made textiles by the end of the C18th that Britain began exporting textiles to India, devastating that country's traditional weaving trade in the process."
The workers were given tea breaks. "Tea kept workers alert on long and tedious shifts and improved their concentration when operating fast moving machines...Factory workers had to function like parts in a well-oiled machine and tea was the lubricant that kept the factories running smoothly". Tea’s healthy properties also meant the workforce could "be more densely packed in their living quarters around the factories in the industrial cities of the British Midlands without risk of disease".
"The popularity of tea also stimulated commerce by boosting the demand for crockery and bringing into being a flourishing new industry. Ownership of a fine tea service was of great importance for rich and poor alike...The most famous of the Staffordshire potters was Josiah Wedgwood, whose company produced tea services so efficiently that it could compete with Chinese porcelain, imports of which declined and eventually stopped in 1791."
"Wedgwood was a pioneer of mass production...No longer did individual craftsmen in his factories make each item from beginning to end; instead, they specialised in one aspect of production and became particularly skilled at it. Items moved in a continuous flow from one worker to the next. This division of labour enabled Wedgewood to use the most talented designers...without requiring them to be potters too." ***
"The political power of the British East India Company...was vast...The company had many friends in high places, and many of its officials simply bought their way into Parliament. Supporters of the EIC also cooperated on occasion with politicians with interests in the West Indies; the demand for West Indian sugar was driven by the consumption of tea. All this ensured that in many cases company policy became government policy."
"The EIC's fortunes revived in 1784" (after Britain's loss of the American colonies) "when the duty on tea imports to Britain was slashed, which lowered the price of legal tea, doubling the company's sales and wiping out smuggling. But the company's power was gradually curtailed amid growing concern over its enormous influence and the corrupt and self-enriching behaviour of its officials...the company's monopoly on Asian trade was removed, except for China. The company concentrated less on trade and more on the administration of its vast territories in India; after 1800 the bulk of its revenue came from the collection of Indian land taxes. In 1834 the company's monopoly on trade with China was removed too."
"The cultivation and preparation of opium in India was, conveniently, a monopoly controlled by the company, which had been quietly allowing small quantities of opium to be sold to smugglers or corrupt Chinese merchants since the 1770s...the company set about increasing the production of opium in order to use it in place of silver to buy tea. It would then, in effect, be able to grow as much currency as it needed."
"Of course, it would never do to be seen to be directly trading an illegal drug in return for tea, so the company devised an elaborate scheme to keep the opium trade at arm's length...(this was) state-sanctioned drug running on a massive scale, which created millions of addicts and blighted countless lives merely to maintain Britain's supply of tea."
An attempt by the Chinese to clamp down on the trade, resulting in the British being expelled from Canton, "caused outrage in London, where representatives of the company and other British merchants had been putting pressure on the British government to force China to open itself up to wider trade...On the pretext of defending the right to free trade, war was declared."
"...as further wars were waged...in each case Chinese defeat entailed additional concessions to the commercial aims of foreign powers. The trade in opium...was legalised, Britain took control of the Chinese customs service; imported textiles and other industrial goods undermined Chinese craftsmen. China became an arena in which Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the United States, and Japan played out their imperialist rivalries, carving up the country and competing for political dominance."
The beginnings of the cultivation of tea in India began around the time the EIC lost its monopoly on trade with China in 1834. "Proponents of the idea argued that...British consumers would be assured of a more reliable supply...and it would provide plenty of jobs for Indian workers, a great many of whom had lost their livelihoods when the company's imports of cheap cloth from British factories wiped out India's traditional weaving industry. Furthermore...the people of India might be encouraged to consume it, which would create an enormous new market."
"...The traditional Chinese manner of producing tea was anything but industrial and had remained unchanged for hundreds of years." There were also many middle men involved in bringing the raw material from the country to the foreign traders "that brought the price paid for each pound of tea to nearly twice the original producer's selling price. An enterprise that produced its own tea in India, however, could pocket the difference...Furthermore, applying new industrial methods...(would) boost productivity, and hence profits, still further. With the cultivation of tea in India, imperialism and industrialism were to go hand in hand."
By 1851, after difficult beginnings, "a tea boom ensued as dozens of new tea companies were set up in India, though many of them failed as clueless speculators bankrolled new ventures without discrimination...production really took off when industrial methods and machinery were applied. The tea plants were arranged in regimented lines; the workers were housed in rows of huts and required to live, work, eat and sleep according to a rigid timetable. Picking the tea could not (and still cannot) be automated, but starting in the 1870s its processing could be...
The rise of India's tea industry had a devasting impact on China's tea farmers and further contributed to the instability of the country..."
"India remains the world's leading producer of tea today, and the leading consumer...(23%), followed by China (16%) and Britain (6%)."
*** And Wedgwood allegedly got the production line idea from reading Père d'Entrecolles, the French Jesuit missionary whose letters recording the processes of Chinese porcelain production were published in 1735. See my blog: January 8, 2009 - A Note on Wedgwood.
Extracts from Around The World in Six Glasses by kind permission of Tom Standage.
A Short History of Tea
If anyone is coming to this blog as a result of A Cup of Tea Solves Everything (which it doesn't, really) and is interested in the history of tea, may I recommend A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage, in which there are two chapters on tea that offer a concise socio-political story that is a quicker read than other books on tea (listed on this blog). You may want to go on to read those other books (or you might go on to find out about the other beverages Standage covers - coffee, Coke, beer, wine and whiskey).
It's published by Atlantic Books and available on Amazon for seven quid. Standage is business editor of The Economist, is an expert on technology, and is just about to bring out a book about food called An Edible History of Humanity. He has written three other books including The Victorian Internet (described by the Wall Street Journal as a "dot-com cult classic"). He writes a blog at tomstandage.com and describes his speciality as the use of historical analogy, offering a way of seeing the past in the present, and the present in the past. Right up my street.
It's published by Atlantic Books and available on Amazon for seven quid. Standage is business editor of The Economist, is an expert on technology, and is just about to bring out a book about food called An Edible History of Humanity. He has written three other books including The Victorian Internet (described by the Wall Street Journal as a "dot-com cult classic"). He writes a blog at tomstandage.com and describes his speciality as the use of historical analogy, offering a way of seeing the past in the present, and the present in the past. Right up my street.
Friday, February 13, 2009
A Cup of Tea Solves Everything
20th February – 14th March 2009
A diverse range of artists were invited to interpret the statement “A Cup of Tea Solves Everything” in this exciting multi-media exhibition. Tea as time, tea as etiquette, tea as mathematics, tea as war, tea as peace, tea as Empire and more…
Artists include: Lorna Robertson /Raksha Patel /Emma Scarpa /Mathilda Holmqvist /Vanessa Louise Jones /Sonalle /Carol Mancke /Sonia Paco-Rocchia /Gabo /Joanna Kerr /Adnan Mirza /Wendy Couchman /Melissa Stott /Kathy Taylor /Tea Appreciation Society /Helena Wee /Mirei Yazama /Rekha Sameer /Sue Lawes /Paul Taylor /Shafique LeFreaque /Ed Huxley /Fatima Hussein
EVENTS, WORKSHOPS & FILM PROGRAMME
Friday February 20th - Opening Night:
6pm-9pm.
Free Tea for all and welcome tour.
Film Screening: The River (1951) Dir: Jean Renoir
Set in Bengal during the colonial era. Features 38 tea encounters. The key influence that launched Satyajit Ray’s foray into cinema. Described by Martin Scorsese as “the most beautiful film ever made in colour.” Starts 7pm.
Saturday February 28th
2pm onwards
Tea and Politics, the collaboration of artists Missy Mitchell-Hynd and Naimh Moor, question society’s relationship to politics through the creation of events. Influenced by the culture of coffee houses of the 17th century, they invite you to come and discuss the political events of the day over a relaxing cup of tea.
Saturday March 7th
10.30am – 12.30pm
2pm-4pm
Qualified Art Therapist Sue Briffa leads 2 art therapy workshops around the exhibition. Materials provided.
Friday – March 13th
7pm-9pm
A night of short films, plays, animations, performance, songs, discussion and more… around the world of tea.
All events are FREE. No booking required. First come, first serve basis
Venue: DEPARTURE, 649 Commercial Road, Limehouse, London
E14 7LW
Travel directions: 1 minute walk from Limehouse DLR & National Rail/ Buses: 15, 115, 135/ Opening hours: Tues – Fri 11am-9pm, Saturday 10am-5pm
A diverse range of artists were invited to interpret the statement “A Cup of Tea Solves Everything” in this exciting multi-media exhibition. Tea as time, tea as etiquette, tea as mathematics, tea as war, tea as peace, tea as Empire and more…
Artists include: Lorna Robertson /Raksha Patel /Emma Scarpa /Mathilda Holmqvist /Vanessa Louise Jones /Sonalle /Carol Mancke /Sonia Paco-Rocchia /Gabo /Joanna Kerr /Adnan Mirza /Wendy Couchman /Melissa Stott /Kathy Taylor /Tea Appreciation Society /Helena Wee /Mirei Yazama /Rekha Sameer /Sue Lawes /Paul Taylor /Shafique LeFreaque /Ed Huxley /Fatima Hussein
EVENTS, WORKSHOPS & FILM PROGRAMME
Friday February 20th - Opening Night:
6pm-9pm.
Free Tea for all and welcome tour.
Film Screening: The River (1951) Dir: Jean Renoir
Set in Bengal during the colonial era. Features 38 tea encounters. The key influence that launched Satyajit Ray’s foray into cinema. Described by Martin Scorsese as “the most beautiful film ever made in colour.” Starts 7pm.
Saturday February 28th
2pm onwards
Tea and Politics, the collaboration of artists Missy Mitchell-Hynd and Naimh Moor, question society’s relationship to politics through the creation of events. Influenced by the culture of coffee houses of the 17th century, they invite you to come and discuss the political events of the day over a relaxing cup of tea.
Saturday March 7th
10.30am – 12.30pm
2pm-4pm
Qualified Art Therapist Sue Briffa leads 2 art therapy workshops around the exhibition. Materials provided.
Friday – March 13th
7pm-9pm
A night of short films, plays, animations, performance, songs, discussion and more… around the world of tea.
All events are FREE. No booking required. First come, first serve basis
Venue: DEPARTURE, 649 Commercial Road, Limehouse, London
E14 7LW
Travel directions: 1 minute walk from Limehouse DLR & National Rail/ Buses: 15, 115, 135/ Opening hours: Tues – Fri 11am-9pm, Saturday 10am-5pm
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Breaking The Ice
A haitus - or freeze, rather - has occurred on this blog...due to Christmas, I suppose, and freezing conditions in the studio, with predicted yet still amazing SNOW, a huge tax bill to pay and the even more desperate need to earn some money in a depression... So I find myself studying the MANGA style for a commissioned education pack, and the BANGLA style for a design tender - everything seems outside the remit of this blog.
The photo above is Greenwich Park on the second day of snow (Feb 3rd 2009) and the photos below show China Blues under snow at Creekside Centre, kindly taken by Nick Bertram - he reckons it looks like surf as the snow melted, and apologised for walking all over the piece when it was covered in the white stuff.
I have been asked to submit some photographic documentation of China Blues for an exhibition in East London - A Cup of Tea Solves Everything. This opens on Friday 20 February and is the brainchild of some young St Martins graduates who have organised the show through Facebook. I had to join Facebook to take part and I have no idea whether non-FB members can see this:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=49206669162&ref=ts
Meanwhile I still need to explain the Burberry connection of earlier posts and why it has any relevance here...I shall attempt to do that in the next post.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
A note on Wedgwood
From "Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art" by Lothar Ledderose (1998)*...
...porcelain production in China was a highly systematized, sequential process...it involved a strict division of labour...The most detailed account was given by the French Jesuit missionary Père François Xavier d'Entrecolles (1664-1741)...In 1712 and 1722 he wrote two long letters on porcelain production in Jingdezhen, relying in part on information from Christian converts in the porcelain trade. The Jesuit Jean Baptiste du Halde included the two letters in his monumental and influential Description de la Chine, which was published in Paris in 1735-39 and soon translated into other languages...
It seems no accident that it was during the 17th and 18th centuries, which saw the rise of state factories in France and the beginnings of the industrial revolution in England, that Europe admired China intensely and was intent on learning from it...In Europe, the invention and introduction of machines led to the substitution of mechanical operations for manual work on a large scale. Yet machines were not the only factor that brought about the industrial revolution. The organisation and control of the workforce and the techniques of division of labour were also essential.
In 1769, Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) established at Staffordshire, England, the first porcelain production in Europe to enforce factory discipline and make full use of labor. Each of his workers had to be expert in only one part of the production, which was a revolutionary concept at the time. Wedgwood derived the idea from his reading of the letters of Père d'Entrecolles.
*The A.W.Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1998. Published by Princetown University Press. Permission being sought.
...porcelain production in China was a highly systematized, sequential process...it involved a strict division of labour...The most detailed account was given by the French Jesuit missionary Père François Xavier d'Entrecolles (1664-1741)...In 1712 and 1722 he wrote two long letters on porcelain production in Jingdezhen, relying in part on information from Christian converts in the porcelain trade. The Jesuit Jean Baptiste du Halde included the two letters in his monumental and influential Description de la Chine, which was published in Paris in 1735-39 and soon translated into other languages...
It seems no accident that it was during the 17th and 18th centuries, which saw the rise of state factories in France and the beginnings of the industrial revolution in England, that Europe admired China intensely and was intent on learning from it...In Europe, the invention and introduction of machines led to the substitution of mechanical operations for manual work on a large scale. Yet machines were not the only factor that brought about the industrial revolution. The organisation and control of the workforce and the techniques of division of labour were also essential.
In 1769, Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) established at Staffordshire, England, the first porcelain production in Europe to enforce factory discipline and make full use of labor. Each of his workers had to be expert in only one part of the production, which was a revolutionary concept at the time. Wedgwood derived the idea from his reading of the letters of Père d'Entrecolles.
*The A.W.Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1998. Published by Princetown University Press. Permission being sought.
Blog is cursed
Whilst writing about the Rhondda on Tuesday, the news came that the Welsh valleys were without water because of the freezing conditions. This area never gets on the national news usually (not since the closure of the Burberry factory). I went home and watched a documentary about new Chinese art on More 4 (featuring Ai WeiWei among others) in which there was the ubiquitous "misty mountains" shot of Tibet. Later that night I heard the news that Marks & Spencer are cutting jobs (1,230) and stores "amid trading gloom", and that Adolf Merckle (not Merdle), the German tycoon and the world's 94th richest man, has committed suicide because of the global financial crisis...oh, and, finally, the contemporary art bubble has burst - it's official.
The main news of course, is the disproportionate and horrific bombing of Gaza city by Israel.
Meanwhile, I was thinking of another visual bridge between Wales and China - red dragons...
The main news of course, is the disproportionate and horrific bombing of Gaza city by Israel.
Meanwhile, I was thinking of another visual bridge between Wales and China - red dragons...
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Burberry in China
Photo © Gary Pope
Over Christmas I went to see Twilight with my 15-year-old niece. It is shot in Portland Oregon, the Pacific North West - a rain forest region ideal for sun-shunning vampires. There was a breathtaking panoramic scene in the film like the one above. This idea of a landscape of misty mountains was just the visual bridge I needed to pull together some ideas about the way trade opened up in the 18th century between the West and China and how it operates similarly today. Also, how the idea of the production line began in China – which I shall try and write about another time. The scene resembles a Chinese landscape and is also reminiscent of the Welsh valleys (it is, in fact, Oakland, California).
I had been thinking about the 300 textile workers of Treorchy losing their jobs when Burberry moved their operation to China in 2007. Many celebrities supported the workers' fight to keep their jobs, and a lot was talked about Burberry losing their "brand value" (although it may be said that it already had by being appropriated by "Chavs"). Burberry disagreed: they were only making polo shirts in the Rhondda whilst their famous trench coats would still be manufactured in Yorkshire, so could still be seen to be an iconic British brand.
Treorchy is my mother's birthplace and she remembers when the factory was called Polikoffs. Apart from the mines, they were the main employers.
Burberry had to go before The Welsh Affairs Committee to justify their move. Entitled Globalisation and its impact on Wales the report* makes interesting reading, not least this excerpt concerning the nature of a so-called iconic brand...
Q250 Chairman: Could I suggest a different definition of iconic in relation to your predecessor company so to speak, Polikoffs? That was very much associated with the trench coat given that it played such an important part in the war effort, and Polikoffs of course were welcomed as a company driven out of Eastern and Central Europe by the advance of Nazism and into the Valleys in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies and, right down to today, Polikoffs is synonymous with being embedded in the culture and history as a model employer in the Rhondda. That to me is iconic in its association both with the community and the culture, and with the trench coat and all that that represents. What is your view of that?
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmwelaf/uc281-iv/uc28102.htm
The Committee also talked to the union involved (GNB)...who gave examples of other companies who have pulled out of Wales. Mr Garley: ...Very similar to the Burberry similar scenario, at that time Marks & Spencer had record profits and money was literally coming out of their ears and they dumped in excess of 6,000 clothing workers in Wales and in the UK through that corporate greed. I just make the point if I can that those companies still exist, those companies have not gone to the wall, all that has happened is they have transferred and migrated their manufacture elsewhere... We have asked the company how much are the workers in China going to be paid in these two factories and they will not tell us. We have asked the company what hours of work are the workers in China going to work and they will not tell us. We have asked the company how many days a week do they have off and they will not tell us...
So what happened next? Independent film-maker Patrick Carr (MandarinFilms.com) has made a film which has interviews with the Chinese workers. It seems the new Burberry employees may only temporarily benefit from this relocation before the Chinese sub-contractors move their operation from Shenzhen out to more rural areas for even cheaper labour. These rural workers who had moved to the city to work (for £105 per month, two shifts a day including evenings, only four evenings off a month and only two days off a month) will quite possibly lose their jobs. "We don't hope for anything, we just take one day at a time," says one. Patrick Carr calls it a "global manufacturing merry-go-round". See his film here:
http://current.com/items/88912434/burberry_hits_china.htm
As the GNB's Mr Garley said "the vulnerability of workers through globalisation knows no bounds".
*This is an uncorrected transcript of evidence taken in public and reported to the House. The transcript has been placed on the internet on the authority of the Committee, and copies have been made available by the Vote Office for the use of Members and others.
Any public use of, or reference to, the contents should make clear that neither witnesses nor Members have had the opportunity to correct the record. The transcript is not yet an approved formal record of these proceedings.
Royal Doulton up the spout
Bad news for the potteries (and Ireland) yesterday as it was announced that Waterford Wedgwood had fallen into administration. Pity the 1,900 UK employees who work at the Barlaston pottery in Stoke-on-Trent with Staffordshire suffering below zero temperatures on the same day.
But what an amazing British dynasty the Wedgwood family is:
The Darwin — Wedgwood family was a prominent English family, descended from Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, the most notable member of which was Charles Darwin. The family contained at least ten Fellows of the Royal Society and several artists and poets. (The most notable artist is the composer Ralph Vaughn Williams.) Francis Galton is part of the third generation along with Darwin. Clarice Cliff is part of the sixth.
The family is linked to William Wedgwood Benn's family of Labour Party politicians (namely himself plus son Tony, grandson Hilary, and great-granddaughter Emily Benn) through Josiah Wedgwood's younger brother Aaron.
More on Wedgwood later...after all Doulton & Co and Wedgwood & Co are part of the Willow Pattern Story...
But what an amazing British dynasty the Wedgwood family is:
The Darwin — Wedgwood family was a prominent English family, descended from Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, the most notable member of which was Charles Darwin. The family contained at least ten Fellows of the Royal Society and several artists and poets. (The most notable artist is the composer Ralph Vaughn Williams.) Francis Galton is part of the third generation along with Darwin. Clarice Cliff is part of the sixth.
The family is linked to William Wedgwood Benn's family of Labour Party politicians (namely himself plus son Tony, grandson Hilary, and great-granddaughter Emily Benn) through Josiah Wedgwood's younger brother Aaron.
More on Wedgwood later...after all Doulton & Co and Wedgwood & Co are part of the Willow Pattern Story...
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