As I knocked on the door of 43 The Calls for my evening with The Craftivists, I expected a lively meeting about the problems of international supply-chains for fashion. Something entertaining, but ultimately ineffectual in remedying the deeper malaise of globalised consumption. What I got instead was a meeting with a campaigning organisation of a singular implacable focus, namely to get change happening. 

But I am getting ahead of myself. The Craftivists are a Leeds-based charity located in a building which used to be part of the Methodist church. As a campaigning charity, they have fought on issues ranging from lifting the ban on asylum seekers working to seeking to establish a requirement for Leeds council to compost the city’s food waste. 

Based in The Calls, the organisation will soon be moving to the Imagine climate hub, located on 9 blenheim terrace, an issue which when raised caused a collective “oooh” from the meeting.  This collective fascination was likely sparked by the greater capacity Imagine climate offers, with its closer location to the student areas of Leeds, it will perhaps enable more members in comparison to the Calls.

The meeting in question was on their current campaign to ask “Who made my clothes” with Transform Trade. Transform Trades goals are all rooted in making the garment industry embrace “slower fashion”. Whilst opposition to fast fashion – (a term used to refer to the growth in clothing retail, based on disposability and rapid trends) – normally takes the form of pleading with consumers to simply change their purchasing habits, The Craftivists instead look to change the actions of the supermarkets who stack fast fashion brands. 

The campaign is currently seeking to establish a Garment Trading Adjudicator (GTA) modeled on the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA), a government regulator which accused supermarkets of waging war on suppliers in 2023. The hope of the campaign is that a GTA could prevent abusive practices such as “short notice changes to volumes or technical specifications” and “refusal to pay for goods dispatched or in production”. Both practices have been known to produce large amounts of fabric waste, as suppliers are forced to discard large volumes of products when retailers change requirements.

The Craftivists campaign was, as a result of their nature, suitably crafted. While there I was given a rapid refresher on how to sew by one of the other members – it’s been a few years since I last did some sewing. I then got to work sewing miniature clothes onto a banner, while other members sewed mini clothes to send to MP’s along with a plea to consider backing the idea. As it stands the Craftivists intend to hold an event on the 15th with Leeds MP Alex Sobel. The event in question would see the MP, or MPs should they succeed in their objectives to bring in more of the Leeds local MPs, be presented with one of these banners which feature a plea to back the calls for a Garment Trading Adjudicator.

The reason these events are so important to the process of securing change to policy is because they capture the time of the MP, this gives an opportunity for the arguments for policy change to be presented in a detailed non-confrontational way increasing the chance the MP will back the measure. In the case of Alex Sobel we can expect a positive response, given his past support of climate action. In his contribution to the fashion debate in parliament in 2019, he called it “shameful that one of the top 10 fashion retailers in this country” refused to provide evidence. This statement alongside his membership of the all parliamentary group on net zero suggests he will be open to the climatological and welfare concerns of the campaign and their proposed solution. 

In the meantime in the words of Pippa, one of the members: “we want your students to hear about us” so for any students who like to get crafty with their activism it seems there are worse places to go than the Craftivists.

Words by Charlie Aldous