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  • Hi I'm Kristen and today I'm going to explain why I no longer shop at Zara, or from any other brand that's part of the INDITEX corporation.

  • This is Amancio Ortega on September of 2016 he became the richest man in the world.

  • Owner of INDITEX, which includes Zara, and king of fast fashion, capitalism, and consumerism.

  • His fortune amounts to $79.5 billion dollars. He's the proud owner of a DB700 private jet, a 31.5 meter long yacht, and two mansions in Spain.

  • This man's fortune is absolutely massive and he created it by being pioneer of the fast fashion industry.

  • You know, the "3rd most polluting industry and one of the top three with the highest incidences of slave-like labor"

  • Ka-ching!

  • One more thing. My face has actually been printed and mass produced on a Zara T-Shirt, not once but twice.

  • So how on earth did I, the former Zara shopping addict sort-of poster child of the company, decide to start boycotting INDITEX completely since last year?

  • Let's rewind a little bit back to 2011 to find out why.

  • Greenpeace discovers 9 out of 10 jeans were poisonous and made with carcinogenic dye.

  • Zara vowed to go toxic-free.

  • And then once again, in the same year, slave-like conditions are discovered in Sao Paulo in an INDITEX contractor factory.

  • Workers had to work 16-19 hours and were in debt to their traffickers. INDITEX stated that it could not be held responsible for unauthorized outsourcing.

  • The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) stated that: "It is Zara's responsibility...[quote above]"

  • So the CCC was basically like, "You signed a code of conduct which says that you are responsible for every single person in your production chain.

  • If you don't know who those people are, that's your responsibility."

  • But, you'll see that the whole lying thing is just a pattern that this company just regularly follows.

  • [Reads highlighted quote]

  • They were forced to pay a 410,000 euro fine- which is pretty much toothpick-money for Ortega.

  • And they also made this claim: [Reads highlighted quote]

  • Which is ironic because on April of the same year, one of the biggest disasters of the fashion industry happened in Bangladesh

  • with the Rana Plaza factory collapse.

  • Killing 1,129 people.

  • This factory was supplying clothes to some of the world's biggest fashion retailers.

  • But it didn't end there, because in 2014 the CCC uncovered that Zara

  • was once again buying sweatshop labor clothing from East Europe and Turkey

  • And again in 2016 it's discovered that Syrian refugees and children are working in sweatshops in Turkey

  • distressing Zara's jeans with toxic chemicals without a face mask for 12 hours a day

  • Zara's parent company, INDITEX, had already found significant non-compliance in June

  • and had given the factory until December to make improvements.

  • So back to what Zara said about their zero-tolerance approach- I'm kind of confused, does

  • zero-tolerance mean that you give the factory 6-7 months to work things out?

  • Or does zero-tolerance mean you end the contract immediately?

  • I'm kind of confused and it seems like Zara doesn't really know what zero-tolerance even means

  • in this case. So from the research that I did, i managed to discover about

  • 6 incidents where Zara was either using a sweatshop,

  • labor, slave labor, child labor but that doesn't mean those are the only 6 incidents that happened.

  • That's only what I found or what they were caught doing.

  • And another thing that I'm not going to mention in this video is the environmental impact of fast fashion.

  • Which is massive! But it's just going to make this video a bit too long and I might make a specific video about that

  • and I wanted to focus exclusively on the people that INDITEX has harmed.

  • INDITEX is a company that, from our knowledge, for at least the last 5 years has been responsible

  • for the deaths and the exploitation of children, victims of trafficking, Syrian refugees and people living in poverty.

  • And at the head of this company, as a 60% shareholder is Amancio Ortega.

  • Just like when you pay someone to kill someone else on your behalf doesn't make you any less of a murderer,

  • when you pay someone else to use slaves, it doesn't make you any less of a slavemaster.

  • Amancio Ortega, as the owner of INDITEX is responsible for all crimes committed by the company,

  • making him the richest criminal in the world.

  • Now that you know the truth, you are in the same position as Ortega was back in 2011.

  • Do you continue down the same path of exploitation like he did, or do you make the brave

  • decision to change? And I know that having to change is a little bit stressful for some of us

  • so I took the liberty to make it a little bit easier and create a "ethical fashion initiation process"

  • for all of you out there that are interested in trying this so

  • I have made a playlist that is going to be available somewhere over here and I also have

  • a link for it in the description box and it's a few videos that I have made that are

  • going to inform you and give you tips and help you start shopping ethically.

  • And I also have a list of my favorite ethical fashion brands in the description box for anyone that is

  • ready to get started shopping ethically. I really hope you enjoyed watching this video.

  • I hope you liked it and make sure to comment below letting me know what you think.

  • But, most importantly, if you really want to help make sure to share this video and spread the message.

  • The world's most powerful and rich man with biggest fashion corporation on Earth

  • And it's not going to be taken down by a small YouTube channel like mine

  • but hopefully, with the help of you guys we can spread this video and make sure that as many

  • people as possible will get to see this and get to see what the real face of Zara is.

  • And it's an ugly one. ?

  • So I really hope you share this video around and thank you so much for watching!

  • I'll see you guys next week. Bye! ?

Hi I'm Kristen and today I'm going to explain why I no longer shop at Zara, or from any other brand that's part of the INDITEX corporation.

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