WEARING NOTHING but boxes, twelve members of paraded in protest around Bristo Square to urge the university to stop buying clothes made in sweatshops last Tuesday.

As part of the National Week of Action Against Sweatshops, People & Planet campaigned for the University of Edinburgh to sign up to the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an independent monitoring organisation that would ensure that all garments bought by the university for uniforms, university hoodies, and merchandise would be made in conditions where the workers are treated fairly.

Student Amabel Crowe, 20, studying History at the University of Edinburgh, told The Student about the experience. She said, “there were twelve of us doing the protest and quite a few people crowding around with cameras.

“It wasn’t as cold as I thought it was going to be, it was pretty amazing really.

"When we got inside there was the graduation which we were a bit worried about, but actually people found it more funny than annoying. “[The boxes] were basically stopping us from being completely naked, also it gave us a chance to have slogans so we could show what the protest was about.

“It was a really visual way of saying that sweatshops are a problem and we need to actually think about the people who are making our clothes.”

The WRC website claims that, “Rather than relying on infrequent checks by an outsider with a clipboard, workers themselves are trained in labour rights, and can lodge a confidential complaint if they believe that there is a violation in their workplace.

“The WRC then conducts an independent in-depth investigation and makes the results public.”

In 2010 WRC's ‘Just pay it!’ campaign persuaded Nike to pay $1.5 million to Honduran workers in legally mandated severance pay.

To join the Consortium, universities have to pay £1000 or 1 per cent of their income from selling clothes, whichever is greater.

University of Edinburgh student Ruth Cape, 23, feels that the eithical benefits of joinging the scheme would outweigh the cost.

She said, “we feel that for a university so proud of its social values and fairtrade status, there should be no question as to whether [the University should] be as transparent and ethical as possible in what it buys.

“So far, Sheffield and Loughborough Universities have signed up, and other [universities] are on the way too.

"We think Edinburgh shouldn’t get left behind on this.”