"Are you already thinking, or are you still shopping?"

The sewing machines clatter away tirelessly. Working on a piecework basis, seamstresses churn out one garment after another. No sooner is one finished than it is snatched from their hands by frenzied shoppers. The vicious cycle of shopping frenzy and production accelerates ever faster... Who is actually responsible for this madness?

A one-year collaborative project between the Görlitz-based association Tierra – Eine Welt e.V., social work students at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, and actress Bogna von Woedke resulted in a street theater production addressing human and labor rights in global textile production. The play was successfully performed several times as part of the 25th International Görlitz Street Theater Festival “ViaThea.”When we look at today’s “fast fashion” phenomenon, it becomes clear how the industry has shifted to rapid and cheap production in countries like China, India, and Ethiopia to satisfy our need for satisfactory clothing. We want to see something new in the stores every month so we have a variety of choices and can follow the latest trends. Yet our consumption leads to conditions whose consequences we should be aware of—and from which we all too easily turn a blind eye: Workers who sew clothes for two dollars a day, with their human rights disregarded, just to feed their families; cotton farmers who are crushed under the pressure to grow this vital raw material and supply it in sufficient quantities. And the use of harmful pesticides and chemicals to protect the vulnerable plants—substances that endanger our environment and our health. Clothing has long since degenerated from a utility item into a consumer good, and its origin and the conditions under which it is produced are of little importance to many, as long as they can buy a T-shirt for three euros.