ILPC 2026

This presentation seeks to understand what does the return of small garment sweatshops to large cities in both core and peripheral economies mean for debates on unfree labour and capitalist accumulation. Having been left at the margins of this industry during Fordism, ‘local sweatshops’ (as opposed to ‘international sweatshops’ [Montero Bressán and Arcos, 2017] are back since the late 1970s. In these, working conditions range from precarious employment to forced labour.

Since the crisis of Fordism, sweatshops have become crucial for the fashion industry worldwide. While awareness about large sweatshops in export processing zones is broad, little is known about small local sweatshops employing migrant labour and supplying cheap garment to fast-fashion branded retailers. Fear to delocalisation leads to low workers organisation in core economies, whereas the threat of cheap imported garments affecting local jobs is crucial for disciplining the labour force in peripheral economies. The ‘import’ of cheap labour into sweatshops located at arms-length distance from the stores rounds out a context in which formal workers are little more than a rarity, and are the worst paid of all industrial workers in several countries.

Through an analysis of the changes in the production and commercialisation of fashion clothing since the late 1970s, this presentation shows how the flourishing of forced labour during recent decades along the success of well-known branded manufacturers and retailers, suggests that, far from being a pre-capitalist reminiscence, unfree labour is not only compatible with capitalist accumulation, but it can also be critical for its survival. The findings are based on over 11 years of research on local sweatshops in Prato (Italy) and mostly in Buenos Aires, as well as on a broad knowledge of secondary sources about other cases around the world.