MARIANNE SØGAARD SØRENSEN
To be of use - about a humanitarian, an ecological and a (missing) political perspective on the work with clothing.
In 1982 I got caught up by "Clothes for Africa" and the humanitarian work carried out by the group, and I took part of it until its break-up in 1987-89.
In 1982 I came back to Løgstør
after being away for most of my grown up life. I had family in
the village but no friends, and I was looking for a human network,
as we call it nowadays.
A woman told me about
the ragpicking group "Clothes for Africa", that in
her opinion was doing important humanitarian work. She asked
me if it was something I might be interested in. Some weeks later
on my way home from work, I came across a young man and his van.
He was unloading sacks with clothes at the premises of the group,
situated in the old school at Løgstør. I understood
at once that he must be one of the members of the group that
I had been told about and so I approached him. The man, whose
name was John, was both nice and talkative. He told me that the
group met every Wednesday evening at the school to sort clothes.
Next Wednesday I turned up expecting to meet a group of committed and active people. At first nothing happened. It must have been between October and March because it was already dark. Finally a car showed up and a person with a slightly exotic appearance, in my eyes, stepped out. She had the same black garbage sacks with clothes as John. Even if she looked surprised to see me, she soon got me busy, dragging the sacks up to the group's premises on the first floor. For one reason or another the lights were out. Yet one sensed the mountain of sacks with clothes in the room, on top of which I was told to climb and drag the additional sacks up. Nothing more happened that evening, as we couldn't sort clothes in total darkness. But we introduced ourselves, and her name was Kirsten.
I can no longer remember if I was surprised
that night on my way home. But I went to the next meeting, which
was a Saturday or a Sunday. This time there were more people
present and I got introduced to the ingenious work of sorting
that consisted of several levels. First, the clothes were to
be sorted in three categories. While I was taking part, the most
important category consisted of clothes that were to be sent
to Eritrea. These clothes had to be in good shape, not worn out,
clean, preferably practical and not containing too much synthetic
fibres. Shoes, bags, carpets and bigger pieces of cloth, as for
example curtains, could also be of use. Sheets of pure cotton
could be used as bandage material.
The second
category was the clothes that could be sold in Denmark, either
at the market place in Aalborg or at the annual flea market at
Hornum. These clothes amounted to 1 % of the collected clothes.
They also had to be in good shape and were typical dresses from
the 5o´s, damask or velvet curtains, dressing up clothes
and of course good children's clothes. We collected especially
for the flea market at Hornum. From those big annual collections
all good clothes were for the flea market, after that clothes
that weren't sold were packed for Eritrea.
The
third category in the first sorting was the waste. But waste
wasn't just waste: clothes of 100 % cotton could be sold for
twist-production, 100 % wool should, as far as I remember, also
be put aside. Pure waste was minimal. Also the other category,
clothes that were sent to Eritrea, were sorted in subdivisions:
Shoes and bags apart, because they had to be packed in a certain
way, they couldn't be pressed together like clothes could. Men's
clothes were apart, as were women's and children's clothes, as
well as older children's clothes.
The clothes had to be put and pressed together
in an ingenious press, that only the more experienced among us
could operate. Woe betide the person that didn't pack the clothes
carefully enough into the press! That was rapidly revealed by
a distorted bale with fringed edges, which was impossible to
wrap up properly. But the finished bale was also the token of
a collaboration between several persons. The persons at the sorting
tables that put together the clothes and made the piles ready
had to be just as careful; the clothes put together should have
the accurate length, that fitted into the press. One was only
skilled after several sorting evenings and weekends. Once in
a while when enough bales were finished, a couple of persons
(as I remember it was especially Finn and Flemming) started the
wrapping up. First strong plastic to make it waterproof, then
sackcloth, which was more durable during the transport, fastened
with staples and then plastic girths all around. Finally, the
bale got marked with a code which indicated the contents.
For security reasons there wasn't any written address
of the sender nor of the receiver on the package. Used clothes
was a merchandise in Africa, and there was no reason for tempting
to theft.
The flea market in Bislev 1978. Bales with clothes are prepared for shipment.
Our premises were set up for the whole
process. There was one room where the before mentioned mountain
of clothes was situated. There also was a row of rooms, that
were used for the work. In the first one of these were the sorting
tables, where 4-5 persons could stand on each side. Along the
wall there was an arrangement for the waste-sacks, a framework
where you could fasten the sacks and mark them: Cotton, Wool
and Pure waste. Along another wall were broad shelves for placing
the "treasures" one found and which were off to Aalborg
and Hornum.
In the next room, there were the
two presses and the wrapping table with plastic, tape, pairs
of scissors, staplers, sackcloth and so on. Sacks and cords of
hemp (that were put down into the press and tied around the pressed
clothes), were recycling materials from coffee companies and
from farming connections. Ink markers for writing addresses and
tape we got for free from the local stationer's. In this room
we stacked the finished bales. It looked nice just before a shipment
when the bales, sacks and other packages piled up.
In
addition we had some smaller rooms that we mostly used for storing.
All around on shelves and in piles there were other goods, as
the surplus from last year's flea market, waiting for the next
one, and things like toys, sewing machines and schoolbooks waiting
for the next shipment. But there was also an extra sorting table,
that was used on the days when e.g. the ragpicking group from
Ollerup payed a visit.
A sorting evening lasted
from 7 pm to 10 pm and the number of people who showed up varied.
During the period I participated 6-8 persons normally came. We
brought coffee in thermoses and if we were lucky someone had
made a cake.
But as I remember it, we were very
efficient. The mountain of clothes next door kept us working
intensely. There was a special satisfaction from this work: to
make order out of chaos, to see the piles of clothes on the sorting
tables transform during the process into nice piles of bales,
ready to be sent away, and the fact that so much of the western
world's surplus could be canalised to other parts of the world,
where there was so much more need for it. In the global solidarity
work our bales of clothes were an infinitely small part, but
to us it became more real than the 100 Danish crowns usually
given at Christmas, when our bad conscience made itself heard.
As time passed, I got to know the group: Eva, Sofie, John, Lotte, Tove, Rita, Flemming, Carsten, Kirsten, Finn and many more. They - we - were very different from each other, both in the manner of practical work: I can still see Sofia´s efficient movements and Rita´s calm attitude- and in other ways. But maybe it was the differences that made us complement each other so well. It turned out after a while of talking over the piles of clothes, that it wasn't just the solidarity work we had in common. To different extents the members of the group became my new "network", and some of them my lasting friends. These are friendships that developed from acting together, sharing some point of views and having a common goal, but maybe most importantly: turning views and opinions into a piece of practical work.
One part of the satisfaction from the collecting work was that things became useful. There was an ecological aspect: saying No to the use-and- throw-away mentality. By reducing the waste as much as possible we also reduced the burden on our own ecosystem. But hidden in the ecological aspect, there was also, as far as I was concerned, the joy of people of small means: that things were used to their maximum. Grown up as I was in a family where nothing was thrown away if there was any chance at all of it being reused at some time.
But the real or deepest satisfaction was that one could be of use for some fellow-beings. People that we probably would never meet personally, but that we knew needed practical help and through that, moral support. It was the humanitarian aspect "to do something for other people". Something that reached further than your own nose and your point of view. This may well sound pathetic and self-satisfied, but I really do believe that it's most healthy at a personal level to take an active part in one's fellow-beings and not always be so self-concerned. Maybe it's in fact necessary for us to get beyond ourselves, if we want to stay human and not just let the suffering peoples of the world remain pictures on our TV-screens!
Some of us in the group took part in a study circle, started by Kirsten and Finn, in order to keep us informed on the liberation movements we were supporting and the political development on the international arena. It was a fundamental work in which I at the time wasn't particularly interested (even if I showed up at the meetings), and which I maybe didn't understand the importance of until too late. Not everyone showed up for the meetings, but that didn't affect the group. We had a mutual understanding that everyone didn't share the same interests. The most important was the solidarity in the practical work. That it for some of us primarily was a work of solidarity or of anti-imperialism, and for others a kind of humanitarian aid work, was of second importance.
Internal disagreement came up in the group in 86-87 and lead to it's break up and later on to the end of the solidarity work. The reason for this was of political character: What countries and movements should we support and why? This was the controversial question among those who were politically aware. After several attempts to overcome the differences, the group split into two, that each was too small to manage such a task. On top of that, people that had been anti-poles during the discussions, gradually left the groups. In our group, it was Kirsten and Finn who had led the work for many years. When a flea market was turned down in a voting in 1987, they decided to leave the solidarity work.
It was as if times had become different
in the late eighties. Until then we had been able to borrow the
market hall at Hornum, if we paid light and water. After the
last flea market in 1986 when we had the biggest revenue ever,
we suddenly had to pay a rather high rent. Nor could we get rid
of the cotton waste, the twist factory paid less for it than
the cost for transport and handling. The Løgstør
municipality was going to use our premises for other purposes.
Earlier we had been able to persuade the council that our work
was important, and that it was reasonable that we had the right
to use decent premises even if other organisations were interested.
Now those premises were renovated and leased to business activities,
and we were assigned a run down factory building. With low attendance
at the sorting evenings, the piles of clothes grew and it was
depressing to watch. For a short while we again made a joint
effort; Sofie came back and began sorting clothes again with
Lotte, Rita and me. But the heaps of clothes became unmanageable
, and the end of the story was that an activation group run by
the municipal council had to finish it : to sort and pack clothes
for shipment until the building was empty.
Even
a church organisation that ran a recycling store in the town
had problems getting their heaps of clothes sorted. So maybe
at this time, there was simply not will and room for voluntary
solidarity work.
Now, looking back, I think the lacking political commitment was a contributory reason to the fact that solidarity work couldn't survive. There was a split between those who acted pragmatically and those who were politically committed. In the political battle those of us with lacking political commitment got into a corner: Without knowledge of the background and a political stance we had no real possibilities of acting.