Thank you for your interest if you are visiting our site in reference to the brand names I wish to give away.
AGAIN, I have a special challenge. In an ad running in the New York Times on November 7, 2014, I am desperately seeking an HONEST company, powerful women, charitable foundation, university, social entrepreneur or celebrity to receive my GIFT of my company WOMEN WEARING THE PANTS Co.
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The more I read about the garment industry, the more I realize it has been a conscious choice to ignore labor abuse and look the other way. Not only by the industry executive, but by all of us.
There are those that bury it, hide it, sugar coat it, and then there are those that purposely perpetrate labor abuse for their personal financial gain. Or the bottom line for the benefit of the stockholder.
We can change this.
This is a change we can make. We do not need an illusive cure. Or a new technology, or a military coup.
If the corrupt government of a country will not enforce reasonable labor and wage laws, that does not stop us from investing in their people and country and build a safe factory and give a fair wage to our employees. And if the local law wishes to obstruct our fair practices they can deal with the revolution. We North Americans have gone through the same pains (1911 Shirt Waist Factory) to change labor across our country.
The first, “A CHALLENGE”, ran in the NEW YORK TIMES Sunday Edition in the NATIONAL Section, November 21, 2010. Founder of WWTP Robert, knowing he did not have the skills to develop such a grand idea on his own, thought it best to give it away to a few powerful women who could bring this simple ideology to its greatest potential, which is paramount to all Robert’s wishes.
The second ad ran (Robert never believed there would be need for a second ad) in the NEW YORK TIMES Friday, November 8, 2013 in a “special section” GIVING the trademarks he developed for the same cause to a few organizations Robert chose as having the best chance of advancing the cause of Women Wearing The Pants (THE DISADVANTAGED HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD WORKING POOR WOMEN OF THE WORLD). I am still in disbelief that I am on my own with my attempts.
I thought long ago there would have been an intelligent socially conscious woman of power to take these brands and bring them to the potential they should have.
It’s really not that complicated. Pay a fair wage use organic materials that least impact our environment. Take the income from the sale of the product and return it to the developing country the garment was produced in. The income would go towards education, health, and environment.
All intelligent women know you hold at least 80% of the purchasing power, especially in the apparel industry. As well, you same intelligent powerful women know the sweat shop/Death Trap conditions your apparel is manufactured in employs 80% women! I’d say that makes us all complicit in the tragedy that is the status quo of manufacturing.
That’s why I created these brand names. I don’t believe protest and boycotts will make much of a change. I think you need to lead a charge much like Safia Minney and People Tree are doing in U.K., Japan, India, and Bangladesh.
I could quote several women about equality: Sheryl Sandberg, Madeline Albright, Hillary Clinton.
I could quote from documentaries and books for hours but they’re only words if we don’t act to make this change. I will give you one of my favorites:
“Those who hold power are not only responsible for what they do, but also what they do not do.”
(Hilary Swank as Alice Paul in “Iron Jawed Angels”
HBO Films
I have another important point: On January 5, 2014 it will be the 100th anniversary of what is touted as the no. 1 Greatest Business Decision of all time.
As stated in Fortune Magazine 10-8-2012, adapted from the book, “The Greatest Business Decisions of all Time” by Verne Harnish:
“1914 Henry Ford decides to double his workers’ wages”
Lesson Learned
“With their pay doubled, Ford’s auto workers could now afford the very products they were producing. This triggered a consumer revolution that helped create the wealthiest nation on earth.”
Could it work world wide??
If I come to an agreement with a few socially conscious people and organizations to take and build our brands.
Our motto, Do it Right, from cottonseed to the consumer, fair compensation, safe working conditions, mutual respect. Least impact to the environment as practicable, and produce the best F’N (fashion) apparel you’ll ever wear.
Thank you, Robert
An Idea to Create Jobs Worldwide, Revised Nov. 2012
To Create Two Brand Names:
a. “Women Wearing The Pants” US Trademark Application Serial NO. 85211966 Textiles for the Professional Woman
b. “The Fair and Free World Trading Company” US Trademark Serial NO.85509361 A tee shirt and Jeans clothing line for University students.
To The Attention Of: Warren Buffet, Melinda Gates and the Gates Foundation, Skoll Foundation, University Professors and Students, The World Fair Trade Organization, Free Trade Zone Administrators, Bank of America, Newman’s Own Company, Masili, Freakonomics, Emma Watson, Michelle Obama, Meryl Streep, George Clooney, and consumers with a social conscience.
The Idea: To create a brand name for products, especially textiles, which will be produced under FAIR TRADE Guidelines and FREE TRADE Agreements using ORGANIC materials. Since organic products are more labor intensive and generally create better products they can potentially create more jobs while at the same time sustaining one of the world’s greatest resources – our soil!
The Brand Name: “THE FAIR AND FREE WORLD TRADING COMPANY”
The Goal: Similar to the profit structure created by Paul Newman’s company, Newman’s Own, ALL of the PROFITS from the brand would go to charity. University professors and students, as an education program for international development, would then administer the organization. Join me now in creating jobs worldwide by creating products with the brand name “THE FAIR AND FREE WORLD TRADING COMPANY”
The Vision: Can you envision with me – “The Fair and Free World Trading Company” outlet stores, with the graphic of Yin and Yang as its base logo, symbolizing a BALANCE of Fair Trade and Free Trade, in airport shopping centers and malls worldwide? These stores would display and sell Fair Trade Certified clothing and goods and employ university students. Students would also design, market, and import/export all products utilizing and influencing Free Trade Agreements and Fair Trade Certification.
All products would be tagged with rhetoric and brochures explaining the quality materials used and the jobs and benefits created in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of these goods. The coup de grâce! ALL profits, after paying fair living wages to the organization’s employees, would go to social, education, health, and environmental programs for the developing countries where the goods were produced. The outlet stores could be franchised out to universities and Non Governmental Organizations to earn funds to accomplish their goals and distribute scholarships to local universities.
Mr. Warren Buffet, you do so well with Berkshire Hathaway, which was once a textile company, maybe you could assist us to make this idea a success? This needs the clout your name carries, not to mention some “seed” money would certainly help. I’m sure you are aware of how difficult and potentially dangerous (U.S. and Colombia Near Trade Pact, The New York Times, 4/6/11) (Export Powerhouse Feels Pangs of Labor Strife) working with labor in developing countries can be. You could start this organization, by taking over an existing company and turning it into the world’s biggest social enterprise. I understand Fair Trade may be new to you; perhaps 21-year-old Emma Watson would share her knowledge on how it works. This would be an exceptional addition to your already impressive legacy. Few individuals have the power you have to make this dream organization a reality, please help!
Melinda Gates and the Gates Foundation, I’d ask the same of you as I did of Warren Buffet, your expertise in philanthropy could help the universities make this idea a success! This idea certainly falls into line with the ideas behind the formation of the Gates Foundation. What better way to give, “all people a chance to lead a healthy and productive life” than by helping to create jobs for them, while at the same time creating a learning experience for students.
Skoll Foundation, Would this “innovative” idea not “drive large scale change and invest, connect, and celebrate social entrepreneurs to help solve the world’s most pressing problems?” It’s all yours – be the “connector”!
University Professors, Adjuncts and Students, Your involvement will be key in developing and marketing the products and continuing to manage the brand name to insure success and integrity. Additionally, your help will be needed to develop social programs for example, health, education, agriculture, water purification, and conservation. In other words, programs to benefit the communities of the developing countries where the products will be produced.
World Fair Trade Organization, Please share your research. Show us how it can be done, and retain the integrity that FAIR TRADE implies.
Fair Trade International
Green America
Free Trade Zone Administrators, Please use your power for the true intent of the Free Trade Agreements forged by your governments, to create prosperity through employment of your fellow citizens. Not by surrendering the rights of the workers to a fair living wage and favorable working conditions. For example, read the article by Rose-Marie Avin, Free Trade Zones and Women in Nicaragua: Exploitation or Empowerment? Although dated information, there hasn’t been a substantial change. Here is another example from The Lonely Planet Guide, Nicaragua. See page 38 regarding Free Trade vs Fair Trade at right.
A more recent unveiled example, a NYT front page article; this is not obscure research; no intelligent person could plead ignorance of the immoral labor conditions in current day use.
I’m sure there is a lot more research from a lot of other countries to be examined.
Newman’s Own Company, Please share your business model with the universities. If your organization can create and sustain jobs and raise millions through the sale of organic salad dressing, then THE FAIR AND FREE WORLD TRADING COMPANY should be able to create many more jobs and raise billions of dollars through the sale of organic / Fair Trade textiles. Help us create an organization to last as long as we wear clothes and want to live in a fair and free world. My utmost respect goes to Paul Newman for the simplest un-common sense, of developing a product to raise money for charity. I wish there were more like him who had the ability to use their fame and integrity to create such an organization. An unpleasant afterthought, Mr. Newman is accomplishing more posthumously for charity than most living citizens.
Nueva Vida Fair Trade Zone, Thank You! It was your story and the fact that you are the FIRST and ONLY worker owned cooperative operating in a Free Trade Zone that inspired me to research Fair and Free Trade. I hope this dream team will follow your great example. You have been the leading influence of my idea of how the balance of Free Trade and Fair Trade could help the world.
Freakonomics, I have an economic problem for you. Take 10% of the textile products produced in the Free Trade Zones of developing countries. What is the cost to produce these products? How many people does it employ? What is the total retail price? OK – now take that same 10% and produce it under Fair Trade guidelines, meaning a 40-hour work week and a living wage for the country it was produced in. How much more money did it cost? How many more jobs did it create? How much would you have to increase the retail price to maintain the same profit margin? If you didn’t increase the retail price how much less profit would be made? Lastly which textile product would you buy?
APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) and World Trade Organization (WTO), Presuming that the Freakonomics Professors will come up with a sizeable number of jobs created. What if, when you negotiate Free Trade Agreements, you insist on 10% of trade to be under the Fair Trade guidelines that are already in place, thereby creating the jobs proposed by Freakonomics research, as well as creating new consumers out of the workers? All this is to be paid for by consumers with a social conscience, voluntarily. There would be no government funds and no new taxes.
President Obama, in addition to the above Trade Agreements, you could create an agreement with other western nations that use Fair Trade labor laws – FAFTA (Fair And Free Trade Agreement.)
Here is an idea for your next stimulus package – What if you said, “No sales tax on US and Fair Trade manufactured goods or 5% back at the register?” So instead of giving tax breaks to the corporations to stay in the US, you reward the consumer for buying products made in the US. It would also make the consumer conscious of where and how their purchases were produced. For example, if the America Made Index for Vehicles was used to determine the tax break and 5% was given back to the consumer. Could this work at the gas pump? Instead of subsidizing the oil companies you subsidize American oil at the pump?
Michelle Obama, Thank You, for promoting organic foods for health benefits. Perhaps you could also make the point of addressing the fact that organics are labor intensive and add jobs to the economy?
Emma Watson, Congratulations on your Fair Trade clothing line at People Tree. It’s inspiring to see such a young person show so much concern for her environment and the people in her world. I hope you will show the people who have been in the textile business for years how it can be done. At “The Fair and Free World Trading Company” we hope to take things a couple steps further by producing products in the Free Trade Zones of developing countries then returning the profits back to the same countries in the form of education, health, and agricultural programs. Your endorsement will greatly help.
Meryl Streep, I can’t think of a better equal to Paul Newman. Would you endorse Women Wearing the Pants Inc. and The Fair and Free World Trading Company?
George Clooney and the NotOnOurWatchProject.org, You are a fair man that would be a good spokesperson for this endeavor. Plus you have a lot of fair-minded friends. Why they haven’t picked up on Paul Newman’s example, is a phenomenon to me.
Barbara Kingsolver and James Fallows of The Atlantic, The Producers of “Food Inc.,” Barbara great job on “Animal Vegetable Miracle.” Perhaps you and your colleagues could write about what truly happens in the Free Trade Zones of the world and what benefits Fair Trade products could bring globally. Why is it that Fair Trade coffee is the only product that the general public hears about? If we have an organic food section in our grocery stores, why don’t we have the opportunity to buy Fair Trade clothing and other goods in our department stores?
Forbes Magazine Oct. 2010 100 (Not So) Most Powerful Women, To Forbes Magazine Oct. 2010 100 (Not So) Most Powerful Women, specifically, #3 Oprah Winfrey, #7 Lady Gaga, #9 Beyonce Knowles, #10 Ellen Degeneres, #21 Angelina Jolie, #27 Melinda Gates, #29 Madonna, #39 Heidi Klum, #45 Sarah Jessica Parker, #56 Anna Wintour (Editor-In-Chief, Vogue Magazine), #57 Andrea Jung (CEO Avon Products), #60 Venus Williams, #72 Gisele Bundchen, #85 Janet Robinson (CEO, The New York Times Co. – your advertising didn’t work), #88 Tory Burch (Fashion Designer), #91 Vera Wang (Fashion Designer), #96 Donna Karan, and #99 Martha Stewart.
I offered all of you this challenging task to help head of household women in developing countries. To my understanding none of you recognized the potential Fair Trade clothing has for women working in the textile industry. All of you, I’m sure, are aware that the textile industry predominately employs women worldwide. Does it not make sense for any one of you to create a Fair Trade certified professional woman’s clothing line, and designate all of the profits to social, education, health, and environmental programs targeting head of household women in developing countries. Essentially, you, women who know how to wear the pants, are empowering women who have to wear the pants for their families in developing countries. Wouldn’t you and your fellow professional women be proud to wear clothing that has created opportunities to empower women worldwide?
Bank of America / US Trust, You should be happy to finance such a noble endeavor. The case being that you use our country’s name and tax dollars via TARP. Maybe you could win back some of our country’s credibility. If you truly mean what you advertised in Atlantic Magazine. Oct 2010, page 52:
“What is passing down your values as well as your assets worth? How is worth measured? At U.S. Trust, we believe it’s about more than just assets, and liabilities, it’s about the things in life that take on a worth all their own, including ideas and innovations that promote economic, educational and environmental improvements. That’s why we’re a proud sponsor of the 2010 Washington Ideas Forum, as a means of celebrating and inspiring new thinking that can benefit society for generations to come.”
Stated on U.S. Trust’s website, “At US Trust, we believe it’s about more than just assets and liabilities. It’s about the things in life that take on a worth all their own, including ideas and innovations that promote economic, educational, and environmental improvements.” Or was that just rhetoric to solicit more investment dollars? As the saying goes, “put your money where your mouth is”, or you might say, “put the US taxpayers money where your mouth is.”
I hope this more detailed account will catch your interest. Can you imagine if you bought a factory and walked on to the floor to tell the workers that they will now be required to work only 40 hours a week and will receive a living wage and adequate health care. If a worker becomes pregnant they will be given time off and not lose their job. If Mr. Abuse of Power were to make any unwanted sexual advances at work, he will be the one to worry about losing a job. Lastly, you could find out from the workers if they know of any other hardworking individuals looking for work, since a second shift will be added?
We can take that dream to another level. What if your name was on the outside of the factory along with a US financial institution? Wouldn’t that be good P.R.? Would that affect the “sweat shop” down the street? Only women with your power could pull this off. Please, share your power!
The socially conscious consumer, Do you care whether or not your clothes are made by people receiving a living wage? Can you afford to care?
To all, Ask not what job your country can create for you, but what job you can create for your country. Buy the goods made in your country first, and if you are buying foreign produced goods, try to know that these products were produced under fair conditions, conditions that you and your family would work under. Free Trade Agreements were forged under the premise that the exchange of goods would promote prosperity between nations. Please help share that prosperity with the backbone that is creating the products, the working women and men of the world.
I hope that all of you make great use of my idea for a brand name, and that the people who use “The Fair and Free Trading Company” label ensure its integrity for what it represents. Be a responsible consumer, we cannot hold our governments responsible for sending jobs out of our country when we as consumers are buying these same products blindly. Read the label in your purchases and use your purchasing power to make a difference. Buy products that insure that the workers that produced these products have traded their sweat for a living wage. If you buy it – they will produce it. You can continue to buy through the corporations who funnel the profits through Wall Street or you can “step up to the plate” and help make a change? Please, buy, Fair Trade Certified!
Me, Robert Carroll, I will donate $10,000, 1400 organic cotton tee-shirts (imported from www.nuevavidafairtradezone.org) and the rights to direct the two brand names, preferably to State Universities wishing to help further the cause of Women Wearing The Pants. We need Website Maintainance, Marketing, Business Planning, and Political Science majors to help cement our views and opinions on international trade, with quality research. I welcome any other university to join in the effort.
If Abercrombie and Fitch can successfully market their clothing, based on a cool name, universities, who in 2010 awarded 60 percent of all bachelors and master degrees to women, should have no problem marketing these clothing lines to your fellow students. If you can’t carry this through, I suggest that you ask for your money back from your educational institution and learn how to handle a shovel, or sewing machine yourselves, honorable enough employment, but I presume not the reason you expended the finances and time to attend college.
This idea was originally based on my idea that students have the social conscience to carry my idea through to fruition. I then changed direction and challenged the “100 Most Powerful Women” listed in Forbes Magazine to take this idea and run with it. To do this, I put an ad in the New York Times addressing the “100 Most Powerful”, but was disappointed with the results. Therefore, I am returning to my initial plan of working with socially conscious student activists. To the students, continue to questions our trade policies. It is up to all of you now – these are your companies!
Three words I want to hear from you and it’s not “bring it on” – WE GOT THIS!
Thank You,
Robert M. Carroll, Founder
Women Wearing The Pants INC. and The Fair and Free World Trading Company,
robert@womenwearingthepants.org
Women Wearing the Pants Inc. &
The Fair & Free World Trading Company
PO BOX 622
St. Augustine, FL
32085
Working to be a balance of Fair & Free Trading
Creating opportunities to empower women and enrich their family life.