Red Carpet Green Dress, a women-led global change-making organisation,
has named two winners of its global design competition, which challenged
designers to submit a sketch of a red carpet-worthy gown or suit that
advocates sustainable fashion.
The competition, conceived in 2009 by Suzy Amis Cameron during the press
tour for her husband, James Cameron’s film ‘Avatar’, called on emerging and
established designers over the age of 21 to deliver eco-friendly garments.
Each entry had to showcase a no-waste, circular economy approach, with
social impact consideration, including fair and humane treatment of
manufacturers, a clear supply chain and, importantly, materials which use a
high proportion of eco-friendly and recycled materials.
The international competition judging panel selected two winners – Sanah
Sharma from Chennai, India, and Jasmine Kelly Rutherford from New York,
USA.
Sharma, who graduated the Pearl Academy in 2015 with a BA in Fashion
Design before launching her namesake label, won the red carpet gown
accolade for her zero-waste design plan.
Harold Weghorst, vice president of global marketing and branding at
Lenzing AG, who sat on the judging panel, said of the winning gown design:
“Sanah’s dress is a perfect symbiosis of fashion and sustainability. The
elegance of the design and the smart concept of zero-waste makes Sanah the
deserved winner of this contest.”
Sanah Sharma and Jasmine Kelly Rutherford win the Red Carpet Green
Dress Global Design Contest 2020
While the winner of the 2020 suit design was Rutherford, a recent
graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Her tailored
design will be created exclusively using an RCGD x Tencel Luxe cashmere
fusion fabric that is lightweight and strong enough to hold pleats and
smocking.
Commenting on her win, Rutherford said: “Having a textile that is both
sustainable and long-wearing is a huge asset. I always try to design with
the wearer in mind; I want the client to be comfortable and not feel like
they are wearing something confining.
“While wearing my design, I want them to not only look luxurious but
feel it too. Winning the RCGD global design contest is beyond exciting
because I believe that sustainability is becoming increasingly important in
the fashion industry. As I create, I want my designs to not only tell a
story but to have a voice and speak on issues that affect us around the
world.”
Both designs will be produced in early 2021 with sustainable eco-couture
textiles from the recently announced RCGD X Tencel Luxe collaboration and
both will be worn by two prominent VIPs from the fashion and entertainment
industry. These RCGD ambassadors will be announced at a later date, but are
expected to attend the 2021 pre-Oscars Gala in the winners’ designs.
In addition, both winners are also awarded a monetary cash prize of
1,000 US dollars each and will receive a three-month business mentorship
with Samata Pattinson, chief executive of Red Carpet Green Dress and
internship experience with couture designer Laura Basci in her LA-based
atelier.
Pattinson added: “Announcing the winners brings back memories of when I
was in their position, and won the contest back in 2011. It completely
changed my life. The winners have such an incredible and exciting journey
ahead of them.
“Red Carpet Green Dress has been raising awareness of sustainability in
the fashion industry for over a decade, changing people’s mindsets and
creating a conversation about the issues and leading action. Sanah Sharma
and Jasmine Kelly Rutherford will not only dress ambassadors but will
receive first-hand experience and mentorship.”
The contest also raised funds for two organisations Awaj Foundation in
Bangladesh and The Fifth Pillar in Myanmar, as provision for the
disproportionately vulnerable garment workers severely impacted by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Investigation journalist Jeremy Scahill sat down with MSNBC’s Ari Melber on Thursday to discuss President Obama’s announced plan to escalate the U.S. military campaign against the group known as the Islamic State and offered a damning assessment of the administration’s “strategy.” He said that not only is the militant group (also known by the acronym ISIS) the product of failed military adventurism but that continued attempts to bomb al Qaeda-like groups out of existence simply creates a cycle of “blowback” that is self-defeating and counter-productive.
Scahill’s analysis of the current situation—including his criticism of the Obama administration’s so-called “counter-terrorism strategy” which he argues has exacerbated, not decreased, the problem of extremism in places like Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen—paints of a picture in which wars and conflict across the Middle East, south Asia, and large swaths of Africa will continue to claim lives and enrich the military-industrial complex while pushing political stability ever further from being attainable.
“Now I think there’s the potential for huge blowback here,” Scahill said of Obama’s plan to launch airstrikes—including possible carpet bombing—against targets in Syria. “I also think that ISIS is, in part, the product of blowback from the Bush era and the Obama era.”
Scahill continued: “What I think we’re going to end up seeing [in Syria] is the end result of the disaster that Obama inherited, not just from Bush, but from his own first term.” Scahill reminded the audience that though former President Bush had bombed Yemen only once (“that we know of”), but but President Obama has dramatically increased the number of airstrikes in Yemen and Pakistan, ratcheted up the covert war in Somalia, and otherwise expanded the sphere of the U.S. so-called “counter-terrorism” operations.
“President Obama, for all the criticism he gets from Dick Cheney,” argued Scahill, “is actually far more effective at the ‘war games’—so to speak—than the neocons were, because he’s able also to sell it to the liberal base.”
Watch the full interview:
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Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson on Thursday issued a video apology to the family of Michael Brown, the unarmed teenager who was killed by Officer Darren Wilson on August 9, while continuing to ignore residents’ repeated calls for his resignation.
Jackson also walked briefly on Thursday night with protesters who have been marching against police brutality—and demanding Wilson’s arrest—for more than six weeks. Despite his presence at the demonstration, however, several protesters were arrested in the early hours of Friday morning. Video footage of the march shows officers violently placing at least one woman in custody who had been marching side by side with Jackson before he was led away by a police escort.
Ferguson organizers, including a lawyer and a civil rights leader who had participated in the march, on Friday published an open letter reflecting on the recent events.
“The video did more harm than good,” the letter stated. “The apology was 48 days too late, should have occurred in person, and should have been authentic and heartfelt. A 6 week old scripted video is unacceptable and disrespects the depth of pain in this community.”
Police officers on Thursday night “kicked, grabbed, shoved, and hit peaceful protestors with their hands and batons,” the letter continues. “Seven peaceful, lawful protestors were arrested,” at least one of whom was denied medical treatment.
In his video, Jackson apologized to the Brown family for allowing their son’s body to be left in the street for four hours—by claiming that it was a necessary investigation procedure.
“No one who has not experienced the loss of a child can understand what you’re feeling,” Jackson said. “I am truly sorry for the loss of your son. I’m also sorry that it took so long to remove Michael from the street. The time that it took involved very important work on the part of investigators who were trying to collect evidence and gain a true picture of what happened that day.”
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The video was produced by the Devin James Group, a public relations firm recently hired by the city of Ferguson. However, the group recently ran into its own troubling publicity, when it was revealed this week that its founder, Devin James, had served time in prison for reckless homicide after he was convicted of killing an unarmed man. James was fired by the city after the information became public, but protesters noted that officials were aware of his background before bringing him on board—and that their decision to fire him immediately demonstrated a continued “lack of integrity” on the part of city leaders.
“[T]he City of Ferguson knew about this previous conviction but hired him in an attempt to ‘give Mr. James a second chance’,” the open letter stated. “In a world where African American men are systematically placed into the criminal justice system and then denied employment based on past charges, we actually applaud the thought of city ’s original intent in hiring Mr. James… firing Mr. James once the news of his previous conviction came to public attention, despite knowing of this record before hiring him, is yet another example of the lack of integrity and sense of honor in City leadership.”
“We can only suspect that the City of Ferguson planned to hide this information from the public—another cover-up and an intentional pattern of secrecy displayed by City leadership,” they wrote.
Jackson’s apology follows Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson’s recent claim that protesters had injured police officers during a protest after a memorial to Michael Brown was burned down Tuesday. “This behavior will not be tolerated,” Johnson told reporters at a press conference at the time. “If that means that officers will respond in riot gear, they will.” The warning was a stark contrast from Johnson and the highway patrol’s initial entry into the protests after the St. Louis County police force responded to peaceful actions in the early days of the protests with tanks and assault weapons, when the captain briefly became a symbol of calm and cooperation. He emphasized that police safety would take priority and said the burning of Brown’s memorial was under investigation, but that he believed police were not responsible for the fire.
Jackson also told CNN that he had no plans to step down from his position, despite protesters calling for his resignation. He also said nothing about arresting Wilson, who has been on administrative leave since the shooting.
While protesters’ demands have grown in scope since they began, Wilson’s arrest has been their constant priority.
Jackson’s apology video, released in full by the Associated Press, can be viewed below:
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A suicide bombing on Thursday killed at least 43 people, including several children, in the capital city of Yemen, a nation that President Obama has recently put forth as a model of U.S. counter-terrorism efforts.
The blast struck as hundreds of people were arriving in Sanaa’s Tahrir Square for a demonstration called by the Houthis, the powerful Shi’ite Muslim group that seized the capital on September 21. With dozens more critically wounded, the death toll is expected to rise.
At least 20 government soldiers were killed in a separate suicide car bombing and gun attack in the country’s east on Thursday.
According to Reuters:
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Thursday’s demonstration, which protesters said would continue despite the attacks, was in opposition to the recent nomination of Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak to prime minister, “on the grounds that his selection had been imposed by Washington,” Reuters reports. The U.S. has denied the allegation. Political unrest has escalated in Yemen in recent weeks.
In a speech on September 10 in which he laid out his strategy for fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, Obama held up American involvement in Yemen—marked by drone strikes that have killed innocent civilians—as a success to emulate.
“This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years,” he said.
The comparison immediately drew criticism from those who pointed out that the U.S.’s missions in those two countries are neither successful nor complete.
“The President’s citing of the success of American military policy in Somalia and Yemen show how intellectually and morally dishonest this administration, like the previous administration, is,” said Matthew Hoh, a former U.S. Marine and diplomat who resigned over the failed policy in Afghanistan and is now a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. “Both nations are chaotic and violent and American military action, particularly drone strikes that often kill innocents have not diminished al Shabaab in Somalia or al-Qaeda in Yemen, rather those groups continue to operate and enjoy the recruitment benefits of American airstrikes against Somalia and Yemeni civilians, as well as how American actions play into their propaganda narratives and raison d’être.”
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After eight months and over 3,000 miles, people marching under the banner of the Great March for Climate Action strode into Washington D.C. on Saturday declaring that they’ve seen firsthand how climate change is affecting people from coast to coast and their message is this: Americans want climate action now.
Though they were joined along the way by local residents and others supporting the cause, 34 people had completed the entire journey from the Port of Wilmington in Los Angeles to Lafayette Park in Washington D.C.. The core group walked 15-25 miles a day, 8 to 10 hours each day, allowing themselves to rest one day a week. Hundreds are expected to join the marchers at a rally outside the White House where they will recount their experience.
“I came to the March knowing a bit about climate change, but was really excited to learn the specifics about what’s going on everywhere regarding food, water and air,” one marcher, 22-year-old Emerson graduate named Sean, told Rabble.ca writer Cheryl McNamara. “And everywhere we go people talk about these things.”
A livestream of the D.C. rally is available on UStream while others are sharing images and quotes on Twitter.
#climatemarch Tweets
McNamara, who joined the marchers for some time, wrote that the group “had walked through severe drought in the southwestern United States, cutting up to the American heartland through industrial wastelands in Nebraska and Illinois.” From there they traveled through Ohio and through heavily-fracked regions of the Pennsylvania mountains before reaching their final destination, Washington D.C.
The marchers “have born witness to those living on the front lines from coast to coast. They’ve become stewards for the people and the land, and have collected stories on behalf of the individuals facing injustices from climate change first hand,” Climate March organizers said in a press statement.
“The marchers have become stewards for the people and the land, and have collected stories on behalf of the individuals facing injustices from climate change first hand.”
The march, which kicked off with a March 1 rally in Los Angeles, “has created a living megaphone, and with the [marchers’] arrival into D.C they will amplify the collective voices with a resounding demonstration to our political leaders and corporate rulers that the people are resilient and intolerant of inaction on the climate crisis,” the organizers continue.
The Saturday rally will commence a week of actions dubbed Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE) during which demonstrators pledged to “disrupt business as usual” at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The nonviolent direction actions, which were organized by a coalition of over 50 frontline communities, regional and national organizations, and concerned individuals, are to take place during election week in order to send a message to both dominant political parties that “supporting extreme energy extraction is no longer the path of least political resistance,” write activists and organizers Tim DeChristopher and Rev. Lennox Yearwood.
“It’s time to make it clear that a politician who green lights the fossil fuels industry’s attempts to poison our communities and ruin our climate will not get our votes under any circumstances,” they continue.
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Unknown donors and big-monied, outside groups are pouring record amounts of cash into key Senate races set to determine which political party will take control over the upper house come November’s election, according to a new report published Tuesday by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The report, Election Spending 2014: 9 Toss-Up Senate Races (pdf), found that outside spending by undisclosed “dark money” groups is on track to “shatter previous records.” According to newly-released data from the Federal Elections Commission, of the nine hotly-contested senate races this year—Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, and North Carolina—all but one is expected to beat the previous record for most outside money spent in a senate race, $52.4 million in Virginia in 2012.
The most expensive race in terms of overall spending, North Carolina at $64.8 million, is set to beat the record “several times over.”
“[We]ak campaign finance laws and Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United have made possible new means of pumping money into elections while avoiding regulation or scrutiny,” said report author Ian Vandewalker. “These tactics are gradually becoming the national norm, and give wealthy spenders more power than ever to buy influence over our political process and elected officials.”
According to the nonpartisan law and policy center at the New York University School of Law, nonparty outside spending through September 30 amounts to $158.6 million in these nine most competitive races. “Outside groups have spent at a furious rate,” the authors note, especially when compared with the $97 million spent on all 37 contests in the 2010 midterms.
While the biggest spender overall is a Democratic-aligned Super PAC, the Senate Majority PAC at $29,083,280, the report found that outside spending in favor of Republicans is much more likely to be dark money, which thus far make up 80 percent of nonparty outside expenditures.
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Another election spending phenomena highlighted in the new report is the rise of dark money, single-candidate groups, which, according to the authors, is a notable development in an election year where the balance of power rests on a few key races.
According to the survey, “six of the eight highest-spending candidate-specific groups hide some or all of their donors, including the top candidate-specific spender overall.” Further, many of those single-candidate groups depend on contributions from “double-dipping donors,” who have already given up to their legal limit in direct contributions to the candidate’s campaign.
Single-candidate groups also accept sizable contributions from corporations and unions, which are completely prohibited from giving directly to candidates, the report notes, adding that some of these groups “got all their revenue from these entities.”
When handing down the Citizens United ruling, the Supreme Court “assumed that outside spending could not corrupt candidates because it comes from entities whose activity is independent of candidates’ campaigns,” the authors write. “The reality is that outside groups, some devoted to electing a single candidate, cooperate with candidates in many ways, potentially making their unlimited contributions as valuable to candidates as the direct contributions that are subject to strict caps.”
The BCJ report comes on the heels of another report put forth by the Wesleyan Media Project which found that outside groups are disproportionately funding advertisements favoring GOP candidates in both congressional and gubernatorial races.
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Driven by the United States, global demand for food-based biofuels such as corn ethanol is unsustainable, threatening the food security of some of the world’s poorest people and endangering already strained land and water resources, according to a new research published this week.
“” (pdf) was issued Tuesday by ActionAid USA, an international non-profit working to end poverty around the world. The study charges that “[b]y creating an inflexible and growing demand, mandates drive up the cost and increase the volatility of food prices.”
Government mandates to increase or maintain levels of biofuel blends in transportation fuel, with the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard and the E.U. Renewable Energy Directive being the most prominent examples, encourage biofuel production and consumption worldwide. The United States and the European Union are projected to account for at least 60 percent of global biofuel consumption in 2025.
“Farmers in poor communities around the world are being kicked off their land to produce fuel for our cars and trucks. No one should go hungry to fill our gas tanks.” —Kelly Stone, ActionAid USA
Furthermore, states the report, “Demand for biofuels is also associated with land grabs in developing countries, where smallholder farmers growing food for their families are forced off their land to make way for energy crops for export.”
In Guatemala, for instance, subsistence farmers are being forced to give up cultivation of multiple food crops for local consumption in order to cultivate just one crop that will likely be exported and used for fuel instead of food. Monoculture crops such as sugarcane or palm—both used as feedstocks for biofuels production—now take up 14 percent of the country’s land, while small land holders use only 12 percent.
“In a country where half of children under the age of five are malnourished, more land is devoted to export crops than sustenance farming,” reads the report.
Kelly Stone, biofuels policy analyst at ActionAid, painted a stark picture: “Farmers in poor communities around the world are being kicked off their land to produce fuel for our cars and trucks,” she said. “No one should go hungry to fill our gas tanks.”
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The ActionAid report was adapted from a recent working paper authored by Timothy Wise and Emily Cole of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Their analysis “suggests the need for governments to cease the implementation and expansion of current food-based biofuels consumption mandates and to forgo the creation of new mandates,” which they say prop up demand. They also recommend eliminating incentives for biofuels that impact the fuel supply.
Such incentives, of course, are the bread and butter of Midwestern corn producers, which explains why attempts by the federal government to reduce how much ethanol must be blended into the country’s motor-fuel supply are vehemently opposed by members of Congress from that region.
“Mandates must be scaled back. Otherwise, governments are mandating not just biofuel consumption but hunger and unsustainable resource use.” —Tim Wise & Emily Cole, Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
“Regulatory and legislative efforts to weaken the Renewable Fuel Standard are misguided and fail to acknowledge the success of renewable fuels,” U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa) reportedly said at a biofuels summit in Washington, D.C.
Wise and Cole point out that the U.S. not only consumes the most biofuels, but it uses mostly corn, the source that provides “the fewest environmental benefits and most directly competes with food and feed markets.”
“Mandates must be scaled back,” they declare. “Otherwise, governments are mandating not just biofuel consumption but hunger and unsustainable resource use.”
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Janie and Jack have partnered with Harlem’s Fashion Row to help
showcase rising multicultural designers. The Gap Inc.-owned
childrenswear brand is committed to teaching kids about love, unity
and anti-racism.
The collaboration includes childrenswear designs from three
emerging designers, Kristian Lorén, Kimberly Goldson and Richfresh.
Each designer merged their signature styles with Janie and Jack’s
aesthetic, offering shoppers fashion-forward pieces for their
kids.
Retailing between 19 and 139 dollars, the collection is currently
available through the brand’s ecommerce site and in select stores
across the country.
A day after Walmart employees held the first-ever sit-in targeting the world’s largest retailer, workers promised to stage the biggest Black Friday protest in history.
“The constant struggle Walmart has created for families is not acceptable. It’s also holding back the next generation from the opportunities and fair shake they deserve,” Stephanie Ly, AFT New Mexico president and a teacher, said on a press call on Friday. Ly added that the upcoming strike will be the “largest mobilizing of working families we’ve seen in recent history,” with “tens of thousands” expected to take part.
Those employees will come from more than 1,600 stores around the country. Thousands more have signed petitions asking for higher wages and better working conditions.
Barbara Gertz, who works at a Walmart in Denver, Colorado, said that the strike is for more than their rights as workers—it is also for their right to speak out.
“Every time one of us speaks out for change, we take the risk that Walmart will fire us,” Gertz said. “That’s not right and that’s not legal. That’s why we’re going on strike.”
Venanci Lune, a worker at an L.A. Walmart store and OUR Walmart member, told Common Dreams on Thursday that employees “have no voice. Any time we have an action, or speak up for our rights, they retaliate by cutting your hours, giving you three days off, or making you stressed to the point where you want to quit.”
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In October, Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon said the company plans to upgrade its hourly pay for part-time workers until it is “in a situation where we don’t pay minimum wage at all.”
But McMillon’s claims do little to counteract the shared experiences of many of its low-income workers. Out of 1.3 million employees, only 6,000 currently make the federal minimum wage of $7.25, even as the Walton family itself accrues nearly $150 billion in wealth, and the company continues to cut the few benefits it offers—like health insurance—despite soaring profits.
“There have been many times my family can’t even afford the gas to get me back and forth to work, so my husband had to wait in the car to take me home after work,” Gertz said. Despite the company’s promises, “associates are still struggling and our stores are still understaffed.”
As Bloomberg points out, Walmart could raise the minimum wage by making small changes to its in-store prices, such as raising the cost of $16 items by a penny.
Nearly one million Walmart employees will be expected to show up at work on Black Friday and Thanksgiving and keep stores open for regular hours, with Black Friday shopping hours beginning an hour earlier than in previous years.
The Ferguson Municipal Library, a beacon of peace in a community wracked by unrest, has received a flood of donations in response to its decision to stay open following Monday’s grand jury announcement—more than $175,000, or more than half its annual budget, in just two days.
The public library, which employs only one full-time librarian and serves about 21,000 local residents, acted as an ad-hoc school and community center when other public institutions shut down, reports the St. Louis Dispatch.
Staff Tweeted Tuesday: “Lots of kids, lots of teachers, lots of knowledge at the #Ferguson library today! Thanks! Support each other & stay safe. #whatlibrariesdo”
On the day the grand jury announced its decision not to indict white police officer Darren Wilson for shooting dead unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, the staff wrote: “Many other orgs closing. But we will stay open to serve people of #Ferguson as long as safe for patrons & staff, up to 8p. Love each other;” and “Normal hours tomorrow. We will have teachers and volunteers here to help kids from 9-3 since [Ferguson-Florissant school district] is closed!”
The community-minded approach garnered online support from luminaries such as author Neil Gaiman, tv host and commentator Rachel Maddow, and the PBS program Reading Rainbow.
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“We can donate directly to the #Ferguson library through their website,” Gaiman wrote on Twitter. “They are open while schools are closed: http://www.ferguson.lib.mo.us”.
The calls are working. More than 7,000 well-wishers from around the country have clicked the “Donate” button, with the amount raised surpassing $175,000 in a matter of days, according to the facility’s Facebook page. In addition, all the books from the library’s wish list have been fulfilled.
“It doesn’t seem real yet,” the library’s director, Scott Bonner, told the Dispatch on Wednesday. “I had no idea there was anything like that coming.”
Inside the library, however, the atmosphere is still fraught, reflective of the tensions outside its brick walls. “I’m seeing a mix of moods,” Bonner told Library Journal. “Our volunteers are excited and optimistic, and here to help, and then I have patrons who come in and literally hold my hands and cry—they just needed someone to hold onto and talk to.”
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