“The tees are supposedly sweatshop free. It took me a bit to find a service that made ethical tees with global shipping so that you kooks can get one wherever you are."
Amid the myriad controversies surrounding this weekend’s grand slam event at the Kelly Slater wave pool in Abu Dhabi, persecution of gay world champ Tyler Wright under the auspices of divine Islamic law, the alleged use of Third World labour to build it and the general torture of wave pool events, one surf fan has expressed his displeasure with a protest t-shirt and is currently taking orders on Reddit.
Darth_Voter designed the t-shirt which features the slogan, “WSL Boycott…No Blood Money for your bullshit Abu Dhabi slavepool”.
“The tees are supposedly sweatshop free,” Darth writes. “It took me a bit to find a service that made ethical tees with global shipping so that you kooks can get one wherever you are. There are 2 styles: front only and 2-sided. The 2-sided shirts are $25 and based on WSL’s shirts for sale on their site for $35 (greedy fuckers).
“I cut the profit percentage to keep costs as low as possible. I think I’ll see around ~$4 per tee, and I’m planning to donate half to human rights orgs. Maybe I’ll make enough with the other half to buy a used board, lol.”
Was the Abu Dhabi pool there on Hudayriyat Island, currently offering ninety minute sessions for one thousand American dollars and revealed to the public last November, really built by modern-day slaves?
Well, first thing, you gotta understand is that the UAE employs migrant workers, mostly Indian, Pakistani, Filipino or Bangladeshi, under what’s called the Kafala system.
Kafala ties these migrant workers to their employers which means the employer has control over the workers’ legal status, including their right to work, residency and movement within the country. It ain’t the same as Django-era slavery, massah’s patrolling the fields with whip and gun, but workers often cannot change jobs or leave the country without employer consent, which leads to exploitation.
And while there’s no direct mention of Kafala system workers in the specific context of the Kelly Slater wave pool, given the scale and the general labor practices in the UAE, it’s plausible that migrant workers, potentially under the Kafala system, were involved in some capacity.
So maybe, maybe not.