‘Welfare not warfare’: Legendary fashion designer Katharine Hamnett on her new ‘End Genocide’ campaign

Katharine Hamnett with MP Jeremy Corbyn. Photograph: courtesy A/POLITICAL

“We’ll only get the future we want if we work for it together,” says Katharine Hamnett.

The legendary fashion designer was speaking to the Citizen following the launch of her latest campaign, ‘End Genocide’, which has seen her team up with independent MP Jeremy Corbyn and arts organisation A/POLITICAL.

Hamnett, aged 77, is renowned for her ‘Choose Love’ T-shirts, designed back in the 1980s to help raise awareness about AIDS.

She also led a campaign in the 2010s to ban the weedkiller glyphosate in Hackney, garnering UK-wide attention and encouraging people to examine the use of pesticides by their own councils.

Now she is raising money for Noor Gaza Orphan Care (NGOC), which provides comprehensive care for more than 20,000 children orphaned in Gaza.

Last year, Hamnett threw away the CBE she was awarded for her services to the fashion industry.

Wearing a ‘Disgusted to be British’ T-shirt, she said in a video that the accolade belonged “in the dustbin” due to Britain’s role in Israel’s assault on Gaza.

“Fashion, apart from being one of the largest and most environmentally damaging and socially disgraceful industries on the planet, attracts more media attention than many small to medium sized countries,” Hamnett says. “Check Chanel versus Sudan.

“I realised early on that as a fashion designer you have a huge platform – far more than you need to sell your clothes, and this could be put to good use. So I tried.”

For the ‘End Genocide’ campaign, a series of T-shirts have been printed with the slogan, ‘Welfare not warfare’.

“Corbyn’s choice of slogan,” says Hamnett. “He is appalled at the genocide that is being subsidised by taxpayers’ money and the unnecessary additional defence spend that Starmer has committed to.

“This is money that is being taken away from the most disadvantaged people in society.

“From taking away free school meals, the two-child benefit cap, the loss of fuel subsidies for the poor and elderly, and disability caps, including payments for anybody who has an accident in the future.

“How many people are injured in car accidents annually? From now on, they are not going to be getting any help, whilst we provide weapons that help blow the legs off children with that money instead.”

Corbyn has long spoken out about the need for the UK to recognise a free Palestine.

Most recently, he introduced a bill to the House of Commons calling on the government to carry out an independent inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Gaza.

A ‘Welfare not warfare’ T-shirt signed by Hamnett and Corbyn. Photograph: courtesy A/POLITICAL

Hamnett hopes the ‘End Genocide’ campaign will encourage people to contact their MPs and “tell them you will never vote for them again unless they defy the party whips and demand Britain ceases all UK military support for Israel”.

“Politicians are mostly a vested interest group and are just in politics to get re-elected,” she adds.

“The only thing that really affects the behaviour of politicians is the fear of not getting re-elected. This is their only weak spot.

“So get online and write emails to your MP. Send letters with handwritten envelopes. Tell them you’ll never vote for them again or ever unless they demand an immediate end of all military aid and UK weapons to Israel.

“Find them and track their voting behaviour on theyworkforyou.com.”

Hamnett also urged people to write to King Charles III.

“Politicians and the King take a huge amount of notice of hand-addressed envelopes because they have to open them.

“They can’t just delete by the thousand and they mostly think their constituents are so lazy that only one in 1,000 will bother to write.

“Ask for a reply and mention that you are entitled to it, by law, if you ask for it.”

Earlier this month, 466 people were arrested in London for showing support for Palestine Action, a now-proscribed group that was banned by the government in July.

Members of the protest were seen holding signs that read, ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’.

“The act that allows for these arrests need to be repealed immediately,” says Hamnett. “Freedom of expression and freedom of protest are essential components of democracy.

Hamnett says she will continue to use fashion as a force for change and says she is “happy to partner with everybody [who is] likeminded”.

“Silence is complicity. If we don’t speak out about Gaza, we’ve chosen the side of oppression. End genocide.”