In July 2017 we launched the brand TOP MANTA intending to improve our living conditions as a collective. We wanted an alternative to the fake products and we dreamt we could take off from the streets all the marginalised collectives in our city.
Today we are starting a crucial campaign to all “manteros“ and “manteras“ (street vendors), which will allow us to launch our activity as a registered association and start up our project of a social company in the fashion business.
You can support us with the amount you like. You decide the amount of your contribution and your perk or perks.
You can choose amongst 8 perks and 23 different packs. To select your option, go to the right column (we recommend you to read carefully the modules of the perks and also the support instructions).
PERKS
• [Acknowledgements + Audio book]: If you contribute 5 euro, your name will be in our Mecenas Wall in order to show our acknowledgement. Also, you will receive an audio book through Whatsapp, written by the trade-union member and poet Lamine Sarr.
• [T-shirt]: Choose among 6 exclusive T-shirt models designed and screen-printed by ourselves and done with fair trade cotton! (the available sizes are: S, M, L, XL). Have a look at the designs below.
• [Hoodie]: Two models to choose, which are made with recycled fabric (the available sizes are: S, M, L, XL). Have a look at the designs below.
• [Bag]: A tote-bag with the most iconic design of the collection: "Legal clothes by illegal people“ (Ropa legal hecha por gente ilegal).
• [Mantero Party]: If we reach the minimum, we will organise a big party in Barcelona. If you want an invitation to assist, choose this perk!
• [Mantero Lunch]: You can get a reservation for a lunch with us. We will share a table and you will taste typical senegalese specialities cooked by us.
• [Mantera Route]: Do you want to see closer our daily life and our struggles? Then choose this perk. We will organise group routes to explain, how it is to work as a street vendor in Barcelona.
• [Mantera Training]: We offer a anti-racist training course divided in three sessions for groups (maximum 300 people). It is ideal for companies, schools, institutions and all kind of collectives.
SUPPORT INSTRUCTIONS
1. Choose your pack according to your contribution and the number of perks you want to receive. If you have chosen one or more than one material perks and you want us to send them to your home, choose a mailing pack according to your residency (Spain, Senegal, Europe or Latin America).
2. Once your pack and your contribution have been chosen, we will write you in order to know what perk you chose (design, size, activity...). If we don't write to you immediately, don't worry, we're working on it! :)
3. You can save the postage expenses by picking up your perk in our shop in Barcelona (Here you will find the adress)
Main features and goals of the crowdfunding campaign
With this new line of clothing, we, the street vendors, want to start a project to prove our value and to self-organize our future. The T-shirts and sweatshirts of TOP MANTA speak about our journey from Senegal, about our daily life selling on the streets and about our struggle:
Legal clothes made by ilegal people; true clothes for a fake and hypocrite system.
Our clothes symbolise our values, that is why we wanted them to be fair-traided, accessible and non-pollutants. The brand of the T-shirts on which we print our designs by silk screen, is Continental Clothing guaranteed by:
• The label Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) ensures good conditions of workers in the textile industry.
• El seal Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) in the international normative of the textil processing of organic fibres, including social and environmental criteria.
• The label Fairtrade Cotton ensures that the clothes have been made of certified fair trade cotton and comes from fair trade producers.
• The label Fair Share includes a little donation which is directly added to the salary of textile workers.
Why this is important
In order to launch this campaign, we have officially registered it as a non-profit organisation. From now on we are the Sindicato Popular de Vendedores Ambulantes de Barcelona Association (NIF: G67121939).
One of the activities of our association will be the design and sale of our own clothes. With the profits we will be able to accomplish our statutes, of which the main objectives are to improve the life conditions of the collective of street vendors in Barcelona, as well as looking for opportunities for regularisation and work.
With your support we can keep improving our creativity and keep fighting for our rights as a migrant collective. Step by step we will go towards our biggest dream: to create our own cooperative, a social company linked to the fashion business and the antiracist struggle.
That is how we will distribute your contributions to our project:
• From very 100€ collected in GOTEO, 35€ will be use to make the perks.
• Out of the 65€ left, 50€ are for expenses of the Association (like administrative expenses, salaries, infrastructure, and payment of services of the workshop).
• 15€ will be dedicated to collective benefits.
As Trade Union we have held 4 assemblies to decide the distribution of the resources dedicated to collective benefits. We have decided the following popular plan:
- Housing fund: 20%
- Legal fund: 20%
- Health fund: 20%
- Educational Fund: 13%
- Future cooperative: 13%
- Political participation: 7%
- Culture: 7 %
Team and experience
We are migrant workers and we are people of peace. In 2015, we created the Sindicato Popular de Vendedores Ambulantes de Barcelona (our Trade Union) as a way of mutual support to cope up with our precarious daily live conditions selling in the streets, and also as a way of defending ourselves in front of the institutional racism, persecution and criminalisation.
We didn’t arrive to Spain empty-handed: we have knowlegdements and a variety of professions. Some of us have been tailors in Senegal and a lot have experience in sales. We have our value codes: we are soldiery among ourselves and with other vulnerable collectives and we consider that street vending is a dignified activity and that surviving is not a crime.
Since we have founded the Trade Union, we organise ourselves in order to fight collectively for our rights and duties, as every citizen. We want to demonstrate our value to all those that don't want to see it, we want to work legally to contribute to Barcelona's economy, which is as well our city.
In this project we have had enjoyed the collaboration with PlayGround Do, The Espacio del Inmigrante, Veus amb Veus, Tras la Manta and Rizoma Abogados.
This project wouldn’t have been possible neither without the non-stop support of Iridia, la Lloba, SOS Racisme, El Lokal, Opavivará, Iaioflautas, vecinas del Raval, Putas Indignadas, Rereguarda, Fotomovimiento, and stop eviction, student and anti-repressive collectives.