I think that in the UK society, thered be a general consensus that we dont agree with slavery. Its an outdated institution and the fact that it doesnt exist anymore is a monument to how weve evolved as the human race, right? Maybe not. Im worried that with our everyday actions to which we dont give a second thought, we are supporting new regimes of slavery which bind thousands of people all over the world.
Of course, this is not the traditional variety of slavery. We do not actively imprison anyone or force them to work for us, but let me explain. When we buy food, we are supporting and advocating everything that has happened for that food to get from the ground to us. With something like bananas, youd think that was fairly simple but youd be wrong. In his book, The No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade, David Ransom tells of his visit to Guatemala, to a banana farm owned by one of the worlds big banana corporations. There he witnesses people who are living in a modern kind of slavery. I wont go into too much detail here because if youre very interested you can buy the book. But basically, these people are not treated as human beings by the banana corporation. For example, they fumigate the plantations with dangerous chemicals while the workers are there despite claiming that they dont. Basically they arent granted basic human rights.
So the annoying thing is, that when I buy a banana which was made in that farm in Guatemala, even if I am unknowing about its origin and the injustice thats gone into making it, I am supporting the oppression of the Guatemalans. A little harsh, you may think, especially if I have no knowledge of the oppression. But whether you like it or not, giving money to the banana corporations allows them to continue with their actions and presents no opposition. Its almost as if theres no sitting on the fence youre either supporting them or youre not.
The problem, of course, is that most of the time we dont know. We pick a product up in the supermarket and have no idea where its come from. Good excuse that but I dont think it negates our responsibility. Its easy to be apathetic about such things, because theyre invisible. In our everyday life, we dont see the effects of our actions. We dont see the oppression that we support. If we did, we might take quite a different viewpoint. I believe that we have a responsibility to speak out against this kind of injustice in the world, especially if, like me, youre a Christian.
So I want to explore some of the issues surrounding this, two of which are Free Trade and Fair Trade. To those unfamiliar with economics, they both may sound a little confusing.
Free Trade is the theory that International trade between countries should be allowed to take place without any barriers (called protectionism) such as quotas (limiting the amount that can be imported/exported), tariffs (a fee charged on top of the price), and embargos (a total ban on the trade of a particular item). You get many people who will claim that the world market will function properly only when allowed to work freely, with no protectionism. I have issues with this claim firstly because I think that it has gained so much credibility because it is in the interests of those in power large countries and large corporations. Secondly, because those who champion it certainly do not practise it, except when it suits them. For example, corporations will scream free trade when trying to import cocoa beans from Ghana, but if Ghana was to make its own chocolate and try to export it to Europe, it would meet a hefty tariff and certainly not free trade. A little hypocritical maybe? Yes. And the USA, who are supporters of free trade, have put a tariff on all imported steel. One of the main reasons for protectionism is to protect (as the name suggests) smaller and more vulnerable industries which may not survive under free trade, and no doubt the USA would cite this as their reason. Its just a shame that they cant see the same sense when dealing with more vulnerable countries than themselves.
So my opinion is that free trade, as practised by the worlds powerful countries and corporations, is not actually particularly free at all. Fair trade, on the other hand, is not based on short-term commitments or driving the price down as low as possible. It is based on a guaranteed minimum price for producers, which is at a wage level realistic to live on1. This is so that even when the markets fail, or there is a bad crop, leading to poor prices, the producers still receive enough to live on. (It is a system not without its weaknesses; when prices are high in the market, rogue middlemen will try and tempt the fair-traders into short-term unstable agreements). In The No-Nonsense Guide To Fair Trade, the author describes his visits to a number of farms and plantations where fair-trade is practised. There he sees a marked difference in the lives of the workers compared to those who work for the mainstream corporations. Their quality of life and job satisfaction (which were non-existent in the other plantations) were much higher and it was clear to see that fair-trade has made a difference to their lives. To me this puts paid to claims that buying fairly-traded goods doesnt make any difference. It makes a difference to those who are given a proper chance at life as a result; those we will never see or read about in the news.
Economists will often say that fair trade is not altogether good because it tampers with free trade, which is the optimum for trade. However, as we have seen, free trade isnt that free anyway, so surely its better to have non-free trade system that supports the growers rather than the corporations. Besides which Im not altogether convinced that economic theory always translates very well to real life in the real world (Thats not just an off-the-cuff remark with nothing behind it I did study Economics for 4 years!).
One of the dilemmas with buying fairly-traded goods in the UK is the issue of quality. A common perception has been that Fairtrade goods (particularly coffee and tea) will be of a lower quality than their mainstream rivals. While I personally am not sure whether this is so true anymore the Clipper tea we had in my shared house over the last year was fine Im also not sure about the moral implications of using the viewpoint as a basis for not buying fairly traded goods. To me, its saying Its ok that were supporting a system of oppression and abuse of power, because the more ethical alternative wouldnt be nearly as tasty. Its a dilemma that Im sure not all will agree with me on.
Its not just an issue of foodstuffs As you probably know, many clothes are produced unethically in sweatshop conditions awful conditions, long hours, ultra-low pay. We dont hear about this, or the food issues, very much because its in the interests of those who are powerful in society (corporations) for us not to hear about it. Ignorance is bliss, they say, but as I said earlier, thats not good enough. Tearfund have a campaign called Lift the Label which aims to fight for ethical trade on clothes.
From a biblical perspective, it is clear that God regards justice in society as a very important thing. Take these two passages:
Isaiah 58:6 I'll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD. Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly. Free those who are abused!
Isaiah 61:1,8 The LORD has chosen and sent me to tell the oppressed the good news, to heal the brokenhearted, and to announce freedom for prisoners and captives I, the LORD, love justice! But I hate robbery and injustice.
I suggest that, when we translate those verses into what they mean for us in 2004, we have a responsibility as Christians to be actively fighting the causes of those who have no voice. Theres a lot to be said for doing this in our own local contexts and also, as I hope I have shown, we can do this in our everyday actions, in what we buy, eat, and wear.
Personally, I find it very difficult. Id love to throw myself into fighting for justice all the time but it always seems to just escape my levels of effort. The other night BBC4 was on, and there was a programme about this and other issues in Nicaragua, but something more interesting came up. I suspect that is the way for many of us we sympathise with these issues but doing something about them would take more effort than we are willing to muster up. Perhaps, with groups of friends, we could keep each other accountable to how ethical were being in our everyday lives. Or maybe, things will stay as they are because we cant see the damage we do in the way we live our lives, its unlikely to trouble us too much. But this huge section of the worlds population cant go on dying quietly forever.
Weblinks: www.fairtrade.org.uk www.tearfund.org www.ethicalconsumer.org http://thegoodshoppingguide.co.uk/
Reading: The No-Nonsense Guide To Fair Trade, David Ransom
Globalization and its Discontents, Joseph E. Stiglitz
and many others!
1 A typical Nike worker in El Salvador earns 60 cents an hour, which is around half of the the amount they would need to be living outside of starvation. Despite this, Nike claim that the wage is sufficient. Even if the wage was raised to the realistic level, the labour would come to less than 0.5% of the price of the product. (Kernaghan, taken from Roddick : Taking It Personally, p55)
Of course, this is not the traditional variety of slavery. We do not actively imprison anyone or force them to work for us, but let me explain. When we buy food, we are supporting and advocating everything that has happened for that food to get from the ground to us. With something like bananas, youd think that was fairly simple but youd be wrong. In his book, The No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade, David Ransom tells of his visit to Guatemala, to a banana farm owned by one of the worlds big banana corporations. There he witnesses people who are living in a modern kind of slavery. I wont go into too much detail here because if youre very interested you can buy the book. But basically, these people are not treated as human beings by the banana corporation. For example, they fumigate the plantations with dangerous chemicals while the workers are there despite claiming that they dont. Basically they arent granted basic human rights.
So the annoying thing is, that when I buy a banana which was made in that farm in Guatemala, even if I am unknowing about its origin and the injustice thats gone into making it, I am supporting the oppression of the Guatemalans. A little harsh, you may think, especially if I have no knowledge of the oppression. But whether you like it or not, giving money to the banana corporations allows them to continue with their actions and presents no opposition. Its almost as if theres no sitting on the fence youre either supporting them or youre not.
The problem, of course, is that most of the time we dont know. We pick a product up in the supermarket and have no idea where its come from. Good excuse that but I dont think it negates our responsibility. Its easy to be apathetic about such things, because theyre invisible. In our everyday life, we dont see the effects of our actions. We dont see the oppression that we support. If we did, we might take quite a different viewpoint. I believe that we have a responsibility to speak out against this kind of injustice in the world, especially if, like me, youre a Christian.
So I want to explore some of the issues surrounding this, two of which are Free Trade and Fair Trade. To those unfamiliar with economics, they both may sound a little confusing.
Free Trade is the theory that International trade between countries should be allowed to take place without any barriers (called protectionism) such as quotas (limiting the amount that can be imported/exported), tariffs (a fee charged on top of the price), and embargos (a total ban on the trade of a particular item). You get many people who will claim that the world market will function properly only when allowed to work freely, with no protectionism. I have issues with this claim firstly because I think that it has gained so much credibility because it is in the interests of those in power large countries and large corporations. Secondly, because those who champion it certainly do not practise it, except when it suits them. For example, corporations will scream free trade when trying to import cocoa beans from Ghana, but if Ghana was to make its own chocolate and try to export it to Europe, it would meet a hefty tariff and certainly not free trade. A little hypocritical maybe? Yes. And the USA, who are supporters of free trade, have put a tariff on all imported steel. One of the main reasons for protectionism is to protect (as the name suggests) smaller and more vulnerable industries which may not survive under free trade, and no doubt the USA would cite this as their reason. Its just a shame that they cant see the same sense when dealing with more vulnerable countries than themselves.
So my opinion is that free trade, as practised by the worlds powerful countries and corporations, is not actually particularly free at all. Fair trade, on the other hand, is not based on short-term commitments or driving the price down as low as possible. It is based on a guaranteed minimum price for producers, which is at a wage level realistic to live on1. This is so that even when the markets fail, or there is a bad crop, leading to poor prices, the producers still receive enough to live on. (It is a system not without its weaknesses; when prices are high in the market, rogue middlemen will try and tempt the fair-traders into short-term unstable agreements). In The No-Nonsense Guide To Fair Trade, the author describes his visits to a number of farms and plantations where fair-trade is practised. There he sees a marked difference in the lives of the workers compared to those who work for the mainstream corporations. Their quality of life and job satisfaction (which were non-existent in the other plantations) were much higher and it was clear to see that fair-trade has made a difference to their lives. To me this puts paid to claims that buying fairly-traded goods doesnt make any difference. It makes a difference to those who are given a proper chance at life as a result; those we will never see or read about in the news.
Economists will often say that fair trade is not altogether good because it tampers with free trade, which is the optimum for trade. However, as we have seen, free trade isnt that free anyway, so surely its better to have non-free trade system that supports the growers rather than the corporations. Besides which Im not altogether convinced that economic theory always translates very well to real life in the real world (Thats not just an off-the-cuff remark with nothing behind it I did study Economics for 4 years!).
One of the dilemmas with buying fairly-traded goods in the UK is the issue of quality. A common perception has been that Fairtrade goods (particularly coffee and tea) will be of a lower quality than their mainstream rivals. While I personally am not sure whether this is so true anymore the Clipper tea we had in my shared house over the last year was fine Im also not sure about the moral implications of using the viewpoint as a basis for not buying fairly traded goods. To me, its saying Its ok that were supporting a system of oppression and abuse of power, because the more ethical alternative wouldnt be nearly as tasty. Its a dilemma that Im sure not all will agree with me on.
Its not just an issue of foodstuffs As you probably know, many clothes are produced unethically in sweatshop conditions awful conditions, long hours, ultra-low pay. We dont hear about this, or the food issues, very much because its in the interests of those who are powerful in society (corporations) for us not to hear about it. Ignorance is bliss, they say, but as I said earlier, thats not good enough. Tearfund have a campaign called Lift the Label which aims to fight for ethical trade on clothes.
From a biblical perspective, it is clear that God regards justice in society as a very important thing. Take these two passages:
Isaiah 58:6 I'll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD. Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly. Free those who are abused!
Isaiah 61:1,8 The LORD has chosen and sent me to tell the oppressed the good news, to heal the brokenhearted, and to announce freedom for prisoners and captives I, the LORD, love justice! But I hate robbery and injustice.
I suggest that, when we translate those verses into what they mean for us in 2004, we have a responsibility as Christians to be actively fighting the causes of those who have no voice. Theres a lot to be said for doing this in our own local contexts and also, as I hope I have shown, we can do this in our everyday actions, in what we buy, eat, and wear.
Personally, I find it very difficult. Id love to throw myself into fighting for justice all the time but it always seems to just escape my levels of effort. The other night BBC4 was on, and there was a programme about this and other issues in Nicaragua, but something more interesting came up. I suspect that is the way for many of us we sympathise with these issues but doing something about them would take more effort than we are willing to muster up. Perhaps, with groups of friends, we could keep each other accountable to how ethical were being in our everyday lives. Or maybe, things will stay as they are because we cant see the damage we do in the way we live our lives, its unlikely to trouble us too much. But this huge section of the worlds population cant go on dying quietly forever.
Weblinks: www.fairtrade.org.uk www.tearfund.org www.ethicalconsumer.org http://thegoodshoppingguide.co.uk/
Reading: The No-Nonsense Guide To Fair Trade, David Ransom
Globalization and its Discontents, Joseph E. Stiglitz
and many others!
1 A typical Nike worker in El Salvador earns 60 cents an hour, which is around half of the the amount they would need to be living outside of starvation. Despite this, Nike claim that the wage is sufficient. Even if the wage was raised to the realistic level, the labour would come to less than 0.5% of the price of the product. (Kernaghan, taken from Roddick : Taking It Personally, p55)
