Fair trade and ethical 'social stock exchange' planned. What do you think?

[Jill]

When we had the theme on Fairtrade fortnight I got quite concerned with ethical and fairtrading issues and decided to put up some adverts on the site promoting companies with ethical policies.

But only £1 out of every £250 spent is on Fairtrade goods. Does this mean most trade is unfair? How much child labour is being used? What about sweatshop conditions involving long hours and wages lower than the cost of living? Do we expect business to maximise profits regardless of how they go about this or do we want to see more responsible and ethical organisations in business.

The article below got me thinking about these issues again. Plans to create a seperate social stock exchange for fairtrade and ethical businesses mean we accept the majority of businesses will not be fair trade or ethical. Can this be right?

Will be interested to hear your opinions in this area. Here is the article:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3603039.ece

Plan for fair trade stock exchange
Marie Woolf

Fair trade brands and ethical enterprises – such as Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen – could be listed on a new “social stock exchange” under plans being drawn up by the government.

Ministers are working on proposals for an ethical investment bank, supported by hundreds of millions of pounds lying in dormant bank accounts, and a stock exchange where social enterprises and environmental ventures raise cash.

The blueprint, being drawn up by the Cabinet Office with help from the Rockefeller Foundation, would aim to make London the international centre for ethical investors and fair trade firms.

Phil Hope, the Cabinet Office minister responsible for the voluntary and social enterprise sectors, will this week announce proposals for the ethical stock exchange.

The ethical investment bank would be funded by an estimated £250m from money in dormant bank accounts which, under a law being pushed through parliament, can be claimed by the state and reinvested in social projects. The stock exchange would allow firms that plough cash into community ventures to raise cash.

Investors could pump cash into organisations such as fair trade coffee and chocolate firms, housing cooperatives and other enterprises that make profits yet also have a social or environmental objective.

Among firms that would be able to raise capital are Fifteen, which trains disadvantaged young people to be chefs, and Terra Plana, an eco-friendly shoe brand that uses recycled car tyres and rice husks in the manufacture of its Worn Again shoes.

There are more than 55,000 social enterprises in the UK generating about £27 billion a year. One such is the Big Issue magazine which enables homeless people to earn money by selling the publication on the streets.

[Iron]

I beleive fully in the principal of fair trade, however bringing it into the mainstream will be hard work and an uphill struggle, mans instinct is to get what he can for a little as possible and I see a couple of generations of education will be required to even begin to make a dent in how the publis at large think

[Mandy Lawrence]

I think fair trade will only happen when people are prepared to acknowledge that decent working rights, across the world, goes with having to pay more for your goods.

The better off you are, the easier it is to make such a decision. As in to only buy fair trade goods. People on low incomes might be able to buy bit and bobs but not have a whole lifestyle based on buying fair trade products. Well, I think so, but haven't got research to back that up...just personal view really and my own financial limitations.

Also if you look at certain economies...China (for example) their wealth, as a nation, is based on the poor working conditions and low pay of the average worker there. Human rights is not high on their government's list of priorities. However, as some objectivity, perhaps the average Chinese person is better off now than they have been in the past. Hard to tell, from here. You could also say more traditionally affluent economies (such as USA and UK) have encouraged China to become what it has. It is Chinese mass produced goods (and quite a lot are non essential) that end up in UK front rooms.

Or am I just being a left wing militant here?

[Jill]

I think a lot of the cheap consumer goodies we get here are the result of poor working conditions and low pay of workers in other countries. Even on the boat trip we went on last year a lot of the workers were from the Philapines. They worked 7 days a week and hours like 16 or more a day. They did 8 months on the boat and then had 4 months back at home but many took another job in those 4 months as well. They said that they could do a few years on the boats and then save to start their own business back home later. But the wages they were getting may have been relatively high for their own country but were low by our standards. One waiter from Brazil had been to the UK and he said 'London makes all of us feel very poor'.

I do not understand currency exchange rates and how these are fixed. For China it is even more complicated because I don't think there is any official rate of exchange. With wild variations though it seems that costs will continue to vary widely around the world. Even so this should not be a reason for companies to pay the least they can get away with for workers and for products. They even do this over here by paying the least they can to local farmers and driving them out of business.

I don't think it is militant or left wing to want to see fair trade around the world. It's more about the kind of world we want to live in where people are treated fairly and not exploited.

I did write to the CEO of the boat company saying I thought the boat workers should get at least a day off a week. Strange but he didn't reply to my letter!

Bye for Now
Jill

[Jill]

Have just had all this through in an email:

1. CATCH THE FLAME: HELP CARRY THE FAIR TRADE MESSAGE AROUND THE GLOBE

As the Olympic torch relay to Beijing gets underway, the Playfair 08
campaign launches its own electronic torch relay: Catch the Flame. The
relay highlights the need for the Olympics movement to stamp out abuses
of labour standards in workplaces making Olympics goods. By Catching the
Flame supporters can join others in calling on the International
Olympics Committee to take action. The Catch the Flame relay, launched
on 19th March in Amsterdam, has now reached the UK.

We need you to help us carry it all the way to Beijing.

Catch the Flame now! http://www.catchtheflame.org/join.php

*2. EVENT: SOLIDARITY WITH BANGLADESHI TEXTILE WORKERS
Film showing and talk on the garment industry in Bangladesh with Sam
Maher from Labour Behind the Label.

For the last six months, textile workers in Bangladesh have been waging
a militant campaign against poverty pay and sweatshop working
conditions. They have been met with repression, imprisonment and
organised police violence. But the struggle goes on. Organised by London
No Sweat

March 31st, 7:30pm Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, Bethnal Green,
London, E2 6HG (nearest tube: Bethnal Green)


*3. CALL FOR RELEASE OF DETAINED SHOE WORKERS IN CHINA

*5 workers from the Panyu Li Chang Footwear Co. Ltd in Panyu district of
Guangzhou City have been detained and formally arrested on criminal
charges (illegal assembly) following a peaceful demonstration against
the overnight closure of the factory and the theft of their wages and
social security payments.

We are demanding the immediate and unconditional release of the five
workers who spontaneously and peacefully walked with their fellow
workers to report the factory owner’s crime and call on the authorities
for help.

Take action: http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/08-03-17.htm#action

More information: http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org

[omshanti]

The majority of businesses are, indeed, not fair trade nor ethical. I work for Walmart, the deepest depths of hell when it comes to this sort of thing. At that, I'm better off than most of the people who make the things Walmart sells.

I'd love a fair trade/ethical network, support system, anything to promote that kind of thinking. On the other hand, as I work at Walmart...I can only afford to buy things at Walmart.

Not quite, but Mandy's right in saying that lower income folks can't afford to spend much more on things than we do now. I don't pay for cable or a landline telephone. I buy all my clothing used. I buy as much as I can from thrift stores and such. And I still have barely a penny to spare to pay more for fair trade items.

That said, I do what I can. It's not much, alas, but maybe as the movement grows, I can take advantage of it with my own business to spend more to make sure the things I buy aren't making anyone else's life horrible.

[Jill]

I know it is really hard to balance costs with wanting to get fair trade stuff. For example I drink loads of coffee and the price for fair trade coffee is much higher than the other stuff. So I found the Coop did a good and relatively cheap fairtrade range which was great. But then they closed down their big store where you could get the big jars of fairtrade coffee and in their small shops you can only get small jars. It is really annoying to have to be so cost conscious when a good cause is involved but those of us on low incomes have no other choice.

Bye for Now
Jill

[Diane Wright]

I think everything should be fairly traded and then we wouldn't have to worry and everyone would get a fair price.

It is the same with organic food - it is how all food ought to be. Food should all be grown without lots of pesticides and fertilizers that cause damage not only to the quality of the food grown but also the enviroment it is grown in. i do try to always buy organic food, it has also a tendancy to be fairly traded except that the big supermarkets tend to try and get a deal to keep the price down. It is not worth any saving if the food we get is not good for us or the natural environment. I have an organic fruit and veg box every fortnight - the problem is for free delivery you have to order £20 worth at a time. I am thinking of changing this to another organic fruit & veg deal for £7.50 weekly delivered by my milkman! Much smaller box of course but it will be fresher.

Fair trade and organic will one day be the only choices available - says I!!

[Azzami Bell]

Hi,
-And I'm only going to be content when 'fair trade' really means one fair price accross the whole market in much the same way as in France where all essential foodstuffs prices are regulated and kept at sensible levels. Thus the 'market' stays reasonable for all.
If a small independant shop sells bread it should be at the same price in the megastore next door.

Also an internationally binding agreement on a definition for 'What-is-Organic'.

Its either that or I'm shopping on another planet!

[Rodney Yates]

I think certain cultures have a more risky view of what pricing is about. If you go to an Arab Bazaar and expect a fixed price, many traders would be deeply offended if you will not haggle with them until a price is reached! We seem to be of a semitic tradition that has a controlled and fixed market that everyone can calculate for.

[Mandy Lawrence]

I am not much cop at haggling. So wouldn't last long in an Arab Bazaar.

Not sure what I make up the haggling way of things. I guess if it works well for the seller and buyer that is fine but vulnerable people could get taken advantage of.

And like Omshanti I buy alot of stuff from second hand shops. My furniture, mostly, is second hand too. I like that actually. Not only do I get bargains but things get recycled of a sorts and sometimes the money goes to charity. Although I am wary of alot of these charities. Having worked for one, I know that alot of the money gets used up before it gets to where it is needed. If it ever does get where it is needed.

[omshanti]

What I've wound up doing with regards to charity is giving directly when I can -- I'll keep a cloth bag of goodies in the car (socks, a blanket, a hat, a scarf, and some nonperishable foods like nuts or granola bars) to give to homeless folks in the area. I _know_ none of that's getting wasted!

The other thing I do is microlending through kiva.org, where I can see that all the money I'm lending is going right to the person they're lending it to. I think Kiva does make some money off of interest on the money (banking what's repaid, rather than charging interest themselves) but I'm cool with that -- they do need _something_ to run the site.

And to bring it back to fair trade, a lot of who they lend to is small farms and such in the third world who would definitely benefit from fair trade agreements.

[Mandy Lawrence]

The problem with Walmart (which is ASDA, I think) is that it does sell food items cheaper than other supermarkets and therefore people on lower incomes will more likely shop there. Catch 22 on the fair trading front.

I often give directly to homeless people...or I hope they are homeless. The beggars on the streets. I know that some of them will spend it on drink but I can't get them to sign contracts on what they do with the money but hope they buy food and other essentials with it.

I also give to the local hospices, when I can, because they do stonkin' work and I can see where the money goes. But am going off topic. Apologies but fair trade, I think, is part of a bigger, more thoughtful, way of doing things.

Not just buying something cos it has fair trade written on it.