At the present time neo-liberal values, whose beginning some situate in the Bretton Woods conference, are spreading and starting to prevail in the world political economy, in governments’ and multilateral agencies’ policies. However this happens mostly around policies and not necessarily in peoples’ … [Leer más...] acerca de Fair Trade as a Movement
Some considerations about the trajectory of the Fair Trade Market
As L. Waridel (2002: 93) points out, it is not easy to say when the Fair Trade movement started or whether it is situated exclusively in the North. None of the literature reviewed about Fair Trade mentions such initiatives within any country from the South. Through the relatively little material published about the … [Leer más...] acerca de Some considerations about the trajectory of the Fair Trade Market
Fair Trade Labelling Organizations International (FLO Int)
In 1997, the three certification initiatives TransFair, Max Havelaar, and the Fair Trade Foundation, along with Swedish and a Finnish labelling organisations with their own satellite organisations across Europe, America, and Asia[i], came together to build up an umbrella called Fairtrade Labelling Organizations … [Leer más...] acerca de Fair Trade Labelling Organizations International (FLO Int)
Symbolic values and the symbolic power of values
Symbolic values and Fair Trade Any consumer that has read a Fair Trade leaflet about how the system works, is aware that he or she is paying a higher price than for conventional products, as one of the FT mechanisms that enable the ‘third world’ producers to make a better deal. This over-price is … [Leer más...] acerca de Symbolic values and the symbolic power of values
Peasant movements struggles for the appropriation of the production process
An approach to the concepts. This section will not review in depth the concept of peasantry and the categorizations associated with it, but develop a set of starting points to frame in broad terms this approach to the productive character of Mexican peasantry. It will show through some examples, the way the Mexican … [Leer más...] acerca de Peasant movements struggles for the appropriation of the production process
Some basic factors introducing the peasantry in Mexico
This section does not try to make a summary, but stresses three key moments that contributed to shape the character and development of the peasantry as a social, economical and political actor in the 20th century. To understand the dynamic of agricultural producers, it is convenient, first, to be situated in the … [Leer más...] acerca de Some basic factors introducing the peasantry in Mexico
Some actors in the independent peasant movement
At the end of the 1970 the first attempts began for the coordination of a national peasant movement, and from this decade onwards the peasant struggles, previously isolated by regions or levels of strength, became of national character. The fight for land and the formation of the big independent peasant centrals were … [Leer más...] acerca de Some actors in the independent peasant movement
Commercialisation and the demand for improved production conditions
As Stavenhagen asserts, in the traditional view of the anthropologist, commercial exchange of products, in addition to outside wage labour, were commonly seen as external factors disturbing communal stability and self-sufficiency, which were regarded as the backbone of peasant communities (1978: 27). Currently, the … [Leer más...] acerca de Commercialisation and the demand for improved production conditions
Local and Global Notions of Trade Justice: The Case Studies of UCIRI and the Trade Justice Movement
"Until everyone has enough, nowadays, we cannot demand more than the necessary". UCIRI[i]. The context of coffee in Mexico For many years, coffee prices were controlled by the intervention of the Coffee International Organization (CIO), which regulated prices at a relatively stable level above those that … [Leer más...] acerca de Local and Global Notions of Trade Justice: The Case Studies of UCIRI and the Trade Justice Movement
UCIRI in Oaxaca, Mexico
The Union of Indigenous Communities of the Isthmus Region[i] includes peasant coffee producers from 53 different communities in the lowlands of the Sierra Juarez, mainly within five different municipalities. They belong to the Zapotec (from the Sierra), Mixe and Chontal ethnic groups, and founded UCIRI in 1984, which … [Leer más...] acerca de UCIRI in Oaxaca, Mexico
The role of the Church in grassroots movements (Fair trade)
UCIRI’s history has been closely linked to a Catholic missionary team and specially to the Dutch Priest Frans van der Hoff, who settled in the area in 1980. Although the producers were already involved already in their own organization process, he started a dynamic of reflection within the communities about the … [Leer más...] acerca de The role of the Church in grassroots movements (Fair trade)
The Trade Justice Movement
The Trade Justice Movement is a young coalition founded at the end of the year 2000 and based in London, most of whose members are British organisations. The TJM ‘...campaigns for a fundamental change in the unjust trade rules and institutions governing international trade, so that trade is made to work for … [Leer más...] acerca de The Trade Justice Movement