Documentos en la categoría "English section"

Local and Global Notions of Trade Justice: The Case Studies of UCIRI and the Trade Justice Movement

Fecha Publicado el 31 de Mayo 2005 |

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 would have existed in a non-regulated market. An unmeasured increase in coffee reserves generated a crisis where the economic consensus of the CIO was broken down, and the regulating institutions were dismantled. The prices plummeted in 1989-1993, and after a short stabilization, the crisis was repeated in 1998 (Bartra, Cobo, Meza and Paz, 2002:1). Historically, the ups and downs of the coffee prices were a product of offer fluctuations because of climatic factors. Since 1988, they have also been associated with stock exchange speculation, the control over the market exerted by a handful of transnational roasters and the action of international organisations that financed the production of rapid-ripening, high-revenue, but low-quality coffee. The forecast is not favourable due to the continuation of a disordered relationship between the producer countries and the fact that climate has less effect on the bigger harvesters (Bartra, Cobo, Meza and Paz, 2002: 1).

Mexico is the fifth largest world coffee producer. Coffee is grown over 690 thousand hectares in 12 states, 400 municipalities and more than 3500 communities, in addition to corn, beans, and sorgum.

UCIRI in Oaxaca, Mexico

Fecha Publicado el 31 de Mayo 2005 |

The Union of Indigenous Communities of the Isthmus Region 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 is now legally registered to export coffee and other products. To sell coffee always has been difficult for the producers. Before the establishment of Inmecafe, they had to sell to middlemen at low prices, due to the lack of transport roads to Ixtepec. Soon after some logging companies arrived, made some roads, and were driven away by the communities in 1977, they were visited by other coffee buyers and Inmecafe, which opened coffee reception centres and slightly improved the price. Their problems continued with Inmecafe, where they suffered continuous discounts on their payments because of strict requirements, and with the bank, where they became indebted due to high interest rates (Vander Hoff and Galvan, 1998: 129-130).

The role of the Church in grassroots movements (Fair trade)

Fecha Publicado el 31 de Mayo 2005 |

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 causes underlying their problems as coffee producers. This process resulted, among others, in the peasants’ awareness of the importance of valuing their product, enabling them to look for alternative coffee buyers with whom to get better prices for coffee. UCIRI was founded in 1983, and in 1985 they received a visit from Nico Roozen in the name of the Dutch ATO Solidaridad. This link was not only critical for UCIRI’s access to the Fair Trade market, but the basis for the funding of the first Fair Trade Labelling Organization, Max Havelaar, which focused its first efforts on coffee (Van der Hoff and Galvan, 1998:130; Roozen and Van der Hoff, 2001: 34). As Mace points out:

The Trade Justice Movement

Fecha Publicado el 31 de Mayo 2005 |

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 all’ (TJM, 2002). It considers that the current international trade rules are causing a negative impact on the poorest people of the world, the environment and democracy. Its 40 organisations address a range of issues such as aid, environment and human rights campaigns, fair trade, faith and consumer matters. Together they have a membership of over 2 million members (TJM, 2002). Among the most influential are the World Development Movement, a London-based lobbying and research organisation that campaigns against the root causes of poverty; Christian Aid, a UK and Ireland-based agency of churches and charity that funds projects in some of the world's poorest countries; Oxfam, an Oxford-based charity and one of the largest European NGOs; Friends of the Earth, the largest international network of environmental groups in the world, represented in 68 countries and...

Transnational Social Movements, Solidarity Values and the Grassroots: final considerations

Fecha Publicado el 31 de Mayo 2005 |

This paper has explored the points of convergence and digression of the Trade Justice Movement and the Fair Trade Market in Northern countries and the Mexican peasant project, through the framework of transnational social movements. The northern initiatives appear to assume a natural narrative link with the grassroots character of the southern producers’ struggle for equal conditions of marketing. Other works have analysed the fairness and viability of the Fair Trade Market (Medina, 1997; Mace, 1998; etc), but the results are a complex and hard to reduce to a single answer. The alternative coffee market model has been criticised because its insertion into the mainstream rules has reproduced unequal economic relations by its reliance in some cases on the cash crops model, regarding the peasant as a mere provider of raw materials and basic foods for the North. It has also been criticised for reproducing North–South power relations in certification procedures (Gonzalez and Linck, n/d); and for the limited size of the market niche, available to a limited portion of the southern producers.

Acronyms and Bibliography

Fecha Publicado el 31 de Mayo 2005 |

ARIC: Asociación Rural de Interés Colectivo
ATO’s: Alternative Trading Organisations
CCI: Central Campesina Independiente
CEC: Centro de Educación Campesina
CIO: Coffee International Organization
CIOAC: Central Independiente de Obreros Agrícolas y Campesinos
CNC: Confederación Nacional Campesina
CNPA: Coordinadora Nacional Plan de Ayala
COCEI: Coalición Obrero Campesino Estudiantil del Istmo de Tehuantepec
CONACYT: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología
EFTA: European Fair Trade Association
EZLN: Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional
FAO: Food and Agriculture Organisation
FLO-Int: Fair Trade Labelling Organisations International
FT: Fair Trade
IFAT: International Federation of Alternative Trade
IMF: International Monetary Fund
ISMAM: Indígenas de la Sierra Madre de Motozintla
MULT: Movimiento Unificado de la Lucha Trique
NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement...

Sustainable consumption in México

Fecha Publicado el 8 de Abril 2005 |

Each of us has the capability of influencing our environment in different ways: some of us favor the conservation of biodiversity, yet others press for the improvement of standards of living of the poor in our countries. However, there are those who favor a market system that only works to increase the profits of big companies, without internalizing the negative social and environmental fallouts of their operations.

This article will speak of the power of sustainable or responsible consumption to influence this choice by businesses.

Present context

The sustainable consumption movement arose from the social, environmental and economic repercussions of the neo-liberal politics that was characterized by open markets, the predominance of capital and the exaltation of consumption.

Global Fair Trade, an alternative to the liberal market (I)

Fecha Publicado el 24 de Octubre 2004 |

Two trends have emerged in the last years, which could place Fair Trade as an alternative to a liberal regulation of international trade, such as the WTO promotes it.

For the first time at the WTO Ministerial in Cancun, developing countries including some called "least advanced countries" have grouped themselves with a clear and firm position on the respect of the principles of negotiations, explicit consensus and the respect of the position of all countries, including the least developed. This position has led to the break-down of the WTO negotiations in Cancun, which could lead either to the end of multilateral negotiations, or to their resuming under new principles and a new framework. However, it is worth noting that governments of the South in the past have tended to bow under the pressure of closed-room negotiations and, even more, follow the liberal ideology which permeates the whole context of WTO negotiations.

Global Fair Trade, an alternative to the liberal market (II)

Fecha Publicado el 24 de Octubre 2004 |

Fair Trade as a model for alternative regulations

In its practices, Fair Trade takes into account social, economic, cultural and environmental dimensions. It can thus be seen as an alternative to a liberal regulation of the economy. It is a way to guarantee that economic exchanges comply with human rights, not just civil and political rights, but labor, social and environmental rights, as well as emerging rights, such as food sovereignty. An alliance with the movements that oppose neo-liberal globalization is necessary to discuss the contents of those regulations, and defend them at local, national, regional and international levels.

English section, welcome

Fecha Publicado el 21 de Junio 2003 |

Since March 2003, Vinculando.org has been a serious, plural and free space, built upon articles and documents from professionals and researchers on social sciences with a Latin American perspective. We are committed on syndicating Sustainable Development experiences, values and practices in areas like organic production, fair trade, responsible consumption, economy of solidarity, ecology and more. We promote current documents of wide interest from well known specialists and researchers, which is why Vinculando.org has become one...

Ver más documentos en esta categoría:
1 2 3 4

Enlaces patrocinados:

Otras categorías:

Creative Commons License Todos los contenidos de Vinculando.org pueden ser accesados aceptando una licencia de Creative Commons.