Fair trade in Oaxaca

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

"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

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

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 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

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 … [Leer más...] acerca de Transnational Social Movements, Solidarity Values and the Grassroots: final considerations

ARIC: Asociación Rural de Interés ColectivoATO’s: Alternative Trading OrganisationsCCI: Central Campesina IndependienteCEC: Centro de Educación CampesinaCIO: Coffee International OrganizationCIOAC: Central Independiente de Obreros Agrícolas y CampesinosCNC: Confederación Nacional CampesinaCNPA: Coordinadora … [Leer más...] acerca de Acronyms and Bibliography