House parties are an awesome way to support fair trade - Just gather a group of friends (like we need an excuse to do that?), explain what fair trade is, and encourage them to purchase beautiful fair trade crafts! People are always down to buy colorful shawls, handcrafted jewelry, or gift baskets featuring Fair Trade Certified chocolate, coffee, and tea.
These sites offer more information and downloads for getting started:
The best part is that you can host a "house party" outside your home, too! Host an event at a community center, place of worship, farmers market or natural food coop. For example, Co-Op America, FTF, and OCA will provide you with films and materials for hosting a house party, as well as a comprehensive guide for creating Fair Trade Zones in your community. (OCA works with grassroots activists Nationally to create Fair Trade Zones in hospitals, schools, places of worship and municipal governments!)
Check out this cool blog post by New Consumer Magazine: _p-1295_
Can you think of other ways we can engaging in this important movement for change?
In solidarity,
~LBS
h6. (Although I am a World of Good Inc. employee, these opinions are my own!)
...these are the last words of the "Product (RED) Manifesto."
I wanted to find out more information after reading Robert's discussion question about Product (RED) at GAP: t-1015
So I found this official "Product (RED)" site: http://www.joinred.com/manifesto/
After reading the Manifesto, I am struck with it's message, which is actually VERY similar to our own; to facilitate meaningful social change through the empowerment of the buyer. To know that we have a CHOICE.
To wake us up to the tremendous power that our wallets and choices hold, and how far those choices can go with practical applications.
When looking for an eCard for my uncle's 60th birthday, I found out that Hallmark is also a member of Product (Red): http://tinyurl.com/3xjbr7
I love their cards! Their e-Card site's called "WI(RED)": http://tinyurl.com/2vdfvz . When you send a card, or give a gift, they send $ to Africa to help with the HIV/AIDS epidemic!
Other partners are Apple, Inc., Converse, Motorola, American Express, and Emporio Armani.
Corporate sponsors are MySpace and AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). They also have a blog: http://joinred.blogspot.com/
Go (RED) today!
-Lauren
(Although a world of good inc. employee, these opinions are my own)
| 3 Day Blinds 20th Century Plastics Acer Peripherals Bali Company, Inc. Bayer Corp./Medsep BMW Canon Business Machines Casio Manufacturing Chrysler Daewoo Eastman Kodak/Verbatim Eberhard-Faber Eli Lilly Corporation Ericsson Fisher Price Ford Foster Grant Corporation General Electric Company JVC GM Hasbro Hewlett Packard Hitachi Home Electronics| Honda Honeywell, Inc. Hughes Aircraft Hyundai Precision America IBM Matsushita Mattel Maxell Corporation Mercedes Benz Mitsubishi Electronics Corp. Motorola Nissan Philips Pioneer Speakers Samsonite Corporation Samsung Sanyo North America Sony Electronics Tiffany Toshiba VW Xerox Zenith|
Creepy, huh?
For more info on who NOT to buy from: http://www.sweatfree.org/hallofshame
Also, check out the awesome new on this blog: p-1545
The first time I heard the term "Maquiladora" was in my Third World Feminisms class at UCSC (which has since been re-named Feminisms of the Global South for its problematic phrasing and curriculum). Academia was the context in which I first learned about Maquilas en Mexico- a term that referred to the low-wage offshore factories in Mexican towns on the US-MX border, but it also refers to factories across Latin America.
I'm hoping that this, less formal form of education can clue people in to how deeply connected we ALL are to Maquila plants, and the women on whose labor they function.
Maquilas are factories that import material and equipment on a duty-free and tariff-free basis for assembly/ manufacturing, then they re-export the assembled product (usually) back to the country of origin.They manufacture and/or assemble a range of products (i.e. textiles, machinery, electronics, transportation), and are usually completely owned by foreign (mostly US) powers.
These factories are especially detrimental to woman, who make up the majority of the workforce; while they can legally be hired at the age of 16, it is common for these young women to get false documents in order to go to work at ages as young as 12, 13 or 14...
Women, the majority of the world's poor, typically work for cheaper wages, and are considered by male foreman to accept poor working conditions, which in turn leads to the sexual exploitation of women. Though some make the point that maquiladora employment enables self-determination and independence for women, the fact of the exploitation and terribly working conditions remain.
The fact that they demand pregnancy tests as a prerequisite to employment or require that female workers use birth control is a form of genocide in addition to the discrimination of pregnant women who are fired or ineligible for hire.
A connected issue is that of Ciudad Juarez - and the disappeared women of that region. Recently, an increasing amount of brutality against women in Juarez, the center for Maquiladoras - sexual torture, assaults and killings are a result of a mixture of the culture of poverty and extremely poor living conditions experienced in border regions. Corruption within Mexican government has been implicated from its highest stations down to the Police force, which not only allows for these brutalities to occur, but continues them without giving any help or assistance to the families of the disappeared people. There have also been cases of mixed up DNA tests, mishandling of evidence and Media censorship.
Maybe you haven't heard of Juarez, or Maquilas... but that doesn't mean its because they consist of a few small operations- they are a HUGE part of Mexico's economy.
Just as neo-liberalism would boast, by 1985 Maquiladoras had become Mexico's 2nd largest source of income from foreign exports, behind oil, and since 1973, Maquiladoras have also accounted for nearly half of Mexico's export assembly. ^(1)^ A crazy statistic is that between 1995-2000, exports of assembled products in Mexico tripled, and the rate of the industry's growth amounted to about one new factory per day.^(2)^
Sounds great... until you hear the catch; that the profits generated from maquiladoras are sent back to the US, in effect stripping any direct economic benefit for Mexico or its people. So, due to competition with Asian offshore companies, since 2000, Maquilas have been on the decline ( 529 were closed down) - but there still exits more than 3,000 fully operational maquiladoras along the 2,000 mile-long US-MX border (employing 1 million workers, and importing more than $51 billion in supplies into Mexico),^(3)^ and as of last year, 45% Mexico's exports were still coming from these factories.^(4)^
Examples of Maquiladoras in Mexico (Creepy, all these corporations whose products we 'depend' on, huh?): 3 Day Blinds 20th Century Plastics Acer Peripherals Bali Company, Inc. Bayer Corp./Medsep BMW Canon Business Machines Casio Manufacturing Chrysler Daewoo Eastman Kodak/Verbatim Eberhard-Faber Eli Lilly Corporation Ericsson Fisher Price Ford Foster Grant Corporation General Electric Company JVC GM Hasbro Hewlett Packard Hitachi Home Electronics Honda Honeywell, Inc. Hughes Aircraft Hyundai Precision America IBM Matsushita Mattel Maxell Corporation Mercedes Benz Mitsubishi Electronics Corp. Motorola Nissan Philips Pioneer Speakers Samsonite Corporation Samsung Sanyo North America Sony Electronics Tiffany Toshiba VW Xerox Zenith
(for more Companies to avoid: http://www.sweatfree.org/hallofshame)
Also check out: p-1545
Best update of the world - In case you didn't know: Ben & Jerry's has a Fair Trade Certified line!
The flavors include Vanilla, Chocolate, Coffee, Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, and Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz - vailable at supermarkets, Ben and Jerry's scoop shops, and _online ._
