Share

29.3 (Fall 2005) Fair Trade and Indigenous Peoples

Cooperatives: A Short History

Cooperative societies were created long before the advent of the fair trade movement to help workers improve their livelihoods and protect their interests.

Cooperatives are organizations of people who have the same needs. Most scholars recognize the business of the Rochdale pioneers of England as the first coop. In 1844, this group of 28 men (weavers and skilled workers in other trades) formed a cooperative society. They created business principles to guide their work and established a shop in which to sell their goods.

Politics in the Andes

Politics in the Andes, a series of social science essays, presents a unique comparative analysis of the ongoing research of several international authors in five Andean countries- Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia- a region rarely examined by scholars. Three main issues of concern for the region are brilliantly examined: social movements and the struggle for identity, conflict and violence, and democracy and political change.

Learning As They Go

As the president of La Voz Que Clama en el Desierto, I direct the cooperative’s business, meetings, work plans, and employees, advise the small coffee growers, and watch to see that everything ends to the benefit of the community. I have been involved with this group of farmers for 26 years, and we have been a fair trade cooperative for 14 years.

La Voz became involved in fair trade because we had problems relating to the world commodities price of coffee.

Juicing Up For Fair Trade

A women's organization in the Philippines used an environmental campaign to create a worldwide trend that helps artisans compete in the global market.

Through their artisanal production, Philippine women have entered the global market on their own terms by forging links with alternative trade organizations (ATOs)-institutions that conduct business according to a philosophy of fair trade.

FLO Standards for Fair Trade Coffee

Long Term and Stable Relationship

Buyers and sellers will establish a long-term and stable relationship in which the rights and interests of both are mutually respected.

Commitments and Actions

Some coffee roasters' current work and future commitments for their fair trade businesses

Green Mountain

Green Mountain has had a licensing agreement with TransFair USA since 2000. In December 2003, the company made a commitment in a letter to the United Students for Fair Trade that 25 percent of its purchases and sales would be fair trade within five years. Two years later, Green Mountain is on track to hit that mark, says Rick Peyser, director of public relations.

A Gallery of Dreaming

In Australia, Aboriginal paintings- which boast an extremely contemporary "look" despite the millennia of traditions from which they arise—are displayed in prestigious museums alongside such modern masters as Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler, and Agnes Martin. Originally a male purview, the genre has become increasingly dominated by female artists who are becoming household names among collectors in Europe and Asia.

For some 40,000 years, Aboriginal life has been recorded in sand-, body- and rock-painting, passed from parent to child to grandchild.

The Fleecing of Navajo Weavers

The popularity of Navajo rug designs has allowed some fair trade businesses to thrive while Navajo weavers suffer.

Ninety percent of indigenous peoples living in the southwestern United States depend on crafts as their principal or secondary source of income.

So, You Want To Be A Fair Trader?

A former crafts fair trader shares the lessons he learned when he mixed business and social justice.

Syndicate content

Cultural Survival helps Indigenous Peoples around the world defend their lands, languages, and cultures as they deal with issues like the one you’ve just read about.

Learn More

To read about Cultural Survival’s work around the world, click here. To read more articles on the subject use our Search function and explore 40 years of information
on Indigenous issues.

Do More

For ways to take action to help Indigenous communities, click here.

Donate

We take on governments and multinational corporations—and they always have more resources than we do—but with the help of people like you, we do win. Your contribution is crucial to that effort. Click here to do your part.