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.

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.

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.

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.

FLO Standards for Fair Trade Coffee

Long Term and Stable Relationship

Commitments and Actions

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

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.

A Better Life At Home

I have been working in the main office for the past five years. During that time I have had the opportunity to travel to the United States, Canada, and Norway to do weaving demonstrations.

The Fleecing of Navajo Weavers

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

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.

Is Fair Trade Fair?

This issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly looks at fair trade—the global movement in which North American and European marketers form partnerships with producers in the global South to ensure that low-income farmers and artisans earn a living wage for their work—and examines whether it is “fair” for indigenous peoples.

Indigenous Youth Challenge Corporate Mining

On June 22 the second International Indigenous Youth Conference (IIYC) released several resolutions and declarations aiming to stop the destructive impacts of globalization on indigenous lands, cultures, and peoples.

Helping the Earth

I entered the coop in 1985. I have always had my plots and I run them in a natural way. Since I entered the coop with the organic technology, I have earned a better price and I was able to buy my house and my children have achieved a higher level of education.

Fair Trade & Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous farmers and crafters told Cultural Survival about their experiences with fair trade and what the movement needs to do to achieve its goals.

Confessions of a Fair Trader

Coffee is the economic lifeblood of many indigenous communities. As with any primary cash crop, it can provide meaningful income or it can lock the growers into an unbreakable cycle of poverty. The fair trade movement has great potential to support the goals and aspirations of indigenous peoples throughout the coffee lands.

By A Thread: The Benefits and Challenges of Being a Fair Trade Crafter

A Guatemala fair trade weaving cooperative enables civil war widows to stay home and maintain their Mayan culture, but the coop struggles to survive in the global marketplace.

A Cup of Truth

Fair trade has allowed indigenous coffee producers to improve their lives, but some farmers' experiences show that this social movement must go beyond charity.

Siberian Dream

From the plains of Buryatia, Siberia, to the runways of Moscow, New York, Milan, and Paris, Siberian Dream drives home the message that indigenous people can live in the modern world while still maintaining their indigenous identities.