Community Activist
Ógra Shinn Féin
Ógra Shinn Féin
Many workers and small producers across the developing world are exploited. Across Africa, Asia and South America workers are forced to work long hours in dangerous conditions for little pay. Small farmers are forced into abject poverty as prices are forced down by repressive international taxation of their goods and produce.
The poverty created by this unequal system wrecks lives and prevents the progress of these developing nations.
FairTrade challenges this inequality. FairTrade takes an important step in attempting to redress the wrecked lives, to provide fair pay, fair working conditions and a fair price for produce.
In Ireland we strive to challenge this, the Irish people have always had a charitable spirit and as we progress, we would like to assist in the progress of others.
FairTrade is about giving people what they deserve, it is rights based.
The high quality products cost slightly more, but for the small increase in cost you are ensuring that an egalitarian system of Trade is implemented.
At current there are only a small number of towns across Ireland with FairTrade status, you can take an important step in progressing the message and ensuring your town has FairTrade status, becoming another important beacon in the struggle to ensure exploitative trade is replaced by a system that is rights based and fair.
We all have a part to play in the progress of the developing world.
You can help by firstly buying FairTrade produce.
You can ask your local shop or coffee shop to sell fairtrade products.
You can promote fairtrade ethos amongst family, friends and the wider community.
Fairtrade works in partnership with the small scale growers across the developing world and always pay them a fair price. From 2003 - 2006 60 % of FairTrade profits were re-invested into growers businesses for them to build a better future for their communities.
One beneficary of FairTrade, Daniel Miniya Huama from Peru, said,
"We can say with pride that due to additional payments, we can now better educate our children. It has meant that our way of life has improved greatly."
Please support, endorse and buy fairtrade and make Daniel's story the story of millions more!
7 comments:
Ogra are cool.
Fairtrade is a load of nonsense. Aslong as Ireland remains a capitialist country within the european union we will always be a part of the problem. We cant lead the lifestyles we lead without expoliting the third world.
Just because it is the states in which people primarily buy fair trade products which benefit from and maintain exploitation of developing nations does not make fair trade nonsense.
Sure its not the solution. There needs to be a global shift initiated by developed nations to create truely fair processes of trade and move away from the trickery and exploitation of past trade agreements. You could even say buying fairtrade products at the moment is like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound, but that doesnt mean its nonsense and it does get people thinking about global trade justice even if they do become pretenscious and smug in some cases.
Oisin how about you campaign for debt releif instead of wasting time about the price of a bannana?
Stone Island Socialist....did you even read my post, yours is completely bewildering.
I'm simply stating that while buying fair trade products is not the solution it is worthwhile.
I understood what you said. I also understand that it may be worth while. But why not campaign about the solution and putting it into effect instead of cossestions to africa, namely fairtrade?
Oisin didn't write the article.. i did, and that is all it is at the moment an article. The reason I wrote the piece was to encourage people to promote and use FairTrade, the same way i encuraged people to be active in anti drugs campaigning and community empowerment in previous articles.
This is my personal opinion, to my knowledge Ógra at least nationally have not been active in FairTrade, and are focussed on building an alternative to the current unequal systems that currently suppress and oppress our people North and South.
I never said FairTrade was the answer, i merely said it plays an imporantant role in addressing the current status quo of repressive and exploitative trade.
It would seem from some of the comments that some on here are opposed to FairTrade because it cannot deliver revolutionary change in the morning - well if thats your attitude to things. Good luck with your struggle.
I come at this from a realistice, community based and socialist approach. Anything that promotes and egalitarian and social conscious in the rot of modern day Ireland. To bring the greedy mindsets closer to a more rights based system of FairTrade can only be a good thing.
Victory through activism!
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