Thoughts on Fair Trade

The trip is a memory now, the sunshine and friendships of Nicaragua replaced with the gray winter, the rush of my commute and the hustle and bustle of life. I am watching the snow fall from my window, another blizzard coming. Lots and lots of snow.

Memories of Nicaragua: spectacular starry nights, warm and inviting families, laughing giggling children, horses nibbling grass with the mountains as the backdrop, the bright blue sky filled with puffy white clouds.

I think always about the plight of others and the struggle to make a living, whether the farmers in Nicaragua, the people in the devastation of Haiti or the homeless or people in my own community struggling day to day to make ends meet.

The picture is of workers at a fair-trade sewing cooperative we visited. It was nice to see workers in a bright, airy, cool factory where they worked under good conditions. A cooperative leader told us with pride, and some sadness, about the struggles they overcame, and those that they still face. But the down side is, without orders for merchandise, the shop can't exist forever. It needs the support of me and you, our churches, friends and communities. Read all about it: http://www.nuevavidafairtradezone.org/.

And the link from Presbyterian USA for fair trade t-shirts, straight from the cooperative, www.pcusa.org/sweatfree

I recently came upon a documentary on Planet Green called Blood Sweat and T-Shirts, a series documenting a group of British fashionistas who see how their clothes are made, and what they learn through painful, tearful experiences as they live as sweat-shop workers, the thoughts that never crossed their minds before, and the profound experiences that change them forever.

They travel to India, a world away from their lives in London, and they work in a sweat shop, a grueling monotonous day's work for a heartbreaking dollar and some change. At a store nearby, to see how they can live on that income, it hits home - a stick of deodorant costs nearly a day's wage. How can anyone afford to live on this? The unfairness of it all is crushing. After the sweat shop, they move on to a clothing shop in a cramped alley that is even worse than the sweat shop, as they work in a dingy room and sleep at night on the factory floor with the other workers. That is the painful human cost of our cheap clothing, trinkets and other goods, intense grinding hours of work in deplorable and dangerous conditions for little pay, all to churn out items that consumers discard or forget about in no time at all.

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/videos/blood-sweat-t-shirts-tracing-clothes-to-the-source.html

It's a vicious cycle where, as many things in life, those on the economic bottom suffer the most. Consumers demand cheap stuff. Companies demand cheap labor. Workers have no choice but to suffer and work harder and harder.

If only these companies would pay their workers more. A little would go so very far. Those on the front lines are producing the merchandise, a designer clothing item sells for more than what a worker earns in months, a year even. The big-name store isn't producing the items. It's the factory workers. That fashionable boutique isn't making the items. It's the factories in China, India and elsewhere.

It is so very important that we continue to ask the important questions, and demand that people are treated fairly and earn a fair amount for a day's work. I will always support fair trade.