BACKGROUND: FAIR TRADE DELEGATIONS

NOTE: NO LRCNYS DELEGATIONS ARE SCHEDULED FOR 2012.

Starting with Border Witness Delegations

In 1997, Labor-Religion began organizing groups of New Yorkers to travel to the Border of Mexico to meet workers and communities there and to learn first-hand about the global economy. These delegations grew out of Coalition members' concerns about the blame they were hearing placed on "Mexican workers who took our jobs."

Even with a brief (less than one week) experience of meeting “the Mexican workers,” delegation members learned the truth: that workers on both sides of the Border are exploited by a system of corporate globalization whose first priority is to increase company profits. The costs to human beings, communities, families and the environment are never factored in to the corporate Free Trade agreements that have proliferated since 1994 with the implementation of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement).

These Border Witness delegates (now numbering more than 300, including the participation of 125 young people) have returned to their New York homes convinced that “Free Trade” and corporate globalization is not the best economic model for the majority of the world’s citizens, and is particularly harmful to the poor. Many of them have been actively engaged in the Education, Advocacy and Building Relationships that are the stated purpose of the Border Witness Delegations.

Evolving Border Witness Program

In the 13 years of the Border Witness program, our delegations have evolved to include education about a wide range of Border and national issues. These include immigration, violence against women, environmental degradation, and the impact of global economic requirements on Mexican schools, health care and the social contract as well as workers’ rights.

With deep regret, we have decided to suspend our Border Witness delegations to the Mexico-U.S. border because of the ongoing, and increasingly random violence in Mexico.The October 28-Nov. 3, 2010 delegation has been cancelled. Please watch this space for action-alerts and, hopefully, news of resumption of our Border Witness Delegations. For additional information about the suspension, please see Maureen Casey's September 2010 message. The coalition continues its partnership with Project Puente in El Paso.

What Economic Model Do We Want?

At some point in every Border Witness Delegation the question arises: “If not this corporate model of globalization, then what?” Are we against all globalization?

The answer is, emphatically: NO, we do not oppose globalization as such. We DO oppose any economic system that puts profit above the lives of people and the health of the Earth.

There does exist such a system which asserts that economic development will only occur when people are paid adequate wages to feed, house, and clothe their families, as well as provide education, health care and community development. That system is known as FAIR TRADE.

What is Fair Trade?

Fair Trade is an economic model which places people before profits. It is also a system of certification which verifies that a living wage is paid. Currently, that certification is in place internationally only for certain food commodities (most of which are grown in the Global South). Along with requiring a living wage for the work of farmers, Fair Trade requires that farmers be organized. The model of organization is most frequently in cooperatives of many small farmers but can also be organized groups of paid workers on plantations. For many workers and farmers in the Global South, Fair Trade cooperatives or workers’ groups are as close to unionization as it is possible to be.

You can learn about Fair Trade, the LRC and NYSUT Fair Trade Project and information about ordering from our partners, Dean’s Beans and Equal Exchange in other sections of this web site.

Finally, FAIR TRADE DELEGATIONS!

In 2009, our experience in delegation work and with Fair Trade finally came together in Labor-Religion’s first Fair Trade Eyewitness Delegation. From January 6-14, this group traveled to Nicaragua to visit Fair Trade coffee cooperatives and other communities to see first-hand the benefits and possibilities of Fair Trade. There were similarities to the Border Witness experience: groups met with a wide variety of Nicaraguan communities and organizations and learned a great deal about the effects of “free trade” on the people of the cities and countryside. Some differences in the Fair Trade Eyewitness Delegation experiencel included homestays (with coffee cooperative families) and a slightly longer duration of the trip. Click on the following links for a printable flyer (and Commonly Asked Question sheet to be copied on the back) along with an application form and health information form.

On July 15-22, 2011 the International Project led a fabulous, fun, educational, meaningful experience in Dominican Republic.  It spurpose was to examine how the global economy hurts us all and find some hopeful alternatives to "business as usual."  Flyer and Commonly Asked Questions

See more about Fair Trade Eyewitness Delegations here.

Last Updated:12/06/2011
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