People & Planet's Fairtrade Campaigning

In the banana price war, the casualties are civilian

On 16 March Asda-Walmart started a new banana price war, slashing its banana. prices by a massive 25%, from 85p/kg to just 64p/kg. A day later Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons also cut their prices to the same level. This represents around a 43% price drop from 2002 prices. This kind of price war potentially undermines all attempts to build a more socially and environmentally sustainable banana industry for both small scale farmers and workers on larger plantations.

People & Planet’s Fairtrade Campaign

Fairtrade isn’t about charity. It is about rethinking the relationship between producers and consumers. Fairtrade makes sure that this relationship is based on honesty and respect. It is an assertion of the rights of all to decent living and working standards.

At the moment, international trading rules are unfair. They often often lead to poverty and exploitation for people in developing countries. The long-term solution to this is Trade Justice. Trade rules need to be rewritten so that they work in favour of poor countries. This is the long-term goal of the Trade Justice Movement, which both People & Planet and the Fairtrade Foundation are a part of. But, until this happens, the Fairtrade system can guarantee, for some producers and workers at least, that they are not exploited and oppressed by the inadequacies of the current trading system.

Buying and promoting Fairtrade demonstrates solidarity with a wider global movement towards workers’ rights. By taking action on Fairtrade in your school or university you are securing rights for some of the most marginalised producers in the world: helping ensure that they get a fair deal and a living wage and are able to work towards the sustainable development of their communities. Students campaigning on Fairtrade are making a real impact on the lives of thousands of workers worldwide.

There are over 100 People & Planet groups across the country campaigning on Fairtrade.

They are campaigning for:

Student awareness of and support for Fairtrade: encouraging students to recognise and take responsibility for the impact their actions have on producers and to buy more Fairtrade products. By informing people about Fairtrade, by just raising it as an issue, you are making sure that every time they buy a bar of chocolate or have a cup of tea, they’re aware of the impact of their actions on other workers in the world. By convincing people of the need to buy Fairtrade you are making sure other people’s basic rights are acknowledged. You are giving consumers a means by which they can can actively contribute to a social justice movement.

Fairtrade status for their schools and universities: to institutionalise Fairtrade, and to make sure that honest, respectful engagement and partnership with producers (and all the parties along the supply chain) is not just a passing trend but an integral part of that institution’s policy.

An understanding of the wider implications of the Trade Justice movement and the necessity of engaging with it in order to secure long-term changes in trading laws. It’s essential that people understand how unfair trade rules work, how they hurt poorer countries.and what needs to be done to change them. Fairtrade needs to be seen not just as a consumer movement, but also a campaigning tool: by building consumer demand for Fairtrade we are demonstrating to our government that people in this country care about fair trading relationships, and putting pressure on them to act to change trading laws!