Ian Brown explained that in his view The Network Project exists to pull together the alternatives to the neoliberal model of globalisation. Our purpose concerns both alternative ideas and action. The Network Project now considers that there is some cohesion in those ideas and activities that lead us to consider that we are at the beginning of a new global movement. Ian then went on to indicate some of the ideas that we think are important to this new movement, in particular to the Fair Trade movement.

Fundamental to our ideas is the notion that Another World is Possible. Directly linked to this is an understanding of The World as One Ecology, and this world ecology represents the interconnecting relationships of people and the world that make up a global Network of Relationships. These relationships imply a Global Imperative: the idea of the human race as being responsible both as a collective whole and as individual and interconnected parts. This responsibility extends to our place in both the social and the natural environment. This principle, which we call a Network of Responsibility, lies at the core of the relations of people and planet at all levels. This implies that human beings are collectively and individually responsible for global trade, which should be both fair and sustainable. Our long-term view is that One Day, All Trade will be Fair and Sustainable.

Rosamund Stock discussed the idea of the Shared Responsibility of consumer with producer, as voiced by Traidcraft and One Village, and the growing number of people prepared to acknowledge and act on that responsibility. Complexities exist within the system ­ for instance, the difficulties of small farmers maintaining prices in a global environment - require understandings between political and economic spheres.

Claude Moraes, MEP, began by saying that he considered Fair Trade as the single biggest issue apart from Climate Change. There is a need to see the difference between understanding the true context of Fair Trade as opposed to the official pretence of understanding. Claude explained that the position in the European Government was one of polarisation, in which neoliberals were seeking to further Free Trade, while Green MEPs, Social Democrats and Communists formed a Left alliance. The European Union (EU) was born in the post-colonial phase, and recognised the exploitative relationship between developing nations. There are problems with unfair Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) agreements and trade arrangements. The EU has been grappling with the CAP and the drain of resources and energy. Despite the collapse of Doha and WTO talks, there are positive and negative elements of bilateral agreements and the principle of rebalancing trade in the developing world. Multilateral trade talks are needed. MEPs have powers to negotiate and to question member states, which can be embarrassing for member states. Also comments that the general public does not know about the general struggle within the EU or the difference between the various institutions in the EU. People do not understand that Poverty is not yet History; they do not yet understand the Bush agenda or understand the issues. We must be committed for the long haul, to educating people. Claude mentioned Gordon Brown talking about debt and the kinds of myths that perpetuate poverty, the lack of infrastructure in India and the myths of economic progress that drain focus on global poverty in its many forms. We need to communicate this to the general population.

Paul Chandler of Traidcraft agreed with Claud’s comments on the importance of political levels and added that Traidcraft lobbies MEPs to fight poverty. Fair Trade is now at a crossroads. The market position will not be reversed, and Fair Trade faces both problems and opportunities.

Traidcraft fights poverty through trade, believing fair trade to be a way to really impact on poverty in the developing world. How many people can be lifted out of poverty via trade remains to be learned by building on Fair Trade success. The UK is now the largest Fair Trade market in the world, beyond previous aspirations. Traidcraft is a founding member of The Fair Trade Foundation, which has made it possible for other companies to enter the organization more easily. The essential backing for this has come from ordinary consumers. Political leaders have been forced to seek credibility by appearing to be in favour of Fair Trade; for instance, David Cameron has phoned Traidcraft every week for the last six months, hoping to win the next election by answering to consumer concerns about Fair Trade. This is a sea change that has happened in the last five or six years. Entrance of commercial licensees is an example of how a small person can make a difference in how governments and people think about the world. Tesco now has a wide range of FT products, as does Nescafe, Wal-Mart, and others. Setting up alternatives to capitalism was a part of the ideal of Fair Trade, so how to handle larger players is a major concern, but this is also a major victory due to the fact that large scale traders are needed if FT is to really impact world poverty, but cooption into the capitalist system is a risk. The opportunity to transform more lives should drive our tactics. New challenges include how to maximize opportunities, how to respond to increased scrutiny, and helping people understand the complexities of finding a Fair Price and reducing middlemen, (such as Traidcraft itsel), and cutting out exploitative middle men entirely.

Paul showed examples of women from Jute Works in Bangladesh, who supply Traidcraft, who have worked in Fair Trade for thirty years. They use Fair Trade production in their spare time for reinvestment cash to set up other small businesses, to educate their children, but they remain in poor living conditions because they use multiple means of making a livelihood. A long-term perspective is needed to see Fair Trade making a difference, as with children educated via FT money who send back remittances from work in developed countries. Other factors include half of the money being paid in advance and a guaranteed sale, as well as improved linkages between producers which leads to allows greater efficiency, not only getting a fair practice. It is important for consumers to understand the added benefits to producers beyond fair price. Also, climate change and fair trade are two halves to the same problem. Thus the possibility of dilution of standards due to splitting of energy or regulation of Fair Trade leading to a weakened impact on poor people. As it easier to deal with large producers, we must also ensure that dedicated FT organizations serving small producers do not get left out. The focus on poverty depends on campaigners, which tends to be led by small and community sellers of FT via churches and community groups to keep pressure on the corporations as well as scaling up of non-food sectors. The contribution of dedicated organizations like TraidCraft is essential to the source of new climate being created today.

Rosamund Stock stressed that people who are not being treated fairly do not cooperate.

Whitni Thomas, Triodos Bank, emphasized the ‘I do’ of Triodos Bank’s philosophy. Only depositor savings are used for ethical investments. Triodos is a small group by banking standards, with Fair Trade close to its heart. She pointed out the role played by the four founders of Mercury Provident Bank (Cafedirect, Twin Trading, Equal Exchange, and Bishopton Trading) in supporting Fair Trade. Triodos uses a variety of methods to support and invest in a range of FT issues, to great success in the UK. Touching on challenges, she stressed the widespread consumer confusion with the large range of choices in supermarkets. We need to be far more sophisticated in our tactics for winning over consumers to the small FT producers rather than the Tesco FT brands, for instance, due to the support small FT gives versus the larger chains like Tesco. She cites supply chains and the differences among products in the difficulty of understanding the importance of openness and clearness regarding certification and what is achievable. Because different audiences can handle different messages, depth versus breadth differentiation on marketing is important. Triodos faces issues of size and investment in making transitionethical or conscious finance. Acknowledging the potentially greater importance of how we spend our money over voting patterns. Voting with your money has an effect via consumer demand.

Meredith Cochrane of the FairTrade Foundation differented Fair Trade from the FAIRTRADE mark and the movement, by citing the internationally agreed definition of FT as an alternative approach to conventional international trading via the principles of paying a better price, promoting development and continuity in the trading relationship. The FairTrade mark goes with a system of guarantees of a fair and stable price (which is unfortunately where many consumers stop), a social premium (which the producers tend to emphasize as most important), stronger position in world markets, which comes back to upfront payments and social premium, and the closer link between shoppers and producers. The FT movement is a grassroots movement that started with the collapse of Mexican coffee prices in the 1970s. Many UK NGOs worked hard together with consumer action and the media to help FT. The message must be very clear in order to withstand and correct the media scrutiny and consumer misunderstanding of Fair Trade. This is exciting as new consumers see the message. The FairTrade Foundation is the UK’s independent certification body, and works to mainstream FT as well as licence the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products. It is also part of a global movement. The FairTrade Labelling Organizations (FLO) work in 58 countries as umbrella organizations from primary producer to exporter to importer to manufacturer, licensee and finally to the retailer. This process cuts out the exploitative retailer by monitoring the supply chain. Awareness and growth of FT is massive, at 40-50% per year in sales, highlighting the importance of campaigns and media attention. More products continue to be added to FT sales as well as higher volume, showing an important impact on producers. Challenges include managing the growth of FT, maintaining a robust and credible system across products and countries while retaining focus and high standards. Effective communication on what FairTrade is becomes more essential. To summarize FT in a global context, she contents that without a fair price, producers are at a complete loss, citing the declining prices of basic products over time globally, and the need for sustainable processes. It is only one step from being a Fair Trade consumer to a citizen who is campaigning actively.

Questions:

Moeen Yaseen: Muslims are being asked: “What do you believe? What do you believe? What about Social Justice?”Is more money and liquidity being redirected into Fair Trade? Traidcraft member suggests that governments are trying to tackle the issue of revenues via trade, but there are limits to what Traidcraft can do about investment of revenues.

Mary Fee of LETSLink asked for clarification as to whether Triodos uses Fractional Reserve Banking (money creation) or whether Triodos in fact operates as a Credit Union. Whitni was not quite sure what was being referred to but responded that Triodios currently has more money on deposit than that which is lent out. We must be sceptical of things that claim to be ethical. Ask where ethical pensions are really invested. Ethical investment links in with Fair Trade.

Chris Cook mentioned the Bank of International Settlement and banking entitlement to create credit as multiple of capital base as a creator of inflation. Cites David Corton and the PLC being structured to extract value from production process for the shareholders. A napsterised non-hierarchical network exists.

Mary Corrall asked if the Claude Moraes has seen the postcard campaigning on climate trade and trade justice, stating that a UNA person denies that sending cards to the German EU delegation will help. His response is that the European Parliament does now have greater powers that will persist across EU presidencies, which is a good thing in helping to show that the expansion of the FT movement and dealing with the problem that FT is no longer seen to be a new thing. Fellow panellist asked about 6 month presidencies, to which he responded that a continual process tends to be ignored by an EU presidency because of constraints of time which progressive countries like Finland difficulty in addressing long-term issues in the EU parliament.

Paul Chandler commented on how few postcards (just 3000) are needed to get meetings with ministers on FT, so don’t get bored with signing postcards!

In response to question of Member of why FT, Triodos, EU hasn’t considered more micro-credit for developing countries, Whitni Thomas responded that Triodos Bank does have investment in micro-credit to serve that 60-70% of the population of developing countries which is ‘un-banked’ making it very difficult to obtain finance. Paul comments that Shared Interest also works with micro-finance. Fair Trade works on the same principles, but is the next level up. Whitni offers more via her chapter in a book on finance in Fair Trade. Rosamund Stock comments on the periodic bond issue for micro-credit, which is always oversubscribed.

In response to a question about Nestle, Paul Chandler noted that Nestle make a mistake in pitching it to FairTrade consumers, who already did not trust Nestle, rather than to existing Nestle consumers. The weaker labels are squeezing fair trade out in other markets, so Nestle must be encouraged to build the market rather than cannibalising it.

Felicity (from a fair-trade town) asks how to scale up in terms of international cooperation, regarding the need to not be simplistic, and the danger that Tesco shoppers will not be interested in wider social justice. As ground-level campaigners we must prevent an artificial distinction being made between people who can understand differing levels of complexity regarding

Fair Trade. Fair-Trade lady in the red dress cites EU funding for campaigns and FLO coordinating the international initiatives as examples of how national initiatives are being coordinated with academic and photo libraries. She also notes that the challenge of marketing messages being boiled down to sound bites is that they work, thus campaigning plays a really important role. We need to take the more complex messages forward because the media will not. Paul Chandler adds that FLO and Traidcraft have the European Fair Trade organisation in order to fund collective projects and share ideas. Belgium now has 107 fair-trade towns as a result of cross-Europe communication.

Audience lady asked what role Fair-Trade lady in red dress sees for FTOs. She responds that FTOs self-certify and are then allowed to use the FT letterhead, but not the FT logo. IPAC is important in this, but the pace cannot be to fast because the standards must be set by FLO very carefully.

Lady of Day Chocolate co. asked Claude Moraes how (since poverty is not yet history) can young people take advantage of the political phase of the campaign and hold MPs to account? He responded that kids don’t know what the WTO is, so it was a big thing when the UK government had the CAP battle (and saw retaliation via social legislation), because teachers denigrate the EU without teaching where the battle lines really are. Also institutions change so quickly, and now the European Parliament has more power ­ the average UK 18 year old does not know what the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is, but the average French 18 year old does. This is the crucial difference. If young people knew who is making decisions, or even what inflation is, they can’t connect Fair Trade to what is going on in the WTO, and this is the basic problem.

Penny from Ashanti development commented that they were founded on within their local Labor Party, to give water to a village in Ghana, was more successful than expected, and says everyone is helping them. Requests talk during lunch about Ghana.

Paul Chandler says the FTO mark is not yet robust enough to be useful at the moment, and craft producers, where FT started, in crafts, need more recognition. IFAT needs more communication with ‘southern producers’ and unity in Fair Trade, which is essential.

End of Morning Session.