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2012 USFT NATIONAL CONVERGENCE

Fair Trade: Where Do We Go From Here?

https://www.facebook.com/events/201219686635819/

You read our statement this fall…..you’ve been following the fair trade movement for years, and now you’re wondering what’s next for the fair trade movement. Kick off your spring with more than just a spring-cleaning –join United Students for Fair Trade for our 9^th National Convergence, Coming up on March 2^nd-4^th at the University of Maryland at College Park. USFT is proud to open our annual convergence to both students and professionals to learn more about the exciting future of the fair trade movement. Register by February 1, and receive an official USFT Alta Gracia (union-made, living wage apparel) t-shirt. Registration is limited to the first 300 participants—and spots are filling quickly! Registration closes February 17^th.

The theme “Where Do We Go From Here?” will cover all questions that have come up during this pivotal time in the fair trade movement with speakers representing the worker, NGO and company voices behind the movement. Take a look at our schedule packed full of presenters (from Equal Exchange, CLAC, and the Fair World Project), meals provided by the Maryland Food Co-op,  networking opportunities and fair trade coffee breaks! There will be workshops and discussion sessions, along with the chance to browse a Fair Trade marketplace and stock up on fair trade goods.

At this convergence, you will learn skills that will help you organize a movement on campus, inspire others, and empower fair trade producers all at the same time! This will also be the kickoff for USFT’s affiliate program – Alta Gracia Apparel!

Students can also qualify for a number of travel scholarships to attend the conference! Registration is due by February 1^st if you would like to be considered for a scholarship.

Sponsors include: The Cooperative Fund of New England, Divine Chocolate, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, Equal Exchange, Global Girlfriends, Pulsera Project, and others.

 Please contact Maria Louzon, National and Convergence Coordinator, at (443)883-5226 or maria@usft.org with any questions.

Day 4-6: Villa Altagracia, Bonao, Playa Nahuay

Villa Altagracia: We did more workshops on strategic campaigning for Alta Gracia.

Bonao: After a 3-4 hour guagua ride, we arrived at a dirt road. We had to get off the guagua and into the back of some 4WD pickup trucks (we barely made it!!) that took us to the top of a beautiful mountain that led to a fair trade farm — which we thought was going to be a banana plantation, but once we got there, it was an organic fruit, coffee, cocoa, and banana farm that has some crops certified to be Fair Trade by IMO. When asked about why they did not choose to be certified by Fair Trade USA, they said it was because they (as well as many others in this region) feel that Fair Trade USA is monopolizing the Fair Trade movement and is not working to give a voice to the farmers, but rather to large corporations. We then headed to a beach — it was chilly (around 70 degrees), but some of us braved the cold air and headed into the ocean — water is so clear and clean here! After only bathing with baby wipes all week, it was quite refreshing to take a “shower” in the ocean.

Playa Nahuay: We got up early and headed to the beach to meet with factory workers from a nearby Gildan factory. Their story was so moving —  although they have formed a union, Gildan still does not respect them and continues to try to distract them by creating false unions within the factory to confuse workers . They have become more hopeful over the past few months because Gildan has said that they want to meet them and provided them with a date to come up with a collective bargaining agreement…..however, they keep pushing this date back…..

Beach =Beautiful day! We rented an inner tube and floated in the surf — ahhh soo nice. Those cabanas were perfect. For lunch we had a delicious spread of avacado

Day 3: Villa Altagracia

We visited the Alta Gracia factory today. What an empowering place to work!

All of the folks that work there are so happy — everyone had a smile on their face, and seeing how enthusiastic the workers are about their jobs has made everyone STOKED to go back to their schools and promote Alta Gracia.

Workshop, workshop, workshop …. then hiking through the Altagracia Hills — and theeeen we went dancing. What a great night!

Will write more tomorrow

Day 2: Santo Domingo and Villa Altagracia

Sorry it has taken so long for us to post — we have had horrible internet and by the time we upload all of our pictures, the internet is so slow we can’t really do anything else. Here are the days broken down with what we have done….sorry it’s long — enjoy!

Day 2:

This morning we started off by chatting with FEDOTRAZONAS Unionists. FEDOTRAZONAS is a awesome union here in the Dominican Republic that is one of the best around — they work hard to ensure that all of their members are treated with dignity and if there are ever problems in any of the factories that the union members work in, FEDOTRAZONAS quickly takes care of them.

FEDOTRAZONAS was monumental in the formation and continued success of Alta Gracia, the apparel company.  Ignacio Hernandez spoke about the history of BJ&B, a former sweatshop in Villa Altagracia, and all of the horrible injustices that were occuring to it’s workers — especially verbal and physical abuse. If women were found to be pregnant, they would be fired because BJ&B did not want to pay for their healthcare or even have to pay them when they were on maternity leave.

After that presentation, we had a workshop on Collective Liberation. It’s so hot here — it was kind of hard to pay attention, because it reminded me of my warm bed back at home, but Josh and I really learned a lot . As a group, we discussed our real reasoning as to why we are here — we aren’t here to be in service to the Alta Gracia workers — we’re here to hear their stories and be a voice for them back in the states and FIGHT for them. Most of us will do this by pushing our bookstores to carry more Alta Gracia Apparel .

We then left Santo Domingo and headed for Villa Altagracia, about a 40 minute ride away from where we were. Let’s just say, 25 people trying to fit in a guagua (spanish for “bus”) with all of their luggage is not the most fun thing.

Day 1: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Greetings from Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic!

Today it was about 85 degrees — pretty hot compared to the brisk weather back home. Josh, the Heartland and Midwest Coordinator for USFT, and I got here last night and were greeted by Rachel Taber, from Alta Gracia Apparel, and had a great taxi ride from the airport to our hostel. Anyways, there were only a handful of other people here last night so we stayed in and went to bed.

This morning we woke up and walked through Santo Domingo. Let’s just say that here, there is no such thing as red lights or stop signs. Yes, they exist, but you have to be super careful when crossing the street because even though you may not hear a car, they come out of NO WHERE! Speaking of cars — its pretty amazing the range of cars there are here. From the 1992 Toyota Camry that was our taxi last night to brand new Range Rovers you never know what is going to be speeding up to hit you! Luckily, we didn’t get hit today.

After realizing that we each only had USD, we had to exchange our money! We were walking down the street and saw an American flag and assumed the people that worked there spoke English — WRONG! Well, not 100%, but from the broken English we understood, we were told to go down the street by the park to a pharmacy that has really good exchange rates apparently. Well, we walked down the street and saw a place that looked like a bank (not a pharmacy) and walked in to exchange our money. Actually, it was a lottery vendor, so we almost handed over $500 for lotto tickets — woops! They told us to go next door, so we did, and there we found a bank (still not that pharmacy).  After getting 38 pesos for a dollar (pretty good deal!), we walked out and saw that pharmacy, right next door! I think the guy back at that American flag place was telling us to go to the bank that was NEXT to the pharmacy, now that I think of it. Well, we got our money exchanged, that’s all that matters, right?

We got lunch at this cafe called MGM Cafe. Well, sounds American, but isn’t exactly. After avoiding a close call with almost ingesting unpurfied-ice cubes, we headed to the shopping area. Found some pretty good deals. Neither Josh or I speak Spanish very well, so it was either me speaking in French (accidentally) or Josh speaking in super broken Spanish…or just the both of us speaking in English……all day….and boy did we get laughed at. After shopping, we walked by the ocean and then headed back to our hostel. We  joined some University of Oregon folks and went to the local brewery for a tour. After finding out they only give tours certain times of year and this was not the time of year they give tours, we were about to leave when they said, wait! free beer for all! We walked out of that brewery with a free case of beer for the group and each of us had a little goody bag with a free beach towel and hat. Then it was time to head back, rest and meet with the rest of the group for dinner!

After dinner, we got a cool breakdown of the history United Students Against Sweatshops from Anna and Rachel. Josh and I are so pumped for the rest of this trip! Tomorrow we’re heading to Villa Alta Gracia after meeting with some national union members here. Woot!

Side note —- DEET IS THE BOMB! Josh and I have basically doused ourselves in it and have avoided all bug bites, while our counterparts have not been so fortunate. One guy looks like he was attached by a drugged mosquito — he has welts the size of Alaska on his legs……maybe we can give him some deet, or just make sure he eats TONS of garlic?

I really wish I knew Spanish because I know I would get so much more out of this trip. The language barrier probably is the biggest issue I’m having — I’m so bummed that I can’t communicate my feelings or desires to eat ice cream or hear the stories of all of the residents here. Luckily, the important parts are translated, but sometimes the parts I get the most out of are the personal conversations I have with people on the streets. Hopefully I’ll learn more than cervesa, donde estas, hola, and adios before I leave next Friday!

Happy Holidays from USFT!

Thanks for your support this past year! Have a happy and safe holiday season!

Picture collage created with Smilebox

 

DFTA Annual Meeting: Days 2 & 3

Day 2 & 3

Amazing time! Made tons of connections with folks in the Fair Trade world, especially the Bronner’s! Yesterday we had sessions on specifics of the Domestic Fair Trade Association and then a party to celebrate the devotion and dedication of one of the outgoing DFTA Board members. Today we had a panel discussion featuring some DFTA members and the Fair World Project did a great job explaining the current state of the Fair Trade movement as a result of FT USA making the moves they have.

 

2011 DFTA Annual Meeting: Day 1

Greetings from sunny San Diego! Unlike all of you East Coasters, I’m here on the  West Coast enjoying the beautiful weather. I arrived yesterday afternoon and last night traveled around a bit — went for a run in Balboa Park and ate at an Afghani Restaurant (yum!). This morning, I got up early and after breakfast, headed to Coronado Beach . What a gem! After sticking my toes in the Pacific Ocean, off to the Domestic Fair Trade Association’s Annual Meeting I went!

The first “meeting” was about a North America Fair Trade Summit that is in the works for the spring. Since a lot of us (consumers and non-consumers) are confused about the future of Fair Trade, a lot have agreed that a “Summit” is necessary in order for us to come together and discuss / come to some conclusions as to what we envision/want Fair Trade to be. Afterwards we were treated to a scrumptious lunch.

Later this afternoon, we headed to Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps’ headquarters for a tour / dinner! What a happy and magical place. Their story is truly inspiring — their soap actually saved someone’s life one time!

Sorry to cut this short, but I’ve gotta go do some homework — look for a post tomorrow.

Maria Louzon is a National Coordinator for United Students for Fair Trade. She can be reached at maria@usft.org

What are YOU doing over your January break?

Looking to get more involved in the fair trade movement? Check out our upcoming trip!

Worker Empowerment & Trade Justice in the Dominican Republic

January 2^nd – 10^th

Join the Fair World Project (FWP) to explore the emerging world of workers’ rights, union-made living-wage apparel and trade justice in the Dominican Republic. FWP’s Dominican Republic tour will provide an on the ground opportunity to learn from Alta Gracia factory workers, Free Trade Zone garment workers organizing for their rights, social justice activists, and small cooperative producers. Alta Gracia is a living-wage union-made apparel initiative on more than 400 college campuses that was ten years of student-worker organizing in the making. This video made by students in United Students Against Sweatshops is a good overview of the project’s history, as is this recent article from The Nation and this New York Times article.

In addition to experiencing the reality of workers and farmers in the Dominican Republic, tour participants will meet workers organizing in the so-called “Free Trade Zones” and gain a wider context of how trade law impacts local communities.

Amidst beach time, dancing, chocolate, and loads of fun, we’ll learn how to run strong, direct action campaigns on our campuses back home, and follow up as a community in the Spring as we run and win parallel campaigns at our universities.

This tour will facilitate home stays for participants with Alta Gracia families.

Tour Highlights Include Visiting and Experiencing: 

• Visit the ground breaking Alta Gracia apparel factory and meet with union workers
• Experience the realities of working and living in a “free trade zone”
• Visit with cocoa and banana coop members and workers
• Organizing 101 workshops
• Dancing, beach and fun!

Cost: $500

Package Includes: 

• Guest Family Housings; two meals a day
• On-ground transportation including airport pick-up and drop-off
• Translation and program activities
• Speaker and worker honorariums
• Preparatory reading materials
• NOT INCLUDED: airfare, airport departure taxes, lunches, tips, and personal expenses.

How to Register: 

Register online and pay a non-refundable deposit of $250 by December 15^st.

Learn more here: http://fairworldproject.org/news/single/410/rss.php

The Fair Trade Future: Building Momentum After FTUSA

So. You’ve been hearing all about FTUSA’s recent break from FLO and the changes going on in the fair trade movement. Lots of media. Lots of change. But you may be asking yourself, now what?

United Students for Fair Trade invites you to participate in our first discussion in a series of teach-ins (think online class for fair trade, but cooler!). We will be hosting a discussion by a panel of farmers and producers who can share their own experiences, the benefits of fair trade, and some of the changes to this system. We want to hear the real voices of fair trade, not just the glossy advertising from FTUSA. Out goal is to become educated advocates for fair trade so we’re starting with the voices that represent the fair trade movement best!

Too busy with end-of-semester commitments? Not to worry. We will be starting off with these teach-ins starting in January –perfect timing for a semester kick-0ff with your own fair trade and social justice clubs on campus! But we also need your help. Who do you want to hear from? What are your concerns for the future of the fair trade movement? Contact your regional coordinator with questions, comments, or suggestions for this awesome opportunity! Spread the word to your club members in your schools and stay tuned for more information to come!