STJC
About STJC: Campaigns
History

National Team

Campaigns

:: Justice for the Americas

:: Fair Trade <-> Trade Justice

Principles

Partners

 Bridging Fair Trade and Trade Justice

Fair Trade

In the pursuit of a more just and equitable global trading system, people from many walks of life have come together to create both the Fair Trade movement and the Trade Justice movement. Fair Trade has sought to create and promote an alternative model of trade that respects the dignity of workers and producers by empowering them as individuals and as communities to determine their own livelihoods. This movement is driven by the passionate collaboration of producers, workers, community leaders, students, business people, and civil society organizers. Fairer prices and compensation for the labor of producers and workers along with sustainable operating practices have gone a long way to improving the livelihoods of their families. In turn, the relationships that have developed between producers and workers in the Global South with students, faith groups and professionals in the Global North has created a palpable and growing solidarity which has spurred even greater work to be done to create markets and systems that work for all people, not just some.


Trade Justice

While unquestionably related to Fair Trade, the Trade Justice movement has taken a different route that begins with the understanding that viable alternatives to the current system of global trade are essential. Given this fact, the critical focus of the Trade Justice movement has been on reforming the institutions and their policies which govern and organize global trade. The ability to advocate for effective reform, or knowing when an institution is too set against the needs of the poor to be capable of reform, is all dependent on developing a popular understanding of just how destructive current trade polices can be in the realms of agriculture, health, the environment, and human rights, and others as well.

Today, voices of ordinary people as well as community and national leaders from the Global South are increasingly being heard. This broad popular understanding of the dangers of destructive trading practices and the lives they have destroyed there is gradually expanding to the North, especially as we see the destructive effects of outsourcing on our own economies and the political effects of our economic imperialism. People want a direct and democratic say in how trade policy is created and what those policies will be, and they want transparency in the institutions that govern and organize global trade such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and their own national governments that are supposed to represent them. Citizens worldwide are rapidly recognizing that the broad rights of living, breathing people should come before the narrow interests of industry leaders and investors, and that trade policy should enforce and protect that right, not subvert it.


Bridging the Gap

Fair Trade and Trade Justice are two paths to a single destination: a world where trade between individuals and nations is a positive force for improving the livelihoods of all people and where each understands that they will only truly thrive when everyone else is able to as well. Bridging and integrating these two distinct but intricately related movements has the potential to exponentially enhancing the ability of both to reach this same destination. By continually striving towards Bridging Fair Trade and Trade Justice, STJC hopes to educate and advocate about the issues and create one loud and passionate voice that can move as a large and undeniable force.

Get Involved with the Bridging Fair Trade and Trade Justice Working Group

The Student Trade Justice Campaign is a project of Global Justice.
1301 Clifton St NW, Suite 100, Washington, DC 20009, USA.
Tel: 202-296-6727 | Fax: 202-296-6728 | E-mail: info@tradejusticecampaign.org
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