Beyond sweatshops: fair trade, co-op development and the birth of a new economy.

What is a cup of fairly-traded coffee worth to you? Do you care if your cocoa is produced at a worker-owned cooperative? What would our economy look like if sweatshop labour were eliminated? What would we give up as consumers? What would we gain? And what does any of this have to do with South Pacific peoples?

**********

These questions are at the core of PPP's newest initiative aimed at exploring what is at stake for British Columbians in our increasingly globalized economy, and just how far we are willing to go to bring about change. It's a project that will bring activists from Fiji and Honduras to Canada to engage citizens in 15 communities in discussions about the global trading system, consumer power, fair trade, and cooperative development, and more importantly, about the values at play in broad-based movements for change.

There's no denying that there is a growing momentum among those in developed nations towards acting as informed global citizens intent on creating positive social and economic change in their own countries and in the world. Indeed, this effort, a joint initiative of Pacific Peoples' Partnership and the Victoria International Development Education Association, recognizes the growing interest of Canadians in fair trade and cooperative development, and the heightened sensitivity to our international obligations as a nation.

But what are we willing to give up, trade off, or change, if anything, to bring about meaningful change in the world? PPP believes that by understanding the attitudes of a diverse group of citizens, we can better succeed at our various efforts to encourage just and sustainable economic alternatives to the inherently exploitative model that prevails today.

Over the next six months, PPP will pull together groups of students, business people, activists, municipal councillors, artists, home-school teachers, journalists and more to talk about viable alternatives to the current global trading model. Together, they will explore economic approaches premised on principles of fair pricing, decent working conditions, pooled resources and a living wage--whether in the agricultural or industrial sectors. Using the methodology of public deliberation, an approach to dialogue aimed at unearthing what values might be shared among diverse groups of individuals, these discussions will challenge participants to test both the limits and viability of their own belief systems.

PPP and VIDEA will carefully document participants' input along with the policy recommendations that emerge from the dialogues. These will be shared among the many players in the fair trade, cooperative development and ethical sourcing movement, in an effort to strengthen our respective missions to engage Canadians in these approaches. For instance, we believe that it will feed into a growing national campaign to ensure not only that fairly-traded coffee and souvenirs are available for sale at the 2010 Olympics to be held around Vancouver, but also that there is a group of well-informed and caring citizens demanding that these products be available and in abundant supply. Similarly, the dialogues will inform those involved in the global cooperative movement, strengthening their "buy cooperative, build cooperative" efforts among potential consumers and producers.

Equally important, out of the deliberations, half of which will focus on youth, will emerge a "Fair Trade Tool Kit", a tool that young leaders can use to inform and mobilize their peers. PPP's schools-based programme will then take us out into high schools and youth centres to distribute the kit among students and animate discussion.

Finally, this initiative offers clear opportunities for our South Pacific partners. In Fiji, for instance, the Pacific Network Against Globalization has been working to document the impacts of newly signed regional trade agreements on local economies, livelihoods, the environment and community health. With training in the methodology of public deliberation around which this initiative revolves, and a more informed analysis of the alternatives of fair trade and cooperative development, PANG's representative will be better equipped to engage a broad base of Fjijian citizens in an exploration of viable alternatives to the prevailing economic model.

This initiative will serve as one encouraging step in a much broader, globally dispersed movement aimed at envisioning and realizing a new global economic order rooted in principles of justice and equity.

Pacific Peoples' Partnership is grateful to the Canadian International Development Agency for providing funding for this initiative.