From Doing Good to Launching a Movement

Women in business were clearly not the norm in 1946. Nevertheless, inspired by compassion, tenacity and an unwavering commitment to provide social and economic justice to enterprising artisans and social entrepreneurs, Edna Ruth Byler not only excelled at marketing handiwork of impoverished people around the world, the social enterpriseshe established and that would evolve into the international non-profit Ten Thousand Villages spurred a world-wide fair trade movement. As a founding member of the World Fair Trade Organization, WFTO, and a long-standing member of the Fair Trade Federation, FTF, Ten Thousand Villages remains an innovative leader within the movement it launched. Serving as a global network of fair trade organizations and enterprises, the WFTO enables producers, artisans and social entrepreneurs to improve their lives and communities through fair trade. WFTO amplifies the individual voices of these enterprising producers, advocating and advancing the concept of fair trade. Comprised of businesses and associations fully committed to fair trade, the FTF ensures fair wages and good employment opportunities to the economically disadvantaged, those most at risk of being exploited, unemployed, underemployed and/or perpetually locked into cyclic poverty.

Recognized as the “father” of modern economics, Adam Smith is credited as the world’s first economist to propound the concept of free trade, followed by other innovative thinkers, eminent economists and activists such as John Maynard Keynes and David Ricardo. Free trade concepts coupled with social and economic justice, in turn, generated greater interest in fair trade and the present-day fair trade movements led by activists such as David C. Korten. The establishment of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT, back in 1947, however, was a pivotal shift to boost global trade across markets. GATT was succeeded by the World Trade Organization, WTO, which was established in Geneva, Switzerland in 1995 as an outcome of the Uruguay Round negotiations. The WTO has since received both high acclaim and severe criticism for its role in directing global markets. In the years subsequent to the notorious Battle in Seattle during the WTO Ministerial Conference in 1999, free trade and fair trade have catapulted front and center in the news as well as in the collective consciousness. Free trade and fair trade have thus transcended economics, becoming a global social issue, particularly as it relates to the extremely disadvantaged and disenfranchised people of the world.

Protestors and activists opposing the WTO, favoring fair trade concepts, believe the very organization created to enhance global markets has actually limited its initial intentions by primarily serving the agenda of multi-national corporations at the expense of the world’s most impoverished people and communities. In a series of rulings, the WTO struck down measures that would actually help the poorest of the poor and protect the environment, while advancing health and safety issues to instead promote the interests of private, predominantly American-based companies. “The WTO seems on a crusade to increase private profit at the expense of all other considerations, including the well-being and quality of life of the mass of the world’s people,” explains Friends of the Earth International campaigner Ronnie Hall, noting “It seems to have a relentless drive to extend its [own] power.”

Post continues: www.justmeans.com/From-Doing-Good-Launching-a-Movement/30312.html