back | next

Lesson 5 - Fair Trade is About Being Fair:
A short history of the beginnings of the Fair Trade movement for arts and crafts (Grades 3-5)

Appropriate for older students (Grades 6-8) without the coloring book.

Background

Tourists have long visited countries such as Guatemala and admired the handmade weaving, masks, pottery, and other craft items which they purchased as souvenirs to help them to remember their visit. But often they have not wanted to pay the true value of these items. For as long as tourism has gone on, some travelers have bargained with artisans to pay them the very lowest price possible, leaving them with only a small profit or sometimes with no profit at all.

In the early 70's, Maya women of Jacaltenango established a cooperative to sell the patterned hair ribbons that they produced with the help of a peace corps member and a religious group.

Beginning in the late 60's and in the early 70's, changes began in Guatemala, when groups of artisans began to be organize cooperatives. Such organizations helped their members to obtain fairer prices for their products and to jointly purchase materials needed for production. Working together gave them many economic advantages.  Members of religious communities also encouraged the formation of coops. By the the 80s, still other individuals from Canada, the USA, and Europe joined in this effort. Some were simply people who appreciated Maya arts and crafts but saw the injustice of buyers paying as little as possible for them. A number of these individuals eventually contributed to the founding of Fair Trade Federation.

Apart from the role of individuals and religious groups, the beginning of Fair Trade can be traced to an even earlier time when a number of organizations responded to wars and disasters. As early as shortly after World War II, various organizations, called NGO's or Non-Governmental Organizations, gave refugees in Europe opportunities to use their craft skills to make items for sale to support themselves. These efforts can be said to have have played significant roles in developing the foundation for the Fair Trade movement. Later, similar efforts happened in many parts of the world, from Africa to Asia and Latin America. During the civil war in Guatemala in the 80's, and during the Bosnian war in Europe in the 90's, projects were formed to help market arts and crafts made by war victims and refugees.

In the 80's, war conditions in Guatemala caused hundreds of thousands to flee. Given shelter in Mexico, Maya refugee women with their children participate in a weaving and craft project. Coops were established to sell what they produced.

Later some of these projects became cooperatives, and now sell to Fair Trade retailers. Today we can see how the organization of Fair Trade and cooperatives often grew together hand in hand, because both had similar goals of helping people to live better lives and earn a just return for their work.

back | next