3071-The political economy of new slavery

234 Modern Slavery and Fair Trade Products
Conclusion
Within the existing structure of world production and distribution Fair
Trade is unquestionably a positive practice. Fair Trade initiatives help
prevent or alleviate instances of forced labour, child labour and slavelike
conditions of work. Fair Trade is a strategy aimed at dealing with the
causes and not just the consequences of poverty, unlike Ethical Trade
and workers’ rights campaigns against MNCs. As such, the position taken
in this chapter is that Fair Trade must be supported and it is a duty of
citizens of developed countries to choose Fair Trade products in the
supermarkets, thereby improving the lives of individuals and communities
in the Third World. However, Fair Trade does not challenge the
existing division of labour whereby economies of numerous developing
countries depend on exports of a few agricultural products and primary
products, nor does it oppose global capitalism. It is a problem-solving
ideological measure which takes the existence of capitalism for granted
and contributes to its sustenance. Global capitalism is a result of
European expansion which first used conquered territories as supplies
of slaves and markets for goods, and then integrated them into the
capitalist economy as producers of raw materials and consumers of
manufactured goods. This structure of production and distribution
has remained largely intact and Fair Trade contributes to its reproduction.
What is needed to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease and related
forced labour, child labour and slave-like working conditions, is the
transcendence of global capitalism.
Notes
1. The following studies of two co-operatives in cocoa production, El Ceibo and
TCGA, are based on Global Exchange studies (Global Exchange [d]).
2. Information on TARA projects has been obtained from correspondence
between Traidcraft and Tara projects, kindly provided by Fiona Gooch of
Traidcraft.