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People Tree?

Cat Chant

05:50 / 28.03.02

Got a catalogue from these people recently and am thinking of buying tshirts & duvet covers from them, since setting up small-scale fair trade links seems to me to be a Good Thing To Do.

From the catalogue it seems that some of the weaving is done by children in Catholic orphanages, though - and I know that said kids are getting better wages & working/living conditions than kids outside fairtrade-protected/orphanage environments, but still... Oh well, it's got to be better than getting my textiles from non-Fair Trade sources.

Anyone got any thoughts on the politics & ethics of this? More info on People Tree specifically at http://www.ptree.co.uk/

Kit-Cat Club

07:56 / 28.03.02

Um, tricky, but I would think that it would be better to buy from the ethical company even if children are employed at the other end - as long as you are confident that they are not employed in swaetshop conditions. Reasoning: it is fair trade, therefore a greater proportion of money goes back to the workers, therefore the children *should* benefit from money for more food, better facilities, education and so on.

BUT I do not know whether this is how it would function in practice...

higuita

08:26 / 28.03.02

Hmm. Simplistically, I think it comes down to whether you'd rather your hard-earneds go into the pocket of Levi's (or whoever) shareholders.
At least if the kids get treated fairly, it's more than they would from, ooh, say, Nike.

With any shopping, you can't see where everything you buy comes from and the conditions they're produced under. The important thing is that you're not consuming mindlessly, you've checked it out and your intention is good. What else can you realistically do?

Cat Chant

15:42 / 28.03.02

I could get off my privileged bourgeois arse and go to Bangladesh and fucking tell the WTO to...

Oh. Realistically. Um, with my no languages, my appalling people skills and my hatred of travel? Buy stuff from People Tree, I guess.

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