Financial Times - September 8, 2006
'Fair' coffee workers paid below minimum wage By Hal Weitzman in Lima
"Ethical" coffee is being produced in Peru, the world's top exporter of Fairtrade coffee, by labourers paid less than the legal minimum wage. Industry insiders have also told the FT of non-certified coffee being marked and exported as Fairtrade, and of certified coffee being illegally planted in protected rainforest.
This casts doubt on the certification process used by Fairtrade and similar marks that require producers to pay the minimum wage.
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Which is why I was always sus about participating in this campaign.
Hell, Capital is a social relationship and the capitalist will always try to pay as little
as possible for the skills and time of the workers, they employ. Fairtrade only calls into
question the "niceness" of this relation, not the oppostion of class interests in this
aforementioned social relation.
Regards,
Mike B)
Read "Penguins in Bondage": http://happystiletto.blogspot.com/
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