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