Press Advisory
Media Contact: Jason Mark, 415-255-7296 San Francisco City Supervisors to Pass Historic Fair Trade Day Resolution
Global Exchange Celebrates International Fair Trade Day Bay Area Events Will Offer Music, Food and Unique Crafts
| WHEN: | Saturday, May 8, 11am - 7pm |
| WHERE: (2 Venues) | 4018 24th Street at Noe, San Francisco, 415-648-8068
2840 College Avenue at Russell, Berkeley, 510-548-0370 |
| WHAT: | On Saturday, May 8, Fair Trade stores throughout the country and around the world will celebrate fair wages for workers and beautiful artisan traditions. |
In the Bay Area, Global Exchange's Fair Trade stores will offer free fair trade coffee from Chiapas, snacks, live music, and unique crafts from over 40 nations. Fair Trade shoppers can try on a handwoven dress or shirt from Nepal or a block printed jacket made by women's cooperatives in India. Protest the exploitative garment industry, and look great at the same time.
Global Exchange is a human rights organization that exposes economic and political injustices around the world--and then organizes for change. As part of its broader human rights mission, Global Exchange sponsors a Fair Trade program that helps support community-owned and women-owned cooperatives in developing countries through the sale of hand-crafted housewares, jewelry, and clothing.
Global Exchange's two Fair Trade stores--one in Berkeley and the other in San Francisco--sell handcrafts made by artisans who are paid a fair wage for their skills, work in healthy conditions, and use their profits for community development. These goods offer an alternative to mainstream merchandise, which too often is made in brutal corporate sweatshops. Through Fair Trade sales, Global Exchange generates income for artisans in over 40 countries while educating first-world consumers about the conditions where the goods are made and helping to build global economic justice from the bottom up.
During the last decade, the international Fair Trade movement has grown dramatically, especially in Europe, where thousands of stores sell crafts and commodities with labels certifying that the goods were not made under abusive and exploitative conditions. Here in the US, Global Exchange is one of several groups spearheading efforts to create a similar Fair Trade labeling system for commodities such as coffee, sugar, and bananas.
Fair Trade is one of the best alternative models for economically just sustainable development. In 1995, Fair Trade stores in the US posted more than $20 million in sales, according to the Wall Street Journal; since then, sales have continued to grow rapidly, with some stores in the US reporting 40 percent yearly growth.
