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Big C offee Companies Agree To Set Standard
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Some of the world's biggest coffee companies announced a voluntary code on
Friday to improve conditions and environmental standards for coffee
workers and growers in producer countries, reports the International
Herald Tribune (09/11). The code follows complaints by consumer and
environmental groups that the compan ies exploit low prices and poor
working conditions in a world market glutted with excess coffee.
Called the Common Code for the Coffee Community, it aims to help poor
producers by creating a market for coffee that has been produced without
banned pesticides or any slave, forced or ch ild labor in places where
trade unions are permitted, working conditions that are fair and producers
are allowed to sell their coffee freely. Coffee produced this way will be
certified under the code. The parties to the agreement include Nestlé,
Tchibo, Sara Lee, Kraft, and the German coffee industry associat ion DKV.
Producers involved include Brazil, Vietnam, Kenya, Colombia, Indonesia and
the main Central American exporters. The signatory companies are not
committing to buy certified coffee. Instead, the industry will "intensify
business relationships with producers of good quality" and "p rovide a
price differential for high quality coffee,"according to the Code.
The Financial Times (09/10) adds that the Common Code is targeted at the
mainstream coffee market, rather than the fair trade segment, and is the
result of pressure from consumers, retailers and non-governmen tal
organizations. The code will be enforced by independent auditors and be
evaluated regularly. The code is the most ambitious attempt to set
standards in an industry severely affected by over-production and falling
prices. It is also one of the most sweeping voluntary initiatives
undertaken by any industry. The involvement of large companies marked a
breakthro ugh compared with smaller schemes, and peer pressure increased
the chances of full implementation, analysts said. About 25 million people
in 70 developing countries depend on coffee production for a retail market
worth about $35 billion a year. The voluntary code will also be signed by
N GOs, including Oxfam International and Greenpeace, and a federation of
trade unions including coffee industry workers. If fully implemented, the
code would cover an estimated 80 percent of the international coffee
market.
In an editorial, The Guardian (UK, 09/13) writes the Common Co de is good
news for the 25 million workers and farmers in the many developing
countries such as Guatemala and Vietnam who have suffered from the brutal
competition to supply the west with its regular caffeine fix. The adoption
of the code at last brings something of a moral force of the fair trade
movement into the mainstream. Yet while the code will aid fairer trade , it
is not fair trade in a strict sense. While it will help farm workers'
incomes, it does not address the long term fall in coffee prices and the
glut in production that have depressed their sale values. The agreement
also avoids any mention of genetically modified coffee plants, thus< BR>missing an ideal opportunity to tackle the issue.
Dow Jones (09/12) meanwhile adds that that critics are saying the
companies could help more by cutting oversupply. Angus Downie, an
economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, said he doubted
that the Code would help bo ost world coffee prices, which have only made a
marginal recovery since hitting 30-year lows in 2002. "The only way to get
prices back up is to cut supply," he said. "These schemes do have a habit
of not working in the medium-to-long term." Ian Bretnam, deputy director
of the Fairtrade Foundation, said, "Anything that improves workers'conditions is welcome, but it seems to be largely focused on plantation
workers and doesn't address the fundamental problem of the slump in
prices."
Reuters (09/10) adds that Robert Nsibirwa, chairman of the Uganda chapter
of the East Africa Fine Coffee Association (EAFFCA), said t he pact should
help to build a healthier industry. "We think that by doing everything
right they will be able to build better business relationships which,
crucially, will be long lasting," he said. But a senior Kenyan agriculture
official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the pact ha d to take into
account local conditions, specifically the use of children on farms during
school holidays.
We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore
By Garrison Keillor
Something has gone seriously haywire with the
Republican Party. Once, it was the party of pragmatic Main Street businessmen
in steel-rimmed spectacles who decried profligacy and waste, were
devoted to their communities and supported the sort of prosperity that
raises all ships. They were good-hearted people who vanquished the
gnarlier elements of their party, the paranoid Roosevelt-haters, the flat
Earthers and Prohibitionists, the antipapist antiforeigner
element. The genial Eisenhower was their man, a genuine American hero of
D-Day, who made it OK for reasonable people to vote Republican. He
brought the Korean War to a stalemate, produced the Interstate Highway
System, declined to rescue the French colonial army in Vietnam, and gave
us a period of peace and prosperity, in which (oddly) American arts
and letters flourished and higher education burgeoned, and there
was a degree of plain decency in the country. Fifties Republicans
were giants compared to today's. Richard Nixon was the last Republican
leader to feel a Christian obligation toward the poor.
In the years between Nixon and Newt Gingrich, the
party migrated southward down the Twisting Trail of Rhetoric and
sneered at the idea of public service and became the Scourge of Liberalism,
the Great Crusade Against the Sixties, the Death Star of Government, a
gang of pirates that diverted and fascinated the media by their sheer
chutzpah, such as the misty-eyed flag-waving of Ronald Reagan who,
while George McGovern flew bombers in World War II, took a pass and made
training films in Long Beach. The Nixon moderate vanished like the
passenger pigeon, purged by a legion of angry white men who rose to
power on pure punk politics. "Bipartisanship is another term of date
rape," says Grover Norquist, the Sid Vicious of the GOP. "I don't want
to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size
where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." The
boy has Oedipal problems and government is his daddy.
The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified
into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills,
faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles,
Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat
boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf
pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs,
aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil
Armstrong's moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out
to diminish the rest of us, Newt's evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch
president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of
information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly
sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest
of the world thinks we're deaf, dumb and dangerous.
Rich ironies abound! Lies pop up like toadstools in
the forest! Wild swine crowd round the public trough! Outrageous
gerrymandering! Pocket lining on a massive scale! Paid lobbyists sit in
committee rooms and write legislation to alleviate the suffering of
billionaires! Hypocrisies shine like cat turds in the moonlight! O
Mark Twain, where art thou at this hour? Arise and behold the Gilded
Age reincarnated gaudier than ever, upholding great wealth as the sure
sign of Divine Grace.
Here in 2004, George W. Bush is running for
reelection on a platform of tragedy- the single greatest failure of national
defense in our history, the attacks of 9/11 in which 19 men with box
cutters put this nation into a tailspin, a failure the details of which the
White House fought to keep secret even as it ran the country into hock
up to the hubcaps, thanks to generous tax cuts for the well-fixed,
hoping to lead us into a box canyon of debt that will render government impotent,
even as we engage in a war against a small country that was undertaken
for the president's personal satisfaction but sold to the American public
on the basis of brazen misinformation, a war whose purpose is to
distract us from an enormous transfer of wealth taking place in this
country, flowing upward, and the deception is working beautifully.
The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of
the few is the death knell of democracy. No republic in the history
of humanity has survived this. The election of 2004 will say
something about what happens to ours. The omens are not good.
Our beloved land has been fogged with fear- fear, the
greatest political strategy ever. An ominous silence, distant
sirens, a drumbeat of whispered warnings and alarms to keep the public
uneasy and silence the opposition. And in a time of vague fear, you can
appoint bullet-brained judges, strip the bark off the
Constitution, eviscerate federal regulatory agencies, bring public education
to a standstill, stupefy the press, lavish gorgeous tax breaks on the
rich.
There is a stink drifting through this election year.
It isn't the Florida recount or the Supreme Court decision. No,
it's 9/11 that we keep coming back to. It wasn't the "end of
innocence," or a turning point in our history, or a cosmic occurrence, it was
an event, a lapse of security. And patriotism shouldn't prevent people
from asking hard questions of the man who was purportedly in charge of
national security at the time.
Whenever I think of those New Yorkers hurrying along
Park Place or getting off the No.1 Broadway local, hustling toward
their office on the 90th floor, the morning paper under their arms, I
think of that non-reader George W. Bush and how he hopes to exploit
those people with a little economic uptick, maybe the capture of Osama,
cruise to victory in November and proceed to get some serious
nation-changing done in his second term.
This year, as in the past, Republicans will portray
us Democrats as embittered academics, desiccated Unitarians,
whacked-out hippies and communards, people who talk to telephone poles, the
party of the Deadheads. They will wave enormous flags and wow over
and over the footage of firemen in the wreckage of the World Trade
Center and bodies being carried out and they will lie about their
economic policies with astonishing enthusiasm.
The Union is what needs defending this year.
Government of Enron and by Halliburton and for the Southern Baptists is not
the same as what Lincoln spoke of. This gang of Pithecanthropus
Republicanii has humbugged us to death on terrorism and tax cuts for
the comfy and school prayer and flag burning and claimed the right to know what
books we read and to dump their sewage upstream from the town and clear-cut the
forests and gut the IRS and mark up the constitution on behalf of
intolerance and promote the corporate takeover of the public airwaves
and to hell with anybody who opposes them.
This is a great country, and it wasn't made so by
angry people. We have a sacred duty to bequeath it to our
grandchildren in better shape than however we found it. We have a long way to go
and we're not getting any younger.
Dante said that the hottest place in Hell is reserved
for those who in time of crisis remain neutral, so I have spoken my
piece, and thank you, dear reader. It's a beautiful world, rain or shine,
and there is more to life than winning.
Dear Amy,
The horrors befalling the innocent men, women and children of Darfur, Sudan have
only gotten worse.
Amnesty International has finally been granted access to the region where more
than a million people have been displaced, 200,000 have sought refuge across the
border, more than 30,000 have been killed, thousands of women and girls have
been raped, and hundreds of villages have been destroyed.
We need your help to cope with this human rights catastrophe. Please donate now.
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=680995&l=9855
Just this week, the World Health Organization released an estimate that as many
as 10,000 Sudanese are dying each month -- from starvation, disease, and other
direct effects of the rampaging Janjawid militias. We know that crimes against
humanity are occurring on a vast scale in Darfur -- with no end in sight.
As I write this, Amnesty USA Executive Director Bill Schulz is visiting the
stricken region. He will be reporting first-hand what he finds during the
mission. Look for his personal update in the coming days on our website and via
e-mail.
Amnesty International was the first human rights group to call the world's
attention to the horrific crisis. We ask all people of compassion to help by
making an emergency donation to support our efforts.
You can speed your gift to the front lines by using our secure Web page:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=680995&l=9855
Amnesty-commissioned satellite images of one key area indicate that 44 percent
of the villages and settlements have been burnt. Most of the other villages have
been abandoned. These satellite images of destroyed villages vividly illustrate
the pattern of attacks, including burning, killing, looting and raping that
extends throughout Darfur and has caused the crisis of forced displacement in
the region.
Amnesty International has also interviewed refugees in camps in Chad and found
that many of the human rights violations in Darfur have been targeted
specifically against women and girls. These violations have included abductions,
sexual slavery, torture, and forced displacement.
Within the camps the humanitarian conditions are precarious. There is still not
enough food in Darfur to last throughout the rainy season, which will cut off
much of the region, especially western Darfur. Displaced persons camps in remote
areas cannot be reached, except by plane or camel. A resident of West Darfur
told Amnesty International, "The food is reaching hundreds but there are
thousands who need food and receive nothing."
AMNESTY'S EMERGENCY CAMPAIGN
From the beginning, Amnesty has mobilized its credibility, worldwide diplomatic
contacts and unique moral force to focus attention on Darfur. This week's
mission marks the 5th visit by Amnesty officials to the region over the past 18
months.
Here is what Amnesty has done and will be doing to alleviate the massive
suffering and restore law and order:
-- Breaking the UN Deadlock
The UN has been unable to overcome regional politics to exert meaningful
pressure on the Sudanese Government. The African Union and the UN must deploy
monitors in sufficient numbers to oversee the protection of refugees. Amnesty is
working to break the stalemate, both behind the scenes and by exerting public
pressure via our more than 1.8 million members around the world. Specifically
the flow of arms to the Sudanese Government must stop, and the UN should extend
and enforce the current arms embargo to include the Sudanese government.
-- Supporting Secretary of State Powell's Recent Efforts
The U.S. government, partly in response to widespread calls for action, has
recently become more vocal about the situation as evidenced in Secretary
Powell's recent statements. In part through U.S. efforts, the European Union is
developing a measures to ensure compliance by the Sudanese government that may
go into effect later this month. The U.S. must continue to play a leadership
role.
-- Activating the African Union (AU)
Through our long-standing relationships with African leaders and diplomats,
Amnesty has been able to help the AU's effort to mobilize against the apparently
deliberate slaughter and dislocation of the black African population of Darfur.
AU members have hosted peace talks among the warring factions within Sudan and
have provided the only international presence to date in Darfur -- the AU
Ceasefire Monitoring Group. We have been lobbying for more resources and support
to be given to this effort and for the 300 person force to be expanded so that
it can protect civilians as opposed to just the ceasefire monitors.
Will you please help? I urge you to make an emergency donation right now:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/ctt.asp?u=680995&l=9855
With your immediate help and continued participation, Amnesty will be better
able to sustain what may be a long struggle in Sudan. I will report to you from
time to time on our progress in halting and reversing this heartbreaking chain
of events.
With much gratitude and respect,
Sincerely yours,
Curt Goering
Senior Deputy Executive Director of AIUSA
P.S. Donating online cuts our overhead and helps speed your generous donation
to the front lines of the battle for global human rights. Please donate NOW
A Trail of Mourning for Iraq on October 2, 2004
On October 2, 2004, communities across the country will come together to display
their solidarity with those killed and wounded in the war in Iraq. In
Washington, a memorial procession entitled "A Trail of Mourning and Truth from
Iraq to the White House" will honor and remember all those killed and wounded in
the war and occupation of Iraq. The procession will begin at the Pentagon Metro
station, proceed to Arlington National Cemetery, and culminate with a closing
ceremony in front of the White House.
As the November elections approach, the deaths of U.S. soldiers and Iraqis
continue to mount. A diverse coalition of peace and social justice advocates is
planning the Trail of Mourning and Truth to call on everyone, including all
presidential candidates, to mourn the dead, heal the wounded, and end the war.
Mark your calendars now to join this memorial event.
You can participate in the Trail of Mourning by coming to Washington, DC, to
join the procession or by planning your own memorial event in your community.
Use this time to help register voters and distribute FCNL Vote 2004 materials.
Carry and distribute FCNL "War Is Not the Answer" signs and bumper stickers.
This is an opportunity to come together and make visible your commitment to end
the violence in Iraq and move towards positive social change.
For Vote 2004 materials or signs, pamphlets, pins or stickers, please contact
fcnl@fcnl.org (mailto:fcnl@fcnl.org) More information on the Trail of Mourning
can be found at: (https://dnbweb1.blackbaud.com/OPXREPHIL/Link.asp?link=26185)
(Internet Explorer only)
*****
Saturday, Oct. 2, 2004, Events:
Peace Ceremony Marking the Pentagon's Role in the War
9:00 a.m. Gather at Pentagon Metro stop entrance.
Proceed to Arlington National Cemetery. For information, contact American
Friends Service Committee, 410-323-7200
Commemorative Event: Arlington National Cemetery, Women's Memorial
12 noon
* Opening reflections by veterans, families who have lost loved ones in Iraq,
and others
* Please wear black mourning clothes befitting a funeral or memorial
* Arlington National Cemetery Metro stop (recommended) or paid parking at the
cemetery
The Women's Memorial is at the end of Memorial Drive near the cemetery's
entrance
Memorial Procession: Leaving Arlington Cemetery at 1 p.m.
* Solemn procession across Memorial Bridge, past the Lincoln Memorial, and to
the Ellipse side of the White House (approx 3 miles)
Closing Ceremony: The White House, Ellipse, 2 p.m.
* Reading the names of the dead and remembering the wounded
* Speakers: Arun Gandhi, Lila Lipscomb, Celeste Zappala, Michael Berg, and
others
Those risking arrest will try to deliver the names of the dead to the White
House at the conclusion of the ceremony. Those taking part are urged to have
nonviolence training, an affinity group, and observe nonviolence guidelines.
Contact Max at AFSC: 410-323-7200 or mobuszewski@afsc.org
(mailto:mobuszewski@afsc.org)
For more information:
In Washington, DC: 301-589-2355 or pledgecoordinator@starpower.net
(mailto:pledgecoordinator@starpower.net) ; Baltimore: 410-323-7200;
Philadelphia/Wilmington: 302-656-2721;
NYC: 212-228-0450 x 104
Event Sponsors: American Friends Service Committee; Brandywine Peace Community;
Casa Baltimore/Limay; Center for Conscience and War; Chester County (PA) Peace
Movement; DC Antiwar Network; Gray Panthers of Metropolitan Washington;
Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capitol Area; Iraq Pledge of
Resistance; Iraq Veterans Against the War; Jonah House; Military Families Speak
Out; National Youth & Student Peace Coalition; NETWORK, National Catholic Social
Justice Lobby; Northern Virginia Greens; NOW Baltimore; Pacem in Terris (DE);
Pax Christi USA; Peace Action; Physicians for Social Responsibility, Baltimore;
Proposition One Committee; September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows; SOA
Watch; 20/20 Vision; Texans for Peace, Veterans for Peace; War Resisters League;
Washington Peace Center
Dear MoveOn member,
Women's voices could make all the difference this November. Together, we are 51% of America, and single women in particular are now one of the most progressive demographic groups in the country. Yet 50 million of us didn't vote in the last election.
This Saturday, women (and men) everywhere will join in a National Women's Election Action Day. Thousands of volunteers will take to the streets to register, recruit, educate, and mobilize voters to ensure that women stand up and are counted in this election.
Sign up now to take part, at:
http://www.americavotes.org/action/index.cfm?mg=moveon
Volunteers will participate in voter contact activities such as phone banking, door-to-door canvassing, campus organizing, activist trainings, and registering voters. The National Women's Election Action Day is being organized by America Votes, an unprecedented coalition including virtually every major progressive advocacy organization in America. It will be an amazing day.
In recognition of this week's focus on women, we're releasing our ad for the 10 week countdown early this week. It's a terrific ad, called "The Waitress and the Lawyer," directed by Allison Anders, inspired by Al Franken's one act play by the same name and starring Ione Skye, Illeana Douglas, and W. Earl Brown. Click here to see it:
http://www.moveonpac.org/10weeks/
Women's voices are more important than ever this year. Please sign up now to take part in this Saturday's historic mobilization, at:
http://www.americavotes.org/action/index.cfm?mg=moveon
And to further highlight this fantastic week of outreach to women voters, last night, 50 women leaders gathered at the Apollo Theater in New York City to launch a media campaign called “50 Million Women Count! 50 Women Ask 50 Million More: Use Your Voice & Vote!” The leaders who were there included: Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt, Eve Ensler, Gloria Steinem, Vanessa Carlton, Toni Childs, Kate Clinton, Rosario Dawson, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Gina Gershon, Hazelle Goodman, Jehmu Greene of Rock the Vote, Charlotte Martin, Shiva Rose, Isabella Rosellini, Marisa Tomei, Marie Wilson, Carrie Olson & Marika Olson and myself from MoveOn, and many other women activists and volunteers. A special, commemorative photograph was taken of this event. Download it here.
Together, we'll make an incredible difference this Saturday. See you there!
Sincerely,
--Laura Dawn and the whole MoveOn PAC team
Tuesday, September 14th, 2004
Women Should Vote Because:
* We are 51 percent of the population, and with this majority voice we CAN influence the direction of critical policies important to us -- like childcare, choice, personal safety and economic security, and a healthy environment.
* We are not effectively exercising our hard-earned constitutional right. 22 million registered unmarried women did not vote in the last election. And more than 50 million eligible women -- married and unmarried -- are not even registered to vote.
* A poll last year of some 3,000 women of diverse backgrounds conducted by the women’s voting project Women Voices Women Vote found that 65 percent of the women polled believe this country is going in the wrong direction.
* Based on the findings of a recent survey by Business and Professional Women USA, retirement security, job opportunity, good schools and housing costs are all of HIGHER importance to women than homeland security.
* Voting statistics among all women can be improved. According to the U.S. Census bureau, in 2000, some 30 percent of eligible women were not registered to vote.
* Registering is only half the battle. Almost half of registered unmarried women don't vote. If they turned out in numbers, unmarried women would be the largest voting bloc and would be the deciding "X" factor in close elections.
PAID FOR BY MOVEON PAC www.moveonpac.org
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Today we're launching our third "10 Weeks" ad, "Who Profits," featuring animation by Wild Brain studios and the voices of Kevin Bacon, Scarlett Johansson, and Ed Asner. Check it out now.
View "Who Profits"
Dear MoveOn member,
There are now eight weeks to go until the most pivotal election of our lifetimes. Continuing our 10-week countdown featuring ads from famous directors, actors, and artists, today we're launching an amazing new web ad from Wild Brain animation studios titled "Who Profits."
You can check out "Who Profits" and some of the other ads in our 10 Weeks countdown at:
http://www.moveonpac.org/10weeks/
This week's ad, created by some of the world's best animators, uses cartoon techniques to make a very sobering point: while our troops are in harm's way in Iraq, companies like Halliburton are making millions. The ad features the voices of Kevin Bacon, Ed Asner, and Scarlett Johansson.
This ad makes one of the strongest arguments against the Iraq war: with so many Americans hurting here at home, President Bush has spent billions in no-bid contracts with firms run by close friends of the Administration. That means less money for education, health care, job training, and all the other services we so desperately need here at home.
We've put together a flyer that powerfully makes this point, which you can print out and distribute to your friends and neighbors. You can download it now, at:
http://cdn.moveonpac.org/content/pdfs/iraq_flyer.pdf
(You'll need Adobe Acrobat software to read the file.)
With eight weeks left before the election, we're working through every channel -- on TV, in print, on the web, and on the ground -- to make sure folks remember Bush's signature failure in Iraq and what it has cost us here at home.
Thanks for all that you do,
--Adam, Eli, Hannah, James, Laura, and the whole MoveOn PAC Team
September 12th, 2004
PAID FOR BY MOVEON PAC www.moveonpac.org
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.