Justice and Peace attended the Scottish Fair Trade Campaigner Conference in Paisley last week. This is an edited version of the challenging talk given by Kat Jones, linking Fairtrade to the climate crisis and the frustrations of COPs that, in the main halls, struggle even to pay lip service to the radical rethinks required to protect the planet and its most vulnerable citizens.  Currently working for APRS, Action to Protect Rural Scotland, she previously worked for Scotland’s civil society climate coalition – Stop Climate Chaos Scotland – for three years around the time of COP26.

Justice & Peace Scotland are recruiting for a new full time position - Catholic Social Teaching Engagement Officer.  Click the link for further details.  

Choose Fair Trade with the directory of independent retailers and wholesalers on the high street and online, across Scotland and beyond.

"As people of faith we are called to be custodians of God's creation, 'this is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience' (Laudato Si, 217). On this the seventh anniversary of its publication, I strongly encourage all people to read Laudato Si' and inform themselves of their faith-based ecological obligation.  ICN.

Bishop Nolan gave a wonderful talk in Glasgow recently on the topic of "Where Is God At COP26?".  Watch his talk here.

It’s the silent scourge of our globalized trade system: roughly 152 million children trapped in child labour, many of them working inside the global food chain. As the international community comes together to mark the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, the question remains more pertinent than ever: how can we eliminate child labour once and for all?

All eight plaintiffs describe being recruited in Mali through trickery and deception, before being trafficked across the border to cocoa farms in Ivory Coast. There, they were forced to work – often for several years or more – with no pay, no travel documents and no clear idea of where they were or how to get back to their families. The Guardian.

 

22 February to 7 March 2021

For two weeks each year at the end of February and start of March, thousands of individuals, companies and groups across the UK come together to share the stories of the people who grow our food and drinks. mine our gold and who grow the cotton in our clothes, people who are often exploited and underpaid.  Join one of the Fairtrade events over the next 2 weeks.

Officials have just weeks to slash costs, prompting fears that speed of cuts could cost lives. The Guardian.

 

“the effects of our actions and decisions affect you personally. Therefore, you can’t remain outside the places that are shaping the present and future. You’re either part of them or history will pass you by”.  "The time has come to change direction," he said. "Let us not rob younger generations of their hope in a better future."  message from Pope Francis to The Economy of Francesco Conference.

 

The book, Let Us Dream, which will be published by Simon & Schuster on Dec. 1, is the product of a series of exchanges between the pope and Austen Ivereigh, his English-language biographer. It is an extended reflection on the change Pope Francis sees as necessary in building a post-Covid world. It is in this context that he addresses several hot-button issues.

 

A coordinated approach between Church and relevant public and private agencies is needed to close the loopholes that allow forced labour to occur in the maritime and fisheries sectors.  The following statement has been issued by Apostleship of the Sea following the recent vatican conference on Human Trafficking.

The Scottish Government are proposing a new law on food – a Good Food Nation Bill. This law will need to be more ambitious to make a real difference. We all have until the 29th of March to tell the Government what we think of their proposals and try and raise the ambition of this new law.

The Ethical Fashion Guide is a wonderful resource that you can use to help you make everyday, ethical purchasing decisions. Take it with you when you shop and buy your clothes from the companies doing more to protect their workers. Vote with your wallet and encourage more companies to end exploitation in their supply chains.

May 2017 is the fourth anniversary of the first major binding supply chain agreement ever implemented in the apparel industry for overseas suppliers: the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety. Accord secured a contractual commitment by brands to stand by their suppliers and ensure safety repairs would be completed and reported on transparently, among other things, after years of brands’ struggling with a cut-and-run approach to supply chain monitoring.

Fairtrade Fortnight begins on 27th February.  Don't feed exploitation.  Choose fairtrade. 

For more information see Fairtrade Foundation. 

Rainbow Turtle is holding a fundraising dinner in St. Mirin's Cathedral Hall on 24 November. See their website for further details

Ask your MSPs to take a stand against this attack on democracy.
CETA (the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) is a trade pact between the EU and Canada. Like its more well-known brother TTIP (the US-EU pact), CETA will give big business sweeping new legal and political powers. It will give foreign corporations the power to sue governments in special ‘courts’ for actions which damage their profits. And it also threatens to lock in lower standards and weaken regulation.

The Scottish Fair Trade Forum was delighted to welcome Rudi Dalvai to Glasgow on Monday 4 April 2016 to deliver its annual Fair Trade Nation Lecture. A brief summary of Rudi Dalvai's lecture & photos now available on the Scottish Fairtrade Forum's website

Fairtrade International announced a new Fairtrade Textile Standard on 22 March 2016. The new Standard and Programme extends the Fairtrade approach to the entire textile supply chain

Sign the petition
Fairtrade balls are made in the same factories and stitching centres as some of the best known global sports brands - and they're made to the same standards as FIFA use. Workers who are paid to make a Fairtrade football benefit from a fair wage, decent working conditions and from the extra Fairtrade Premium to support development projects for workers and their communities.

A change to European Union trade rules is going to push 200,000 people into poverty. Demand the EU act now to protect the livelihoods of vulnerable sugar farming communities in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific from their damaging decision.

This should give us encouragement to keep campaigning!
Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab): Had it not been for a great deal of campaigning, I suspect that we would not have been able to debate either TTIP or many other things. The hon. Member for Skipton and Ripon (Julian Smith) suggested that there has been plenty of parliamentary debate of this issue. There has been some debate, and perhaps the amount is increasing, but it is largely because people have raised the issue and kept campaigning on it that we have got to this stage.