November, 2001: The Yankee Trader

By Greg Rushford
Published in The Rushford Report

Talk about hypocrisy.

The leftist activist group Global Exchange is in the business of accusing international financial institutions like the World Bank and corporations like Nike, the Gap, and the Limited of being secretive. The clothing companies are a particular target of ire for Global Exchange, on grounds that the people who do the labor get paid pennies, while U.S. consumers pay the big bucks. But how transparent is Global Exchange regarding the two “fair-trade” retail stores that it runs in San Francisco and Berkeley? Consumers are asked to believe that Third World suppliers to these stores are paid “fair” wages. And walk into a Global Exchange store, you are told you are not going to be ripped off.
You can believe that if you want to. But if you believe, it is necessary to take the activists’ word. Their books are not subject to journalistic inspection — at least if the journalist in question is not in their pocket.

In fact, Rep. Gary Condit (D-Calif) has been more forthcoming about his sexual affair with his missing-and-presumed-dead intern, Chandra Levy, than Global Exchange is, when asked exactly what a fair wage is.

Before I went to Guatemala in September, I sent a series of e-mails to a business called Maya Traditions, which has a website claiming to be the main supplier of Guatemalan handicrafts to Global Exchange’s stores.

“We work with more than 100 Maya women in five established groups in rural villages,” Maya Traditions declares. “We strive to pay a fair wage in the local context. We are also committed to helping the weavers with health care and with education for their children — needs expressed by many women.” One of the local projects that Maya Traditions touted was an herbal medicine garden, near the scenic Lake Atitlan, an area I planned on visiting.

I asked Maya Traditions’ Jane Mintz if she would tell me exactly what she meant by a “fair wage.” I asked her how much better off her women employees were, compared to Mayan women who work for ordinary handicraft concerns. I also asked her where in the Lake Atitlan area I could find her herbal medicine garden.
Then I asked again — and again.

Might as well have asked G. Gordon Liddy to open up about his role in the Watergate burglary. Mintz wanted me to demonstrate to her that my “visit would benefit the women we work with.” She had no interest in offering evidence to an inquiring journalist precisely how Maya Traditions is helping Guatemalan women.

Mintz also refused to give me the address of her herbal medicine garden, nor put me in touch with a local “doctor” she claimed worked it. Mintz said nobody would be available to meet with me in her base of operations in Panajachel — and that nobody from Maya Traditions would answer questions in the United States either.

“We find that earnings must always be discussed within the local context since there is a wide variation in various parts of the country,” Mintz finally replied.

“We evaluate the pay for the womens (sic) work together with them based on the hours they are able to work in the day. Our emphasis is on keeping them in the village and working at home while caring for their families. Usually they are able to work 4-6 hours in a day. Our goal is to preserve indigenous culture and village life.”

When I went to Panajachel, I spent much of two days looking for signs of Jane. I saw a lot of handicrafts made by Mayan women. I saw Maya dolls selling for about three dollars (Maya Traditions advertises similar-looking Maya dolls on the internet for $42.00). I saw scarves selling in the $2-10 range (Maya Traditions advertises scarves for $36). I saw a Guatemalan backpack selling for $12 (Maya Traditions sells Guatemalan backpacks for $25). But I didn’t see any sign of Jane.

Nobody I could find in Panajachel had heard of Jane Mintz, or Maya Traditions. (Back in Antigua a few days later, I did find one woman who had met Jane. But she couldn’t tell me anything about Mayan Traditions).

Maybe Jane is a wholesaler, someone finally suggested.

Turns out that Maya Traditions is a member of something called the Fair Trade Federation. Based in Washington, D.C., the Fair Trade Federation describes itself as “an association of fair trade wholesalers, retailers, and producers whose members are committed to providing fair wages and good employment opportunities to economically disadvantaged artisans and farmers worldwide.”

The Fair Trade Federation lists Maya Traditions as a wholesaler.
When I called the Federation to ask what kind of a “fair wage” Maya Traditions pays its employees, I was told that nobody there knew.

“Currently there is no seal of accreditation for Maya crafts,” a young man named Chris O’Brien stated. “Maya Traditions has applied to be a member, and we have approved that.”

I asked O’Brien if he knew one way or the other if Maya Traditions’ claims that it pays its employees a “fair wage” were true. He acknowledged he didn‘t.

Check out our website, he declared, and call back if you have any further questions.

The website wasn’t any help at all.

The Fair Trade Federation’s website explains its “membership criteria,” specifying that members are committed to “paying a fair wage in the local context.” There is no evidence that the Fair Trade Federation really knows if claims by its members that they really do pay “fair” wages are true.

The website had a section for “frequently asked questions,” including this: “What is a fair wage?”

The answer: “Producers receive a fair wage when they are paid fairly for their products.”

In case that wasn’t crystal clear, the Fair Trade Federation website had another frequently asked question: “What does “fair” really mean?

The answer: “In alternative trade organizations, ‘fair trade’ means that trading partnerships are based on reciprocal benefits and mutual respect; that prices paid to producers reflect the work they do; that workers have the right to organize; that national health, safety, and wage laws are enforced; and that products are environmentally sustainable and conserve natural resources.”
When I called O’Brien back to ask him if he could be a bit more specific about defining fair wages in dollar terms, he hung up the telephone.

I also called Deborah James, the fair-trade director at Global Exchange.

I’m still waiting for the return call.

By contrast to Global Exchange and the Fair Trade Federation, when I contacted the World Bank’s office in Guatemala City, officials answered the call. Before I even suggested it, Bank officials asked if I had the time to see some of their projects in Guatemala’s rural areas.

That’s how I came to spend a long, happy day driving around the central highlands with officials of the Guatemalan government‘s Fondo de Inversion Social, or FIS. (FIS is called the Social Investment Fund in English). Driving around Chimaltenango, we visited a health clinic that offers immunizations, maternal care, and family planning services. We also visited an adult training center that teaches job skills to local craftsmen. In Chuachali, we drove up a rural road to visit a primary school where 115 little boys and girls are learning how to read and write. These are only a handful projects aimed at helping rural communities that have been launched since Guatemala’s civil war ended in the mid-1990s.

Some 800,000 children in Guatemala are learning how to read and write, thanks to the World Bank, FIS, and other institutions that Global Exchange is in the business of running down.

In the picture that accompanies this article, you can see the results in the bright eyes of the children from the school in Chuachali. These children have never heard of the World Bank.

Sorry, but I can’t show you a picture of one single Guatemalan woman or child who has ever been helped by that respected member of the Fair Trade Federation and the principal supplier of Mayan handicrafts to Global Exchange, Maya Traditions.

Maybe next time.

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