The big health food swindle or To hell with humanist latifundistas!
Ever since the modern Zapatista rebellion began in southern Mexico,
almost everyone has become familiar with where Chiapas is on the global
map. We all know about RSub-commandante Marcos,S the EZLN and the
Lacadonian Jungle. However, what most of us donUt
know is that Chiapas is also one of the worldUs most famous coffee
producing and exporting regions. Not much coffee is produced in Chiapas,
compared to other major growing areas. But what is produced is in high
demand. The coffee cultivated in the Soconu sco area is the most
expensive money can buy. Working conditions for the producers of this
coffee are terrible. Most of these workers are indigenous people, many
of them refugees from neighboring Guatemala. Minimum wages, maximum
working hours, child labor miserable food and barracks like housing are
the norm. At the same time control is excercised by the official police
and the bossesU private army of killers known as the Rguardias blancas.S
Guatemalans refugees are threatened with expulsion, if they donUt obey
the bossesU imposed authority. Among these very large coffee plantations
(fincas) are many which are managed/owned by bosses who come from
Germany. One of them, Finca Irlanda, came to the attention of the Free
WorkersU Union (FAU) some months ago. Finca Irlanda is an exception
among th e coffee-fincas as Finca Irlanda coffee has been produced
organically since 1928. This coffee is sold in hundreds of German health
food stores under the label RFair Trade.S It is also sold in the
Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden. In the USA, Finca Irla nda is sold
as Cafe Altura. And this is where the story begins. We found out about
Finca Iralnda coffee, when members of the FAU health food branch read an
interview with a member of the rebelling forces about the working
conditions at these plantations/fincas, including Finca Irlanda. He said
that the conditions at I rlanda were only slightly better than those at
the RnormalS capitalist bloodsucking fincas. Nevertheless, Finca Irlanda
coffee is sold as RFair TradeS in Germany and it is sold at a handsome
price to those who believe that they are somehow helping the pro ducers
by buying it, as opposed to a regular capitalist brand. RWhere the
hell,S we thought, Ris all that money going?S Our investigations had
shown that the male campesino producers are paid only the Mexican
minimum wage P $2.50 per day. Women workers got even less. Just to give
you the flavor of the situation; it was only last year that workers
occupied various fincas, d emanding four to five times the minimum wage
as a real minimum which they could live on with dignity. In the
following weeks we began an intensive investigation. We found the
company importing, labeling and selling the coffee. ItUs name is
RLebensbaumS (tree of life), a name typical for the German health food
business. The boss is an ex-Maoist type commie , now yuppie and master
over a few dozen wage-slaves. Lebensbaum has an annual turnover of some
$10 million and is selling its products (coffee, tea, spices) to more
than 1,500 health-food-shops in Germany and Sweden. The FAU health food
branch asked him for a statement and demanded that he urge Finca Irlanda
to at least double wages and improve the living, health and working
conditions of the campesinos and campesinas. He told us that the Peters
family, the owners of the finca, are really nice people, hu manists to
boot, and that their coffee is really super-hyper-organic and that they
do a lot for the environment in that part of the world. Not even one
word was used referring to the conditions of these really nice peopleUs
wage slaves! In our second encounter with this hipitalist, we told him
that we would inform the press and perhaps start a boycott campaign
against him and Finca Irlanda if he would not accept our demands. His
reaction was that he would not talk with us anymore. Instea d, he
informed the federation of health-food producers about what was
happening. In June, the annual congress of the FAU voted to endorse a
boycott by harvest time, if no change occurred in the position of
Lebensbaum and Finca Irlanda. There wasnUt a change. We kicked off our
boycott in September with 20,000 copies of a special issue of our FAU
paper, Direkte Aktion. A press release was sent to more than 1,000
health food stores asking them to kick out at least the coffee from
Lebensbaum. In the following weeks health food stores in more than 15
cities were picketed, informing custome rs about what products were
being sold there. A second edition of the extra issue is in preparation.
Leaflets, badges, documentation and other material will follow in weeks
to come. The boycott campaign is spreading day by day. An interesting
aspect has been the reaction of the health food businesses. As many of
them come from leftwing and green political positions, we initially
believed that most of them would support us and that knocking out
Lebensbaum would be a process which
would take only a couple of weeks. But first we had to learn that there
is no difference anymore between RtraditionalS capitalist bloodsuckers
and these hipitalists. Or maybe there is one; the working conditions in
the health food sector are even worse t han in most RnormalS companies.
In a way, we already knew this. ThatUs why we had focused on these
swindlersU coffee as well as on our organizing efforts in the health
food sector. But as it turned out, we had only scratched the surface or
of the extent t his sector has already turned towards capitalist
business and working conditions. The reaction from the hipitalists
showed us that they seem to have seen things more clearly than we did in
the beginning. In their first statements, Lebensbaum and their hippie
capitalist friends told everyone, even those who didnUt want to hear it,
that the aim behind our campaign was, Rto do damage to all the health
food business.S Seems they had a more precise idea of what our
organizing efforts and their consequences would mean to them than we
had. The working conditions in their sweat-shops are at th eir worst,
but nobody likes to talk about them, because, Rwe are all one big
family.S What they donUt tell us is that while some of the
family-fathers have their private jets and are Rorgano-yuppieingS
around, the other members of the family, mostly women , are working for
them for less than $5 per hour, which is at the lower end of wages in
Germany. All this is making the campaign very interesting. We will
confront Lebensbaum with our demand at every forum concerning things
organic and extend picketing health food shops that will not stop
selling Finca Irlanda coffee. In brief, we will show Lebensbau m what
the price of exploiting workers is, be it in Chiapas or in Germany! The
Finca Irlanda coffee is sold not only in Germany, but in other countries
as well. We are already in contact with fellow workers in the
Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland in order to extend the campaign to
an international level. In the USA, this coff ee is sold under the label
RCafe AlturaS in health food stores. It would be a great thing to hear
the anguished cries of the Finca Irlanda bosses crossing the seas, RNo,
no, not that! Not in the USA as well!S Yes boss. You didnUt realize what
we all know, That An Injury To One Of Us Is An Injury To All!
Roger, FAU
FREEDOM PRESS
http://www.lglobal.com/TAO/Freedom