The weekly newsletter of the México Solidarity Project

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February 21, 2024/ This week’s issue/ Meizhu Lui, for the editorial team

What’s Fair about “Fair Trade?”

“It’s not fair!” is one of the first things US kids learn to say. If a sister gets a bigger piece of cake, or if a friend gets to go to bed later, they pipe up. Fairness is a bedrock principle — it’s essential for living together in peace.

Some of us remember when we first heard about “fair trade” in the 1990s. What’s not to like about something fair? When the label was introduced, we were willing to pay a little more to get not just better tasting coffee than Folger’s — someone said it tastes like sludge — but to support small farmers in Mexico and other countries of the global south. Small farmers were losing their farms due to mega-companies like Folgers appropriating their lands and their markets. 

In the beginning fair trade was indeed about saving small farmers and they were included as decision-makers on the early Fairtrade company board. But greed crept in, and the capitalist dynamic of expanding to create greater profits at the expense of workers soon subverted the original intent in the burgeoning ethical labeling space. Now, labels proclaiming “ethical” are the height of hypocrisy. How unethical can you be, calling unethical practices ethical?!

Not every fair trade label is a lie, but as you’re staring at bags of coffee or berries on the grocery shelf, who has time to research them all to find out which are true, and which are false? 

Consumers beware. There’s probably the sludge of unfairness in your “fair trade” coffee.

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Fair Trade Labels? Certified Exploitation

When we buy fresh berries, tomatoes, and cucumbers at a US supermarket, what’s the likelihood that these came from Mexico?

James Daria:  The US imports 60% of its fruit and 40% of its vegetables. Of those, 46% of fruits and nuts and 64% of vegetables are from Mexico. Mexico is the third largest producer of berries in the world, and 90% of those are destined for the US market. Many of those berries are grown in the San Quintín valley in Baja California, MX, close to the US border.

Mexico and the US have a completely integrated berry industry, mostly controlled by US transnational companies. Both the US and Mexico exploit the farmworkers, but they don’t pay the same. California raised its minimum wage to $15.00 an hour while Mexican farmworkers might earn that in one day. You can see why farmworkers in Mexico migrate up to US fields to work — and why agribusiness loves to grow berries in Mexico. 

In San Quintín, the biggest producers are Driscoll and Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce. You can see their berries in US stores under the Driscoll’s, Good Farms and Limited-Edition brands. 

Did the farmworkers in San Quintín formerly have their own farms? 

The farmworkers work year-round, but their contracts are seasonal or temporary, so they get cheated out of many of their benefits: pensions, social security, and/or health care, depending on the employer. Even worse, violations of labor law are rampant, including wage theft. Employers often force workers to do overtime without proper overtime pay.  They endure long hours in extreme heat, and they’re commonly subjected to verbal, physical and sexual abuse.

In an extreme case, at Rancho Agrícola Santa Mónica, workers were bused to the fields far from isolated labor camps. Over 100 male workers had just two bathrooms, and “there are a f***king lot of bedbugs,” a disgusted worker said. A tall fence and security guards enclose the camp, making the camp more a prison than a place to live. The company often withheld the workers’ identity documents and pay — the definition of forced labor. 

Some of the berries carry “fair trade” labels. Am I correct to assume that fair trade berries are grown by small farmers in the global South?

What do the labels mean?

AC:  In San Quintín both Fair Trade USA (FTUSA) and the Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) certify fruits and vegetables. But the terrible conditions James just described are largely also true for workers who grow and pick the produce labelled “Fair Trade” or “Ethically Grown.” Where’s the fairness or the ethics?! We call this “fairwashing,” a label that papers over abuse.

You will hear that certifications fill the legal gaps in worker protection. But that’s not what we see happening here! No one is enforcing Mexican labor laws or the certification standards. 

But fair trade products are more expensive than unlabeled products. Where does the extra money we pay go?

AC:  The produce carrying the “fair” label comes from the same fields in the same giant farms as the produce not certified. Workers earn a bit of extra money per pound for picking certified produce because of the higher quality standards for certified berries. But they also must take more time, care, and skill to select which berries qualify for the clamshell boxes labeled “fair.” Any extra pay doesn’t make up for the extra time and labor it takes to fill that box.

What has been the response of workers?

from San Quintín to Washington state. Farmworkers in Washington state won a historic contract on a farm selling to Driscoll’s — but SINDJA remains without a contract.

What needs to be done?

JD:  So far, recent labor reforms in Mexico haven’t reached farmworkers. Company unions undermined the recent legitimation process in which every contract had to be approved by the workers: instead their stranglehold over farmworkers got legitimized. Further, certifications don’t protect the workers either.

The USMCA’s Rapid Response Mechanism helped workers in the auto sector, among others, win independent unions: but the USMCA’s labor provisions don’t prioritize the agricultural sector. 

Our best hope is for US organized labor to work in solidarity with Mexican farmworkers. Only a cross-border strategy can win lasting reforms.

Neutralizing the Extreme Right in Mexico

The alarming rise of the extreme right across the world, exemplified in Latin America by the shock victory of Javier Milei in Argentina, has aroused both anger and despair among progressive observers. We are naturally concerned that this example may inspire similar right-wing advances elsewhere.

Such concern is understandable, but it’s important to realize that not all countries are vulnerable to right-wing extremism. Mexico under AMLO (President López Obrador) is a model of how to neutralize the extreme right.

Mexico under AMLO has a stable economy with low inflation. Effective welfare programs include a public Welfare Bank with 2,700 branches to deliver all benefits directly to citizens and provide access to financial services without the speculative practices of private banks. Large-scale public investment in infrastructure (such as the Tren Maya, a new Mexico City airport, and the biggest solar complex in Latin America), combined with openness to foreign investment, has caused significant appreciation of the peso against the dollar. This is the polar opposite of Argentina’s profound stagflation crisis, prepared years ago by the policies of Mauricio Macri (businessman and former President of Argentina) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Their policies left Argentina open to the demagogy of free-market fundamentalism.

AMLO has achieved energy sovereignty with public ownership or control of oil, gas and electricity generation, and lithium. These policies guarantee low energy prices, employment, and economic benefits along with a strategy for energy transition (and remarkably, AMLO has persuaded the US to accept Mexican energy sovereignty).

This economic and financial tour-de-force has been possible because of a determined and carefully planned strategy of effective and comprehensive tax collection (without raising tax rates), a serious anti-corruption campaign, and the principle of “civic austerity” (austeridad republicana), meaning austerity for public officials and politicians, not working people. Right-wing invective against leftist ministers and public servants as a privileged “caste” cuts no ice when they live modestly and work tirelessly six or seven days a week.

When AMLO took office, he slashed his own presidential salary by over half, sold the luxury official airliner and other luxury vehicles. He flies economy class on ordinary commercial airlines and stays in modest hotels and eats in regular popular restaurants.

The final key factor allowing AMLO to  discredit far-right propaganda is his unceasing communication with the people. At first many observers laughed at his daily morning press conferences, two hours or more a day, Monday to Friday every week, but they finally realized how effective his constant exercise of the right of reply has been. Every weekend he travels around the country, inaugurating public works and engaging in dialogue with local people. The result is that only committed conservatives believe the opposition propaganda. Moreover, since AMLO will not seek re-election, accusations of authoritarianism fall flat.

It’s always possible that sectors of the Mexican right, and certain sectors in the US, may question the legitimacy of the elections, and it’s crucial to build international solidarity with Mexico and its Transformation. But if the victory of Morena candidate Claudia Sheinbaum is as decisive as the polls indicate, hostile forces are more likely to bide their time and work on destabilization at a later date.

Recent news reports and commentaries, from progressive and mainstream media,
on life and struggles on both sides of the US-México border compiled by Jay Watts

Mexican president proposes ban on open-pit mining Mining.com. Since taking over in 2018, the AMLO administration has not granted any new mining concessions through de facto mechanisms – but without the backing of any specific law.

Julio Hernández López, Astillero La Jornada. Xóchitl Gálvez aceptó reunirse con Felipe Calderón en Madrid justamente cuando ha arreciado en México una intensa campaña propagandística al sucio estilo de la realizada en 2006 por empresarios y políticos contra AMLO, a quien entonces calificaban "un peligro para México".

Dylan Saba, Democrats Are Helping Make the US/Mexico Border Look More and More Like Gaza The Nation. The party is embracing the idea of the border as a bulwark against a savage horde. As it happens, that’s exactly how Israel talks about Gaza.

Etiquetado con sabor a Coca Cola POPLab. La segunda entrega de "Las Fichas de Coca Cola" aborda la intensa participación de la refresquera para manipular la creación de una herramienta destinada a concientizar a la población sobre el consumo de productos ultraprocesados.

Ted Hesson, How would Trump crack down on immigration in a second term? Reuters. Trump promises to deport millions of undocumented migrants, using large-scale roundups and building holding pens, and target immigrants participating in pro-Palestine protests.

Antonio Gershenson, Lobos y ovejas La Jornada. En su gira promocional, sin conocer a fondo los tratados comerciales de China, Estados Unidos, incluso los de su propio país, la ingeniera Xóchitl Gálvez hace declaraciones temerarias con la intención clara de desprestigiar la carrera política y la legitimidad del gobierno del presidente AMLO, por el hecho de mantener relaciones comerciales con otros países.

Max Bearak, U.S. Gas Producers Are Racing to Sell to Asia. And Mexico Is Key. New York Times. By next year, American natural gas will start flowing across Mexico to a major export terminal on the Pacific, reflecting a global energy landscape transformed by U.S. dominance in gas.

Iván Gómez, Devolver el humanismo a la constitución Los Reporteros. Ante una derecha muy debilitada popularmente, es más probable que el Poder Judicial detenga este nuevo paquete de reformas y las élites del poder económico y político apuesten por nuevos proyectos de desestabilización.

Adriana Barrera, Mexican regulator sets terms to finalize state purchase of Iberdrola plants Reuters. Last April, Mexico's government agreed to buy the power plants from Iberdrola in a deal worth $6 billion, which Mexico's president hailed at the time as a "new nationalization" for the electricity market.

Grupo Marhnos detrás de agenda de Xóchitl Gálvez: Morena Contralínea. La candidata de la oposición de derecha ha estado ofreciendo ruedas de prensa en una casa propiedad de una promotora inmobiliaria que se benefició de contratos que ella aprobó durante su etapa en la política municipal.

The Mexico Solidarity Project brings together activists from various socialist and left organizations and individuals committed to worker and global justice. We see the 2018 election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of México as a watershed moment. AMLO and his progressive Morena party aim to end generations of corruption, impoverishment, and subservience to US interests. Our Project supports not just Morena, but all Mexicans struggling for basic rights, and opposes US efforts to undermine organizing and México’s national sovereignty.

Editorial committee: Meizhu Lui, Bruce Hobson, Agatha Hinman, Victoria Hamlin, Courtney Childs, Susan Weiss.  To give feedback or get involved yourself, please email us!

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