CONSUMER ACTIVISM

Development of Fair Trade

• First Wave• Just after WW2, western Europe importing handcrafts from

eastern Europe and Puerto Rico• Driven by charities (Oxfam, Ten Thousand villages)

• Second Wave• Alternate trading organizations set-up in UK, eliminating the

‘middle’; start of social entrepreneurs• Driven by religious and community-based organizations

• Third Wave• Development of sympathetic retail business (cooperatives) ;

development of certifications• Driven by involvement of more mainstream and

‘traditional’ business

• Fourth Wave• Increase in markets• Driven by many influences: political, academic, cultural,

informational (ethical consumption, mass-market)

CONSUMER RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Consumerism has grown as a result of a shift from a focus on production to consumption

• Consumer activism focused first on product safety and integrity

• Then included demands for information as ‘consumer protection’

• Now moved to include political action

CONSUMER RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Consumer energies can be used for:• Support of brand loyalty

• E.g. Coca-Cola tried to change its classic formal (1985)

• Ford reintroduces the Mustang car model• In the interest of community

• Saturn car owners convention• Harley-Davison owners meetings

• Action against/for a corporation• Protests to keep business in a community

(log mill)• Protests to keep business out of the

community (Wal-Mart)

CONSUMER RIGHTS

• Used to formulate and strengthen consumer protection policies and legislation

• Include, the right to: • Choose• Safety• Be informed• Be heard• Satisfaction of basic needs• Redress• Consumer education• Healthy environment

CONSUMER RESPONSIBILITIES

• Emphasize that consumers, along with corporations, play a role in the market and in consumption practices.

• Include the responsibility to:• Beware• Be aware• Think independently• Speak out and complain• Be an ethical consumer• Respect the environment

CONSUMER RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Consumers more aware of how they contribute to negative consumption practices

• More willing to participate in collective action

• Result:• Citizens create political issues out of

their personal choices• E.g. what coffee to drink, what clothing

to buy, to purchase locally or globally, what food to buy

CONSUMER OPTIONS FOR AFFECTING CORPORATE BEHAVIOUR

• Phone calls, letter writing and petitioning

• Creating alternative venues for consumption

• Boycotts and buycotts• Local and bioregional alliances• Demonstrations, protests, marches• Embracing critical new media• Violence and militant action• Aligning with social movements

CONSCIENTIOUS CONSUMPTION

• Practicing judgment• Consumers develop and utilize a capacity

for discrimination and judgment of products, corporations, and social conditions

• Exercising autonomy• Consumers can exercise their autonomy

by ‘voting’ with their dollars• Establishing solidarity

• Consumers can heighten public consciousness and influence companies through collective initiatives

CASES• Coca-Cola

• Human rights, union busting, consumer choice• Shell

• Human rights, environmental justice, animal rights

• Texaco• Human rights, civil rights, environmental

justice, discrimination• Wal-Mart

• Union busting, exploitive global trade, labour sweatshops

• Nike• Labour sweatshops, discrimination, corporate

branding• Starbucks Coffee

• Fair-trade, community destruction, GM foods• Monsanto

• Fair-trade, GM foods, community destruction, environmental destruction

Consider:

What should be the strategic role of ethical consumption?

What systemic effects has it had in the past

What mistakes have been made?

What accomplishments have been achieved?