Positive Protest
If you live in Wisconsin, like we do, it is starting to seem like protests are everywhere and not just something you watch on TV in the Middle East. I have seen protesters in front of our local high school, the city building, and even filling up the cafe near our house when our state senator came for a listening session.
Whatever your political stripe, it occurs to me that protests come in two forms in this country — the formal and informal. The last election was an insitutional protest that took power from one party and gave it to another. The protests we have had recently are a grassroots reaction from people who felt they were not being heard.
So, if you take my reasoning further, Fair Trade is like an institutional protest. We use our Fair Trade dollars through a formal system to channel money to those most in need instead of businesses only interested in their bottom line.
Fair Trade dollars are not pure protest. Protest is normally directed against a status quo, or created as an effort to block an action. Fair Trade was developed to support positive actions that help people in disadvantaged situations gain a living wage, eduction, economic safety, and/or a voice in their own future.
It is positive protest for the best of reasons.