Speech at Birmingham Central Synagogue
Thursday 9th March 2006
I am delighted to be with you all tonight for the launch of
the Fairtrade Synagogues movement. This is a new experience
for me. As I’m sure you know Fairtrade has always had
very strong support from Christians of all denominations and
in the course of my work in fair trade I’ve spoken many
times in churches. However, this is the first occasion that
I have addressed a synagogue audience and so I would like to
explain to you how my Jewish upbringing has influenced my work
to achieve a fairer world through trade.
So the first thing I have to tell you is my mother is that
I am finally speaking in a shul! And what good Jewish boy wouldn’t
regard the opportunity to make his Mum proud above all other
prizes!
Of course, individual Jews have always been strong supporters
of causes to help the poor and oppressed. My first job in this
line of work was with Oxfam some 20 years ago and Jewish trustees
at that time included the late Ansel Harris, who was active
in establishing World Jewish Relief and Joel (now Lord Joffe)
who was Chair of Oxfam for many years.
But institutionalized support for campaigns to end global poverty
and inequality has not been as prominent in our community in
the way that Christian Aid, CAFOD, MRDF or Islamic Relief have
been in their own faith groups. This is partly because the Jewish
tradition of charity, while it’s one of our most important
mitzvahs – both a commandment and a good deed - is to
give in a quiet manner (we don’t like to “make a
fuss”, do we?) and to us it’s important that the
recipient of charity retains their dignity.
Well, this is a very contemporary concept. The Fairtrade Foundation
has always tried to distance itself from the conventional British
mode of charity – we say Fairtrade is not charity –
Simeon and his colleagues in the Windward Islands don’t
want charity, neither do Arsene or Issaka and their colleagues
in Burkino Faso. They just want the opportunity to earn a decent
living from their work for themselves, their families and their
communities – just as we all do – they want to be
treated fairly. And this is exactly what the Jewish tradition
of charity is all about – in fact the Hebrew word for
charity (Tsedekah) comes from the word Tsedek, meaning justice.
So when we talk about the Trade Justice Movement of which Fairtrade
is a part, we are promoting a very Jewish sense of moral responsibility
and a vision for our society.
Over 700 years ago, the Jewish philosopher Maimonides expounded
on the Jewish concept of charity. He defined different levels
of charitable giving, from the unwilling donation that we are
sometimes shamed into making when a collection box is rattled
in front of us, through other forms of aid that might alleviate
immediate symptoms but not address the causes of the recipient’s
misfortune. And according to Maimonides, the highest form of
charity is to help a poor person set up a business so that they
are no longer dependant on the community but can play a full
part in it and even contribute themselves to those who are less
well-off. Well, that is precisely the spirit of Fairtrade which
doesn’t give handouts to poor farmers but helps them develop
their own businesses so that they can achieve sustainability
in the future.
And for me another strong connection between Fairtrade and
the Jewish tradition will come in a few weeks with the celebration
of Pesach, one of the most important events in the annual cycles
of our families and communities. At the Seder service we are
told to recount the story of our people’s slavery in Egypt
and the story of the Exodus, not in the sense of commemorating
an ancient historical event but as if it happened to us (in
the words of the service, “this is what the Lord did for
me”). And I think this tells us that freedom is indivisible
– certainly we would not have our freedom if it had not
been secured by previous generations, but also, I suggest, that
we ourselves cannot really enjoy freedom if it comes at someone
else’s expense. Not for nothing is the United Nations
Declaration on Human Rights called a “Universal Declaration”.
Well slavery as we understood it in the past may not be as prevalent
these days (but make no mistake, it still exists in too many
parts of the world) but millions of people are trapped in poverty
and subject to oppression and exploitation just as surely as
if they were shackled like the slaves in our history books.
In the past, this would have been obvious to us all. If we
lived in a village and Simeon, or Arsene or Issaka were our
neighbours, and someone came from another village to offer us
the same produce at a lower price, would we buy it? Or would
we look to protect our neighbours as best we could? Well today
we live in a global village, and we rarely know where our food
and drink or our clothing comes from. And we certainly don’t
know how the people who’ve produced those products are
treated. We assume that people who grow the coffee or bananas
that we buy in our supermarkets must be earning their keep through
their work, otherwise they’d go off and do something else.
But if we refer to our own history of slavery and oppression,
we can understand that this isn’t always the case. In
countries like Britain, we have many choices in our lives –
sometimes so much that it’s a headache – the poor
don’t have those choices. For many people staying in work
that doesn’t provide enough to eat or enough money to
pay for your kids to go to school, or for medicines when somebody
gets sick is better than the alternative – to give up
their home, to work as a migrant in a faraway place, to live
apart from their family, or even worse.
The Fairtrade system doesn’t just provide opportunities
for farmers and workers in poor countries to escape from poverty,
it also provides us as consumers with the opportunity to fulfil
our responsibilities to our neighbours in the global village.
Indeed, Fairtrade depends on consumers taking this opportunity
as it’s only by buying Fairtrade products that we make
that difference. And the FAIRTRADE Mark, our symbol, is your
guarantee that products really do provide a better deal to the
farmers and the workers at the other end of the supply chain.
When I started in Fairtrade many people in business and the
media laughed at the idea that shoppers in Britain would put
themselves out to choose products, and maybe pay more for products,
that offered them nothing extra other than the chance to help
people who were less well off – people they didn’t
know and would never meet. Twelve year on and this month, our
annual Fairtrade Fortnight is highlighting annual sales of Fairtrade
products running at an annual rate of £200 million a year
– with nearly 40% of households buying at least one Fairtrade
product last year. And there are over 1500 products carrying
the Fairtrade Mark. And retailers and manufacturers are responding
to consumer demand – all the Co-op’s coffee and
chocolate has been Fairtrade for the past two years, and this
week Marks & Spencer announced that all their coffee and
tea will be Fairtrade too – all of this is making responsible
shopping not something odd or special but the normal thing to
do. And that’s echoed in this year’s campaign slogan
– Make Fairtrade Your Habit.
So again can I say how delighted I am that the Jewish community
is adopting this habit and that it also recognises the value
of making a bit of a fuss about it. There are two important
reasons for this. One is that there are still some places you
can’t get Fairtrade products, and this will only happen
if people ask for them. You might ask me if you can get Kosher
packaged products as Fairtrade? – or can you get tea or
coffee that are Kosher for Pesach and also Fairtrade? The answer’s
probably not. But if you ask the companies that supply these
products, they’ll say there’s no demand –
so that’s where you come in. If you want to buy Fairtrade,
ask for it – and not just in the supermarket. Ask for
it in cafes and restaurants, at hotels, when you’re travelling,
or at work. And make a fuss – don’t take no for
an answer. The other reason is that now more than ever, when
there is so much negative comment on aspects of religion and
concerns about the resurgence of ant-semitism, it’s important
that we promote better the positive values and principles of
our faith to the societies we live in.
I hope this evening will have given you some food for thought
and that you will want to support Fairtrade, or to do more if
you are already a Fairtrade shopper. So on behalf of the Foundation
– and my Mum – thank you again for your attention
and for inviting me to the launch of the Fairtrade Synagogue
movement.
Ian Bretman
Deputy Director
The Fairtrade Foundation
ian.bretman@fairtrade.org.uk
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