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Fair Trade: News & Updates

Event
Equal Exchange Book Club!
May 7, 2025

Equal Exchange invites you to their Book Club Meet-ups: Apr 16 and May 7

Join us for an engaging discussion of Austin Frerick’s book Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry, where we will explore the impact of multinational corporations on the global coffee industry. As an independent coffee company, Equal Exchange stands in stark contrast to these monopolistic systems. These chapters (Coffee Barons, Grocery Barons) align closely with our work as an independent food company and our mission to challenge monopolistic systems—particularly in the coffee industry. We look forward to your insights and hope to see you there!
 

 

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News Article
Economic Sanctions: A Root Cause of Migration
March 3, 2025
 
One of the most common tools of US foreign policy are economic sanctions. At the same time there is overwhelming  evidence that migration1 is driven in large part by adverse economic conditions and that sanctions can have severe, harmful economic and humanitarian consequences for civilians in targeted countries.
 
The cases of Cuba and Venezuela demonstrate this relationship clearly: The imposition or tightening of sanctions by the US government have, in recent years, fueled economic crises that in turn have led to record migratory outflows.
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Event
Fair Trade Market at Church of the Saviour - Advent Festival
December 7, 2024
Join the Advent Festival at Church of the Savior. They will have fair trade and local holiday gift market, live music, made-on-site fresh donuts, a cookie walk for charity and Dominick the Donkey will be there. We will also be there with our fair trade products!
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Event
Trade Justice Power Hour: Where is trade policy headed under Trump?
November 21, 2024

Where is trade policy headed — and what is the role of trade justice activists — now that Donald Trump has won control of the White House?

Join this month’s Trade Justice Power Hour briefing to hear from Lori Wallach of Rethink Trade and Arthur Stamoulis of the Trade Justice Education Fund about trade issues on the immediate horizon when President-elect Trump takes office — from potential tariff increases to renegotiation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (aka, “Trump’s NAFTA”).
 
As part of the briefing, we’ll hear about the importance of pushing for alternatives to both the business-as-usual, corporate-driven “free trade” neoliberalism that has failed our communities and the corporate-driven “America first” nationalism that stokes hatred while offering only false solutions.
 
Please send an email to info@tradejusticeedfund.org to register.
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News Article
Fair Trade: IRTF needs volunteers to help raise vital income for artisans and farmers
November 16, 2024

Did you know that IRTF’s fair trade program raises approximately $25,000 each year, providing vital income for fair trade artisans and farmers in Latin America? They depend on groups like IRTF to find markets for their fair trade goods.

And IRTF, with only two paid staff, depends on volunteers to generate this income for the artisans and farmers.

Can you help out IRTF for a couple of hours?

Click here to see the schedule of dates and hours, and sign up for a shift.

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News Article
IRTF is grateful to all who gathered for our annual Commemoration of the Martyrs
November 7, 2024

IRTF is grateful to the 200 supporters who gathered on October 27 at Pilgrim Church in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood for IRTF’s annual Commemoration of the Martyrs. In addition to marking the 44th anniversary of the martyrdom of Cleveland’s missioners in El Salvador (Jean Donovan and Sister Dorothy Kazel, alongside Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke), we commemorated 36 human rights defenders killed in Central America and Colombia this past year because they dared to speak truth to power.

Our keynote speaker, Lorena Araujo of the largest campesino organization in El Salvador (CRIPDES), held the crowd’s attention with horrific stories of mass arrests, detentions and deaths currently happening under their government’s State of Exception, now in its third year. With more 88,000 imprisoned (and more than 300 deaths in prison), El Salvador now has the highest incarceration rate in the world—surpassing the astronomical rate of incarceration in the United States. 

As the people of El Salvador face the greatest challenge to their democracy since the end of the civil war in 1992, they invite us to renew and deepen our solidarity.

If you would still like to make a donation:

https://bit.ly/3YDmETj     via Zeffy platform

irtfcleveland.org/donate  via Network for Good

facebook.com/IRTF1981

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Event
Ohio Fair Trade Expo & Teach-In 2024
October 5, 2024

nitiated in 2009, the Ohio Fair Trade Teach-In & Expo brings people together from across the region to learn about and become more involved in supporting FAIR TRADE – a model for socially and environmentally conscious consumerism.

This in-person event at John Carroll University will bring together hundreds of fair trade supporters, advocates, retailers, and vendors from across the state. The Expo will be an opportunity to continue building energy around the already vibrant Ohio fair trade movement and previous Expos. In addition to the Global Marketplace of fair trade vendors, we’ll host educational presentations and panels, including a fair trade fashion show for high school and students and a Fair Trade Around the World program for kids.

 

WHAT: Ohio Fair Trade Teach-In & Expo 2024

WHERE: John Carroll University, Dolan Science Center; University Heights (Cleveland), OH

WHEN: Saturday, October 5, 2024

TIME: 9am-2pm (attendees are welcome to come and go)

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Here is some additional info about the Expo:

The Ohio Fair Trade Network, together with John Carroll University, is hosting the 2024 Ohio Fair Trade Teach-In and Expo. Join us for one of the largest regional fair trade events in the country. The Ohio Fair Trade Teach-In & Expo is a place for people of all ages, with educational opportunities and panels, activities for children, and the Global Fair Trade Marketplace. Educational presentations on the nine principles of fair trade.

The Global Fair Trade Marketplace will feature multiple vendors for you to shop for handcrafted jewelry, clothing and home decor items, as well as fair trade coffee, tea, chocolate and more!

Kids’ Activities

Kids (ages 6-12) are invited to participate in our Fair Trade Around the World program. As kids travel around the auditorium, they will learn about different countries, cultures, languages, climate and habitats—as well as personal stories about the farmers and artisans—from the vendors. Stopping at each station, kids can participate in a 5-10 minute activity and have their fair trade travel booklet stamped to be entered into the kiddie raffle.

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News Article
Honduras: Highway Robbery: How Bad Trade Policies Make Life Unaffordable
October 3, 2024

Honduras is currently facing at least USD 14 billion in claims from foreign and domestic companies. This is equivalent to roughly 40 percent of the country's GDP in 2023 and almost four times its public investment budget in 2024. A new study on this avalanche of claims found that most investors are revolting against Honduran efforts to reverse or renegotiate corrupt deals made under Hernández, which were often damaging to the public interest and local communities.

Juan Orlando Hernández is the Honduras former drug trafficking and corrupt president who was illegally reelected through fraud and with the help of the US.

Now a private toll booth operator - backed by major US banks, including JP Morgan Chase Bank and two Goldman Sachs funds - is suing Honduras in international arbitration. They are demanding 180 million dollars, more than four times what the company has reportedly invested. If these investors are successful, the economic burden on the country will only deepen the displacement crisis that is driving Hondurans north.

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Event
IRTF Fair Trade booth at Tremont Arts & Cultural Festival
September 21, 2024 to September 22, 2024

Stop by and say hello at the IRTF Fair Trade booth. 

 

Tremont Arts and Cultural Festival celebrates the cultural and artistic diversity of Tremont and the greater Cleveland area, featuring fine art, sculpture, original jewelry, children’s activities and programs, food booths, musicians and performers. Now in its 25th year, the 2024 Tremont Arts and Cultural Festival is comprised of five Festival Villages:

Children’s Village: hand-on arts, historical, and educational projects:

Community Village: area non-profit organizations presenting material about their mission and services, along with local, independent merchants and vendors;

Cultural Village: food sales by Tremont and Greater Cleveland restaurants , and fair trade merchants and non-profits reflecting the ethnic diversity of the neighborhood and region;

Artists’ Village: Applications for exhibiting visual artists are accepted online in 15 categories: 2D Mixed Media, 3D Mixed Media, Ceramics, Digital Art, Drawing, Fiber, Glass, Fine Jewelry, Leather, Metal (non-sculptural), Painting (Oil, Acrylic, & Watercolor), Photography & Digital Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture (Paper, Bronze, Clay, Metal, Stone) and Wood.

Tremont Famers Market: the local growers and artisans of the weekly (May – Oct, 2024) Tremont Farmers Market

The Festival has free music and dance performances Saturday and Sunday on the TACF Main Stage.

Event hours: 12-7pm on Saturday; 12-5pm on Sunday

https://experiencetremont.com/featured-events/tremont-arts-cultural-festival/

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Event
IRTF Fair Trade booth at Waterloo Arts Festival
September 14, 2024

Stop by and say hello at the IRTF Fair Trade booth on Saturday, September 14. The annual Waterloo Arts Fest takes place in the artistically vibrant Waterloo Arts & Entertainment District in the lakeside neighborhood of Collinwood in Cleveland, OH. Over the past twenty one years the festival has grown but it has always remained grounded in community and fresh with local art. For seven hours each year, the Waterloo Arts Fest reminds residents and visitors of the many assets in the Waterloo Arts District, of the incredible potential still to be realized and how wonderful it is to live in a city neighborhood with a great mix of people.

https://www.waterlooartsfest.org/ 

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