The nicest thing anyone in Tucson has given us
by Emrys
Saturday, Dec. 04, 2004 at 6:30 PM
AFTA delegates touched by gifts from activists
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Tucson activists found themselves surprised at the lax security and ease of access to AFTA delegates - and took full advantage of it. Patricia Morrison, an organizer with the No AFTA Alliance, had an idea early on in the talks: give gifts to the delegates and include tid-bits of subversive literature.
"The idea of the gift baskets is to show the delegates there's an alternative to free trade," Morrison said on Friday. "We've had a really good response."
By Friday, 50 gift mugs had been made and distributed, with another 70 bags, baskets and mugs following on Saturday. Each gift contained at lease one fair trade item: coffee, chocolate, bananas or tea. Then bilingual messages about peasant farmers and fair trade agriculture movement accompanied the food, along with stickers, fliers and other literature.
For chocolate, the gift basket includes a story about a village that was able to install a well for fresh drinking water with money they received after joining a Free Trade cocoa bean group. With coffee, delegates get a story about a life-long Colombian coffee farmer who is about to lose his land due to low global coffee prices - something AFTA will no doubt make worse. Then literature then talks about Just Coffee - a collective movement in Chiapas, Mexico that is able to pay make three-and-a-half times more money from their beans than if they even sold to Fair Trade coffee groups.
The baskets have been very well received, said Morrison and others who have handed them out. Morrison said a group of three Peruvians told her the gifts were the nicest thing in Tucson anyone had given them. "Their hearts were warmed," she said.
Interview with Patricia Morrison
by Emrys
Saturday, Dec. 04, 2004 at 6:30 PM
audio: MP3 at 773.4 kibibytesaudio: MP3 at 773.4 kibibytes
Production circle
by Emrys
Saturday, Dec. 04, 2004 at 6:30 PM
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Several people chipped in to make the gift baskets at the No AFTA convergence space
Writing on bags
by Emrys
Saturday, Dec. 04, 2004 at 6:30 PM
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The bags had subversive messages written on them
Finished gift mug
by Emrys
Saturday, Dec. 04, 2004 at 6:30 PM
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One of the original gift mugs
Basket
by Emrys
Saturday, Dec. 04, 2004 at 6:30 PM
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Gift basket filled with fair trade goodies
In the wrong hands...
by Emrys
Saturday, Dec. 04, 2004 at 6:30 PM
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A bag is spotted in the U.S. Control Room in the Tucson Convention Center - they're on to us!
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