You’ll have to return later for a pic of me costumed as a Crunch bar (Update: See pic left!) — but so you know, I made it to the fair trade action in front of the courthouse today.
A half hour late, that is :( In my defense, I took public transportation.
Still, I made it. Along with like 9 other people.
What makes me sad is that I honestly believe there are MANY MORE people in Los Angeles who care about this issue. What’s the issue? Nestle, Cargill, and Archer Daniels-Midland — the major chocolate sellers — buy cocoa produced via illegal child labor in West Africa. So the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) sued them. The first hearing was today, at 1:30 pm in the LA courthouse. Thus, the event.
Who I’d've loved to have seen there: young people. Meaning high school-age or younger.
I’m not delusional in thinking young Angelenos care about where their chocolate comes from. Check out these pro-fair-trade posters, made and presented by Crossroads High School students.
With a little more advance planning to get the word out, I really think we could’ve gotten more enthusiastic and passionate young people involved in this event.
Now, I’m not blaming Global Exchange, who coordinated the event. Honestly, it’s quite possible they did the best they could — GE even phonebanked, calling its members to participate.
The thing is, LA’s very spread out. And all of us seem to be involved with different organizations that don’t necessarily share information or coordinate our efforts — despite the fact that we may care deeply about the same issues.
My next goal: To try and create more bridges between these communities –
Update, 2/10/06: Time magazine reports on the lawsuit. You can also listen to the public radio report to hear more about the lawsuit or find out about fair trade chocolate.
February 6th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
This may be a rather strange question, but what’s the goal of the demonstration at the courthouse? Who are you trying to reach? The press? The parties involved in the suit? The public?
I’m guessing that demonstrating in front Nestle in Glendale or perhaps a well-positioned store that sells plenty of Nestle products for Valentine’s could mobilize support too (especially with those cute Choo Choo cards). Would that be Target?
February 6th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
Viva la resistance!
February 6th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
Cybele — I believe the point was to 1. raise awareness about this issue, and 2. pressure the courts not to throw out the case (Nestle, et al, filed a motion to dismiss the suit, which is what the hearing today was about).
Interestingly, we had a good number of press peeps come by. Just not that many activists…
Good idea re: targeting Target — Though I think, right now, I wanna step back more and think about how we can get a mass mobilization to happen –
February 7th, 2006 at 1:43 am
Siel, good luck with bridging the gaps between these organizations that have similar goals. I think that would help greatly in bringing activists together for common causes. I used to work for a non-profit in SF, and one of the toughest issues I had to deal with was always those same gaps…non-profits don’t ‘talk’ with each other…even sometimes competing for some ‘grants’ people are ‘over-worked’ have too many cases they personally have to handle, under-staffed, no time for thinking outside the box, etc. etc. I had and always wished that a lot of information had been shared across non-profits and the people would support each other…it would’ve been much more efficient and helpful. So I hear you, and I’d like to support you on your next goal :-) Keep up the good work…
February 7th, 2006 at 4:21 am
Good job raising awareness; even a handful of chocolate covered activists will likely get some play and make people aware, but a court — and especially a federal court — will never cave to that kind of pressure, or even take notice of it. Really. Judges are contrary that way.
And in fact, sometimes more is gained from a dismisal. One lawsuit goes forward and loses on substantive grounds and nothing is gained. The same lawsuit is dismissed early, is appealed, and establishes the binding precedent that such lawsuits are OK.
So, was there a ruling?
February 7th, 2006 at 10:55 am
I imagine that the fact that it was in the middle of the day prevented a lot of supporters from coming because of work/school. If you’d like for students to come, I suggest that you work some teachers so they can make it a field trip. I once heard of a Social Justice program at a high school in LA, I’m not sure if it’s still going but that would be an ideal place to start.
February 7th, 2006 at 11:02 am
I found the website for that school, it’s called Los Angeles Leadership Academy: http://laleadership.org/index.html