Fair Trade Part Deux Coming Soon! Side Run Through Environmental Commission

In a letter dated November 29, 2011 (attached), the co-chairs of the La Mesa Fair Trade Steering Committee requested members of the city council revisit the previous October request for a CITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF LA MESA BEING A FAIR TRADE TOWN.

This is accompanied by a side run through the Environmental Sustainability Commission's meeting Monday night. It is, of course, not surprising that they would return in as much as they said it is exactly what they would do.

Several individuals have previously outlined the substantive reasons to not support a City of La Mesa Resolution supporting the Fair Trade movement. The revised sample resolution does nothing to overcome the many objections.

This round 2 effort, full of good outcome intentions as was round 1, is once again misplaced because of the attempts to use public resources as tools to endorse, promote and market a social justice political message and it affilated profit producing products.

A few things come to mind in reviewing the newest request and proposed resolution.

• “The passing of a resolution is one of five requirements”. There is nothing that is preventing the fair trade organization from promoting their ideas and products right now. A careful reading of the Fair Trade Town (FTT) website will show the  resolution “requirement” is simply part of a far reaching agenda that will be used to promote social justice through certain product sales and ever more city resolutions.
• "The resolution is not meant to .....give any sort of advantage to certain businesses in the community." This is a gross misrepresentation at best. The FTT website clearly demonstrates the organization will use the passage of a fair trade resolution to promote their fair trade message and products within the city and elsewhere. This is simply called advertising. And advertising IS meant to provide an advantage to one product over another by appealing to consumers in one way or another. Why else advertise? Taxpayers must not be paying for or supporting advertising that promotes a political agenda.
• Fair trade "standards" are subjective to the various "certifiers."  Here, the certification process, employed by a branch of those associated with the political social justice agenda, is meant to separate the preferred products from other products under a purported banner of a disinterested non-political 3rd party oversight. This is like the fox watching the hen house!
• While it is true the resolution is non-binding in the sense that no one is compelled to purchase anything nor does it strictly prohibit non-fair trade labeled products, it does place the City of La Mesa in the position of endorsing a social justice political agenda with public resources and taxpayer dollars. And since many, if not most, fair trade products are produced by for-profit business or corporate enterprises the city would  also be using taxpayer resources to assist in the promotion of one class of for-profit business over another.
• Using an official declaration to support one private group’s view of what constitutes "fair labor practices and healthy and safe working conditions" is placing the city name and endorsement in the hands of a political group over which the city will have no control. The meaning of these terms is open to various interpretations and thus a political issue and clearly the wrong subject for a city resolution. Once the endorsing resolution horse has left the corral it is highly unlikely to ever be recalled.
• Saying a major objective of the fair trade movement to encourage local buying is misleading. By reviewing all the affiliated fair trade for-profit companies and corporations’ one can see the majority of current effort is for commodity growers outside of the United States. Who knows where it will go next?
• “It would bring national and regional recognition to our city…” Claiming the city would benefit from recognition is admitting that the resolution is, in large part, a marketing strategy to promote the various for-profit fair trade product producers and the aforementioned political social justice agenda. But confusingly, in the same letter it also says "The resolution is not meant to .....give any sort of advantage to certain businesses in the community" and "A major objective is to encourage  people to buy locally produced goods whenever possible” and “Consumers who wish to purchase Fair Trade Certified products would be directed to our community.” If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck......!
• The sample resolution is to state “The City of La Mesa expresses its support for sustainable and equitable commerce…” Sustainable and equitable commerce is a facet of the current social justice political movement wherein market forces and consumer choice are not the determining factors in the business. Instead, a predetermined view of what is fair for everyone is put in place through policy directives or legislation. The original “equitable commerce” is a style of business championed over 150 years ago in “The Practical Anarchist: Writings of Josiah Warren”
•  The sample resolution states that Fair Trade is an “innovate market strategy”. This is confusing and contradictory as the letter from the Fair Trade Steering Committee stated  "The resolution is not meant to .....give any sort of advantage to certain businesses in the community." So here the group admits they are in a political and commercial marketing campaign and using the good and valued name of the City of La Mesa and public resources in the effort to the benefit of their movement and certified products.
• The sample resolution states: “Fair trade products are widely available and competitively priced…” If this is in fact the case why does the group need a official city resolution to promote their agenda? The fact is that they seek to create an advantage for their political agenda and products using behind-the-scenes campaigns on unprepared or unknowing local jurisdictions.
•  The sample resolution states: “Many consumers are searching for more socially and environmentally responsible ways for conducting their lives and Fair Trade is a viable option” This statement may be techically accurate but it is wholly inadequate as a justification for the City of La Mesa to endorse one narrow opinion of what is or is not “socially and environmentally responsible”
• The sample resolution states: “…Supporting our local economy, by purchasing locally and ethically produced good sand services is in keeping with the values of Fair Trade.” Here the group admits they have a values based agenda. By endorsing this groups values the City of La Mesa will be favoring FTT defined values and business model over values used by other completing enterprises which are not city endorsed.
•  The sample resolution states: “… this City Council supports those working to ensure ongoing education and commitment to Fair Trade,”  In other words, the resolution will be a contract that “this City Council agrees allow FTT to use public resources and good and valued name of the City of La Mesa to support the FTT social justice political agenda and accompanying business model  in exchange for favorable regional and national publicity for the City of La Mesa and favorable and exclusive marketing and advertising for the betterment those business enterprises that engage in political agenda social justice practices aligned with Fair Trade Towns!” If the city is going to provide a "quid pro quo" relationship with one political group that solicities them why not for other groups with a political or social message? How about the  Tea Party Nation, Coffee Party USA, Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee (X-PPAC), Godless Americans Political Action Committee, Government Is Not God, MoveOn.org , NRA, Social Democrats, USA, John Birch Society, Greens - International, U.S. Taxpayers Party, United We Stand America - The Grass Roots, Christian Coalition, Young People's Socialist League, to name but a few, who like FTT claim to have a positive message and plan for society as a whole, that might be interested is seeking a La Mesa City Resolution in exchange for publicity?
• How does this proposed resolution fit within the "germane to the operation of the city" standard established by elected officials a few years ago when confronted with other political issues?

When terms such as justice and equity are modified by or used as modifiers for words such as social and economic, the resulting concepts are also modified to  become personal or political ideals defining an certain outcome.

And when such are implemented through politics they are subject to the whims of the current political powers-that-be in order to serve their preferred end. There is a better way. Our founders established a system where opportunity and individual freedom are guiding principles and where the courts, not political policy, are the path to the remedy of claimed injustice or inequity.

Once again, the city council should reject the resolution request and the remind the FTT proponents to use the tools already at hand to promote their cause to the consuming public-their own money and the worth of their agenda in free market!