- Worldshop
and other North-South political campaigns.
Worldshops are often
not-for-profit organizations and run by locally based volunteer networks.Although the movement emerged in
Europe and a vast majority of worldshops are still based on the continent, worldshops can also be found today inNorth America ,Australia andNew Zealand .History
The start of the movement is usually attributed to the first worldshop in Europe, which was founded by
Oxfam in 1959. The Oxfam shop sold Chinese bric-a-brac that had been sourced from Chineserefugees that had escaped the Communist revolution toHong Kong . However, some sources credit the first fair trade shop that had been opened in the US the year before, selling Puerto Rican needlework.The shops were not called worldshops at that time, however.
Alternative trading organisation s imported variousthird world goods, such as canesugar starting in the 1960s, and still continuing today. These goods were sold in "third world shops" or "developing country shops" (the actual name differing from country to country). The most active organisations were operating in theUnited Kingdom and theNetherlands . The term "worldshop" came into existence in the 1990s. In 1994, worldshops organised themselves under the auspices ofNEWS! ,Network of European Worldshops . The Fairtrade label, which is used on fair trade products, has its roots in the 1980s worldshop movement.Aims
Worldshops' aim is to make
trade as direct and fair with the trading partners as possible. Usually, this means a producer in adeveloping country and consumers in industrialized countries. The worldshops' target is to pay the producers a fair price that guarantees substinence and guarantees positive social development. They often cut out any intermediaries in the import chain.See also
External links
* [http://www.bafts.org.uk/ British Association for Fair Trade Shops (BAFTS) - A network of independent Fair Trade or World Shops across the UK]
* [http://www.worldshops.org/ Network of European World Shops]
* [http://www.worldshops.org/fairtrade/netw/2004_FinalHistory_of_FairTrade.doc Brief history of Worldshops] (Word document from NEWS!)
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