buying guide
well, i know that even the most ardent anti-capitalist sometimes has to make purchases......i thought that i would make some recommendations, for those moments when you have to buy something.....because usually there are choices: between exploitation and cooperation. here's what i would buy:
GAS:
CITGO -- this is the only company to buy gas from. it is owned by the nationalized gas company of venezuela, and most of the profit goes to benefit the venezuelan people. more info
(yeah, we need to move away from gas. if you are thinking of purchasing a vehicle, get a diesel one and use biodiesel!)
FOOD:
FRUITS/VEGETABLES:
buy organic and local. join a food coop or a community-supported agriculture coop and get fruits and vegetables that way. go to farmers' markets and family farms in your area. overpriced stores like wild oats and fresh fields often use predatory retailing to put smaller coops out of business. also, a lot of pre-packaged organic and natural food companies are being bought out by huge corporations and being rendered obsolete, as these companies pressure the government to water down the standards for 'organic' classification, and push small companies out of business.
SWEETS:
SOY ICE CREAM:
Turtle Mountain, small company in Eugene, Oregon. Makes 'Soy Delicious' -- check your local food coop.
CHOCOLATE:
GREEN AND BLACKS
-vegan, dark chocolate. until recently, the only fair trade chocolate on the market. and given the fact that the chocolate industry does not hesitate to engage in SLAVE LABOR, the fair trade label in chocolate is pretty darn important.
BOYCOTT tropical source. i know, i know, it's vegan, it's tasty. but it is also MADE IN ISRAEL, and if we are going to have any impact in a campaign to pressure Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian land, then we have to make sacrifices. and tropical source is one of those companies that are on the boycott list.
COFFEE:
ZAPATISTA COFFEE
you can support the indigenous people's struggle for autonomy in southern mexico by ordering coffee by the bag on the web. on the same website, they are also starting to sell honey from the local communities in chiapas.
SHOES:
VEGETARIAN SHOES
this british company makes all vegetarian shoes and boots, high quality too....
BLACK SPOT SNEAKERS
A project of adbusters magazine to have a non-corporate, non-sweatshop made sneaker for those who care.
CLOTHES:
well, i have found i really haven't had to buy clothes for a long time, thanks to all the free boxes that abound in this country, and second-hand clothes are cheap and a great way to re-use. but if you really want to buy new clothes, order from Deva Lifewear, a small, natural-fiber clothing company based in south dakota.
GIFTS:
There is a fairly new chain called Ten Thousand Villages, founded by the Church of the Brethren, which sells only fair trade goods from many different cooperatives around the world. Beautiful handicrafts, clothes, instruments, toys -- you should be able to find a gift for any occasion there. Their website has a listing of stores by state, or you can order online.
some of these things i suggest here are somewhat expensive, because they pay workers a fair wage and don't exploit resources. if you need to buy cheap, buy used. but if you're going to make an investment in something new, why not spend $120 on vegetarian, fair trade shoes instead of sweatshop-produced nikes, for example? spending money is always a choice, so spend carefully. pay attention to where your money goes, and celebrate BUY NOTHING DAY on the day after thanksgiving, which is the US' biggest shopping day of the year. Buy Nothing Day is just what it says: buy nothing on that day, as a standing fast against the excesses of capitalism.
things that I simply WILL NOT BUY
BANANAS -- there are no fair trade bananas on the market. and if you could just see what the banana plantations have done to people and the land in honduras, nicaragua......it is a terribly exploitative industry, and i will have nothing to do with it.
(that said, though, i have heard rumors of a fair trade banana coop from ecuador beginning to make inroads on the west coast. check the health food stores. as far as i know, though, they're not yet available in the east and midwest)
DIAMONDS -- the biggest source of diamonds is sierra leone. there is a horrible, horrible war going on there, fueled by the diamond industry. it is horrible and disgusting to think that 'a diamond is forever', when in reality the ongoing mining of diamonds means the brutal dismembering of children's bodies.
GOLD -- i will not buy gold. ever. for any reason. the reason? i happen to know personally members of the western shoshone nation, whose land is being expropriated, mined, colonized and completely destroyed by the domestic diamond industry in the u.s. they live in what is called 'nevada' (newe segobia to them), and have maintained continuity in their native culture, tradition and language since white people colonized their land in the 1800s. they've managed to hold onto their culture, but the gold industry is destroying everything they have. and it's even worse in africa, where most of the world's gold is mined.
CELL PHONE -- i know, i know, they are convenient, and cool. but the cellphone explosion of the last five years has gone hand in hand with the war in the Congo, where competition for control of the resource COLTAN, which is used exclusively in the transistors of cell phones and sony gameboys, has cost at least 2 million lives in the last three years alone (according to Amnesty International). more info