Just Change Network Nilgiri Tea

The Just Change Network was established in order to overcome the poverty of the Adivasi, an indigenous tribal people outside of the Hindu caste system, of the Nilgiris region, India, and in response to the recognition that ‘globalisation and economic liberalisation, while being hailed by many as the answer to the poverty of developing countries, is not working for many of the world’s poorest’.

In common with many indigenous groups, the Adivasi had been transformed over centuries from a proud and self-reliant community into a class of unskilled landless labourers, facing a daily struggle to even feed their families. Beginning with a Tribal Land Rights Campaign in 1988, the founders of the Just Change Network, Stan and Mari Thekaekara, have been fighting to redress the powerlessness of the Adivasi people, culminating in the establishment of the Just Change Network in the mid ‘90s.

The network is distinct from Fair Trade organisations in that it is much further removed from standard models of trade. As well as aiming to treat developing country producers more fairly, it works to link communities across the world in a very direct manner. Tea is traded directly from community to community, with particular emphasis on linking disadvantaged communities together in order to strengthen both, and the system cuts out the middlemen while creating both income generation and solidarity in UK communities.

Just Change is not about fair prices alone - it is about the relation between capital and labour, between "investors", producers and consumers. It is about creating a true market chain where all the forces of the market work collectively. So that one person is not the controller of market forces and another the victim of it! Just Change is tackling a centuries-old way of managing our economies, so that ‘the purpose of economic activity then changes from the creation of wealth (profit) to the creation of well-being for all’.

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