AN IMPRESSION FROM THE SOUTH

Kingsley Ofei- Nkansah, Ghana Agricultural Workers‘ Union of T.U.C.

I understand this seminar to be part of the preparation for IBC like the one before in Costa Rica. Naturally, not all the questions can be answered in this forum, because if all the questions could be answered there would be no need for another conference in May. There seems to be some issues which are contentious, but I do not think that they are necessarily such difficult issues. One of the things which has come out very strongly from the trade unionists like Arnd from Germany, who has made a presentation as part of a panel, is that we need to have a lot more consultation with the south. In a sense, I am a bit uneasy about re-emphasising this point, because I am apart of this southern delegation, but this point has come up again and again at different points in the discussions. In fact, if I may refer to Susan Shamrock from the research institute, hers was a more or less scientific presentation and the one most removed from social, economic and political considerations. Yet, when one examines that presentation very critically, it becomes clear that with all that you are doing in France - 90% of all your personnel are in France - everything you are doing in France is lovely, seeking to answer questions for policies in the south, but in doing so you are also seeking to make it possible for the south to have a better relationship with the north. I am not saying a better trading relationship - I am saying a better relationship.

I think that, although we are discussing bananas, we are not just talking about bananas but many other aspects of life. I think Doris captured this very clearly when she said that she wanted to talk about our reality and the way we feel. That was certainly very moving. If we look at the whole story, at the end of the day there are very few of us from the south and there are all of you from the north - and we have many areas of consensus. How do we strengthen those areas in the run up to the IBC in May? I am raising this question because, if we are not careful, we could go to the IBC in May and then find ourselves raising tedious questions when, in fact, what we should be doing is identifying the areas that move humanity forward. This has to do with more than bananas - this has to do with social, economic and environmental concerns. I think that we often talk about the social and environmental aspects without articulating the economic concerns, which is something that Alistair never misses out on. I think we should link all this up with the possibilites offered within the legal-political framework which Clare was trying to get across this morning.

Whilst doing that we will be able to see that there are different levels of struggle. The trade union framework is very well defined and has been defined over a period of almost two hundred years in Europe - long before it came down to the south. The NGO framework has developed over the years within companies and organisations. And what do you have? - slight variations here and there. Politically, we have had colonialism with its whole relationship between north and south. Then, as a result of colonialism, bananas as a commodity finds itself in a much, much more sordidly complicated situation than cocoa, coffee or tea. This is not caused by the people in the south. It is a result of a certain relationship with respect to one commodity, and out of this commodity-relationship we are beginning to see that there are many more challenges which touch on almost every aspect of our lives, including bio-genetic engineering, etc. So, if I may finish, I would like to say that for the trade unions and for the people from the south we see fair trade as a useful option. We should use it as much as possible to strengthen all institutions that are interested in progress - be it in the north or south. We should then go beyond that to see how we can affect the legal-political framework in the EU and the BTU, share that information, and see how far we can go. We are together. Thankyou.