The cakes were all made with fairtrade certified chocolate, meaning there was no use of child slavery in its production. Many attendees were shocked to hear that Anti-Slavery International's research shows the continuation of child trafficking, a form of modern slavery, to cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, which produces almost 40% of the world's cocoa. This knowledge made everyone keener to buy fairtrade and know where their chocolate was coming from.
The turnout was great and not just for the food! There was also an interesting and informative talk from Mike Secker, an intern from Christian Aid, about their work with trade and tax law. Christian Aid estimates that tax dodging costs poor countries $160 billion a year. This is money that should be spent building schools and hospitals.
This talk led into a discussion of EU and US subsidies on products such as cotton which keeps millions of African farmers trapped in poverty. We had been collecting signatures for Anti-Slavery's Cotton Crimes petition and we wanted to highlight the relation between Fairtrade cotton farmers and slavery in Uzbekistan's cotton industry.
Overall the night was a huge success (and not just due to the amounts of fairtrade wine consumed!) And we are looking forward to more collaborations with Fairtrade in the future.
Amina Makele
Bristol University
