INTERNATIONAL LABOUR:

GIVE HERSHEY A VALENTINE:



Valentine's Day is coming up on Monday, and now is a good time to look at the root of where a lot of our chocolate comes from ie child labour in the cocoa industry. Here's an item from the International Labor Rights Forum on what you can do to end this exploitation.
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Valentine's Day 2011 Actions for the Hershey Campaign



Valentine's Day is a major chocolate buying holiday, but your gifts for your sweetheart should not come at the expense of workers rights! Forced labor, child labor and trafficking continues in the cocoa industry in West Africa. Almost all major chocolate companies have begun to commit to using independent, third-party programs to certify that their cocoa suppliers comply with international labor standards, but Hershey continues to lag behind the industry.

There are two easy and fun ways to take action to tell Hershey to go Fair Trade leading up to Valentine's Day:

1.SEND VALENTINES TO HERSHEY! Create your own personalized Valentine telling Hershey to start using Fair Trade Certified cocoa for its products, like the iconic chocolate Kiss. Address your Valentine to Hershey CEO David J. West and mail it to: 100 Crystal A Drive, Hershey, PA 17033. You can also download this PDF of a Valentine to mail to the company. If you make your own Valentine, please do scan an image of it or take a photograph of your Valentine and send it to ILRF Campaigns Director Tim Newman at: tim.newman@ilrf.org. We'll post them online and you can get a 10% discount to Global Exchange's store by sending your images and photographs to us! Please mail your Valentines to Hershey by February 18, 2011.
2.HOST A SCREENING OF THE DARK SIDE OF CHOCOLATE! You can host a screening of this documentary that exposes the ongoing use of trafficked child labor in the cocoa industry in your community. Click here to order your DVD and click here to download a screening toolkit. ILRF and partner organizations across the country are especially encouraging people to host screenings during a national week of action leading up to Valentine's Day from February 4-14.
You can also send an e-mail to Hershey online here.

Together we can support cocoa farmers and workers and make Valentine's Day sweet for everyone!

Also, don't forget about our petitions to Hershey! You can download the petition here and collect signatures in your community.
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THE LETTER
If you want to get a jump on things go to this link to send the following letter to the Hershey Corporation.
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Subject: Time to Raise the Bar, Hershey!

As a chocolate consumer, I am deeply concerned about labor rights abuses in the cocoa industry. Forced labor, trafficking and child labor continue on West Africa's cocoa farms.

While many companies are working to trace their cocoa and institute labor standards among their suppliers, I am disappointed to learn that Hershey is lagging behind its competitors in this area. I believe you can be a leader in responsible cocoa sourcing.

I ask that you meet the goals of the “Raise The Bar, Hershey!” campaign, which include:

* an agreement to take immediate action to eliminate forced and child labor in your cocoa supply chain;

* a commitment to sourcing 100% Fair Trade Certified™ cocoa beans by 2012 for at least one of your top five selling chocolate bars that prominently displays the Hershey name; and

* a commitment to making at least one additional top five selling bar 100% Fair Trade Certified™ every two years thereafter, so that Hershey’s top five selling cocoa bars will all be 100% Fair Trade Certified™ within 10 years.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-HONDURAS:
CANDIES AND SWEATSHOPS:
Tomorrow will be Valentine's Day, not exactly Molly's favourite holiday of the year, but any old port in a storm as they say. Yet some people will not be getting expressions of affection tomorrow ie the workers at Jerzees De Honduras. Molly has mentioned this case before at this blog. What is interesting is that there is a connection between the traditional Valentine's Day chocolates and the heartless actions of Russell Athletic towards their workers in Honduras. Read the following from the United Students Against Sweatshops, and see what you can do to help these workers.
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This Valentine's Day Ask See's Candies: "Is Your Owner Sweet on Sweatshops?":
Valentine's Day is a day to let others know you care for them -- a day for sending cards, flowers and chocolates. So why is the owner of one of America's leading candy companies acting like he's sweet on sweatshops? "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Corporation is the parent company of both See's Candies and Russell Athletic, a major manufacturer of collegiate logo apparel. See's respects the right of the workers in its candy factories in the U.S. to join a union. But Russell has shut down an entire garment factory in Honduras -- placing the livelihood of nearly 2,000 families at risk -- just because workers dared to claim this same basic right. TAKE ACTION today to ask See's Candies why Berkshire Hathaway seems to think garment workers in Honduras don't deserve be treated with the same dignity and respect as its other employees. Russell Athletic is linked to some of the most egregious violations of workers rights in Central America in recent years. Last year, Russell fired huge numbers of workers in its plants in Choloma, Honduras -- nearly 150 workers in all -- in retaliation for their joining a union. In response to pressure from USAS and other worker rights organizations, the company agreed to give those workers their jobs back, offer them back pay, and to recognize a union at its Jerzees de Honduras plant. In October, Russell, claiming a lack of orders, announced that it would close the plant -- which it did at the end of last month. Two outside investigations have found that anti-union retaliation played a significant role in Russell's decision. Now nearly 2000 workers are out of work, and union leaders face death threats related to the closure. Outrage over Russell's violation of workers' rights in Honduras is growing. Major universities across the country -- Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Miami, Minnesota and Wisconsin -- have taken steps to end their licensing relationships with the company. Berkshire Hathaway has failed to respond to the Honduran workers' appeal that it intervene in the case. Ask See's to tell Berkshire Hathaway that justice requires reversal of Russell's decision to close Jerzees de Honduras.
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THE LETTER:
Please go to THIS LINK to send the following letter to management at See's Candies.
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Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):
Mr. Brad Kinstler
Below is the sample letter:
Subject: Is See's Candies Sweet on Sweatshops?
Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],
Brad Kinstler, CEO
See's Candies, Inc.
210 El Camino Real
South San Francisco, CA 94080
Dear Mr. Kinstler,
I am sending you this message to express my concern about violations of international labor rights at See's fellow Berkshire Hathaway company, Russell Corporation, at its garment factories in Honduras. Last year, Russell illegally fired 145 workers at two of these plants in blatant retaliation for their attempt to form a union. Now, Russell has closed that plant even though two outside investigations found that the closure decision, like the previous firings, was in retaliation for workers having formed a union.




We know that this is not how See's treats its unionized workers here in the U.S., and that you would not willingly allow your company to be associated with such violations of workers' rights. Major universities and their students agree: Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Miami, Minnesota and Wisconsin have all acted to discontinue licensing relationships with Russell over the company's actions in Honduras. Please let Berkshire Hathaway know that See's disapproves of Russell's conduct and ask Berkshire to intervene to end these violations of workers rights.
Sincerely,
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Not to rain on anybody's parade, but there is more bad news about Valentine's Day. Here, from a posting last year on the Global Exchange site is the lowdown on that old valentine's favourite-chocolates.
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Valentine's Day chocolates - product of slave labour?
expatica.com
February 14, 2008
Those innocuous and delicious-looking chocolates given to loved ones all over the world on Valentine's Day are, more often than not, the result of incredible human suffering.





They are lethal luxuries. Those innocuous and delicious-looking chocolates given to loved ones all over the world on Valentine's Day are, more often than not, the result of incredible human suffering. Their main ingredient, cocoa, is often produced by child slaves in Africa.





"It is absolutely certain that the box of chocolates you got for Valentine's was produced by slave labour if it does not have a fair trade label," Steve Chalke of Stop the Traffik, an anti-trafficking NGO, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on the sidelines of a United Nations forum on human trafficking in Vienna.





When people think of human trafficking, they primarily think about the sex trade. But they forget that trafficking is a factor permeating all trades - be it sex, agriculture, domestic services, manufacture of fabrics - or chocolate.





"Chocolate is a prime example - it is cheap, and it is something many people buy - it makes the otherwise overwhelming statistics more personal," Chalke said.





According to UN estimates, at least 2.5 million people are exploited by forced labour at any point in time, a majority of them children.





In Ivory Coast, which produces 43 percent of the world's cocoa, about 12,000 boys from countries like Mali or Togo work as slaves on cocoa farms, the UN said. Activists put the number as high as 200,000.





"Even if it were ten, it would be ten too many," Chalke said of the modern-day slaves who are often as young as nine years of age.





The parents of those children are duped by the traffickers into believing their boys would receive an honest job, regular pay and an education, none of which ever happens.





Child slaves on the farm face appalling working conditions with 12 to 14 hours of severe manual labour, cutting down cocoa pods using big knives or machetes, thereby risking severe injuries which can often maim them permanently, Global Exchange, a fair trade organisation said. Some are also killed and many are beaten or abused.





"With every bar of chocolate you eat there is blood on your teeth," Chalke warned.





Many problems were linked to the insufficient revenues cocoa farmers receive, even in days of ever-rising prices for raw cocoa on the global markets, making it difficult for the family-owned farms to meet their needs.





But what is the answer? Dump those nougat hearts and forswear chocolate forever?





"No", activists say. "Buy fair."





By buying fairly traded chocolate, consumers can exert pressure on the chocolate industry, as well as ensure better pay for the farmers.





The heat is on for the chocolate industry, that back in the year 2000 promised to "eradicate" the problem of forced labour, to clean up its act. "They have done nothing. They say it is too difficult to monitor," Chalke said. "But if it were their children, they would have done it overnight."





Governments are also slowly waking up to the problem, with the United States a leading force on the issue.





Companies must clean up their supply chains, Mark Lagon, head of the US State Department's office on human trafficking said, with consumer pressure leading the way.





"If consumers can change the behaviour of the fishing industry towards dolphin-friendly tuna fishing, it is more than equally legitimate if it was child labour," Lagon said.





Tax incentives for fairly traded chocolates, far from an exotic niche product with large chains today producing their own fair trade brands, could be another way forward, activists suggested.
Slave-free chocolate can make the only pang of guilt associated with your next choc the question of what it will do to your waistline.
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THE CANADIAN CONNECTION:
Well, this is turning into something of a Valentine's Day special here at Molly's Blog. For those of you with an interest in the history of how this holiday came to be see our archives for February 2008. meanwhile here from the Canadian Labour Congress website is a story about what Canadian labour is doing this Valentine's Day to remind Canadian politicians that women's issues deserve more than platitudes.
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Will send "lip service" Valentine chocolates to all MPs:
OTTAWA - Barbara Byers, Executive Vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress, says that the Conservative government is paying lip service to improving the lives of women even as it refuses to support pay equity, child care and economic measures that support women's equality.





"Valentine's Day is coming up but the women of Canada aren't seeing much love from their federal Parliament these days," says Barbara Byers. "We're tired of having nothing but lip service paid to our issues."





So the Canadian Labour Congress is sending each Member of Parliament a gift of chocolate lips with an accompanying note - "women are tired of lip service".





Byers says that MPs should be warned that women across the country are organizing to challenge the federal government's failure to support issues of women's equality.





The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.2 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada's national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 130 district labour councils. Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca
Contacts:
Dennis Gruending, Communications, 613-526-7431 and 613-878-6040
Jeff Atkinson, Communications, 613-526-7425

HOLIDAYS:

VALENTINE'S DAY:

This Thursday is St. Valentine's Day, the second most profitable day of the year for greeting card manufacturers, after Christmas. The US. Greeting Card Association estimates that about 1 billion Valentine`s Day cards are sent each year, 85% of them purchased by women. This day also accounts for 12% of chocolate sales and 25% of flower sales in the USA, according to a Jan. 20, 2008 posting on the Money and Values blog.

LUPERCALIA:

Details on who, or who in the plural (see later in this blog), St. Valentine was are rather sketchy. Some suspect that St. Valentine`s Day was an invention set up to christianize the old festival of Lupercalia. This was a Roman festival held each year from February 13 to February 15 celebrating the she-wolf who suckled the orphans Romulus and Remus who founded Rome. The centrepoint of this festival was the Luoercal Cave, beneath the Palatine Hill in Rome. The ceremonies were directed by the Luperci (the "brothers of the wolf"), priests of the god Faunus (a Roman equivalent of Pan) dressed in goatskins. It began with the sacrifice of two male goats and a dogs, and then two young patricians were led to the altar to be smeared with the blood of the sacrifices, probably as a remnant of earlier human sacrifices at the festival.

A feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs called Februa from the skin of the sacrifices, drerssed themselves in the skins of the sacrificed gaots and ran around the presumed walls of the old Palatine city. While doing this they used the thongs as whips to strike onlookers. Females who were so struck were supposedly granted fertility and would have easy childbirths. The festival was eventually abolished by Pope Gelasius (494-96) who instituted the feast of St. Valentine in its place.

IN SEARCH OF ST. VALENTINE:

Who St. Valentine actualy was is rather unclear. His name doesn't appear in the earliest list of Roman martyrs compliled in 354. The Catholic Church's official Roman Martyrology lists no less than seven Saint Valentines. Of these three may have been the original. One was a Roman priest, another a bishop of Interamna (near modern Terni in Italy) and a third was a man who was martyred in the Roan province of Africa. The dates of the supposed deaths vary according to source. 269, 270 and 273 are all mentioned. In 1969 his commememoration was removed from the official Roman Catholic list of saints for universal veneration. Despite this he still remains venerated locally in places where his relics are supposedly housed. The relics...well, if the original St. Valentine may have been three different people his relics total up to far more. Places that supposedly house his relics include Terni in Italy, St. Praxedes in Rome, Balzan in Malta, the parish Church of Chelmo, Poland, Sts. Peter and Paul in Prague, the Iglesia de San Anton in Madrid, John Duns Scotus Church in Glascow, Whitefriar Church in Dublin, Roquemaure in France, Stephansdom Church in Vienna and the Birmingham Oratory in England. If St. Valentine were the patron saint of love songs his signature tune would be..."I'm in pieces, bits and pieces". For those with a taste for this sort of thing check out the Gazeteer of Relics and Miraculous Images site. Might as well go for a miraculous healing while you're on vacation.

In contrast to the lack of historical facts there are no end of legends about St. Valentine, many of them of quite modern invention. The earliest medieval version of the Valentine legend was mentioned by the Blessed Bede who exerpted his story from accounts first written in the sixth or seventh century. According to this version Valentine was a Christian arrested by Emperor Claudius II in the year 270 (see confusion of dates above) and personally questioned by him. The accounts make no mention of Valentine as a patron of romantic love. The story was later taken up and embellished by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, in his Legenda Aurea. Published in 1260, this compellation of biblical personages and Christian saints became one of the most read books of the high Middle Ages. Emperor Claudius II (also known as Claudius Gothicus for his victory over the Goths) had little time to attend to non-military matters in his brief reign, one that was entirely taken up by military campaigns, and the legend of the meeting of the two men is doubtful. Jacobus added the legend that Valentine cured his jailer's daughter of blindness before his execution.

Still later additions to the legend by other writers invented a love affair between Valentine and this jailer's daughter, and the story of how he sent her a letter the night before his execution signed "From your Valentine". The idea that the Emperor had banned marriages in Rome because he thought that unmarried men made better soldiers and that Valentine, as a priest, defied this banned by secretly marrying couples was another embellishment that gradually became transmuted into the idea of a patron saint of romantic love. In actual fact most of the Roman armies at this time were recruited from barbarians, and very few recruits came from Rome itself. Another twist of the story has people leaving Valentine little notes, folded up and hidden in cracks in his prison cell (the first "Valentines") that he would find and then offer prayers for the senders. As the Valentine legend developed he became the patron saint of lovers, bee keepers, greeting card manufacturers !, happy marriages, love, engaged couples, travellers, young people, and the plague !. His intervention was also requested against fainting.

THE MAKING OF A HOLIDAY:

Chaucer made his own contributer to the legend in his Parlement of Foules (1382) when he wrote a poem dedicated to the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia, signed on May 2, 1381. This was the feast day of another St. Valentine, a bishop of Genoa who died around 307. The poem reads:

"For this was on seynt Volantynys day

When euery bryd comyth there to chese (choose) his make (mate)."

People asumed that Chaucer was referring to February 14th, even though mid-February is hardly a time for mating birds in England. May 2, however, the proper date for several reasons. The Medieval cult of romantic love soon took up the ball. The "High Court of Love" was proclaimed in Paris on St. Valentine's Day, 1400. This court dealt with love contracts, betrayals and violence against women. The judges were selected by women on the basis of a poetry reading. The earliest written Valentine that survives was written by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife during the time he was imprisoned in England after his defeat at Agincourt. Valentine's Day is also mentioned by Shakespeare in Hamlet.

Valentine's Day began to take on more of its modern commercialized form during the 1840s in the USA. The first mass-produced valentines in the USA were the invention of Esther Howland of Worchester, Massachusetts. Her father owned a book and stationary store, and she was inspired by an English valentine sent to her to begin making embossed paper lace cards. Before this time Valentine's Day cards were either hand made or, from the early 1800s in England, hand painted in black and white by workers in what were actually craft shops rather than true factories. These early cards had evolved from a more religious tradition of Valentine's cards. The origin of the Valentine heart probably comes from the sacred heart of Jesus, and Cupid developed from an accompanying angel.The practice of sending other gifts, such as chocolate, flowers and jewellry began as recently as the 2nd half of the 20th century. By cunning marketing certain industries succeeded in replacing the older custom of sending small, personally chosen gifts with the formalized set of "acceptable" gifts that took on the aura of "traditions" even though they were innovations. Earlier versions of Valentine's cards often had real lace rather than paper lace, but this was unsuitable for mass production and marketing. The introduction of the "penny post" during the Victorian era(1840) gave a tremendous boost to the new Valentine's cards business. It was no longer prohibitively expensive to mail cards, many cards, for all occasions. For more on the history of the Valentine's Day card see THIS ITEM.