Fair World Project

It calls itself a “certification watchdog” and regularly criticizes fair trade certifications that do not meet its preferred standards, including major programs such as Fairtrade International, Fair Trade USA, the Equitable Food Initiative, and B Corp. ^{2 3 4}

History

Fair World Project was founded in 2010 as a project of the Organic Consumers Association. ⁵

Its purpose was to advocate for a left-wing “fair trade” model of international trade and corporate governance that would hold companies responsible for the livelihoods and working conditions of all workers throughout their international supply chains. ⁵ Dana Geffner worked as the organization’s executive director until 2023, when it was acquired by the Chicago-based Corporate Accountability Lab. ^{6 7}

Activities

Criticism of Fair Trade Certification Programs

Fair World Project refers to itself as a “certification watchdog.” It supports “fair trade” certification programs, but regularly criticizes existing programs for not meeting its preferred standards and allowing too much corporate input into their standards and enforcement. ^{2 3 8}

In one 2022 example, Fair World Project criticized the “B Corp” certification managed by the left-of-center B Corp Climate Collective supported by highly ESG-sensitive companies such as Ben and Jerry’s, Patagonia and Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps for not going far enough to oversee working standards on farms in companies’ supply chains. ^{9 3}

Child Slavery Lawsuits

Fair World Project supported lawsuits filed in federal court in California against Nestle USA and Cargill by six citizens of the African nation of Mali who alleged the companies had aided and abetted human rights violations by purchasing cocoa beans from plantations in Cote d’Ivoire where the plaintiffs had been trafficked and forced to work as child slaves. ¹⁰

The suits relied on the Alien Tort Statute, which allows non-Americans to sue in U.S. federal courts for actions in other countries that are “committed in violation of the law of nations or of a treaty of the United States.” ¹¹

The Supreme Court’s 8-1 ruling in 2021 against the plaintiffs was a blow to the Fair World Project’s strategy to use American courts to regulate corporate behavior around the world. The Court limited American companies’ exposure to Alien Tort Statute lawsuits to human rights violations that actually take place within the United States, or that involve more than “general corporate activity” abroad. ¹²

Since that decision, Fair World Project has supported new federal laws that would extend the jurisdiction of American courts to most, if not all, of American companies’ actions abroad while creating new requirements for companies to ensure “living incomes” and “fair livelihoods” throughout their entire supply chains or face legal liability. ¹

Pro-Union Advocacy

Fair World Project supports unionization of American workers as part of its “fair trade” model. ^{13 14}

It advocates passage of the federal Protecting the Right to Organize Act, better known as the PRO Act. ¹⁵ The bill renamed the “Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act” after the late AFL-CIO president when it was reintroduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2023. ¹⁶ The law would reclassify more independent contractors as employees, invalidate state right-to-work laws, give the National Labor Relations Board the ability to unilaterally certify a union if it finds that the employer “interfered” with an election, give unions access to employees’ personal contact information during organizing campaigns, prohibit companies from replacing workers who were striking for purely economic reasons, and create new financial penalties for employers–but not unions–for violating labor laws. ^{17 18 19}