Coffee crisis

Coffee workers march for their lives again

MS development worker Erika Brenner reports about the third coffee worker march in a row, about the present free trade negotiations with the US - and about a recent coffee competition with a Nicaraguan winner.

Text & photos: Erika Brenner, Information worker, MS Central America

18. August 2003

Was the third march for life in vain? Five thousand hungry Nicaraguan coffeeworkers, organisations representing civil society and international co-operation are these days pondering on that question.

The urgent situation has for three years in a row prompted thousands of coffeeworkers to leave their modest homes, bring along children, elderly, the sick and set off for the roads in a desperate claim for land and work.

For three years the price of coffee on the world market has been well below the costs of production resulting in unemployment and extreme poverty among coffee workers from northern Nicaragua.

The people have not remained passive, though. Three years in a row they have fought for better conditions by the means of marches and road-blocks.

This year they set off in the afternoon of the 30th of July, in total silence, carrying crosses made of poles from coffee-bushes. The final destination was the President's Palace in Managua, 128 kilometres away. A female leader shouted:

- We want the "Treaty of Las Tunas" accomplished. We are not vagabonds. We need land in order to be able to start working immediately.

"The Treaty of Las Tunas" was the agreement of last year promising work, seeds and land as well as alimentation, healthcare, housing and education.

In July this year the promises had not yet been accomplished - with the exception of vague attempts to ease the hunger - so empty stomachs and unemployment sent the people on the road again, a road either heated up by the baking sun - or drenched by the tropical rainshowers. The coffee workers once again slept under precarious shelters of black plastic and suffered from hunger, thirst, sicknesses and insects. The march, which ended on the 8th of August, resulted in 14 dead people - and a new treaty.

Whether this new treaty can prevent the deaths of more people, waits to be seen.

Complex problems - integral solutions

- It depends on two things, explains Vidaluz Meneses, spokeswoman of the "Coordinadora Civil", one of the major voices of civil society in Nicaragua.

- On one hand it is all about the willingness from part of the politicians, she says, on the other hand we have the tricky question of access to land.

The new treaty is even more extensive with regards to this question than that of last year, promising 7.500 manzanas - or app. 4000 hectares - of land to 2.500 families. If the people don't get land, none of their other problems can be resolved in an integral way, which is what people demand:

- What does it help to be thrown on a lot like an animal if we don't get access to health stations and schools, like a youngster among the coffee-workers expressed it.

Vidaluz Meneses also stresses the importance of integral solutions, not only offering land to the people, but also housing, sewage, social services and education.

On the other hand land donation throughout the course of the years, during different intents of accomplishing land reforms, has been subject to abuse. Land has been given to the landless - and they have resold it.

In order to prevent this, the handing over of land this time is to be conditioned in various ways paving way for more sustainable and longsighted development.

Fair trade

The way things look now, the crisis does not seem to come to an end in a close future, at least not with regards to the situation caused by the reduced coffee-prices on the world market.

Nicaragua along with the rest of Central-America is, besides, currently negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States and Canada with a possible sign of a Treaty in December.

Civil Society in Central America, represented among others by the CID Initiative (The Mesoamerican Initiative for Trade, Integration and Development), an MS Central America Associate Organisation, demands a moratorium in the negotiations of the FTA.

One of the reasons for this is the fact that the North American Party has established a hard-line negotiating position allowing little margin to create a treaty which recognises the asymmetries of the region. Especially basic crops of the region such as beans, corn, rice and milk should be protected in the Treaty.

Coffee should also be protected giving the growers access to specialised markets: those of ecological coffee and coffee of supreme quality.

For many years, coffee-experts have pointed out that Nicaraguan producers should aim at producing an ever increasing quality accustoming consumers to pay more for the coffee.

Coffee competition with Nicaraguan winner

Nicaragua is slowly approaching this goal and had not less than 37 participants in the international competition "Cup of Excellence" this year.

A Nicaraguan grower won the second prize and 58 tons of Nicaraguan coffee was sold on an auction over the Internet.

It is a small but first step and it will not in the first place fill the stomachs of hungry coffee growers and - workers. The growers need fair trade agreements and access to markets. The landless need land and additional integral solutions which demand economic resources and willingness from part of the politicians.

Otherwise we will soon experience a fourth march for life.