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About Just Change

Just Change UK (JCUK) has been set up as part of the international Just Change network, to tackle poverty and social exclusion in the UK through an innovative model of ‘fair trade’.  The network brings together producers  consumers and social investors, in India and the UK.  Based on principles of cooperation and mutuality, it aims to benefit disadvantaged communities in both countries through direct trade and investment.  The Just Change model questions the assumptions underlying current fair trade arrangements, it builds direct relationships between disadvantaged people across the globe and it challenges the way the international commodity market treats both poor producers and consumers.   

History

Just Change was first developed in India by Stan and Mari Thekaekara, working with adivasi forest peoples in southern India and then later in the UK. The need for a different model of fair trade was identified by the adivasis themselves, when they saw how much more people in the UK had to pay for fair trade products.

They did not think this was ‘fair’ and decided that a more equitable trading relationship could be developed if they dealt directly with local communities. It would be based on shortening the chain to reduce costs, complete financial transparency so that a fair price could be mutually agreed and a commitment that both ‘sides’ should benefit from the transaction.

Having made links with groups in the UK, the adivasis also decided to underwrite the initial transfer of tea, waiving payment until it had been sold. Although the farmers had already received a ‘fair price’ for their green leaf, this was a remarkable act of faith in JCUK, turning the normal development relationship on its head.

For people in the UK who questioned the integrity of the global marketplace and who had concerns about some aspects of ‘fair trade’, the possibility of a viable alternative economic model was exciting and certainly worth trying! Find out more here.

Aims

Just Change has three broad aims:

  • To explore and implement a new economic model of fair trade by demonstrating how trading surpluses can be reinvested in producer communities (in India), how low-income communities in the UK can also benefit through job creation and more affordable goods, and how social investors can be included in the model as equal partners alongside producers and consumers
  • To build international solidarity between poor communities in the global south and north through a mutually beneficial trading relationship that fosters personal friendships and directly connects people across the globe.

  • To promote and educate people about trade justice by informing people in the UK about Just Change, involving a wider network of local communities and organisations that care about social justice and by including progressive investors in the Just Change network.

What we do

Just Change UK is a UK-registered company that brings tea directly from the growers in India to individuals and communities in the UK. The tea, from Gudulur in the Nilgiri Hills, is shipped to the Northern Tea Merchants in Chesterfield where it is bagged and put into Just Change packets. From there it is distributed across the north of England and to Marsh Farm community in Luton, a member of the Just Change UK network. They help to deliver it over the south of England through local volunteer groups and shops. How does it work?

We also try to get involved in education work with schools wherever possible and have collaborated with Action Aid to create teaching materials called the ‘Chembakolli tea pack’, which is now studies in thousands of schools across the UK. Find out more.

How are we different from Fairtrade?

Just Change is part of the wider ‘fair trade movement’.  We are not in competition with fair trade, although we do have a radically different approach.  Find out more.

More about Just Change