El de Shakespeare en funciones del Responsable Jewellery Council (RJC) and the Alliance For Responsible Mining (ARM). Comic or Tragic?
Marc Choyt, Director of Fair Jewelry Action USA, muses on current events and responds to letters from ARM and RJC.
In June and July over a hundred and fifty jewelers and civil society members signed the Fair Jewelry Action (FJA) and Ethical Metalsmiths (EM) letter to the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) and Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC). The signatures, many of them current Fairtrade and Fairmined license and stakeholders as well as RJC members, sought clarity on ARM’s position in context to their relationship with the RJC.
For many pioneers in the ethical jewelry movement, our open letter came as a surprise, particularly given our high regard for ARM’s work in championing responsible small-scale mining. Though small-scale and large-scale mining have opposing views, I was cautiously optimistic when an MOU was signed between ARM and the RJC. La centro radical is where the greatest progress happens. This relationship has the potential to bring great benefit for the ethical jewelry movement.
The response from ARM and RJC, sin embargo, did not address the critical questions rightly raised by the signees. We were concerned about mass balancing, or mixing of gold from responsible and irresponsible sources, as well as assuring access to the supply chain of Fairtrade and Fairmined gold for small pioneer jewelers. If the replies had addressed these questions directly and honestly, we would have been satisfied. Ignoring the most critical points from so many jewelers heavily invested in Fairtrade gold was at best disconcerting, and at worst, institutionally arrogant.
ARM: Et Tu, Brute
It is both tragic and heartbreaking for many pioneers in the ethical jewelry movement that ARM has abdicated its position as a champion of the powerful alignment between small-scale miners and pioneer ethical jewelers (who happen to be both large and small).
There is a very high likelihood that ARM will move forward with their plans to mass balance gold from Fairtrade and Fairmined sources with RJC members. What ARM failed to realize is that Fairtrade and Fairmined gold label is a consumer facing brand. They have moved toward mass balancing without the involvement of their license holders and stakeholders. Decisions have been made in insular technical committees. Consequently, they have damaged their credibility and reputation with their grassroots base.
ARM’s failure to take into account the jewelers who have supported them and built the Fairmined and Fairtrade brand is a major betrayal of the heart of the ethical jewelry movement. I say “heart” intentionally. The pioneer artisan jewelers selling Fairtrade Fairmined gold represent the heart and the soul of this now international movement.
In claiming to act on behalf of “the miners,” ARM is also creating a wedge between the miners they claim to represent, and the small-scale jewelers. ARM’s claim that gold demand is not adequate to support the miners is a bogus argument. All the current certified miners are selling their gold regardless of whether it has a FT premium attached or not.
ARM’s push to mass balance does not consider that the lack of demand is due both to weak support for consumer facing marketing as well as the time and expense that it takes to build sustainable markets. Por ejemplo, at present, no hay suficientes fondos disponibles para el lanzamiento al mercado de Estados Unidos en oro FT / FM. El mercado estadounidense de oro de Comercio Justo será significativa y, finalmente, tendrá un impacto positivo en cientos de miles de pequeños mineros de todo el mundo. Christina Miller de Metalsmiths éticos y yo están encabezando personalmente un plan para traer el oro FT / FM para el mercado de EE.UU., un resultado de nuestra diálogo de Santa Fe from last Oct. 2011. Estamos trabajando como voluntarios sin apoyo financiero.
Lo que está ralentizando el proceso es la falta de financiación y una claridad de la estrategia. Necesitamos decisiones que se base en un liderazgo altruista que construye la comunidad de partes interesadas sobre la base de nuestro objetivo común: para crear joyería que desde la mina hasta que todos los beneficios del mercado que lo toque.
RJC: Aldea, El Rey y el gusano
One of the major critiques of large scale mining is that it does not engage beneficially with small scale mining. Ahora, that is no longer the case because ARM sits wearing white gloves and drinking something like Chateau Lafite Rothschild Pauillac at the dining table with RJC.
Sí, we want the RJC to have integrity and fulfill its mission. Sí, we recognize that large-scale corporations have constraints that grass roots jewelers and producers do not. Sí, we want to engage and comment even if we feel that the comments we make will not make a difference. We wish them great success in their stated mission!
However it is difficult to accept that RJC’s mission to set standards for the jewelry sector is anything more an effort to justify the current practices of their most prominent members. Consider the documented international malfeasance of recently RJC certified Rio Tinto, called to task by the the London Mining Network. Rio Tinto is also being named in a lawsuit against their practices at their Kennecott mine by Wild Earth Guardians. The Kennecott mine I believe is the principle gold supplier for the Tiffany brand.
That RJC can certify as ethical a company that is not ethical is wrong, but not surprising. When it comes to ethics, the big boys make up the rules to suit their shareholders. Consider the deaths of the three million Africans whose deaths were funded by the supply of diamonds for engagement rings. No one was ever held accountable. Hoy, about fifteen percent of diamonds entering our supply chain are from areas of conflict or human rights abuse (Zimbabwe), excepto que ahora se están etiquetados como “libres de conflicto” por el Proceso de Kimberley que es apoyada públicamente por el RJC.
No vamos a ser cómplices con los de nuestra cadena de suministro que encontrar maneras de justificar violaciones de los derechos humanos y el medio ambiente atrocidad. Nosotros no somos parte de este trance consenso. Vamos a saber al público con toda la fuerza que tenemos que entran en conflicto sucia diamantes Oro trabajo infantil guerras, etc. no son aceptables en nuestro producto.
Tarde o temprano, vamos a ganar esta guerra de relaciones públicas y la ética de la joyería será la norma, no la excepción. Sabemos que es sólo una cuestión de tiempo.
Al ver hacia los lados en esta situación hace que me identifico con Hamlet de Shakespeare más particular, Acto 4, Escena 3, donde su padre, el rey, asks him how a king may progress through the guts of a beggar.
To which Hamlet said: “A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.”
If RJC is the king, who is the fish and who is the worm?
What’s The Plan?
Corporate interests commonly attempt to co-opt and control ethical products with more robust standards than their own. Read this NY Times article from July 8th, 2012 which describes the undermining of organic food standards in the US. Large companies also seek to control ethical supply chains and squeeze out the small producers, which was another concern raised in our letter that was not addressed. Speaking of fish and worms, the UK company Tesco purchases the entire ethically sourced fish supply.
El oro representa simbólicamente calidez y luminosidad, luz espiritual, esencia y la belleza. El oro también proyecta una larga sombra. Los tomadores de decisiones en las empresas mineras grandes de oro son comúnmente dispuestos a vender sus almas en la búsqueda de oro. Los que entran en contacto con grandes cantidades de oro puede encontrarse enredado en una red de relaciones, como adictos a la metanfetamina, acabar cuidando sólo de su adicción.
En unos años, el / RJC escenario alianza ARM podría tener este aspecto: una empresa a gran escala de la minería o refinador compra todo el oro de las fuentes de comercio justo Fairmined de balance de masa y fairwash su metal trazable con oro sucio de otro país y que pueden llamarlo responsable.
Resultado: Sin oro de Comercio Justo para el mercado y cualquier garantía de precio mínimo o prima pagada.
Resultado: confusion in the market place and the erosion of the brand.
Arguably, it is in the economic interest of large-scale companies in the jewelry sector to dilute the FT/FM supply chain through mass balancing. Fairtrade and Fairmined gold is perhaps the greatest threat to the status quo, but its transformative power to change the whole industry rests on its purity.
But… FLO Co-Signed the Letter
Organización de Etiquetado Justo (FLO) was a consignee of ARM’s letter. My understanding at the moment is that FLO does not wish to join RJC and ARM in mass balancing Fairtrade and Fairmined gold, but rather signed because FLO is in contractual agreement with ARM.
ARM is engaged to RJC, and FLO is married to ARM, so FLO is now obligated to “play around” with RJC? Where does that leave the rest of us? Obviously, cualquier joyero de Comercio Justo que ha firmado con FLO están ahora en relación (a través de ARM) con el RJC.
La pregunta para los joyeros éticos en cuestión es, hacen los condones ofrecen suficiente protección?
Desafortunadamente, en esta red enmarañada de (infidelidad?) FLO (los propietarios de la etiqueta Internacional de Comercio Justo) ahora encontrar su excelente marca y reputación en riesgo, porque, sin saberlo, han sido arrastrados a un conjunto de relaciones comprometida por su pareja actual, ARM.
Esperamos que esta (más incómoda para presenciar desde el exterior) semi-consensual tríos se desenredó cuando el contrato entre ARM y FLO expira a finales de año ... antes de que produzca hijos naturales como el oro de comercio justo balance de materia con otra de oro.
En el país de los ciegos ...
Una solución, un juego de manos, podría dar lugar a All’s Well that Ends Well. Comercio Justo (FLO) and Fairmined (ARM) could declare their two-year marriage over. ARM would then be free to go the way of mass balancing with RJC. Ethical jewelers would no longer be obligated to push the fairmined brand. FLO could then maintain the purity of the Fairtrade supply chain and work on offering the consumer a genuine choice.
All’s Well That Ends Well is considered a “problem play” by scholars because it defies classification. It is neither tragic nor comic. What we can be sure of is that right now, as Hamlet famously said, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” But we know that in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.
