What Can You Do?

• Get educated. Visit our links page for links to organisations campaigning for global justice, and for more information about international financial institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation.

• Get active. Write letters to state and federal parliamentarians and newspapers voicing your opposition to WTO agreements, and drawing their attention to the effects of the agreements. Ask local councils to pass motions of opposition to these agreements. Talk to friends and family about trade issues, or start a local group to campaign on these issues. Join the growing protest movement for global justice which is more and more active around the world.

• Consume less. Think twice about all the consumer items you are encouraged to buy. Do you really need them? The less you consume, the less you perpetuate the destructiveness of the global economy – and the less money you need and hence the less you need to work. Spend the time you would have been working by relaxing, spending time with your family, growing your own food or participating in your local community.

• Buy close to home. Thanks to the recent rise of community gardening and farmers markets in Australia, we are no longer forced to buy industrially produced food from large corporations. Across Australia there are now hundreds of community gardens where people can not only grow their own food, but develop important links to their local community.

  Farmers’ markets are another great alternative, and are springing up in cities and towns across Australia. At a farmers market, farmers from a local area sell their food direct to the public. Buying your food from a farmers’ market means that it is locally produced, and the money goes straight to the person who grew it. It guarantees farmers a decent income, encourages face-to-face interaction, creates communities and avoids all the destructive effects of the global trading system.

For a list of community gardens and farmers’ markets near year you, see our local food page.

• Trade fairly. For products not produced locally, “Fair Trade” products (where farmers are guaranteed a fair price for their produce) are now available in specialty shops in Australia. Speak to your local businesses about purchasing Fair Trade coffee, tea, or chocolate, or visit Community Aid Abroad shops in capital cities for a larger range of fair trade goods: www.oxfamtrading.org.au