They do it because they have no choice. The people with the power and the cash have such a hold on the local and international markets that the dispossessed workers are forced to surrender their lives to them.

Many products which hide behind well-established brand names, grow to maturity in a fertile ground of child labour, slavery, inhuman working conditions, poor wages, environmental hazards and raw violence. It sounds tragic, too tragic, and that's exactly what it is.

Ten-year-old Vinod told his story to New Delhi journalist Mukul Sharma in last July's issue of the New Internationalist: "I used to work for 12 to 14 hours a day on the loom. I was not paid a single penny for a year. A week after joining I was hung upside down for a minor fault. Whenever I sustained injuries while using a sharp knife to turn the carpet knots, I was denied medical care. Instead my employer used to fill the wound with match-stick powder and burn. My flesh and skin used to burn." (Vinod was freed from his slavery by the Rugmark Scheme.)

The fact that so much evil is neatly and conveniently hushed up only shows how big the problem is: giving producers and workers in the developing world their due would mean eating away at the corpulent prosperity that the Western world, despite its chronic malaise, has come to enjoy. It means paying more for your coffee, for your chocolate, for your tea; it means acknowledging the fact that we have no right to play Big Brother or Big Daddy to the poorer South and feel good about playing goody-goody. It's a question of justice, not charity.

The answer to this structural injustice in world trade is fair trade. Way back in the Sixties, a number of European groups gave birth to a wide-ranging initiative known as fair trade. According to EFTA (European Fair Trade Association), "the goal of fair trade organisations is to fight poverty in the South. Based on the concept of 'Trade Not Aid', they seek to combat poverty through (fair) trade, political lobbying and education."

Organisations like Traidcraft, Oxfam Trading, Cooperazione Terzo Mondo, Commercio Alternativo, and Roba dell'Altro Mondo, to mention just a few, buy products from disadvantaged producers in the South. "The purchase price is related to the costs of raw materials and production and to the time and energy invested, and should permit the producer to achieve a reasonable standard of living. The producers are entitled to prefinancing and the organisations guarantee cooperation over a longer term."

"Regular contacts ensure that the producer partners get feedback concerning the quality of the products and if necessary, advice or assistance is offered in the fields of product development, funding, organisation, skills training or management." Moreover, because they trade with fair trade organisations, the workers and producers in the South can provide their families and communities with much needed health and education services.

The Third World Group founded Koperattiva KummerÐ íust as a non-profit organisation, in the sense that its profits, if any, are reinvested in initiatives that promote the alleviation of poverty: members of the cooperative do not share in the profits of the cooperative.

The opening of "L-Arka" is a laudable initiative that deserves our full support, but it is only the first step. In the end, all trade must become fair. Over the past thirty years, because of its commitment to justice in trade and its constant self-critical search for higher ethical standards, the fair trade movement has made a world of a difference to many poor people in the South. But fair trade is still the exception to the rule.

For fair trade to "go mainstream", the multinationals and the other powers-that-be must be pushed to mend their ways. This can be done by powerful lobbying and by our everyday choices. At the end of the day, it's a question of what we believe in. Fair trade is not about avoiding the middleman to strike a better financial deal. Fair trade is about buying a quality product and giving its producers their due. It's about people's lives and justice.