------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 26, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
Famine in Ethiopia COFFEE GROWS BITTER FOR WORLD'S FARMERS By Deirdre Griswold How much are you paying for a cup of coffee these days? Half what it cost a year ago? Or a higher price than before? If what the coffee companies paid the farmers determined cost to the consumer, you would be paying less than half what you used to. World coffee prices have declined by almost 70 percent since 1997. But instead, you are probably paying a lot more, especially if you are buying your container of coffee at a national chain. There's a tale of utter desolation and even starvation connected to this. In Ethiopia, which has been growing the finest Arabica coffee beans for hundreds of years, farmers are in desperate straits because they are getting paid only half what they used to for their product. IRIN, a United Nations press agency, reported in September: "Third world farmers receive a paltry one percent of the final price of a cup of coffee. Yet the big coffee sellers are making annual profits in the region of 26 percent." Starbucks, of course, comes to mind, since it's more likely to use Arabica beans in its specialty coffees than the other chains. A cup of Ethiopian coffee there is likely to cost two dollars or more, of which the farmer is lucky to get two cents. The collapse in world coffee prices has created a terrible crisis in Ethiopia. A million people there depend directly on coffee for their income. Children are already dying of starvation. In a country where the people go shoeless and in tatters even in "good times," farmers are now selling the tin roofs off their mud houses to survive. The Western media aren't paying much attention to the famine in Africa-- mostly they attack the government of Zimbabwe for taking over land owned by white settlers and distributing it to Africans. The countries of southern Africa have been in the grips of a prolonged drought, which threatens millions. But East African countries like Ethiopia and Kenya are also suffering. Drought is only one factor. The other is the "free market," which in fact is a market dominated by a few powerful capitalist corporations, most of them in the imperialist countries. Coffee-producing countries are suffering from the cruelest of all the capitalist paradoxes: Productivity has risen, more coffee is being produced around the world, the market has become glutted and therefore prices have fallen. Back in the 1970s, after a terrible famine, Ethiopia had a revolution. It tried to get out of the capitalist world market and set up a socialist economy with the help of the Soviet Union, Cuba and Eastern Europe. The United States organized a full-scale subversion, including clandestine operations and instigating several wars against it. Now Ethiopia is once again at the mercy of the capitalist world market--and famine. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
