Global Exchange

The Mama jamma of socially responsible business. Dedicated to community building via advocacy, fair trade and tours. One of the best models for social change and action.

Global Exchange has been around for a long time and is based on finding realistic and workable solutions to our economic and social problems at home and abroad. Their targets have been to get Fair Trade to replace Free Trade as a basis for our commerce, giving people a chance to travel abroad and practice citizen diplomacy in the major trouble spots where it’s needed the most, supporting peace– making in place of militarism, and much more.
They also sponsor the Green Festival to give organizations involved in ecological and enviromental movements a chance to exhibit and promote their causes and well as vendors to exhibit their wares. I have volunteered for the green festival twice and really got a lot out of it. I highly recommend participating or attending.
I have been on one of their reality tours to Cuba. It was more than a decade ago, but it stands out as a memorable experience. I got a chance to meet a lot of ordinary Cubans, see the countryside, and do what I could to help. It was magical. No other word will do to describe the experience.
They are always in need of volunteers at whatever level of skills, technical ability or artistry and whatever your time and circumstances allow. They are serious about their work and getting things done, but they don’t let that stop them from having fun doing whatever they do. They sponsor many occasions for getting together with other people who are working toward the same goals and exchanging ideas on how to accomplish them.
Global Exhange is the parent of Code Pink: Women for Peace. It’s not just for women though. Men are just as welcome to participate in their actions and efforts to reform our government and make it live up to the ideals of the Constitution and democracy. As with many other groups, how they are portrayed by the media is far from the reality. They are firmly rooted in non-​violent activism and civil disobedience. They do it with a sense of humor and even siliness. That pink stuff is protective coloration. It’s hard to beat up on someone who’s making you laugh as you arrest them and hustle them off to jail.

Global Exchange is one of the organizations that got me into anti-​corporate activism. This was way back in 1997, and although I’m still not as socially responsible or active as I can and should be, I’ve learned a lot, read a lot, and participated a fair amount.
Global Exchange is the rare nonprofit whose judgments and campaigns I almost always agree with. That’s very difficult to say generally, as I’ve been turned off by some bad decisions by some very prominent groups in the past. But when it’s Global Exchange, I know its heart is in the right place – and that whatever it’s advocating for or against is probably the best solution.
I really thought when I moved to San Francisco that I would get more directly involved with Global Exchange, but things happen, as we all know. Still, I do think about GX’s wonderful campaigns and information every time I pass by their headquarters near the corner of Mission and 16^th Street. It’s fitting and perfect that they’re upstairs from a McDonald’s, across the street from a Burger King, and right next to a high-​crime intersection and BART station.