JustThinking | creative justice

Making it plain | Danielle Strickland

Ghandi used salt. It was a key ingredient in the diet and family use of every Indian. During the colonial rule of the British over India, the government insisted on taxing salt, even though salt simply washed up on the Indian ocean shore all over the country. It was the LAW to collect it, sell it to the British and then buy it back - completely overpriced. Although most Indians could not understand the complexity of the injustice of colonialism, they could understand salt.

In Victorian England, workers were exploited in factories and were made to use a dangerous substance that caused them grave illness and early death. To talk about a new social system of equality was hard work, so William Booth made it about matchsticks - light. Everyone needed them - most people bought them.

William Wilberforce, trying to confront the transatlantic slave trade, came head-to-head with the complex arguments on political nuances and laws and finally came to sugar - a substance that everyone could understand. The slave trade was the major supplier. Sugar became a major beacon of justice in every person’s life; slavery became something everyone could stop.

Recently, Stop The Traffik (a global coalition against human trafficking) stumbled on chocolate. Everyone is against slavery these days (Wilberforce helped that happen), but we can’t see it. It’s hidden in distant shores and local backroom shops and affects the most marginalized and impoverished people on the planet. This system is perpetuated by massive industries and international laws that leave the observer baffled and the players paralysed.

How can we capture people’s energies and efforts and understanding of the ability every person has to contribute to ending slavery? Chocolate. Check out the chocolate campaign at stopthetraffik.org and get busy with some creative justice. With a little risk, non-conformists with creativity really can change the world.

Writer: Capt. Danielle Strickland is currently the Social Justice Director of the Southern Australia Territory. She digs traveling, reading, running, speaking, basketball and movies. Her passion is grace, mercy and justice… and all the stuff in between. Her favourite question is ‘how hard can it be?’ and most of her days are spent answering it.

1 Comment to JustThinking | creative justice

1. check out the latest announcement from Cadbury’s declaring Dairymilk to go fairtrade by early 2010! The first of the giants to make a new way… transforming the chocolate industry and creating long-term sustainable options for the producers in developing world!
   Get with the program and we’ll see the whole industry follow.
   Let justice roll.
   Danielle
Danielle Strickland on March 5th, 2009

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