International and Intercooperative Connections 

It All Starts With Fair Trade
Aaron Dawson and Lisa Russell, Equal Exchange
Aaron Dawson and Lisa Russell are longtime worker-owners at Equal
Exchange. Equal Exchange, founded in 1986, is the oldest and largest
for-profit Fair Trade company in the US, offering organic, gourmet
coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa, and chocolate bars produced by
democratically run farmer co-ops in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Equal Exchange's mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that
are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually
beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers and to
demonstrate, through their success, the contribution of worker
co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and
sustainable world.

The Venezuelan Worker Cooperative Movement
Sabine Kienzl, Venezuelan Embassy
Sabine
Kienzl is a political economist in the Political Economy Section of the
Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. She specializes in the
social and solidarity economy and the cooperative movement in
Venezuela.