The Jute Not Plastic Campaign Jute statt Plastik (hereafter Jute not Plastic) was a political campaign that originated in Switzerland in 1976. It arose out of activities by Erklärung von Bern (The Bern Declaration), a non denominational and politically independent organisation based on a manifesto of the same name that garnered 1,000 signatures in 1968. The manifesto called for fair globalisation, and the signatories committed themselves to donating 3 per cent of their income to development cooperation. The main aim of the Jute not Plastic campaign was to combine political education with the implementation of specific projects of development cooperation. The campaign bought jute bags produced by women's cooperatives in Bangladesh, which were initially sold in Switzerland as an alternative to plastic bags. Two main reasons were cited for problematising plastic objects: Firstly, the low manufacturing cost of plastic items resulted in less demand for objects made from natural material and thereby a reduction in manufacturing jobs in countries such as Bangladesh; secondly, plastic objects bring with them an 'unsolved disposal problem, because they cannot be degraded by any biological process (rotting, decay) and can only be incinerated' (Jute-Aktion 1977b: 40). 1 The campaign argued that a plastic bag entails four times the energy consumption of a jute bag and that extended use of a jute bag increases the energy-saving twentyfold in comparison with a bag made out of plastic.The project in Bangladesh was coordinated by the nonprofit organisation Jute Works, which was created in 1973 by the Christian Organisation for Relief and Rehabilitation. 2 Following the success of the campaign in Switzerland, alternative trading organisations adopted the idea in Germany and Austria. The campaign in Germany was initiated in 1978 by the GEPA Aktion Dritte Welt Handel e.V. (Mission Third World Trade), an organisation working with support groups, cooperatives and governmental organisations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. By importing jute bags and various other products, such as coffee, the aim was to promote the social and economic development of producers. At the same time, 'the sale of the products should also inform the awareness in the consumer countries about the development process and international dependencies' (Aktion Jute statt Plastik 1979a). 3 The project was carried out by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dritte Welt Läden e.V. (Working Group of Third World Shops), an association of 'worldshops' operating in cities throughout West Germany in the 1970s. The German campaign was rooted in the work of Christian youth organisations under the two umbrella organisations of the Catholic Bund der Deutschen Katholischen Jugend and the Protestant Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Evangelischen Jugend. GEPA Aktion Dritte Welt Handel distributed the material for the campaign and the jute bags (see Figure A), and local groups were responsible for implementation on the ground, as the target group of the campaign was the common public.In this study,...