Amber Craft Collectives

In February 2007 we met with members of the Amber Workers Co-operative of '16 de Febrero', who told us of their work and the problems they were trying to overcome.

These artisans make beautiful amber jewellery, including necklaces, bracelets, and ear-rings. They also sell polished pieces of amber.

There were 21 members of the society present to meet us, 8 or 9 of them women. In total the group has 55 members, who belong to 8 local village-based groups.

"Our Society was formed 2 years ago, more or less. There used to be more members, but some left for a variety of reasons, ie economic problems, other commitments and so on. Many didn't have enough initial capital to invest, to buy the machines, materials etc. The groups are working permanently but they don't have their own buildings.

The 8 groups don't get enough work, and so are unable to buy a sufficient amount of amber. Most of the groups lack the tools to work the amber, for example to drill holes, polish the amber, we don't have the pliers or wire cutters we need, so we have to find other ways of doing the work and can't advance or develop as we would like. It would be a lot quicker and easier with the proper machines, at present it is costing us a lot of work and time. The problem is that the machines are expensive to buy.

Another problem is buying the amber, which only comes from other parts of the municipality, so we are not able to mine it ourselves but have to buy it, the prices are rising and it is already pretty expensive for us.

The solidarity work you do is very important for us, it is the only road to follow. There are serious problems with finding a market for our work, there is no way to show or sell it. Apart from the "Dignity for Women" shops in Oventik and San Cristobal and the Solidarity Groups in Scotland, there are no economic possibilities for going out and promoting our work, the lack of a market is our biggest problem. We live in an isolated situation. We want to get our products out more widely, at present we only have local and regional outlets.

We also have to buy silver etc to do quality work. And everything requires a lot of time. There are difficulties with getting good quality materials… (The artisans explained that they had to be careful when buying materials from unscrupulous suppliers, to make sure they were not cheated.) We want to do good quality work, but it's difficult without quality materials. Little by little we are trying to solve the problems.

In '16 de Febrero' we make our jewellery with pure amber, but there are problems with competition from other amber workers, who sell what appears to be amber, but is really plastic, which they can offer for a lot cheaper. A lot of the supposed amber sold in San Cristobal is actually fake."

How is the co-operative organised?

Each community group has a representative which goes to general meetings. In each group the members meet up to work together in one place. Everyone teaches and helps each other. The purchase of the machines etc is shared, each group has one or two small machines, and then everyone can use them.

Amber Mines

"We work in the amber mines, it's very heavy work. We are trying to form an amber miners' collective, but so far we haven't been able to find a suitable mine, which is big enough.

We sell the raw amber, but we get paid very little for it. We have to sell to the amber dealers, the middlemen (coyotes), in Simojovel.

We need better tools, we need small machines which would help in the mining work. It is dangerous work, sometimes there are accidents. The problem is that you are normally working by yourself, so there if there is an accident there is no-one to assist you."

Amber Craft Collectives

The Amber Workers Co-operative in Zapatista Autonomous Municipality '16 de Febrero'