No justice Without Charity: Humanitarianism After Empire

Abstract

Humanitarian actors have firmly stated that they have moved on from charity since the 1960s. Instead, they have anchored their work in a notion of justice, rejecting religious differences and colonial ties. Their new focus was on the structural reforms to which the disadvantaged had a right. The analysis of the activities of the agencies which imported fair trade products from the 1960s until the 1980s demonstrates how the purported transition from charity to justice impacted humanitarian action. Despite being important to contemporaries, it does not provide a plausible historical account. Earlier 'charitable' initiatives did present a transformative impetus. Presuming a transition from charity to justice also fails to acknowledge the continued importance of charitable impulses among activists and their supporters. The changing interplay between charity and justice is crucial to understanding how social justice was defined within a transnational network of activists coming to terms with a postcolonial world.