The cocoa industry is unfortunately plagued by the exploitation of cocoa farmers whose children continue to go hungry. In extreme circumstances, children are kidnapped from their families and trafficked as slaves on cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast. The entire cocoa industry is so corrupt that unless there is a transparent way (such as the process required by the Fair Trade label) to prove that chocolate comes from ethically grown cocoa, there is a chance that it funded the market for the trafficking of children and an almost definite chance that it funded the perpetuation of global hunger amongst children.

We in the Harry Potter Alliance only want to see Harry Potter’s name used to promote products that come from values that Harry Potter, the members of Dumbledore’s Army and the Order of the Phoenix would stand by. In short, we want to see all Harry Potter chocolate become Fair Trade – so that we know that our delicious chocolate frogs are not coming at the expense of the messages that JK Rowling imbued in the series, of the goodwill in the Harry Potter fandom, and most certainly, in the lives of children across our world.

Given Warner Bros. statement that they are opposed to the exploitation of farmers and to child slavery under all circumstances, this should have been a no brainer for them. But when we showed Warner Bros. that Behr’s Chocolate, the company they use to make all Harry Potter chocolate got an “F” in human rights by our partners at Free2Work, Warner Bros. ignored us. Finally upon further inquiry, Warner Bros. released a statement that they had conducted an internal investigation that proves that Behr’s Chocolate is ethical in how they come by their cocoa.

We asked them to send us the results of this investigation and they ignored us.  Over 16,000 of us Harry Potter fans have asked. We have sent video howlers, letters, and more, all demonstrating how important it is that we see the results of their investigation.

We finally asked Warner Bros. to send us the results of their investigation by midnight on New Year’s Eve heading in to 2012.

Well, now it’s 2012 and we have received nothing but silence from Warner Bros. They have no intention of sending us their investigation – assuming there even was an investigation in the first place.

I feel saddened by this. Our world has so much suffering in it but I was hoping that Warner Bros. realized it’s amazing power in changing that. I was hoping that in dark and difficult times, they would make a choice between what is right and what is easy, and their choice would be what is right. Unfortunately, they seem to have chosen what is easy in place of what is right. They seem to have calculated that as a giant company there is little recourse that we ordinary folk have in challenging them.

But I think they calculated incorrectly. Time Magazine made the 2011 Person of the Year, “The Protestor” as we have seen a year where the power of ordinary people has created an Arab Spring, an Occupy Movement, and more. Forty year old dictatorships have been brought down thanks to ordinary people who have had nothing but will, creativity and access to social media.

Well, my fellow Harry Potter fans in this Dumbledore’s Army for our world, we have those things in spades. The Harry Potter Alliance is a community that went from nothing but the hope and inspiration of the Harry Potter series to winning first place in the Chase Bank Community Challenge out of over 10,000 organizations, sending five cargo planes of supplies to Haiti, donating about 90,000 books across the world, building a library for an elementary school in Brooklyn, funding the protection of thousands of civilians in Darfur and Burma, and breaking records in advocacy efforts for LGBTQ equality.

In their arrogance, by ignoring us, they are not realizing the power they are about to awaken. Because Harry Potter fans are not going to walk away without ensuring that Harry’s name is being used for the liberation and not exploitation of children. The longer Warner Bros. ignores us, the more they will realize that while they thought they were sacrificing what is right for what is easy, they actually were sacrificing what is right for what is hard.

We will not flinch from a Goliath who believes it can intimidate us with its size. We have magic. We have used it before. We will use it again. Get ready my fellow Wizards. We are about to invite a giant to dance. And get ready Warner Bros. Hagrid has our backs. And he knows how to teach a giant to do just about any thing.

We will not back away until we see the report that you supposedly did. And we will not back away until  we reach the day when we all can know that what is sold in Harry Potter’s name is consistent with the values in the books we have treasured and grown up with.

Happy New Year everyone! This fight has now begun.

I was overjoyed. “Kate Looby,” I said, “ you just became the most important activist in my life.” And she did.

From that point forward Kate built our volunteer staff from the ground up to a point where now it has eight teams, each with it’s own manager, and over 70 volunteers in total.

Kate helped lead this staff in sending five cargo planes to Haiti, donating about 90,000 books across our world,  in winning the Chase Bank Community Giving Challenge that awarded the HPA $250,000, pulled off our five year anniversary, our presence at conferences, breaking records in phone banking for LGBTQ equality, staffing Project for Awesome 2010, and more.

Kate reminded me once that the real leader of the Harry Potter Alliance was its staff. And she is right: our staff make up the heart and soul of our organization,  accomplishments, and vision for the future. And they would not be here were it not for the work and ingenuity of Kate Looby.

So it with a mixture of sadness and gratitude  that I inform our community that Kate Looby will be leaving the HPA as Director of Operations. We wish her well in all of her exciting future endeavors knowing she will make a truly positive difference in all of the lives she touches.

I feel incredibly confident in the infrastructure that Kate has helped build. There is no way to do any justice to describing what she has given this community in a simple blog entry so I will simply close this as I opened:

Nearly four years ago, I got an email from a random person named “Kate Looby” inquiring about how she could volunteer for the Harry Potter Alliance.

But Kate is no longer in any way “random.” She is a crucial part of this organization’s history and foundation. A part of this movement’s history. And she will remain in our hearts as we continue to change the story of our world  with the magic of story.

Thank you Kate Looby.

And so I look to great storytellers like Dickens and Seuss with the hope that maybe this Christmas whatever mysterious force opened the heart of Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch will open the heart of those at the top of Warner Bros.: CEO Barry Meyer and Senior Vice Presidents Barry Ziehl and Ana de Castro. Not simply for the sake of one underprivileged child like Tiny Tim who at least had the support of his family and the children of Whoville who always had each other, but for scores of kids who have experienced something far more brutal: being kidnapped from their families and forced to work as slaves on cocoa plantations.

On behalf of the Harry Potter Alliance, I have informed Mr. Meyer that given that our partners at Free2Work gave the chocolate company that WB uses an “F” in human rights, there is a reasonable chance that Harry Potter chocolate is being made by child slaves. If we could, we would phone the police about this situation and have them bring these children back to their parents and their perpetrators to justice. But apparently Mr. Meyer and the others at Warner Bros. would do no such thing even if there were a police to call. Because this Christmas they aren’t lifting a finger to aid these children.

When presented with the facts – and there are lots of them – Warner Bros. has simply ignored us. Not at first. No. At first Barry Meyer praised us for the way we’ve protected so many children in the past. He told us that their ethical sourcing guidelines are a “contractual component of every product licensing agreement” and any violation of that licensing agreement would result in Warner Bros. taking “corrective action immediately.”

So when I showed Mr. Meyer, Mr. Ziehl, and Ms. de Castro the “F” report card and explained what it meant regarding child slavery, I thought they were going to take “corrective action immediately.” They did not. Instead they acted like the Grinch who had “a heart two sizes too small” and ignored us. After months of this, I finally told them that I would have to report their uncooperative behavior to JK Rowling. They replied immediately, saying they did an investigation and everything with Harry Potter chocolate is consistent with their ethical sourcing guidelines. Great! Almost. I asked them for evidence. They refused to give me any. I said, “come on, you do realize this is for children right?” Their stony silence was as bad as a “bah humbug!” in the face of Bob Cratchit advocating for Tiny Tim.

So the Harry Potter Alliance has given them until New Year’s to show us their findings. With the clock winding down, however, things are looking grim. If they can’t prove that their cocoa sourcing is indeed above board, if they continue to ignore us without word or explanation, then they are in for a rude awakening. They will soon understand how the Harry Potter Alliance went from nothing but the hope and inspiration of the Harry Potter series to winning first place in the Chase Bank Community Challenge out of over 10,000 organizations, sending five cargo planes of supplies to Haiti, donating about 90,000 books across the world, building a library for an elementary school in Brooklyn, funding the protection of thousands of civilians in Darfur and Burma, and breaking records in advocacy efforts for LGBTQ equality.

I haven’t given up hope just yet. I believe in Christmas miracles. Perhaps Warner Bros. will be visited by the ghosts of Public Relations Errors past, present, and future and realize that being pro-apathy in the face of child slavery is bad PR. Or perhaps like the Grinch, their hearts will simply grow three sizes larger.

At this point, with the attitude they have shown us thus far, it may really take a Christmas miracle. But I’m a story lover and I think miracles are possible, so here’s hoping that Warner Bros. comes round to caring about children. It would be quite a Christmas present for humanity.

Hope to see you all there!

Perhaps you’ve heard of Once Upon a Time, a new fairy tale drama on ABC (by the same people who brought us Lost, which makes the fangirl in me irrationally happy). The story itself is complex, but the concept is not. The short version of it is that fairy tale characters are real. They truly do (or did) exist in a separate reality. They lived their lives, had their own issues, fell in and out of love. But the Evil Queen from Snow White’s story put a curse on this land of fairy tale characters and all of them were sucked into our world. They’re stuck. Time is frozen. And what’s more, they don’t even know who they really are, nor that there’s any curse at all.

But there’s one woman, Emma, who is manipulated in entering Storybrooke (the town where the fairy tale characters are stuck in our world) by the son she gave up for adoption. Except that Emma is one of these fairy tales too. She was born in the fairy tale land and was sent to safety mere minutes before the curse took hold. She’s the one person who can save the fairy tale characters from the curse, and her son, Henry, is the only one who realizes what’s going on anyway.

There’s a curse in this world, and one of the ones unable to recognize it is Warner Bros. But we recognize it. We know it’s there. We know it’s possible to break the curse and save these children from a life of slavery. The only problem is that Warner Bros. doesn’t seem to believe us when we say this curse exists and that they are in its hold. We are the Emmas and Henrys of this situation. We are the ones who see the curse for what it is, who have the power to save people from this curse.

Use this power of yours. Write a letter to Warner Bros. Buy a Fair Trade Chocolate Frog. Sign a petition. Create a Muggle Howler. Tell your family, friends, random passers-by in the mall as you’re doing your holiday shopping. Tell everyone! Everyone needs to know about this curse, and everyone needs to know that they have the power to do something to stop it. As Henry says, we “can bring back the happy endings.”

These children in the Ivory Coast, the ones forced into a life of slavery, they deserve happy endings too.