The Cadbury family was the type of entrepreneurs which died out sometime along the recent history of capitalism: purportedly well-meaning towards the workers in the factory and their families. The company started as a provider of a substitute of that scourge of the working class, alcoholic drinks. The scourge remained, Cadbury somehow lost the original meaning.
Yet, Beatrice (Betty) Cadbury has a lasting place in the history of twentieth century Christian anarchism, being married to Dutch social reformer and religious anarchist Kees Boeke. the couple working as a team in the anti-war/anti-miltarist movement and starting their own school, De Werkplaats.
They were founder members of War Resisters International and active prison abolitionists.
Having a bar of chocolate with that name on it to me meant for a short while being connected with this history. Silly perhaps, but the brand is not present in my part of the world, so I thought I could and should buy it at British stores in my city or in Britain itself whenever possible.
I suppose it had been a silly idea long before the takeover which puts an end to any idea of Quakerism, Englishness and Worker friendly enterprise.
Still, I would have liked to remain a bit naive at this point. But the show is really over now.
At least War Resisters Inernational and De Werkplaats [for what that is worth] still exist.
