Thousands of campaigners from across the country will gather in Westminster tonight, Friday 15th April, to express their concern about the UK’s role in global trade.
The ‘Wake Up to Trade Justice’ event will send a clear message of public support for trade justice not free trade to all the political parties in the run up to the election.
The event, organised by the Trade Justice Movement as part of a Global Week of Action for Trade Justice, will start with a special celebrity-supported event at Westminster Abbey. Click here for a programme.
Participants will then form a ‘Human White Band’ around Parliament Square, the symbol of Make Poverty History, highlighting the policy changes on trade the campaign is calling on political parties to adopt.
Campaigners and celebrities will then proceed along Whitehall for a candle-lit vigil, including a mass 1-minute’s silence at midnight to mark the millions of lives affected worldwide by unfair trade rules. A night of film, music and debate at venues around Whitehall follows.
Throughout the night participants can also find a quiet and creative space to pray in Methodist Central Hall, supported by Tearfund. The Trade Justice Prayer Room will include a combination of reflective prayer material, installations and led prayer. Click here for find out more about how you can pray for trade justice.
Refreshments, music, banner making and a breakfast show are on offer at the all night fairtrade cafe, also supported by Tearfund.
The event will to culminate in a dawn procession before Trade Justice Movement delegations meet representatives from the three main political parties.
Glen Tarman, Trade Justice Movement coordinator, said:
“The British electorate is rightly concerned about the economy, health and education – but not just in the UK. The free trade policies the rich countries are pushing on the developing world are robbing people of health and education services and promoting economic insecurity for communities on a global scale.”
“This is a wake-up call for political leaders of all the main parties – if elected, they must make sure urgent action is taken if we are to have justice in international trade and start to make poverty history in 2005. We are making world poverty a doorstep issue.”
“All the parties claim to be concerned about apathy towards politics especially among the young. Yet thousands of potential voters are coming to Whitehall to demand the parties address their concern that Britain’s trade policies do not hurt the world’s poor and the planet. The parties would do well to listen.”
The Trade Justice Movement has called on all UK political parties to make public statements setting out their position on stopping the push for poor countries to open up their economies at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and through other forms of international pressure.
Around the world millions of people in more than 80 countries are taking to the streets in the Global Week of Action running from 10–16 April - calling for trade justice to help lift people out of poverty.
ENDS