Drowned in Sound

Search


Drowned in Sound Event sponsored tours and events.

Make Trade Fair: Do Your Bit

no votes
?
by Sean Adams
Tomorrow night a mini-revolution takes place at the London Astoria and for £20 you get to see some big stars play acoustic sets, raising money and awareness about issues which face people in poverty around the globe...

If you didn't already know this is a sick, twisted, cruel, harsh world. People far far far away, people just like you and me, are slaves to multinational companies. Slaves, not like working McJobs here or selling out to Sony, I mean 14hours a day, manual labour, in sweatshops, with heavy sacks of coffee and alsorts of horrible things you can barely imagine. And they do all this shit work and continue to live in poverty but you, me, all of us lucky people, we get things cheaper at their expense! We're talking human LIFES here, not just stats like: if Africa, East Asia, South Asia, and Latin America were each to increase their share of world exports by one per cent, the resulting gains in income could lift 128 million people out of poverty. In Africa alone, this would generate $70 BILLION - approximately five times what the continent receives in aid.

Run by Oxfam, Make Trade Fair (web: maketradefair.com ) is a campaign to bring in just new international laws and legislations, as well as make people more aware of the implications your purchasing decisions make. There is a report on their website here which we hope you will take some time to read, especially if you're making the journey to the show tomorrow to be 'entertained', probably funded by money you've saved out of choice on coffee or from that over time which made your day 10hours long.

Put together by Emily Eavis (daughter of Glastonbury festival organiser) from 7pm tomorrow @ The London Astoria, you can see acoustic sets from...

CHRIS MARTIN AND JONNY BUCKLAND (COLDPLAY)
Ms DYNAMITE
NOEL GALLAGHER
IDLEWILD
LAMB
SOUTH

Tickets £20 from maketradefair.com . If anyone knows, we'd be curious to know what size donations these acts and their labels are making towards the cause.


Make Trade Fair: Do Your Bit

I'm going. Anyone else?

Make Trade Fair: Do Your Bit

You think?

Make Trade Fair: Do Your Bit

The biggest problem Third World countries face when attempting to trade isn't Big Nasty Evil Multinationals, but protectionist economic policies from Western nations, as campaigned for by trade unions and socialist lobby groups.

The constant pumping of millions of dollars of Western aid into the governments of the poorest Third World countries so they can keep buying guns and continue to fail to feed their people properly and create any industry doesn't help either.

Much easier to bang the drum and blame those nasty businessmen though, ain't it? Damn them for selling things people want to buy without magically solving all of the world's social and economic problems in the process! Damn them!

Re: Make Trade Fair: Do Your Bit

Yes, damn those nasty businessmen for using their influence to shape Western economic policies to their advantage. Focusing solely on protectionist policy is just as misguided as only ranting about multinational corporations. Plenty of "socialist lobby groups" and other leftist activits do criticize protectionist policy anyway - remember the IMF/World Bank protests in Seattle? Furthermore, there is no proof that "free" trade will actually solve the problems caused by Western economic policies. Damn reason!