08 December 2005

On Thursday 8 December Santa will deliver a special message from campaigners to 10 Downing Street – you cannot make poverty history without trade justice.

On the eve of the all-important World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, Santa will deliver 750,000 votes for trade justice from the British public calling on Tony Blair and the UK Government to deliver trade justice - not free trade – in world trade talks.

The delivery is part of the campaigning activities around MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY’s third and final White Band Day, which takes place on 10 December, just days before the WTO meeting begins. It is a day of global campaigning when trade justice campaigners will stand together as part of an unparalleled mobilisation of tens of millions of ordinary people.

The call will be the same whatever the location: Tony Blair and other rich country leaders must make radical changes to the way world trade is currently managed so it benefits poor people and the environment and not just the rich and powerful.

Glen Tarman of MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY says:

"The WTO is the last chance in 2005 to progress a just trade deal for the world’s poor. In unprecedented numbers citizens across the world are calling on rich countries at the WTO to stop pushing poor countries into open up their markets against their will and to end export dumping that damages the livelihoods of poor people.

"The spotlight is now shining on these elected leaders. They must deliver trade justice if they are to end this year of MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY by keeping their promises to the billions of people living in poverty around our world.”

The votes have been collected all year as the Trade Justice Movement, a core network within the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY coalition, has campaigned for a just trade deal for the world’s poor. The campaign’s urgent demand is that the UK and the EU must allow poor countries the freedom to choose how to make trade work best for their economies including the right of developing countries to protect their industries, farmers and services.

The vote for trade justice is part of a massive on-going global call for action for trade justice.  Across the EU over 15 million Europeans have taken action this year on trade and poverty. Already over 10 million ordinary people in both the developing and the rich world - from millions of cotton and coffee farmers in Africa to hundreds of thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh - have voiced their demand for change through trade justice petitions like the big noise to make trade fair.