12402: Haiti Support Group at the Glastonbury Festival (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

26 June 2002 Press release:

Haiti Support Group at the UK Glastonbury Festival 2002 - 28-30 June 2002

The Haiti Support Group will be participating in Left Field - a stage that
makes its debut at this year's Glastonbury Festival as a coffee bar come
lounge bar. Hosted by Ethical Threads - the new union-owned ethical clothing
company - Left Field is the place for lengthy afternoon debates, evening
sessions of music and late night movies.

An estimated 140,000 people will attend the three day festival of pop and
rock bands which is one of the highlights of the British cultural calendar.

The Haiti Support Group plans to raise awareness of the way Haitian workers
are impoverished and their unions are smashed by trade rules and trade
relations with rich countries and multinational companies.

Only last month, Haitian workers, who for decades have harvested oranges used
to produce the famous Cointreau liqueur, were savagely attacked as they held
a union rally. Two of them were beheaded with machetes by thugs employed by
Remy Cointreau's supplier. Since then - over four weeks ago now - six union
members have been held in prison without charge by the Haitian authorities.

Meanwhile, Haitian rice growers are giving up farming and trying to get into
the US by boat because they cannot compete with subsidised US rice imports.
The World Bank and IMF have insisted that protective import tariffs are
scrapped in Haiti yet, at the very same time, the US has slapped a 30% tariff
on European steel imports to protect its own industry.

A Haiti Support Group spokesperson said, "Nowadays we hear a lot about free
trade and the freedom that it supposedly brings, but what has happened in
Haiti gives a clear lesson about just how untrue that really is. The
hypocrisy of the neo-liberal agenda has been exposed as never before."

The Haiti Support Group will hook up with Emily Eavis, one of the Glastonbury
Festival organisers, and Chris Martin of the band, Coldplay. Both visited
Haiti earlier this year as guests of a British development aid agency, and
met Haitian rice farmers and coffee growers who are struggling to survive in
the 'free' market.

The Haiti Support Group presence at Glastonbury is supported by Christian Aid
and War on Want.

Some Left Field highlights:

Friday 28 June 4pm
Celebrity led debate on fair trade, sweatshops and consumer power
Chris Martin, Coldplay
Emily Eavis,
Paul Bradley, actor, Eastenders star 'Nigel'
(all participants to be confirmed)

Sunday 30 June 4pm
An Afternoon with Tony Benn - inauguration of the Left Field
Socialist and former member of Parliament, Tony Benn, will inaugurate the
Left Field and will be on stage talking about his life in politics, the
current political climate and his first experience of Glastonbury. Followed
by debate with audience.

"Tony said he was leaving Parliament at the last election to get more
involved in politics, and his appearance at Glastonbury will be a fine
example of that," said an Ethical Threads spokesman.


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The Haiti Support Group - solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for
justice, participatory democracy and equitable development, since 1992.
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