Action Briefing Aug 2003 - Sept 2003
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Birmingham weighs in for trade justice

Around 300 Trade Justice campaigners entertained and informed passers-by in Victoria Square, Birmingham City Centre on Saturday 28th June in support of the biggest simultaneous lobby of MPs this country has ever seen.

Campaigners from all around the West Midlands had lobbied their MPs in their own constituencies before converging on Victoria Square to get their message across to an even wider audience. West Midlands MPs Tom Watson (West Bromwich East), Gisela Stuart (Birmingham Edgbaston), Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) and Sylvia Heal (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) attended the event and joined in.

To illustrate how the rules of global trade favour the economically developed nations at the expense of poorer nations, an ‘Unfayre’ of rigged fairground-style games had players representing rich countries winning while those representing poor countries lost. Birmingham Friends of the Earth's staged an 'International Tradeball' tournament with a football-sized inflatable globe. The rich country 'Development' Dodgers' were allowed to shoot for a mounted hoola hoop while the poor country 'Fairtrade Furies' had to aim for a ridiculously small rubber ring.

Supporters of the cause could add to the message allowing themselves to be weighed and their weight added to a huge ‘totaliser’ showing the weight of opinion in Birmingham in favour of fairer global trade rules. By the end of the event the total weight of opinion had reached an amazing 9,055kg.

To find out more visit www.oxfam.org.uk/tjm and www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/global_trade/

Eliot Whittington