PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BUSINESS-CUM-SOCIAL EVENT WHERE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO MEET AND CHAT WITH LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE AS WELL AS GETTING SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT A MAJOR TRADE JUSTICE ISSUE.

Come and bring a friend to Heswall Hall on Thursday 24 April at 7.30pm to see

Website: www.wtj.org.uk

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BUSINESS-CUM-SOCIAL EVENT WHERE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO MEET AND CHAT WITH LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE AS WELL AS GETTING SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT A MAJOR TRADE JUSTICE ISSUE.

Come and bring a friend to Heswall Hall on Thursday 24 April at 7.30pm to see

We hope to have a big turnout to see this illuminating film about the international coffee trade rip-off.  Linda Tiongco, Christian Aid's North-West Regional Officer, will also put the film into context and lead a discussion about the issues raised.  Marks and Spencer will provide Fair Trade coffee and will answer questions about their policies on Fair Trade in general.  We're spending half of the money in the WTJ account to put this on, so come in your hundreds!

The film was made to highlight  the economics of the international coffee trade; it is estimated that the grower gets about 1p of the £2.00 you spend on your cup of coffee in a high street café.  'Black Gold' won an award for its production in the recent International Film Industry Awards and has been shown on the TV Channel More4.

Can you help to publicise this showing? There is a flier at the end of this newsletter which you may be able to copy and give to your friends or put up in your local shop or some other prominent place.

LA21 recently organised displays and performances during the afternoon and evening of 4 March in the Pacific Road Arts Centre to celebrate and publicise Fair Trade Fortnight. The event was very well supported with about a hundred people attending. Glynn Ridge and Jack Heery took our banner and all our publicity materials and we talked to perhaps 20-30 people about what Wirrral Trade Justice stands for and what we are trying to do about it. We got at least one new member and gave away 50 copies of our brochure/application form so we hope for further results from that.

The Mayor of Wirral, Councillor Philip Gilchrist, was in attendance and stopped to discuss our present activities. You can see a picture of Glynn and the Mayor on our website.

(LA21 was established in Wirral after the Rio conference on climate change to press for local action to increase knowledge and understanding of environmental issues and to try to effect life-style changes. LA21 can be contacted via their website http://www.cesul.org.uk/ ).

There has been a lot of publicity this week about the soaring cost of rice in the international markets. How is your maths? If a family in Bangladesh was spending 50% of its income on food, mainly rice, in 2007, and the price has more than doubled since then, how much is left for other things including education and health needs?

The Food Programme on BBC Radio 4 reported on the way the rice market has changed in the last ten years, partly due to trade liberalisation policies forced on poor countries by the World Trade Organisation. This quote is taken from the Christian Aid website (a highly recommended read):

"Haiti used to able to feed itself. Now half its food is imported. One glimpse down the country’s streets and supermarket aisles gives a good idea into whose pockets the profits are falling. Sacks of rice emblazoned with the stars and stripes are piled high in the markets and grocery shops. Tins of Carnation milk and bottles of long-life milk from France line tables and shelves. But not a drop of locally produced milk nor a grain of local rice.

This wasn’t always the case. Haiti once produced enough rice and milk for its entire population. Today these two staples are among the biggest food imports into the country."

The Food Programme reporter also showed how the trade liberalisation policies of the WTO in the 1990s led in other ways to the present shortage of rice. Certain African countries were forced to abandon subsidies in the name of free trade and this exposed their own markets to competition from foreign rice. But it wasn’t only rice farmers that went bankrupt. Those who had been producing millet and cassava as part of the local traditional diet found that even they were forced out when people changed to equally nourishing, but much cheaper imported rice.

Did the WTO moguls know that this would happen? Didn’t they think about it? Did it surprise them? Are they fools? ..or villains? ..or do they really believe that this is the route to prosperity for poor countries?

This continues to be the single most important issue on the trade justice agenda. When the World Trade Organisation talks collapsed last Autumn, the fear was expressed that the US and the European Union would pick off poor countries one by one in bilateral negotiations. This is exactly what has happened. This quote is from the Trade Justice Movement’s website:

We trying to reduce administration and postage costs, so if you have an email address and would be happy to receive your newsletter by email please send your address to Liz Seager, our membership secretary, at lizseager@dslpipex.com . Even if you think we already have your address, would you mind confirming it to Liz so that our records will be right up to date? Many thanks.

in conjunction with Christian Aid

"BLACK GOLD"

This film has recently received an international award for its exposé of the exploitation of coffee growers by the

multi-national coffee trade. If you want to know more about it you can see it at

Christian Aid’s regional officerwill lead a discussion after the film

Admission is free and FairTrade coffee and biscuits will be served, but you may like to make a donation or pay £2 to become a member.

For more information ring Jack Heery on 648 1930 or

email jackheery@phonecoop.coop

or log on to our website: www.wtj.org.uk