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 Fair Deal for the Poor
CAFOD's Millennium Campaign Fair Deal for the Poor focuses on the issues of
work and debt. It's a small world. In our shops we can buy clothes made in Bangladesh,
grapes grown in Chile, televisions from Mexico, toys from China. We can work in factories
owned by Japanese companies making cars which will be sold in Germany. But have these
changes really brought us closer as a human family?
FAIR DEAL ON WORK
The clothes we buy might have been made by a 12-year old girl in a Bangladesh
sweatshop; the person who picked the Chilean grapes might have lacked protection from
breathing in pesticides. Do we care?
All around the world, women, men and children are working long hours, with no
contracts or job security, breathing in dust and fumes, for a pay packet which won't even
buy them the necessities of life. As Pope John Paul II says, we, as consumers, are their
"indirect employers".
CAFOD calls for all companies who trade with Third World suppliers to adopt
independently monitored codes of conduct which respect minimum labour standards.
FAIR DEAL ON DEBT
Many of the people who work in slave-like conditions in Third World countries are
doing so in order to repay their countries' debts to our banks and governments here in the
First World. The goods they produce are for export that will earn foreign currency to
service the debts. It's like an invisible web of pressure to produce and export more, just
in order to stand still.
CAFOD calls for cancellation of the Third World's unpayable international debt.
Jubilee 2000 DEBT PETITION sign now!
HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?
To support the campaign you can order any of the materials advertised or take part in
the launch actions. Send for the debt petition, code of conduct card and coffee card. You could invite a CAFOD
speaker to your parish or community. If you are in a group, or would like to meet others
to discuss the campaign in more detail, send for the free meeting notes on the issue of work. Ring CAFOD campaigns on 0171 733 7900 to be put in
touch with your Regional Organiser who can tell you all about
what's going on in your area.
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