CAFOD's Millennium Campaign Update
Summer 1998

Debt Action Steps Up (Review of the Heavily Indebted Poor Country [HIPC] initiative)
Poll Boosts Campaign (Unveiling of giant Jubilee 2000 petition at Greenwich)
Going for the Gold (CAFOD protest to Germany's obstruction of debt relief efforts),
Spotlight on a Campaigner (Interview with Mulima Kufekisa, co-ordinator of structural adjustment project in Zambia)
Don't Forget Your Chain-cutters! (Giant human chain around the G8 convention)
Clever Cooking (TV chef Michael Barry supports Fairtrade Fortnight)
Urgent Action on Shoes (Mark One and Barratt's rejection of Ethical Trading Initiative)
Let's Get Ethical (Description of the Ethical Trading Initiative)
Fruits of a Campaign (Del Monte agrees to improve working conditions on plantations)
Steps to End Child Labour (Description of Global March Against Child Labour)
Diary Dates (CAFOD's important dates to remember)

Debt Action Steps Up

CAFOD is stepping up its debt campaign with a new action directed straight at the world's financial power-mongers.

The new action calls on decision-makers to speed up debt relief and to put poverty reduction at its heart.

Under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative, devised by creditors 18 months ago, only six countries are likely to receive modest debt relief by the millennium. CAFOD and its partners in the world-wide Jubilee 2000 movement believe that it not enough.

The calculations currently being used by the HIPC initiative take only economic factors into account. CAFOD's new debt action tells creditors to put people back into the picture.

The new debt action highlights the impact of indebtedness on three basic human needs: food, health and education. It draws attention to:

	rising malnutrition in indebted poor countries
	rising infant mortality in indebted poor countries
	falling school attendance where fees have been introduced to help repay debts

Poll Boosts Campaign

Nearly seven out of ten British people favour cancellation of unpayable third world debt as a suitable way to mark the millennium, according to a MORI poll commissioned by CAFOD and Catholic newspaper The Universe.

In the same poll, carried out in January, only 17 percent favoured building a giant dome. Almost half of those questioned were prepared to shoulder the cost of debt relief by paying more in taxes.

CAFOD announced the results of the poll at the unveiling of the giant Jubilee 2000 petition at the Old Royal Observatory, Greenwich: the home of time.

Former Foreign Secretary Lord David Owen joined with CAFOD's Director, Julian Filochowski, Zambian partner Lizzie Domingo, and a group of local sixth formers to sign the petition, which calls for the cancellation of the backlog of unpayable third world debts by 2000. Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey sent a message of support.

Their signatures will join more than 91,000 others already collected by CAFOD, which will be presented to the world leaders at G8 summits in May 1998 and June 1999.

Commenting on the poll, Julian Filochowski said: "If the government takes a long hard look at the results of this poll, it will see that its own plans for the millennium are at odds with the sentiments of the British public. Like CAFOD, the public sees the millennium as an opportunity to make a lasting difference to people's lives at home and overseas."

Spotlight on a Campaigner

Mulima Kufekisa is the 28-year-old co-ordinator of the structural adjustment monitoring project supported by CAFOD in Zambia. Married with an eight-year-old daughter, Mwinsi, she will be touring England and Wales in May to tell people about the effects of debt on her country.

What made you want to campaign?

The difficult circumstances in my country due to huge debt overhang.

What do you like about CAFOD?

The positive way it works towards helping countries like mine.

What makes you happy?

Knowing my family is well, a challenging job and interaction with various kinds of people. Plus many other things.

How do you relax?

Sleeping, reading, watching good stories in movies.

What depresses you?

Selfish politicians, unnecessary suffering of people.

What three things would you like to see happen in the next millennium?

Debt cancellation; improvements in poor people's conditions the world over; fairness in global relations and trade.

What three things would you rescue from your house in a fire?

My family and whatever seems important at that time.

What's your favourite journey?

Towards spiritual growth.

Why are you a Christian?

Why am I a Catholic, to be more precise. Because I believe in the practicality of the Catholic faith, working to change unfair situations and because the faith in all embracing.

How would you like to be remembered?

As someone who tries to make others happy.

Urgent Action on Shoes

As reported in Update 4 of Fair Deal, Britain's second largest shoe retailer Clarks has agreed to introduce independent monitoring of its code of conduct, and to join the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). CAFOD has also had meetings with Nike, Reebok and the Pentland Group, which makes Ellesse, Knickers and Pony brands.

However, neither Barratts nor Mark One has responded to requests from CAFOD for meetings. Mark One recently acquired the Shoe Express chain, previously owned by Sears. Neither company has a code of conduct currently.

It is important that CAFOD maintains public pressure on the shoe industry, so please take time to write to these two companies asking them respond.

You might like to include the following points:

	how important you think the codes of conduct, independent verification and Ethical Trading Initiative are and how they can improve working conditions for third world workers. See "Let's Get Ethical", below, for details
	How pleased you are to see that Clarks plans to introduce independent monitoring and is joining the Ethical Trading Initiative
	Ask what steps Barratts / Mark One are taking to follow this lead
	Emphasise that CAFOD's campaign on working conditions calls for a positive change and not for boycotts. Ask them to reply to you and also to arrange a meeting soon with Duncan Green, CAFOD's policy officer. Give them CAFOD's address.

Please write to:
Mr Phillip Green Mark One Limited Unit 16-18 Victoria Industrial Estate Wales Farm Road London W3 6YN	Mr Richard Abel Director, Buying Department Stylo Barratt Shoes LtdHarrogate Road Apperley Bridge Bradford West Yorks BD10 0

Let's Get Ethical

This spring, the British government agreed a �500,000 grant to help set up the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), a new grouping that aims to make sure codes of conduct make a real difference to the lives of workers in the third world.

The ETI brings together companies like Sainsburys and Boots, aid agencies like CAFOD, and the international trade union movement.

As more and more of their products are sourced from the third world, companies have come under increasing pressure from consumers protesting at exploitative working conditions in their supplier factories and sweatshops. More than 26,000 people have signed CAFOD cards expressing support for independently verified codes of conduct for UK retailers.

An increasing number of businesses are responding positively to the pressure, keen both to do the right thing by their employees, and to avoid negative publicity and media scandals. Many of the pioneers in the codes of conduct movement have been in the textile and footwear industries. To date, progress has been far greater in the US than in Europe, with companies such as Levi Strauss and Nike leading the way by introducing codes of conduct in the early 1990s.

Codes vary from the comprehensive to the cursory. But CAFOD believes that the two key requirements are precisely the two that are most often missing: freedom of association (the right to form a trade union), and an independent checking mechanism, which involves the workforce, to verify that the code is being actively implemented by the company.

The main role of the ETI is to build a shared approach to what are extremely complex issues. For example, how can a company monitor working conditions in thousands of different third world suppliers without incurring prohibitive costs? What can codes of conduct achieve in countries such as China or Indonesia where oppressive regimes ban or repress trade unions?

The ETI will be carrying out pilot studies on different approaches to monitoring, and developing a common code of conduct and suggestions for the best practice for companies. It will be a slow process, but the ETI shows that persistent and informed pressure from the campaigners can start to improve conditions.

Pressure from campaigners can
improve conditions

Steps to End Child Labour

A Global March Against Child Labour set off from the Philippines, Brazil and South Africa in the first three months of this year. It will pass through the UK in May.

It will wind through Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe before arriving in Geneva for the opening of the International Labour Organisation conference in June.

The mission of the march: "To mobilise world-wide efforts to protect and promote the rights of all children, especially the right to receive a free meaningful education and to be free from the economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be damaging to the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development."

Over 350 organisations in 82 countries are involved and one of Britain's largest trade unions, GMB, is organising support in the UK.

To take part, contact:

Des Farrell National Secretary Clothing and Textile Section GMB National Office 22-24 Worple Road London SW19 4DD Tel: 0181 947 3131