Cambridge Union
I am addressing the Cambridge Union on Monday 21 January, which should be fun.
http://www.cambridge-union.org/index.php?page=ZXZlbnQ=&eventid=334
Daily archives: January 15, 2008
Not Dead Yet
Thanks to Andrew for keeping the blog going while I have been hors de combat for a while. First I arrived in Ghana a week before Christmas and discovered my laptop had died. Then project problems meant I unexpectedly stayed there three weeks instead of one. I got back to the UK just in time for the blitz of launching Nadira’s play at the Arcola. Oh, and I got malaria (again).
Normal service will now be resumed, barring further disaster.
Tesco Ban Uzbek Cotton
In a tremendous victory for a campaign in which this blog and other political bloggers played a leading part, Tesco have banned Uzbek cotton from all products sold in their stores and instituted supply chain audits to ensure this is enforced. Tesco must be congratulated on their response to the irrefutable proof of the massive use of child labour forced by a totalitarian state. But this is also startling evidence of the potency of activists, bloggers and consumers in the information age.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2005/08/sanctions_again.html
http://disillusionedkid.blogspot.com/2005/09/look-whos-blogging.html
A Tesco executive, Terry Green, stated:
“the use of organised and forced child labour is completely unacceptable and leads us to conclude that whilst these practices persist in Uzbekistan we cannot support the use of cotton from Uzbekistan in our textiles”.
Many congratulations are due to the Environmental Justice Foundation and to People and Planet for their part in the campaign.