|
|
NEWSLETTER 12, MAY 2000
EURO2000- THE GOAL IS HUMAN RIGHTS
|
In a separate newsletter
which can be ordered at the Clean Clothes Campaign information is
given on the European campaign which is asking football fans and consumers
in general to focus their attention on what takes place behind the
football. Witnesses from producer countries - workers, trade unionists
and researchers - will tour Europe to tell us about working conditions
in the garment factories of Thailand, El Salvador and Bulgaria. There
will be a range of activities across Europe. The championship will
be played between the 10th of June and the 2nd of July in Belgium
and the Netherlands and those two countries have therefore organised
a host of activities to draw the attention towards the scene behind
the games.
The aim of the Euro2000 campaign is to call upon the FIFA, the
UEFA and the organising committee and the big sponsors so that they
will implement the FIFA-code of conduct.
In Brussels and French-speaking Belgium, the Clean Clothes Campaign's
appeal to Euro 2000 has the support of thousands of people, including
football stars and whole football teams. The winners of the Campaign's
own "Footballeurs, fous de valeurs" tournament, which
involves schools and youth clubs, will be rewarded for the imagination
with which they raise awareness as well as for their sporting skills.
The final, in Mons on 13 May, is part of the Made in Dignity festival.
In Flemish-speaking Belgium, the Clean Clothes Campaign will be
organising a symbolic football tournament, culminating in a match
in which the celebrity players - sports personalities included -
have endorsed the appeal to the UEFA. The Campaign is stressing
the need for a living wage in the sportswear industry and aims to
get 50,000 people to convey that demand to adidas. It has the support
of goal keeper Filip Dewilde, one of Belgium's major football stars.
There will be street actions in all major cities. In the Netherlands,
the Clean Clothes Campaign will hold events in all four cities hosting
Euro 2000 matches. Young people will be invited to send postcards
personalised with a photograph of themselves to the sponsors of
the Dutch team and of Euro 2000, to the Dutch Football Association
and to Euro 2000 itself. Also on the programme: a football tournament
with a difference will raise solidarity funds for workers' organisations
and a poster campaign will adorn thousands of windows in the cities
hosting Euro 2000 matches.
But, also the rest of Europe is preparing for the Euro2000.
In Germany, the Clean Clothes Campaign has organised two days of
action focusing on adidas as main sponsors of Euro 2000. 27 May
is awareness raising day, with information stalls, street theatre,
etc. 3 June is rally day as people from all over Germany and the
rest of Europe converge on the headquarters of adidas in Herzogenaurach.
In Austria the activities largely revolve around the Vienna City
Marathon on May 21. Associated actions pursue two main goals: increasing
overall public awareness of the campaign and mobilizing a large
number of people asking for sportswear produced under fair conditions.
Surrounding the visit of guests from Thailand, coming in the end
of May, the Swedish CCC is arranging an action-day with fashion-shows,
football matches, and footprints for human rights will be collected
on the 25 May.
|
