This was manic - a simultaneous invasion of Tesco outlets across the country to; protest and raise awareness that they do not give their banana farmers in developing nations a fair deal (i.e. they pay Ghanaian farmers pittance in comparison with the mass profit they swallow up each year). In London, I headed down with Ctrl.Alt.Shift to literally launch an offensive, wondering through the store handing out the fairer option (actual Fairtrade bananas - thank you Sainsbury's!), before tossing a few leftover ones at the Tesco's sign outside for a photo-finish. A glorious piece of activism:
Ctrl.Alt.Shift @ Tescos Fairtrade Banana Protest
Today we were joined by a nationwide army of Ctrl.Alt.Shift volunteers, tooled up with Fairtrade bananas, with our sights set on Tesco stores around the country in a flashmob protest against the fact that the retail giants disgracefully still sell non-fair trade bananas.
The aim was to get as many heads down to their local Tesco store, once they arrived they synchronised their watches with the other Ctrl.Alt.Shifters and set an alarm for 1pm. When the alarms belled, everyone had to pull out their Ctrl.Alt.Shift-branded Fairtrade banana and speak into it like a phone (Dom Joly style), before passing them on to unsuspecting Tesco customers, leaving them baffled, holding a banana tagged with a load of facts about why non fair trade products are wrong and should be banned from supermarkets. Planned like a true military operation, our group of foot soldiers were determined to make an impact on the people in and around the shameless Tesco outlets.
Just to fill you in, non-fair trade bananas are grown by plantation workers in developing countries, often getting paid under $2 a day - that's half their standard living wage as a result of the supermarket price wars that drive the prices of bananas to a pittance, all to satisfy you, the consumer. In 2007 supermarkets such as Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer all agreed to stop selling non-fair trade bananas, recognising that the sale of these products have direct implications on the poverty that the plantation workers suffer. However, the country's leading supermarket chain Tesco refused to follow suit and decided to continue to sell these products regardless of the conditions and measly pay that the workers receive.
The flashmobbers escaped the London demonstration without being tackled by Tesco but protests around the country didn't go down as smoothly, with Ctrl.Alt.Shift volunteers being escorted off the premises in Bristol, Brighton, Nottingham and Leeds by security...
Read the full article here
No comments:
Post a Comment