T-shirts available in UK supermarkets for less than £2 are made from American cotton and produced in Chinese sweatshops for the British market ..
American cotton farmers receive $3.9bn (£2bn) a year in Government subsidies - more than the entire GDP of Benin and three times the annual amount the US gives in aid to Africa ..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g8/story/0,13365,1501907,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/debt
http://www.guardian.co.uk/hearafrica05 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=643975

The World Trade Organisation ruled last year that America's cotton subsidy system was illegal and set a 2 July deadline for it to announce reforms.
But aid agencies believe that the Bush administration has little intent of scrapping the system and called for Britain to put pressure on the US president at next month's G8 summit.
The agencies believe that, while measures to increase aid and for debt relief are vital, African nations such as Benin cannot escape poverty until the trade issue is finally addressed.
That would mean a wholesale review of subsidies paid to farmers in the US and in Europe to give Africa the chance to begin to compete - and the agencies want the leaders at Gleneagles to work torwards a resolution.
Amy Barry, of Oxfam, said: "The whole system of American subsidies is not only morally unjust but illegal, and the WTO has backed that. Cotton is a graphic example of how these subsidies destroy the poorest farmers in the poorest countries, and we are calling for a scrapping of the system and compensation to African farmers for the losses they have incurred."
She added: "This is about political reform but consumers need to take responsibility.

Come to Edinburgh in July to make poverty history /31.05.05

On 2 July 2005, thousands of people will gather in Edinburgh to tell the G8 leaders to make poverty history. Make sure you're one of them.

Why Edinburgh? Why the G8?
This year the UK has a unique role as Tony Blair hosts the G8 summit and the presidency of the European Union (EU). The summit – at which the G8 leaders will meet to discuss global issues such as poverty – will be held in Gleneagles, Scotland from 6-8 July.

What is the G8? More information.

On 2 July, before their meeting takes place, thousands of campaigners will gather in Edinburgh to put pressure on Tony Blair and the G8 leaders to make poverty history.

The G8 last met in the UK was in May 1998. They were greeted by 70,000 campaigners who took to the streets of Birmingham to urge them to drop the debt.

This time, we hope even more people will join us to speak out for the world's poor. It will be the biggest Make Poverty History event of 2005, so make sure you're there!

What's happening on 2 July?

The march
• there will be a two mile circular march, through central Edinburgh (Princes Street). It will start and finish in the Meadows area.

• staggered starts will be at 12 noon, 1pm and 2pm. It could take as long as 4 hours to finish the march.

• the march will form a human white band around the city so make sure you wear white clothing!

Festival
• In the Meadows, there will be entertainment, music and speakers from 11am - 7pm. Christian Aid will be organising some of the activities and entertainment, so come and find us! More details soon.

The event will be a fun, safe day for all the family – so bring as many people as you can!

Transport and Accommodation
• To search for transport leaving from your area, go to the Make Poverty History website.

• Are you organising a coach?
Please register it on the Make Poverty History website.

• For suggestions of where to stay or how to get to Edinburgh, one option is to visit the Travel Scotworld Make Poverty History website.

• Do you want to cycle to the G8?
Find out how you can join in.

What you can do:
• start planning your trip to Edinburgh! Put 2 July in your diary now.

• tell your friends and family and persuade them to come along.

• order flyers, posters and a campaigner's guide

• download campaigner's guide (329kB)

• bookmark this page and come back soon: we will provide more details as soon as they are available.

What to bring:
• a white band.

• your personal message for the G8 leaders. Please write it on a piece of white cloth (50cm x 7cm would be ideal). We'll collect the messages on the day and deliver them to the world leaders.

• Order resources for the rally
• How will the rally link up with LIVE 8?
• Buy a white band online
• More about Make Poverty History
• What is the G8?
• Visit Make Poverty History website

sometimes I wonder where is the black spirit to fight for our issues like the ones we had in 1960's

Merged

Coltrane I would say that many of our people have a false sense of security. They have been fooled into thinking its all ok and that there is nothing left to fight for... the bamboozling has been so effective it makes people ignore what their own eyes say...

sometimes I think its like a masterplan

Look at our Culture,Our awareness and so on

we are kept bussy talking nonesense while they are bussy plotting to rule us for the next 500 years

I think we better start get a grib on serious issues that affct us and our children now otherwise we will continue to be loosers

someone somewhere who is really smart have overtaken the BLACK AGENDA believe me bro

blkthumbsdown

While on the face of things its a good thing that the US is putting aid towards Africa (ignoring the fact that most of that $350m is aid money thats already allocated to Africa anyway ), Its still indicative that Blair has been completely wasting his time by supporting the US internationally and that its clear that he is going to recieve virtually nothing for the UK in the way of being paid back for:

1) military support in Iraq.



2) Espionage in the form of acting on behalf of the Americans and bugging Kofi Annan's offices.



3) and consistent political support of Bush in the international arena by Blair.



4) Too many ways in which to list.

I propose therefore that the UK does away with its misguided support for the boorish louts who currently run the whitehouse, decrease our ties with the US and instead put greater focus on the European arena where at least UK efforts will be more likely to bring passable benefits and allowuk government to better achieve their own ambitions in the international arena.

At present the ties the UK have with the US are not bearing fruit and associations with the Bush administration are increasingly demeaning toUK national credibility in the global community.