Nestlé
sponsorship of the Hay-on-Wye literature festival
Celebrities are calling
for a boycott of the Hay-on-Wye literature festival (see reports
in the Independent on Sunday 28
April 2002 and 5 May 2002) because it is being sponsored
by Nestlé. The Independent on Sunday reported on 26
May 2002 that Germaine Greer and Booker Prize nominee, Jim
Crace, have pulled out. Veteran speaker Will Self is also staying
away.
Baby Milk Action
was not consulted by the organisers of the festival before they
approached Nestlé. We
are particularly concerned about statements the organisers have
made to members of the public defending Nestlé's baby
food marketing activities and undermining our work.
If you would like
to be alerted as to progress and to be kept informed of campaigning
activities, please complete the form below.
Nestlé Vice-President,
Niels Christiansen, has been given a platform at the Festival
to speak alongside Steve Hilton, an advisor to business, Maurice
Saatchi, an advertising guru and Nicholas Young, Chairman of
the British Red Cross (an agency which accepted Nestle sponsorship).
Baby Milk Action
is disappointed at the selection of speakers and the tone of
the proposed discussion. Unless changed this will give Nestle
an opportunity to present itself unchallenged as a leader in
development. The questions to be addressed in the discussion
are cited in the brochure as follows: "If you want to
change the world environmentally or socially, are established
multi-national corporations a better bet than any coalition
of here-today-and-gone-tomorrow national governments? Is commercial
profit the origin of corporate virtue? Who pays for the AIDS
programmes in Africa?"
We are asking the
organisers to address this imbalance and to ensure that a suitable
speaker who is independent of industry is included. Baby Milk
Action's Policy Director, Patti Rundall OBE, is an ideal choice,
having worked on the campaign for over twenty years and investigated
the impact of corporations in other areas, such as HIV interventions
and the influence of commercial sponsorship on policy decisions.
Patti received her OBE in recognition of her work to protect
infant health.
You can send a message
to the organisers via the Hay
Festival website or by contacting the Festival Director,
Peter Florence.
Further information
for leafleters:
For those of you
who have not leafleted before, the leaflets are colourful and
people take them readily. Our leafleting guidelines stress that
leafleters should not cause an obstruction and should not attempt
to force leaflets on people. This would be counter productive.
In addition if any
official, journalist or member of Nestlé raises questions,
they should be politely referred to the Baby Milk Action contact
number. All leafleters have to do is hold out leaflets to passers-by.
We will not be having
official coordinators for leafleting, but will send a supply
to all who want to leaflet. We will also send petition forms
so that signatures can be collected from those parents who wish
to make use of the children's dome. We don't think it is appropriate
to attempt to persuade parents not to leave their children in
the dome whilst attending other events. It is more appropriate
to gather signatures opposing Nestlé sponsorship of the
dome. The petitions can then be used to show the organisers
that Nestlé's involvement is not wanted.
A programme of entertainment
at the dome and other venues is available on the Hay Festival
site http://www.hayfestival.co.uk/
It would be nice if people could be there to collect signatures
at the appropriate times.
Those attending the
event to leaflet can also make their way to the dome to meet
up with other leafleters. We suggest that 11.00 am and 3.00
pm are used as specific rallying times so that leafleters are
free to move around the town in between times. If there are
celebrity boycott supporters at the Festival, we will ask them
to come to the dome at these times.
We will be arranging
a higher key event for Saturday 9th June when Nestlé
Vice-President, Niels Christiansen, will be appearing to speak
on the topic "Good Business: A Moral Maze". Mr. Christiansen
is credited by Nestlé for ending the first boycott in
1984. The boycott was relaunched in 1989 as Nestlé continued
to violate the marketing requirements. Mr. Christiansen also
recently vetoed a promise made by Nestlé (UK) at a debate
with Baby Milk Action. Nestlé (UK) staff agreed to call
for the publication of a much delayed government monitoring
report in Brazil which is understood to contain damning evidence
of Nestlé violations (see report in Boycott
News 30). The report remains unpublished.
If you are interested
in leafleting, we will use the information you enter in this
form to send you leaflets and alerts on this specific campaign.
The information will not be used for any other purpose unless
you indicate you would like to receive alerts whenever information
is posted.
Give as much or as
little time as you wish - it is a valuable commodity and we
are grateful for any support.
Although the aggressive
marketing of breastmilk substitutes is a matter of life and
death, our wish is that leafleting will be an enjoyable day
out in a beautiful part of the country. Local action such as
this has a global impact as the campaign will be reported by
our partner organisations in developing countries to counter
Nestlé's claims that it is trusted around the world.
