Fair Trade Tops the Billboard Charts

Posted: 16 October 2002

Coldplay's album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, encourages its listeners to support Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign.

Coldplay's new album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, was number one on the British charts during its first week of release, and enjoyed sweeping popularity in the US, hitting number five on the Billboard 200. The album encourages its listeners to support Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign, and asks them to visit the campaign's website, www.maketradefair.com.

Coldplay's Chris Martin recently spent a week in Haiti to promote Oxfam International's Make Trade Fair campaign. "We really wanted to advertise something that we actually cared about," says Martin, "and we do care about issues of trade—so we're prepared to risk looking stupid to talk about it." Martin recently went on a trip to Haiti with members of Oxfam Great Britain to see how unfair global trade rules affect some of the world's poor. "I went to see what happens when people aren't paid enough for their goods," Martin said. "It's the most disgusting exploitation on such a massive level by big companies and by the trade laws themselves."

On their trip, Martin and members of Oxfam Great Britain visited an Oxfam supported coffee cooperative. "This co-op was just three years old, and still very basic," Martin remembers. "The women told us how they can't afford to send their children to school, or buy even basic health-care. I've never seen anything like this before. Yolette Etienne, the inspiring Haitian woman who heads Oxfam here, keeps telling me to look for the hope. 'We've just got to do things bit by bit,' said Yolette. 'You've got to see the good that these little projects are doing.' I loved meeting people like Yolette who are working to change things, to do something practical. They're trying to help Haiti grow from the bottom up, and we can do our bit by buying Fair Trade products, as well as pressuring politicians to change this insanity, to make trade fair."