Text for Trade Justice

Biggest ever mass lobby of Parliament, Wednesday 19 June 2002

MPs will face a barrage of bleeps as thousands of trade justice campaigners descend on Westminster on 19 June. The campaigners will be linked up to each other by a revolutionary new mobile phone texting system as they lobby their MPs for fairer trade rules.

The aid agency CAFOD is pioneering the use of SMS technology on behalf of the Trade Justice Movement, a new grouping of around 50 aid agencies, environment groups and campaigning groups. More than 10,000 people are expected to join the lobby with everyone attending being invited to sign up to receive text updates on their phone in the run-up and on the day.

The text messages will include latest updates, quotes from celebrity sup porters such as Radiohead, statistics on how many MPs have been lobbied, and an interactive competition. People can sign up to the service simply by texting the letters 'tj' to .

With the queue of people waiting to see their MP expected to extend over the River Thames, it could prove an invaluable way of keeping in touch with supporters on the day.

"My hope is that we will hear thousands of phones bleeping at once as our messages go out," said Nick Buxton, Website Development Manager at CAFOD. "34 million people in the UK now have a mobile phone - SMS has massive untapped potential for campaigners as we can communicate with our activists directly wherever they are. New communications technology like SMS and the web have a crucial role to play in furthering our goals of a fairer world for all."

There will also be virtual newsroom on the Trade Justice Movement website, with updates, personal diaries, pictures and video clips of the day being uploaded as events take place.

For further information contact: 
Sarah Finch, Trade Justice Movement
  tradejusticemovement.org.uk 

Patrick Nicholson, CAFOD mobile   
www.cafod.org.co.uk 

Notes for Editors:

1. The texting technology is being powered with the support of Brand2hand ( www.brand2hand.com ). Texting has been an integral part of CAFOD's youth fundraising scheme, Fast Track,( www.fsttrk.org ) which will focus on the work of CAFOD's partners in Africa, using sport to help young people caught up in war to get back on track. 
2. The Trade Justice Movement is a fast growing group of organisations including aid agencies, environment and human rights campaigns, fairtrade organisations, faith and consumer groups ( tradejusticemovement.org.uk ) 
3. Texting Facts:

• The average daily number of messages sent in the UK is 45 million, which represents approximately one message per person every day.
• The number of New Year text messages sent between midnight and 4am was 64 million, approximately double the number sent in the same period in 2001. 
• 1% of UK subscribers have proposed marriage by text. (Source: mobilespring.com)
  

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