No October Fairtrade Eastbourne Meeting The monthly Fairtrade Eastbourne meeting will not be taking place in October as we will make way for the film screening announced below. So please join us to discuss the campaign next time in November!

Town Hall screening of 'Amazing Grace' - and it's FREE! This month we are teaming up with Eastbourne Cultural Communities Network to celebrate Black History Month by screening 'Amazing Grace' for one-night-only at the Town Hall. The film portrays the great parliamentarian William Wilberforce and his role in leading the struggle to end the British slave trade. Consumer awareness campaigning was alive and well in times of the the Abolition Movement.  In 1791 the society distributed leaflets encouraging the public, and especially women, not to buy or use sugar produced in the West Indies by slaves. As a result about 300,000 people boycotted sugar and sales began to drop. In an effort to increase sales, some shops stocked only sugar imported from India, which had not been produced by slaves, and goods were labelled to show this. The screening will be on Wednesday 26th October at 7:30pm in the Town Hall.  Entrance is FREE and so be sure to arrive early to avoid disappointment! See a trailer HERE.  Please help us advertise this event by putting up poster#1 or poster #2 around our town.

Maltesers to go Fairtrade for 2012! Great news for chocolate lovers! The now familiar Fairtrade logo will soon be appearing on bags of Maltesers. This represents the first Fairtrade chocolate product from the Mars company and will appear in stores in 2012 in the UK and Ireland. This will benefit a great number of cocoa farmers and will contribute in excess of US $1 million in annual Fairtrade Premium funds to invest in their farms, business organisations and communities. A new report from the Fairtrade Foundation on cocoa farming and Fairtrade is now available HERE.

Fairtrade Fortnight launch Fairtrade Fortnight 2012 will take place from 27th February - 11th March 2012 and the theme has been announced! It is 'Take a Step' for Fairtrade. It can be a simple step, like swapping your tea to Fairtrade, or a bigger step, like asking everyone in your office to do it too. You'll be joining thousands of others all over the UK when you take a step for Fairtrade. This Fairtrade Fortnight will mark the 20th anniversary since the launch of Fairtrade in the UK.

Best Wishes Matt Wilkinson Group Chair Fairtrade Eastbourne www.fairtradeeastbourne.org.uk

“If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large." William Wilberforce MP