In Cologne at the G8 summit on Saturday the eight world leaders will be surrounded by supporters of Jubilee 2000 - Drop the Debt campaign, who are trying to cancel third world debt to the West.
Thom Yorke, Perry Farrell, Bono and the Edge will be joined by over 70,000 people at the event. But Thom told Radio One he reckons if you hear from politicians after the summit that everything's been sorted out - don't believe a word !
"Politicians
nod and say ëyesí, but thatís whatís dangerous about this particular moment
in time, because whatís predicted at the end of the G8 summit this weekend,
after weíve handed in the petition, is theyíll announce that theyíve come
up with a package which is basically what we asked for, which is actually
not true at all - itís a complete fabrication", he says. "I donít really
see how they have the balls to stand up in public and say theyíre doing
what we asked for and saying that theyíre actually fulfilling the obligations
towards these children that are dying every day, when itís basically just
an accountancy trick".
And he adds:
"If the West, at the end of the Cold War, was supposed to have won the
battle between ideologies, if this is the result then it would have been
better to have been Communist, really", he says.
"Millions
of people will die - and they will die under our name. And thereís no way
around it, you canít obscure that in economics, thatís just the pure given
facts, and it would cost us roughly £12 each a year - which is less
than you pay for your Sky dish".
So what can you
actually do for that £12? Thom says you can log onto the Jubilee
website and write to your MP:
"If you pick
up any newspaper this weekend thereíll be an advert, because basically
the Jubilee 2000 thing is an umbrella organisation and has the backing
of most of the NGOís, most of the charities like Oxfam and Christian Aid,
youíre not going to be able to miss it this weekend in the papers",
he says.
"So while
youíre sitting there watching Prince Edward getting married, why donít
you think of something a little bit more on a higher plane?"
Rock music appears
to be becoming the conscience of the world - with Rock Against Racism,
the recent Tibetan concerts, which Thom was also involved in, Live Aid
and now the Drop The Debt - so does Thom feel that, being in his position,
heís obliged to get involved?:
"I feel compelled
to do it because I want something positive to come out of the celebrity
thing for me. I was finding it very difficult to sort of deal with the
fact that I was a celebrity in a society that chooses to basically enslave
the rest of the world in the name of blah, blah, blah - Iím a bit like
that, really. And Jubilee 2000 is a way of using my position", he explains.
"If I die
tomorrow in a car crash Iíll know Iíll have used it for something positive.
To be honest this is a way for me to address issues outside of Radiohead
that Iíve wanted to address for a long time, that Iíve always had a problem
with".
And he adds:
"When we go to this thing at the weekend thereís going to be more or
less 70,000 people standing in a human chain, and the fact that you want
to talk to me on Radio One about this is great. Thatís what Iím here for,
really. If 10 people hear this and do something about it, then thatís fine".
And if you do want to do something about it then log onto the Jubilee 2000 website at: www. jubilee2000uk.org.