"Human Blackboards" at a Youth Alive concert

29 August 2008

A recent event ‘Youth Alive’ saw over 1000 young South Australian’s sign "human blackboard" petitions that call on the Australian chocolate industry to commit to addressing the problem of exploitative child labour. Members of Vision Generation dressed up in purple and wore the blackboards tied over their shoulders as they mingled through the crowd of 3,000 young people, telling everyone about the plight of the cocoa slaves and asking everyone to show their support through the simple action of signing the blackboard. Vision Generation SA then sent the actual blackboard petitions to the Confectionery Manufacturers of Australasia asking them to make a genuine attempt to tackle the root causes of child labour and exploitation in cocoa production by providing a detailed and costed Plan of Action by 1 December 2008 to ensure that chocolate products are free of human exploitation.

Their key asks can be found at www.donttradelives.com.au/dtl/issues/bigchocolate/Petition.aspx. Letters together with photos of the petitions were also sent to the local Federal Member of Parliament, Christopher Pyne MP who has started his own campaign against child slavery and to a number of smaller chocolate manufacturers to encourage them that people in the community do want to choose ethical chocolate. These petitions reflects that many young South Australians are aware of the issues, and want a fairer, more ethical chocolate industry.

This event is an example of how to be creative in getting the message across to different audiences and gaining broad support for the campaign to end human trafficking and slavery. To find out more go to the ethical consumerism website.