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Bono Follows Clinton and Mandela as Labour's Star
Martin Bright
Sunday September 19, 2004
The Observer
Bono, the lead singer of U2, is to appear as the star speaker at this year's Labour conference. The rock icon and global activist will be the latest in a string of celebrity guests to grace the annual event; others to have spoken include Nelson Mandela in 2000 and Bill Clinton in 2002 and, last year, the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai.
Bono has already taken time off from recording U2's new album to bring his campaign about Aids and the burden of debt in Africa to both the Democrat and Republican conventions in Boston and New York. He will deliver his speech on the Wednesday of the conference.
As its name suggests, his organisation, Debt, Aids, Trade Africa (DATA) pursues campaigns on African issues: unpayable debts, Aids and inequitable trade rules.
DATA was set up in 2002 by Bono and activists from the Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt campaign. Its aim is to use celebrity influence to persuade politicians from Europe, the US and the Far East to shift resources into Africa. Bono, Bob Geldof and the comedian Chris Tucker, star of the Rush Hour movies, have already toured Africa on behalf of the campaign. The actress Ashley Judd, the billionaire investor Warren Buffett and the champion cyclist Lance Armstrong have supported the campaign in the United States.
In July DATA welcomed the British Government's decision, announced in Gordon Brown's comprehensive spending review, to increase its contribution to the global fight against Aids. The UK's overall contribution to the war on HIV/Aids will increase from £300m a year to £550m annually by 2007/08. The Government also announced £150m over three years to support Aids orphans.
Last week the US Senate Appropriations Committee approved $2.4bn (£1.35bn) of spending to combat Aids, malaria and tuberculosis, mostly in Africa.
Bono told the Fox TV chatshow host Bill O'Reilly earlier this month that he was visiting both US political conventions because he was a 'non-partisan guy'. It is understood that the rock star has not been invited to either the Liberal Democrat or Conservative conferences.
DATA has also called for action in the Darfur region of Sudan, where it is estimated that 30,000 people have been killed by government-backed militias and more than a million refugees displaced.
This week Bono will back a new campaign called Make Poverty History.
'2005 is our chance to go down in history for what we did do, rather than for what we didn't do,' he said of the campaign.
U2's new album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, will be released in November.
Martin Bright
Sunday September 19, 2004
The Observer
Bono, the lead singer of U2, is to appear as the star speaker at this year's Labour conference. The rock icon and global activist will be the latest in a string of celebrity guests to grace the annual event; others to have spoken include Nelson Mandela in 2000 and Bill Clinton in 2002 and, last year, the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai.
Bono has already taken time off from recording U2's new album to bring his campaign about Aids and the burden of debt in Africa to both the Democrat and Republican conventions in Boston and New York. He will deliver his speech on the Wednesday of the conference.
As its name suggests, his organisation, Debt, Aids, Trade Africa (DATA) pursues campaigns on African issues: unpayable debts, Aids and inequitable trade rules.
DATA was set up in 2002 by Bono and activists from the Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt campaign. Its aim is to use celebrity influence to persuade politicians from Europe, the US and the Far East to shift resources into Africa. Bono, Bob Geldof and the comedian Chris Tucker, star of the Rush Hour movies, have already toured Africa on behalf of the campaign. The actress Ashley Judd, the billionaire investor Warren Buffett and the champion cyclist Lance Armstrong have supported the campaign in the United States.
In July DATA welcomed the British Government's decision, announced in Gordon Brown's comprehensive spending review, to increase its contribution to the global fight against Aids. The UK's overall contribution to the war on HIV/Aids will increase from £300m a year to £550m annually by 2007/08. The Government also announced £150m over three years to support Aids orphans.
Last week the US Senate Appropriations Committee approved $2.4bn (£1.35bn) of spending to combat Aids, malaria and tuberculosis, mostly in Africa.
Bono told the Fox TV chatshow host Bill O'Reilly earlier this month that he was visiting both US political conventions because he was a 'non-partisan guy'. It is understood that the rock star has not been invited to either the Liberal Democrat or Conservative conferences.
DATA has also called for action in the Darfur region of Sudan, where it is estimated that 30,000 people have been killed by government-backed militias and more than a million refugees displaced.
This week Bono will back a new campaign called Make Poverty History.
'2005 is our chance to go down in history for what we did do, rather than for what we didn't do,' he said of the campaign.
U2's new album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, will be released in November.
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