Radiohead's Thom Yorke on G8 Summit BBC
June 18th 1999
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 ‘yes’, but that’s what’s dangerous about this particular
moment in time, because what’s predicted at the end of the G8 summit this
weekend, after we’ve handed in the petition, is they’ll announce that
they’ve come up with a package which is basically what we asked for, which is
actually not true at all - it’s a complete fabrication", he says. "I
don’t really see how they have the balls to stand up in public and say
they’re doing what we asked for and saying that they’re actually fulfilling
the obligations towards these children that are dying every day, when it’s
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 there’s no way around it, you can’t obscure that in
economics, that’s 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
there’ll be an advert, because basically the Jubilee 2000 thing is an umbrella
organisation and has the backing of most of the NGO’s, most of the charities
like Oxfam and Christian Aid, you’re not going to be able to miss it this
weekend in the papers", he says.
"So while you’re sitting there watching Prince
Edward getting married, why don’t 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,
he’s 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 - I’m 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 I’ll know
I’ll have used it for something positive. To be honest this is a way for me to
address issues outside of Radiohead that I’ve wanted to address for a long
time, that I’ve always had a problem with".
And he adds: "When we go to this thing at the
weekend there’s 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. That’s what I’m here for, really. If 10 people hear this and do
something about it, then that’s fine".