Third Place: Stop Firestone Campaign

Young people in Liberia protest pollution caused by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company on their rubber plantation in Liberia.

 

 

Lead Group(s):

Liberia Based Partner Organizations:
Center for Democratic Empowerment
Foundation for International Dignity
Green Advocates
Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of Liberia
Liberia Democracy Watch
Save My Future Foundation
Sustainable Development Initiative

U.S. based Partner Organizations:
Bank Information Center
Faith In Motion
Friends of the Earth
The Institute for Policy Studies
The International Labor Rights Fund
Rainbow PUSH
Robert Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights -Transafrica Forum

Support Group(s):  

Amnesty International
NAACP

Description of the Problem the Campaign is seeking to address (50 word max):

We are working to stop 80 years of exploitation on the rubber plantation owned by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Liberia.  Specifically, we are fighting Firestone's use of child labor, abuse of workers rights and environmental destruction.

Brief Description of the Achievement(s) (30 word max):

-Significant new media coverage and new grassroots e-mail actions
-Winning 2007 Public Eye Award for Worst Global Corporation
-Continuing and strengthening a diverse coalition and creating new collaborations

Description of how this is an important step toward the Campaign's goals, and if applicable, how it shows innovation (150 word max):

We have received new and significant media coverage for our campaign from media outlets as diverse as CNN, Al Jazeera, Pambazuka News, McClatchy News and the Indianapolis Star and even an article by British novelist Zadie Smith.  This has been a crucial part of increasing awareness about this very specific problem.  We have leveraged this coverage through using new internet tools like YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Flickr.

Winning this years Public Eye Award for Worst Global Corporation has helped to raise the profile of our campaign and catapult Firestones abuses into the global spotlight.

This campaign is also unique because of the close collaboration between the US and Liberia based partners.  Additionally, we have started new collaborations with US-based unions, tax justice organizations and the Jubilee USA Network.  In terms of our collaboration with Jubilee, we are linking the Firestone campaign to broader economic justice issues like debt cancellation.