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Art joins with the TUC in support of Haiti

More than 600 people attended the Concert for Haiti organised to raise funds to help the country through the devastation caused by the earthquake on 12 January 2010. 

Donate to TUC Aid's Haiti Earthquake Appeal

Musician Billy Bragg, actors Andy de la Tour, Tim Wilkinson, Frances de la Tour and Alan Rickman, Cuban band Son Mas with Omar Puente and poet Benjamin Zephaniah delighted the audience with their artistry.

 The TUC Aid fund is still accepting donations.

Haitian contributors - speakers, Judith Craig and Anne McConnell and musician, Renes Lophanor, represented their country with professionalism and courage (remarkable given the trajedy they have directly experienced and which we have all witnessed) and Zita Holborne, NUT activist and poet, stood in for Jean 'Binta' Breeze who was unable to attend.

Ken Loach, film director and BECTU honorary member, and the now retired but much-missed politician Tony Benn, challenged the audience, as always, to demand more of themselves and of their elected representatives in the struggle for a fairer world.

In an evening full of excellent performances, equally memorable were Anne McConnell's words. She spoke of her country's efforts to come to terms with the quake. Citing the stages of mourning referred to by psychologists, she said that her people were now angry - angry at the neglect and poverty which had exacerbated the effects of the quake, at the initial slow progress in delivering aid and at the media's misrepresentation of the Haitian people.

Anne thanked supporters of the TUC Aid appeal and urged the UK to get on board and to 'get involved for the long haul' given the scale of the damage wrought by the quake. 

Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, announced that the TUC Aid appeal had raised £100,000 so far but he urged people to continue to be generous.

BECTU's NEC, meeting on 31 January, took the decision to donate £1000 to the appeal. Commenting on the donation, Gerry Morrissey, general secretary, said:

"We are pleased to make this donation in BECTU's name to the TUC's appeal which will direct funds not only to help with the current emergency but to longer term projects, some focussed on employment, aimed at equipping Haitians to rebuild their lives."

The TUC concert was organised in just two weeks by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign; tickets sold out within days.  See CSC's pictures on Flikr. Philosophy Football produced a special fundraising T-shirt in support of the appeal which remains on sale.