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RACE TO THE BOTTOM Useful resource on globalisation now available on VHS. See bottom of message for contact details. David *************************** Film Documentary € First Showing will take place at the Foyle Film Festival, Derry - November 29, 2002 € First Broadcast Scheduled on TG4, December 12, 2002 @ 10pm "We were cheap labour once" one Derry woman declares in this documentary which reveals how the women in the Bangladeshi garment industry may now be expendable too. Focusing on Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh and Derry in Northern Ireland this documentary charts how the garment industry has virtually left the Developed World and moved to the poorer countries of the South. RACE TO THE BOTTOM reveals how it is constantly on the move ever downward in search of workers who are forced to work for less and less, often around the clock when orders must be met, and in more and more dangerous conditions. "We were inspired to do this documentary by a very small story, a couple of paragraphs in a newspaper buried in the foreign page about how 51 workers mostly women and girls, some as young as ten, were burned to death in a factory fire. A revolt, if you like, against how cheap the lives of the most deprived have become, deemed as inconsequential in death as they are in life. This documentary is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Narshindhi Fire," ANNE DALY, award winning documentary filmmaker and Co-producer of RACE TO THE BOTTOM with producer/Director RONAN TYNAN. This documentary presents in compelling terms the ruthless way in which unfettered globalisation is driving the lives of workers in the Developing World, into a spiral of poverty, deprivation and squalor; denied even the most basic rights like the freedom to fight for better conditions; to form trade unions and anything that might help liberate them and their families from grinding poverty and brutal exploitation. RACE TO THE BOTTOM also includes remarkable archive footage of the Narshindhi factory fire which cost the lives of 51 workers mostly women and young girls some as young as 10. Filmed in dramatically diverse locations from the Walls of Derry in Northern Ireland to the sweat shops and export factories in Bangladesh this documentary raises many uncomfortable questions that are simply not being addressed. RADIO SERIES AND FILM DOCUMENTARY PART OF ESPERANZA GLOBALISATION RESEARCH PROJECT "The brutal exploitation of the workers in the sweat shops and export factories of the Third World is a forgotten story. Treated more cruelly in many cases than the victims of the worst disasters they nonetheless rarely if every hit the headlines. No worldwide appeals, no televised campaigns to help them secure the most basic rights and yet the suffering intensifies as the race to the bottom accelerates," RONAN TYNAN, Co-Producer & Director of RACE TO THE BOTTOM. The radio series (WEALTH, POWER & PROTEST) and the film documentary (RACE TO THE BOTTOM) grew out of three years of research into the impact of globalisation on the Majority World and are the first to emerge from that project which is ongoing. More information: ESPERANZA PRODUCTIONS E-Mail: [log in to unmask] Telephone: +353-1-2888648 Fax: +353-1-2888649 Mail: 44 Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, Co. Dublin