May 1, 2010: International Labour Day – StreetNet calls on host cities to work with vendors’ organizations so that FIFA games benefit the urban poor – not just McDonalds

“Football fans are not travelling to South Africa just to eat McDonalds and Starbucks which they can get back home. But the FIFA Local Organising Committee has set up exclusion zones where South African vendors, and our migrant communities, providing authentic African food have no place. Instead it’s the big food chains, the official sponsoring organizations, which will be there and the profits from their trade won’t benefit poor Africans but global capital. Why can’t the host cities work with the local vendors’ organizations, representing some of the poorest and most marginalized communities of the urban poor, to give them the trading opportunities and support they deserve?” said Ms Pat Horn, StreetNet International Coordinator today.