“Conspiracy of Hope recruited a new generation of activists…”

It started in 1985. One day, at my desk at Amnesty International, I opened an envelope and found a cheque inside – one of the largest donations I’d seen. It was from U2, the proceeds of a concert they’d just played at Radio City Music Hall. This was entirely the band’s own initiative – there hadn’t been any contact in advance. My colleagues Jack Healey and Mary Daly then met with the band in Ireland, and they committed to give us a tour, to celebrate our 25th anniversary in 1986.

Getting from there to the full A Conspiracy Of Hope was a big undertaking, a long story. But I want to stress that U2’s leadership was critical – from the start and all the way through. They not only provided the first-mover commitment that enabled us to recruit other top artists, they also led us to first-rate professionals in the music industry – like Bill Graham, who also donated his services – to make a complex event like this doable. The generosity and wise guidance of U2 and their management underpinned the whole effort, along with the skill and commitment of the people they helped bring in.

The tour raised a lot of money for a good cause, but the primary purpose wasn’t fundraising. We wanted to raise awareness of human rights, to invite people to take action to save prisoners of conscience around the world. It was the deep understanding and commitment of U2 and the other artists to this cause – expressed not only in their words and music on stage, but also in interviews and press conferences in every city we visited – that drove ‘A Conspiracy Of Hope’.

The tour “adopted” six prisoners of conscience: people at the concerts and the call-in TV audience sent waves of letters and postcards appealing for their release. We were all deeply moved by what felt like partial success, when two of those prisoners were freed. The key to this was that U2 and the other artists could engage the public on human rights in a way none of us at Amnesty possibly could on our own. So A Conspiracy Of Hope recruited a new generation of activists – an explosion of new individual members of Amnesty International, new Amnesty campus groups, new pressure on governments to change their oppressive ways.

For me, the artists did an extraordinary job on the tour, using music to deepen the human rights message at the core of A Conspiracy Of Hope. So many numbers come to mind, along with reunions and re-combinations organised by the artists themselves, like the Police reunion in Atlanta. Here I just want to highlight one song, Bono’s searingly beautiful rendition of ‘Help!’ For me, The Beatles’ original was already a favorite, but in the context of this human rights tour, U2 found a new kind of power in it, expressing the vulnerability we all share, and why we need each other. The whole message of the tour came together every night in that song – help, hope and humanity.

James M. Radner is Assistant Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Senior Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, and Research Director of the TruePoint Center for Higher Ambition Leadership.