brighton

 

 

Caroline Lucas MP, Keith Taylor MEP, and over 100 people turned out today to our noTTIP protest. We had a boxing match between big business and citizens’ rights, inspirational speakers and representatives from a plethora of campaigning groups including Defend our NHS, Food Sovereignty Sussex, Brighton & Hove Left Unity, Brighton Women Against the Cuts, Frack Free Sussex and Brighton & Hove Green Party. We marched to the clock tower, we gave out flyers, collected signatures, booed, cheered  and boxed.

Many thanks to all who gave up their Saturday to protest at the biggest corporate power grab in a decade. Alone, we can do nothing. Together, we can stop this deal once and for all.

 

Join us as part of a national day of action to say a huge NO to TTIP. We’ll be meeting on New Road, Brighton (opposite the Theatre Royal) at 11am.

We’re going to have a ‘boxing match’ between two unevenly matched opponents – Citizens’ Rights in one corner, and Big Business in the other, and we need YOU to lend support, talk to people, and tell everybody just exactly why we’re giving up our Saturday to be there. (We’ll have flyers to give out, a petition to Busines Secretary Vince Cable to be signed, placards to hold and badges to wear)

TTIP are the corporate-backed trade negotiations taking place between the USA and the EU that will mean corporations can sue governments and puts many of our citizens’ rights in danger.

Whether your interest is in the environment, in the NHS, or in civil liberties in general, it’s vital that we stand together in this and demand our government halt negotiations right now.

The event’s being co-ordinated by World Development Movement, but we really would like people from as many interested groups as possible to commit to coming. (have a look at our Facebook event page)

All the best, and see you there!

WDM Brighton & Hove

Heard about the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership? Neither had we until a month ago. These under-publicised negotiations currently taking place between the EU and the USA plan to create a huge free trade zone between the two blocs.

However, the most insidious part of the treaty is that it will give corporations the right to sue governments.

What this comes down to is that if we manage to campaign our government for a change in the law – whether that be with regards environmental protection, health care provision, in fact, anything that means a corporation will lose the chance to make their usual profits, they will then have the right to sue that government for compensation.

The tribunals will be decided on by corporate lawyers. In secret. It is the very antithesis of democracy.

Sounds insane, but it’s true. And it’s happened before where there have been other trade treaties. It’s happening right now, across the world.

Strangely, nobody has consulted us on whether we want our sovereignty signed away to corporations. So we decided to take a tug-of-war to the streets of Brighton and ask people to take part to decide who ought to win – big business or citizens’ rights.

As well as winning the struggle for democracy (hooray!), we also got hundreds of signatures on our petition to be sent to Business Secretary Vince Cable, and a full-colour feature in local paper The Argus.

 

On the 2nd November, dressed in hard hats and hi-vis gear, our group descended on HSBC in Brighton to announce the imminent closure of the bank to make way for a new open-cast coal mine. We even had a lump of ‘dirty coal’ ready to go.

The protest was part of WDM’s Carbon Capital campaign and took place along with hundreds of others worldwide during Dirty Energy Month. We wanted to highlight HSBC’s role in funding £3.8 billion-worth of carbon-intensive energy projects around the globe, destroying the local environment and driving forward climate change.

In the Borneo rainforest, people had been compensated for the loss of their land to make way for the coal mine – to the tune of 1/2 a pence per square metre.

We therefore decided to compensate HSBC the equivalent amount for the loss of their branch, and wrote a giant cheque for seven pence.

It was only fair, after all.

For all those who knew her, I am writing to let you know the sad news that Sarah Berger, a dedicated WDM campaigner and fellow member of the Brighton and Hove WDM group, passed away on 23 March, after a long battle against cancer.

 

She was an amazing campaigner and wonderful person. Words used to describe her have included: determined, wise, articulate, intelligent, passionate, committed, dramatic, practical, organised, courageous, media-savvy, upbeat and positive. I knew her from being a fellow activist at Brighton and Hove WDM and as a friend. Here’s some of the stuff that she did:

Sarah once appeared in the press as a grandmother pretending to row a boat to Genoa for the G8 protests, she dressed up as a first-aid box for a London march, crashed to the floor with a “debt-laden” sack in a tug of war, dressed all in white as a goal post in an unfair football match or as a trade barrier in Churchill Square, her theatricality was there for all to see.

At the various demos, stunts and marches she was always ready to carry a banner, keen to use a megaphone and prepared to argue with establishment lackeys (e.g. at climate marches, RBS demo, World for Sale stunt, Churchill Square). She was brilliant at talking to the press and TV, her interview making it on to the BBC in a documentary about the 2005 Make Poverty History event and G8 protests in Scotland.

Sarah was always in the thick of it, co-organising big events like the “Ballot on the Beach” (a huge event in Brighton) and public meetings involving speakers from developing countries or parliamentary candidates. She was always able to get to the nub of what we were trying to achieve and keep a clear head if any of us were getting carried away or a bit off track.

Taking her campaigning to Europe, she was active at major events in Prague (2000), Genoa (2001) and Florence (2002).

Despite increasing health problems she was still keen to get involved when she could and feisty enough to be disappointed if she felt that something was not edgy enough or wasting an opportunity. I was amazed when she turned out on a bitterly cold day last December for the annual climate change demo and march in London.

Sarah had of course been very active in other ways as well, in other campaigns, taking a lead in her local community project and with a busy family life. She died peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones as she would have wished.

She was a great inspiration to all who knew her and will be sorely missed.

Her family have asked that, rather than buying flowers, people make a donation to WDM.