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We took our smashing Trojan Horse to the Climate Connections fair last week to raise awareness of the false green economy about to be touted at Rio+20 in a couple of weeks’ time, and asked people to wield pens and sign action cards, calling on MPs to write to Nick Clegg (the UK government’s representative at Rio)  urging him to prioritise economic justice and sustainable development. Or you can write to him yourself here.

Pictured is Susanne handing over our action cards to Caroline Lucas, Brighton Pavilion MP.

On a windy, grey Saturday afternoon we pitched our stall outside Brighton’s biggest branch of Barclays and got tons of action cards to the Treasury signed, demanding the government’s support for EU legislation curbing rampant speculation on food. It was a day of relay protest; as soon as we’d packed up, Smash EDO & Palestine Solidarity began picketing the bank for its investment in the arms trade. Barclays closed the front door of their bank and stationed a police officer outside (see pic).

Come to our night of short films upstairs at The Lectern pub on Lewes Road, just next to Brighton University on Tuesday 24th April. We’ll be showing Crises of Capitalism, Not a Very Green Revolution, Detroit: Rising From The Ashes, plus an inspiring short about WDM local groups. And it’s all for free!

7pm start, and The Lectern do food so join us beforehand in the bar downstairs for dinner if you like. See you there!

On 28 February 2012 six members from London WDM groups and one member from the Brighton & Hove WDM group together with WDM’s Food & Finance campaigner Christine Haigh travelled to Brussels to meet with their MEPs, or the MEPs’ Parliamentary Assistants respectively, to discuss the problem of excessive food speculation, which means higher food bills for us but is driving millions of people in the poorest countries into more poverty and hunger. The European Parliament is currently reviewing MIFiD (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive), which is the European framework for the regulation of financial markets. We are asking our MEPs to support strong regulation to curb speculation. Two key measures we are calling for are Transparency and Position Limits.

Watch the full series here.

On Saturday we took to the streets armed with a human-eating “climate loan” shark, in solidarity with international protests during the run-up to the U.N. climate talks in Durban beginning on Monday, and to illustrate how our government is lending climate adaptation money to poor countries through the World Bank, effectively behaving like a loan shark.

Alongside activists worldwide, we’re calling for the money to be donated through the United Nations Climate Adaptation Fund – so far our government has refused.