Preparation continues for a public meeting exploring the impact of the ‘hostile environment’ for migrants and refugees. The 20 June planning meeting was chaired by Akram Salhab of Migrants Organise and brought together people from a good few other organisations. It fixed the date of the public meeting as Saturday 20 October, provisionally 12:30-16:00. Watch this space for more details.
(Picture: Cambridge Station by Kyle Cheung. CC-BY-NC-SA)
Image copyright Fire in the Blood 2018
Cambridge activists are to screen a documentary showing how governments and pharmaceutical companies in the West blocked access to low-cost AIDS drugs for countries in Africa and the global South – and how AIDS activists, practitioners and patients in the South fought back to get the blocking overturned.
Fire in the blood, by Daniel Mohan Gray, will be shown in the Old School Hall at St Barnabas’ church, Mill Road, at 19:45 on Friday 27 April. Tickets are obtainable from http://bit.ly/2EkQ1xj . Admission will be free, but donations invited.
Fire in the blood is a film everyone should see. The battle for low-cost access to AIDS medication isn’t over. Fire in the blood shows what progress there’s been, and what’s still holding it back.
More information about Fire in the blood, including links to reviews, is at http://fireintheblood.com/ .
Global Justice Cambridge joined migrants and friends for a rally outside the Guildhall at 11:00 am on Saturday 17 February — part of a national day of action, with more than fifty events happening nationwide, to celebrate the huge contribution made by people from all over the world to life in the UK. The central message was “Proud to be a migrant / proud to stand with migrants”.
The day was co-ordinated by One Day Without Us.
Speakers included Marcus Johnson of N.W. Brown, Zareen Taj of Stand Up To Racism, Dan Ellis of Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign, Aidan Baker of Global Justice Cambridge, Liesbeth ten Ham of Amnesty International Cambridge City Group, Paul Browne of Cambridge Stays, Mitch Mitchell of Refugee Lifeboat, and Prof. Catherine Rowett of the University of East Anglia.
Several of them told of the part migration had played in bringing them to the UK. Zareen Taj told of the pain of finding herself ‘othered’ by her decision to wear a headscarf. The event began and ended with Liesbeth ten Ham’s stunt involving suitcases and masks. Here’s a picture of it by Clare Baker:
And organiser Karol Florek made a video of the stunt as it happened, complete with soundtrack by Keller Williams.
Music teacher and Global Justice member Ursula Stubbings got some of her students to enliven the Grand Arcade for two hours the day before Christmas Eve. This gave Global Justice Cambridge the chance to collect for GJ funds and spread a little of the movement’s message to passers-by. The message was adapted from the GJ website, and the collection raised £165.07 plus €1.
Ursula and some other friends went carol-singing during the week, and raised £153.56 by it. Thanks Ursula, players, singers, collectors and givers all!
Cambridge news reported the 28 October action outside Sainsbury’s on Sidney Street. The total number of signatures on the petition, calling on Sainsbury to rethink its decision to remove the Fairtrade mark from its own-brand teas, was around 120!