Global Justice Leicester and Leicestershire

Campaigning

Campaigning for Global Justice

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Global Justice Leicester and Leicestershire campaigns to tackle the root causes of poverty.

We are a small group, but through membership of Global Justice Now, are encouraged to make a difference – by joining with campaigners throughout the UK.

The Big One

In April members of Global Justice Leicester and Leicestershire joined ‘The Big One‘ in London. This was organised by Extinction Rebellion. It was a four day action, where people from over 200 groups and movements, gathered throughout Westminster and at the Houses of Parliament. We are in the middle of a Climate Emergency and were asking politicians to take the situation seriously… not make decisions based on the number of votes that will be gained.

Remembering Rana Plaza

On April 24th 2013 the Rana Plaza building collapsed in Bangladesh, killing 1134 garment workers and leaving 2,500 workers injured. Some of the injured are unable to work 10 years after the tragedy. Many people were working for manufacturers that are well known in this country – we may have bought clothes from the people who suffered during this disaster.

The Rana Plaza event in Highfields, Leicester on April 24th 2023 was to remember the people who needlessly lost their lives working in an unsafe building – and to renew the call for clothes manufacturers to provide decent pay and working conditions for all of their workers.

Duing the meeting we also heard about the working conditions of garment workers in Leicester. Our clothes are often produced by people working long hours with low pay. As a Global Justice Now local group we hope to support this important campaign. When we buy cheap clothes, it is likely that the garment workers were not paid much for their work.

Stall at the National Justice and Peace Network Conference in July 2023

The conference theme this year was ‘Sustainability ? Survival or Shutdown’.

Global Justice Now resources were greatly appreciated and it was brilliant that so many of the resources had been produced in the last few months.

Have you read the booklet ‘Monopoly Capitalism – what is it and how do you fight it‘. It is well worth downloading.

The FIVE biggest corporations earned more than the poorest 2 BILLION PEOPLE in the last year – a quarter of the world’s population.

Council pension funds invest in fossil fuels

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Do you want our local Councils to stop their pension fund investing in fossil fuel producing companies?

Monday 6th February at 6.30pm – Friends Meeting House, Queen’s Rd, LE2 1WP

Come to a #LeicsDivest get-together – Meet people, share food, have fun & get involved

Find out about the #LeicsDivest at: Climate Action Leicester and Leicestershire

Sign the petition: Invest in solutions to climate, cost of living and energy crises – not fossil fuel companies (actionnetwork.org)

Climate justice demonstration and vigil at Leicester Clock Tower

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Friday, September 30th between 5pm and 6pm – Climate justice demonstration and vigil at Leicester Clock Tower. Pakistan is in the news with its catastrophic floods, as is Puerto Rico as a result of the recent hurricane, and there are many other countries where climate change is making a huge impact.

Come to the vigil with your own placard, the flag of a country where you know people are being hit by climate change, or just turn up and use one of our placards. Bring a friend, if possible – the more people who attend, the bigger the impact we make.

Climate vigil at the Clock Tower last year
Climate vigil at the Clock Tower last year

 

Day of Action on Corporate Courts – May 21st

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On May 21st the Phoenix in Leicester is showing the film Arica – at 5.30pm (part of Great Big Green Month)

Arica is a documentary about a Swedish mining company who made a deal to dispose of toxic waste in Chile and the case that the community took to court to try and get justice.  The toxic waste had a terrible impact on the health of the small community. This gripping film has been made by film makers Lars Edman and William Johansson.

Join us to watch Arica at the Phoenix cinema in Leicester on Saturday – after the film there is a Question and Answer session.

Global Justice Leicester & Leicestershire is taking a stall to the screening and will explain how Corporate Courts are being used to oppose climate protections. You can find information about Corporate Courts on the Global Justice Now website.

Decolonise vaccines speaker tour: Leicester

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When: Tuesday 29th March at 7pm

Where: George Davies Centre, Lecture Theatre 1, University Rd, Leicester, LE1 7RH (see on Google maps)

Speakers:

Maurine Murenga, director of Lean on Me Foundation, Kenya

Dr Zainabab Mai-Bornu, politics lecturer, University of Leicester

Simon Brasch, patient leader, Just Treatment

Book your place 

More about the tour

The global response to Covid-19 has been so unequal that some global south activists have called it ‘vaccine apartheid’. While those of us in the UK have been offered third and even fourth doses of the vaccine, across the whole of Africa only 11% are double jabbed. This injustice is rooted in a colonial history that has devalued the lives of people in the global south over centuries. And it is reinforced by global economic rules designed to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of multinational corporations in the global north.

For the pharmaceutical industry, making massive amounts of money for their wealthy shareholders has long been more important than the lives of people in the global south. Twenty years ago, Big Pharma even sued Nelson Mandela’s government when it tried to import cheaper medicines, because South Africa was unable to afford the astronomically-priced HIV drugs it needed during the Aids crisis.

Come along to hear our speakers discuss an alternative, and join our campaign to fight for a decolonised pharmaceutical system.

Vacines for Profit or for the People – online briefing on 15th March

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The People’s Vaccine: changing the rules to allow countries to manufacture vaccines themselves

Global Justice Nottingham is hosting at an online event on 15th March at 7.30pm. Please join the conversation.

Register on Eventbrite: Vaccines for profit or for the people?

About this event

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed deep inequities in global health systems, with only 1 in 10 people in low-income countries receiving a single vaccine while the rest of the world rolls out huge booster programmes. Meanwhile, big pharma companies have made record profits from Covid-19 vaccines, even though the bulk of the research behind them came from government funds.

Led by South Africa and India, countries in the global south are demanding an end to big pharma’s monopoly control of vaccine patents. Changes in the rules would help many more countries produce their own vaccines and gain control over their pandemic response. Governments like the UK and EU have stood in the way of this move, while pharma companies continue to lobby against it with all their might.

But the green shoots of an alternative system are growing across the world. In South Africa, scientists have copied Moderna’s vaccine and plan to teach others how to make it. Cuba is sharing the technology for its vaccine and providing it cheaply. And even in the US, a team of researchers has committed to provide its vaccine patent-free and profit-free.

The talk will lay out the case for a more democratic, de-colonised global healthcare system and discuss how we can bring it about.