Global Justice Leicester and Leicestershire

Event

Leicester WDM Supports Fairtrade Fortnight

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Leicester WDM is supporting the campaign to ‘Abolish the Unfair Banana’ – we will have a stall on Queens Road, Clarendon Park on Saturday 1st March from 10am – Noon.

Fairtrade Fortnight is from 24th February – 9th March. 

At the moment, all the supermarkes are caught up in competition over how cheaply they can sell their bananas. While the farmer or worker who grew a Fairtrade banana is getting a better deal, it’s clear that Fairtrade alone is not enough to end the price wars.

  • Cheap bananas are threatening farmers’ futures
  • Every year we eat more than 5 billion bananas and spend over £550 Million
  • Britain’s supermarket price wars are trapping tens of thousands of banana farmers and workers in an unrelenting cycle of poverty.

Why not come along for a chat on Saturday 1st March or sign the petition online to Make Bananas Fair

Campaigning works!

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Leicester WDM is thrilled to learn that EU negotiators have agreed to regulate food speculation. We asked MEPs to stop bankers betting on hunger … and they listened. 

There is no doubt that campaigning by WDM and our allies across Europe has enabled this to happen. Thank-you to everyone locally who has come to talk to us at a Leicester WDM stall and signed a card of petition. This shows that we can make a difference when we work together …

You can find out more about the WDM Food Speculation campaign on the main WDM website

 

Setting up an extraction site outside our local HSBC

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On 4th November we had a stall outside HSBC on Hinckley Rd in Leicester.

Leicester WDM supported ‘Dirty Energy Month’  –  a month of worldwide public protest and action to say NO to dirty energy and YES to clean, renewable alternatives.

Dirty energy stall Hinckley Rd HSBC

Members of Leicester WDM set up an ‘extraction site’ outside our local HSBC bank and talked to people as they walked past. We also gave a letter to managers in the branch asking HSBC to stop investing in projects that promote climate change. HSBC underwrote £74.64 billion in share and bond issues to fossil fuel companies between 2010 to 2012.

We want the financial sector to come clean on its true impact. We need new rules to demand that banks and investors report on the carbon footprint of their investments.

Why not:

WATCH the WDM video: how our banks finance climate change  and

DOWNLOAD the WDM report: Banking while Borneo burns

…  TAKE ACTION – Help send HSBC a giant pile of coal

 

Water, water …

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On 29th October, Leicester WDM and Christians Aware jointly hosted an evening on the theme of “Water, water”.

WaterTalkGhana3

 

Alhassan Adam of Oxfam spoke about countering water privatisation in Ghana. Ghana was required to charge everyone for access to water and implement water privatisation as a condition of receiving a structural adjustment loan from the World Bank. In response to this, the National Coalition Against Water Privatisation was formed. The coalition gained impact by working with related networks in Africa and worldwide to keep the needs of water consumers on the agenda. While privatising water there were many problems, including alleged corruption and utility companies working in the short term to make quick money, without a long term commitment.

Everyone needs water to live, but privatisation has meant that some people cannot afford to buy clean water. They end up travelling distances to find sources, which are often polluted. Rural communities are not good candidates for water privatisation as they are not profitable and they often depend on water projects funded by non-governmental organisations.

Mansoor Ali, Practical Action

Mansoor Ali of Practical Action spoke about ‘Small schemes for the better use of water’. Practical Action specialises in providing technological solutions for development problems. In a heavily urbanised world, Mansoor talked of the need to find creative solutions in difficult urban environments. Practical Action now increasingly has to facilitate dialogue so that the needs of vulnerable people are taken into account when developing community services.  Mansoor’s presentation led to a lively discussion about how to make a real difference to the lives of people who lack the basic necessities of life.

We greatly appreciated both presentations. There was an encouraging message that by working together we can make a real difference in the lives of some of the world’s poorest people.

 

Protect mother earth – speaker Yasmin Romero Epiayu from Colombia

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Yasmin Romero Epiayu spoke movingly in Nottingham on 21st October about the impact of open cast coal mining on her community.  Yasmin lives in the La Guajira region of northern Colombia, where the giant Cerrejón coal mine has swallowed up whole villages and forced people out of their homes.

The health of people living near the mine has deteriorated significantly and there are an increasing number of birth abnormalities. There are plans to increase the size of the mine … and divert a local river. This is being actively challenged by the local community. An article from the Guardian newspaper gives some background to the debate about mining in La Guajira.

This speaker meeting aimed to highlight the role that the UK Financial Sector plays in bankrolling this kind of initiative. Coal is a dirty energy, there is serious environmental degradation … and this area is the second poorest in the country. The mine is not benefiting the lives of the local people.

Please support the campaign to make banks come clean about their fossil fuel finance – find out more on the WDM website.

 

Speaker meeting on water – Tue 29th October

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“Water, water …..”

on Tuesday 29th October from 7-9pm

at

Christchurch, Clarendon Park Road, Leicester, LE2 3AD

 

 Countering Water Privatisation in Ghana by Alhassan Adam (Oxfam)

Water project in Ghana

Small Schemes for the better use of water by Mansoor Ali (Practical Action)

WaterSchemesPracticalAction 

Organised by Christians Aware and the World Development Movement.

All welcome