Global Justice Leicester and Leicestershire

Speaker meeting

Two events to join this week

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There are two events that may interest you:

Thursday 7th December at 6pm, Nick Dearden will be giving the annual lecture of the Nottingham University based Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice. The talk is entitled ‘Pharmaeconomics: How Big Pharma Destroys Global Health’. You are invited to join this Zoom-only  event.

Here is the link to register for the talk. Please join us.

Saturday 9th December at Noon – Now We Rise (organised by Leicester Friends of the Earth)

Meet at Leicester Clock Tower for a short march to the Town Hall Square where we’ll form a human oil slick for a mass photo, calling on the UK government to stop extracting fossil fuels and support the people most affected by chimate change. Dress in black if you can.

This is the Global Day of Action for the COP28 UN Climate Summit. People across the world will be calling for climate justice and human rights.

More information can be found here.

Warm Homes Initiative – launches on Saturday 18th November

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Global Justice Leicester and Leicestershire has signed up to the Warm Homes Initiative.

The aim of the Leicester and Leicestershire Warm Homes coalition is to get the government to tackle fuel poverty and the climate
crisis by building public pressure and making Warm Homes an election issue.

We are asking government to:
– Provide more (and properly targeted) financial support for people in fuel poverty now
– Put in place a nationwide street by street home insulation programme
– Provide real support for renewable energy generation
– End support for the fossil fuel industry.

Join us at the launch of the Warm Homes Inititive at the Highfields Centre, Leicester, LE2 0DS. from 1.30pm – 3.30pm

  • 1.30-3.00 gathering with stalls, activities – including for children – and free cake.
  • 2.45pm Take a huge photo of everyone, the finished ‘warm homes’ quilt and all the local MPs and Parliamentary Candidates who agree to come (we’re inviting all of them that we can track down, to come and talk to representatives from our Warm Home Coalition partners, meet people, see the quilt and be in the photo).

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.

How green is your energy? Talk by Climate Action Leicester and Leicestershire

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Greenwashing vs Renewable Energy Generation: which energy suppliers are making a positive difference?

A lot of us think we are with a green energy company, but actually there’s a lot of greenwashing in this area. Climate Action Leicester and Leicestershire has just run an event to clarify things. You can see the slides (including ones not used in the actual event on other companies) here or watch a recording of the talk and debate here.

Global Justice Leicester is a member of Climate Action Leiceseter and Leicestershire (CALL).

Why a US/UK trade deal must be opposed: speaker meeting

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Jean Blaylock of Global Justice Now is joining us to explain current US/UK  trade negotiations.

Last year Global Justice Leicester campaigned for MPs to have the right to vote on trade deals before they are signed. Unfortunately, all of our work was undone when the Trade Bill was dropped before the recent general election.

The US/UK trade deal is a long term agreement that changes the lives of everyone in this country. It should not be negotiated in private away from democratic processes.

We need to keep up to date with developments and oppose any agreements that threaten the NHS, food standards or make us accept rules imposed by the Trump administration.

Donal trump

Join us on Tuesday 3rd March at 7.30pm at Christchurch, 105a Clarendon Park Rd, LE2 3AH

Find out more about the US/UK trade deal on the Global Justice Now website

This meeting is being arranged with Christians Aware