At long last we are going to launch the new group, and we’ll be having our first meeting next week at Manchester Metropolitan University Students Union, at 7pm on Tuesday 17 April. We will be discussing what we want to do with the new group, how we can promote and supportWDM’s current campaigns to curb food speculation and for climate justice. 

In particular we’ll be talking about what action we can take in George Osborne’s constituency of Tatton in Cheshire with other local groups. The Chancellor has a key role in holding back European legislation to tackle banks betting on the price of food, causing prices to rise worldwide and pushing millions into poverty and hunger.

Please do send an email to andy.lockhart [at] wdm.org.uk if you are planning on coming on Tuesday so myself and Tom know how many to expect, and forward and spread the word to anyone you think may be interested. Hopefully see you on Tuesday!

See Facebook event here

Also, if you missed the E99 conference in Manchester a few weeks ago, never fear. There are now a number of audio recordings of the event on the WDM website here.

It was a busy weekend in Manchester, with ‘An Economy for the 99%’ conference put on by World Development Movement and Jubilee Debt Campaign, as well as the Anti-Fracking conference, and there’s more coming up.

First of all a big thank you to everyone who came along on Saturday, it was a fantastic day made possible by a lot of work by the WDM and JDC staff, some brilliant speakers, and of course the 200 plus people who attended. There will be some audio and visual recordings from the conference which will be going up soon for those who missed out.

And if you’ve been inspired to take action, do get in touch via the email address on the ‘about’ page, we’ll be having our first group meeting in the very near future. Next weekend too the South Manchester group will be running a stall at Chorlton’s Big Green Festival, which is taking place at St Helens Church on Edge Lane, and they’d love people to get down and give them a hand (and enjoy the festival of course!).

There have been a couple of posts on the main site this last week too about the food campaign that might be of interest, here and here…

What would a global economy that really worked in the interests of people look like? And how can we make it happen? Come to a full day event of informative and inspiring workshops and speakers, all addressing these questions.

This event will bring together activists from Manchester, Europe and beyond to share ideas, stories and tactics for building economic justice movements across the world.

Government responses to the financial crisis have prioritised the interests of irresponsible banks and led to deep public sector cuts, ballooning unemployment and poverty. Globally, corporate power is being entrenched while the rich continue to dodge their taxes.

But the financial crisis has also triggered inspiring movements for change across the world. We’ll have speakers from some of those movements, both local and global. We’ll have workshops that examine the current crisis and look at alternative ways of building a fairer economy. And there will also be opportunities to share ideas and tactics for bringing that fairer economy about.

FREE EVENT organised jointly by Jubilee Debt Campaign and the World Development Movement.

Speakers will include:

Dina Makram Ebeid, Popular Campaign to Drop Egypt’s Debt

Almudena Serpis from Spain’s indignados movement

Sargon Nissan, former city trader turned activist

Nessa Ní Chasaide, Debt Justice Action (Ireland)

Sarah Bracking, author of ‘Money and Power’

John Christensen, Tax Justice Network

Hilary Wainwright, Transnational Institute’s New Politics programme

Matt Fawcett, Kindling Trust

Kirtana Chandrasekaran, Friends of the Earth International

Nick Dearden, Jubilee Debt Campaign

Kirsty Wright, World Development Movement

Rosa Curling, Leigh Day and Co campaigning solicitors

and more to be announced…

Workshops and sessions on causes of the financial crisis, tax havens, the ‘solidarity economy’, citizens’ debt audits, activism for food justice locally and globally, the global movement against austerity, overseas aid and philanthropy, economic justice and the Arab Spring, organising for workplace rights and more.

REGISTER NOW

Registration for the event is now open here: http://www.wdm.org.uk/events/economy-99-ideas-stories-and-tactics-around-world

MEDIA PARTNER

Manchester Mule – News with a kick!

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Supported by 6 Billion Ways

http://www.6billionways.org.uk/

Manchester’s second annual celebration of sustainable living and working will be taking place at locations all over the city for the next seven days.

There is a fantastically diverse range of events and activities happening each day, all of which are listed here on the MERCi website. On the WDM front as mentioned before Andy will be speaking at the FeedingManchester #8 on Wednesday 30 November, which is taking place at MERCi from 4pm to 7pm and requires booking.

This latest FeedingManchester will be taking inspiration from a spectrum of sustainable food pioneers from local guerilla gardeners to Incredible Edible Todmordon to the campaign to stop global food speculation. Along with the usual mix of socialising and networking the events offer something for everyone involved in Greater Manchester’s sustainable food movement.

This coming Monday Manchester Central WDM will be running a documentary film night at the University of Manchester Students Union with the long-running Open Media society.

Andy will be showing a series of short films covering issues from food speculation linking in with WDM’s food campaign to stories of those fighting for food justice around the world. The films will include a documentary about the Agrarian Reform for Food Sovereignty Campaign in South Africa and The Power of Community, the story of Cuba’s forced transition away from heavy industrial agriculture, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 and the immediate loss of half of the country’s imports of oil.

The event starts at 6pm in the Council Chambers at the Students Union on Oxford Road. All are welcome, so please come on down. Contact andy [at] wdm.org.uk for more details. The Facebook event is here.

Sorry for the lack of updates on the Central Manchester site, things have been very busy, but there are a few events in the pipeline you should know about.

This coming Monday 14 November the Campaign Against Climate Change will be holding ‘Africa and Climate Justice – Meeting with Rehad Desai’ at the University of Manchester Students Union. Like World Development Movement, they are running a campaign on the issue of climate justice in the run-up to the COP-17 in Durban in December and ahead of the Stand Up For Climate Justice March in London on 3 December. Details of WDM’s climate debt campaign can be found here on the main website. We will be there on Monday, and below is the blurb for the event which begins at 6.30pm in the Khaled Said room of UMSU on Oxford Road:

The historic emissions of greenhouse gases from the industrialised, developing world is already hitting those living on the majority of the globe. Developing nations are already feeling the impact of climate change, and are likely to experience it first and worst. In Africa food and water shortages are being made worse, leading to famine and conflict.

However people in Africa are organising. This years UN climate conference takes place in Durban, South Africa against a backdrop of mobilisations demanding climate and social justice. South African unions are demanding a million climate jobs and mobilising thousands to join protests, demanding the visiting politicians act to save the lives of millions of people.

Internationally renowned documentary film maker Rehad Desai is touring the UK to highlight the question of climate justice for Africa. He is at the heart of the organising team, planning for December’s protests and has a long record of organising for social justice in Africa.

This meeting is part of a tour organised by the Campaign against Climate Change with support from the PCS and UCU.

It is an opportunity to hear from an activist from South Africa about how ordinary people are mobilising to challenge the inadequacies of the international response to climate change. Environmental activists from Manchester will also speak about forthcoming mobilisations in the UK.

The meeting is open to everyone, for more information, please contact climatejustice@campaigncc.org. Leaflet can be downloaded here.

On Monday 21 November we’ll be running a documentary night connected to our food campaign with the Open Media society at the University of Manchester, details to follow soon.

Then on Friday 30 November Andy will be talking about food speculation and the WDM campaign on a panel at FeedingManchester 8, alongside speakers from Incredible Edible Todmorden, the Kindling Trust and Ashton Allotment Action.

Finally a big thank you to everyone who came to the Hunger for Justice event last month, it was a great success and excellent evening.

In October World Development Movement will be putting on Hunger for Justice in Manchester.

The latest WDM report on food speculation found that financial speculators now hold over 60 per cent of some markets for basic foods, compared to just 12 per cent 15 years ago, and that the total amount of money speculated on commodities is 20 times more than the total amount of aid money given globally for agriculture.

The huge influx of speculation has forced prices up, resulting in increasing hunger. The price of food in developing countries as a whole has risen by 55 per cent since 2007, while in sub-Saharan Africa one third of the population do not have enough food.

Another food system is possible!

While a billion people go hungry, hundreds of thousands suffer obesity and food producers in rich and poor countries alike struggle to make a living. The global food system is dysfunctional – but there are solutions.

Our speakers will explore the idea of food sovereignty, a way of putting both people and the planet first, re-localising and democratising our food system and challenging the corporate dominance that makes it so unsustainable.

We’ve got a great line-up of speakers:

Sarath Fernando, Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform, Sri Lanka
Delwek Mateus, Landless Workers’ Movement, Brazil
Christine Haigh, World Development Movement
Matt Fawcett, Kindling Trust

The event will be held on Wednesday 19 October from 7-9pm at the Mechanics Institute, 103 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 6DD.

The Facebook event is here and you can become a fan of WDM Manchester Central here.

This meeting is supported by Unicorn, Manchester’s co-operative grocery store. It is produced in association with 6 Billion Ways.