Global Justice Merseyside

We believe a fairer world is possible

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Our next meeting is 20th May 2014 at 2.00pm . New members are very welcome!

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We had a very enjoyable and informative meeting with our Preston WDM Group in the very posh  Preston Town Hall in April.   Many thanks to Janet and other local members  for their  great  and welcome hospitality too!

Maya gave a good introduction to the Stop the corporate takeover of Africa’s Food campaign and we can’t wait to get hold of the  Resources for this action with  the Edible Rice Map of Africa to put on our cake Stunt. It sounds exciting and will be too when we get to a venue near you soon.

This is what the WDM says about how the UK Government is connected with this new wave of carve up of Africa:

Attracted by high growth rates and untapped markets, big companies like Monsanto, Unilever and Nestlé are setting their sights on Africa. To help them there are a number of initiatives, championed by governments like the UK, that claim to support agricultural production in Africa.

However, the real beneficiaries of these schemes are the companies themselves who are set to increase their control over Africa’s land, seeds and markets at the expense of small-scale farmers who feed most of the continent.For corporate giants like Unilever and Monsanto, this means vast profit.

But for small-scale farmers, who feed most of the population, it means losing control of their livelihoods and the resources needed to grow food.

Over 100 African farmers groups have called this a ‘new wave of colonialism.’ Send a message to Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development, urging the government to stop funding this corporate takeover.

 

– See more at: http://www.wdm.org.uk/food/about-the-campaign#sthash.Dnp5OB4E.dpuf

Have a look at WDM’s spoof video on the matter.  Our WDM  staff  have got a good take on what it’s all about.

 

 

 

 

 

Next meeting: Tuesday 12th February – 8.00pm at usual place

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Our next meeting will be on  Wednesday 12th February  8. 00 pm, at our usual meeting place.

Interested non-members are very welcome to come along and we would look forward to meeting you there.  Just give Kathleen a call and she will give you directions to get there!

Up for discussion, ( among other things) will be WDM’s statement about the developments around the Fairtrade mark.  WDM was a founder member of the Fairtrade Foundation and our members were among the first in Britain to buy products aimed  to challenge the power of big business over our economy.

So it is 20 years later and big business  is still  dominating production and distribution of cocoa, sugar, tea, coffee,fruit and the wage fortunes of starving workers who have to   operate  in disgusting conditions. Fairtrade was set up as a way of ensuring a better life for those workers and small farmers.

So why is WDM expressing it’s concern about fairtrade at this time?

Well, that’s what we will be discussing at the meeting.

As   Fairtrade Fortnight approaches there are many local  events taking place.    Rosemary Turner, the coordinator of the Fairtrade Crosby Network will attend  our meeting and we will explore  ways we  might support her  with  these events.

See you on the 12th Feb

Hannah

 

WDM pressure on EU legislators has paid off!

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Limits to curb speculation on food prices agreed
UK blocks proposals for tougher regulation

EU negotiators last night agreed to introduce regulation to prevent speculation by banks and hedge funds driving up food prices and exacerbating the global hunger crisis. The new controls will place a limit on the number of food contracts that banks and other finance companies can hold, and will force traders to open their activity to greater public scrutiny.

Anti-poverty campaign group the World Development Movement has hailed the decision as an historic step forward, but said that the UK government’s opposition to tough controls has resulted in serious loopholes in the regulation. In particular, limits will be set at national rather than EU level, which campaigners say risks a regulatory ‘race to the bottom’ as countries could compete to set  weaker limits.

The group is urging the European regulator ESMA to ensure that the new rules are implemented effectively, and not watered down further by industry lobbying.

Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley together made an estimated £2.2 billion from speculating on food including wheat, maize and soy between 2010 and 2012. Speculation increases price volatility and has been a major factor in the sharp spikes in global food prices of the last six years.

Nick Dearden, director of the World Development Movement, said today:

Public outrage over food speculation has been huge and the fact that the EU has listened to that anger is a victory for public pressure. But the UK’s role in watering down the regulation has been a disgrace. The Treasury has put the profits of banks like Goldman Sachs above the basic human need for food, with the result that the new rules could be too weak to be effective. Yesterday’s agreement is a good step forward, but now we need to make sure the limits are set at a level that properly tackles excessive speculation.

The new rules on food speculation are part of a major piece of European financial reform, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). Once it has been officially approved by MEPs and EU finance ministers, it must be incorporated into national legislation in each of the 28 EU member states.

Skills Share Feedback Report from Kathleen – our branch contact

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SKILLSHARE CONFERENCE LIVERPOOL
Merseyside WDM                                       

Many thanks to everyone who attended the successful conference on Saturday. We welcomed delegates from several other regional branches including Central Lancashire, Calderdale, Manchester and Rochdale as well as interested guests from other Liverpool organisations. We were privileged to hear Nick Dearden, the new Director , who had come to meet northern members and challenged us with the three major issues of the present time, firstly the need to break the stranglehold of big finance over government both nationally and globally, and its aggressive aim to acquire the global ‘commons’ (the resources which should be available to all the world’s citizens)/ Secondly the increasing gap between rich and poor is not now just a matter of the North and South divide but a clear and widening division between the poor and the wealthy elites within all countries. Thirdly he warned against an obsession with aid without tackling the root economic problems that make aid necessary and which weaken its effectiveness. He encouraged us however to believe that change is possible and that we are seeing this especially in Latin American countries where financial pressure by multinationals is being rejected by governments and people

Sarah Reader , the Groups Coordinator, gave a very good talk on the way the big UK banks are investing in destructive mining operations in Indonesia and South America and we saw an excellent film on this. We hope to show this again in the near future. This proved to be an excellent motivator for the direct action we took in Liverpool City Centre where we set up a fake mine outside HSBC and urged people to stop banks ‘bankrolling climate change.’ This was a very public skillshare!! and we are grateful to Sarah and Maya the Northern regional coordinato for bringing the props and encouraging us in our activist roles.
The workshops were excellent – we are going to use technology with greater confidence in future and good discussions were held about the best campaign methods including the proposal to provide more user friendly leaflets to hand out to the public in actions. Members of the different groups are invited to add to this blog their own record of the discussions in which they were participants. Photos of the day are also on our webpage.

Many thanks to the rest of the Merseyside group for leading the icebreaking session and providing extremely delicious soup to fortify even the most apprehensive activists.

Next meeting Wednesday Dec 11th at 20 Deacon Court Waterloo when we shall combine business with a little festive cheer to celebrate a successful year.

Kathleen

What a fantastic Skills Share day! Let’s celebrate it’s success!

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Here we all are listening to Sarah”s very informative talk and video – setting the scheme for our Carbon Capital Campaign.. That the City of London’s Financial institutions are bankrolling fossil fuel mining, driving climate change and destroying vast sectors of the world’s environment is a gross understatement

 

We are in the process of updating our website and shall have lots more to say about this fantastic day shortly

And I know of course that we all want to share the pics  below

 

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