Our High Street banks are shamed in ‘Stop Bank Rolling Fossil Fuels Walk’ on Saturday 4th October

October 7, 2014 by merseyside

Merseyside WDM Group want to say a big ‘Thankyou’ to the brilliant photographer John Usher who was so generous with his time and talent and so public spirited joining in too. ——–

The email below from one of Merseyside WDM members Jo to Sr Margeret, another of our members, very succinctly sums up

the feeling of elation after completing the walk of’shame on the banks’:

Hi Margaret,

Wish you had been able to be there today!

It was great although there weren’t too many people in our audiences,

but we did make quite a rumpus and attracted a fair bit of attention.

It was both scary and enjoyable and surprising how convincing our smarmy bankers were!

John Airs and I had a real job on our hands quizzing them and John Usher chipped in too.

One passer-by even said he couldn’t bear to listen to the awful bankers any longerAnyway a sigh of relief went up at the end and smiles all round for our valiant effort!

I’ve copied everyone I can in, so may I just say well done to everybody, the props were superb and you all worked so hard.It was great to be part of it

Thanks to you all.

Take care,

Jo X

Say no to TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partership

October 2, 2014 by merseyside

The EU-US trade deal (TTIP) could allow multinational corporations to sue our government for making laws to benefit people.

That has already happened in other places in the world under similar trade deals.

TTIP could undermine UK environmental regula

tion to allow more GM crops and facilitate a US-style fracking boom.

Defend our environment. Take action on 11 October to stop TTIP:

Our next meeting

October 1, 2014 by merseyside

Wednesday October 8th at 7.30pm.

Come along and join in the struggle to achieve global justice now

Say NoTTip will be on the agenda for discussion.

Where we Meet:

Directions to 10 Deacon Court, L22 5QU, tel 0151 920 7307

From Central Station go to the Northern Line station and take the Southport train (every 15mins) towards Southport

Get off at Waterloo (the Station after Seaforth and Litherland)

Exit station up the steps or the lift to the left of the steps

Turn left down South Road ( look down the road to see if any ships are passing)

First left before down Church Road

First right between the back of Tony Almonds garden Centre and the Lion and the Unicorn pub (its just a little alley) – Dean St.

Second left into Deacon Court, and its number 10 on the right.

Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, RBS and Nat West have Invested Billions in Dirty Energy

October 1, 2014 by merseyside

Dear Members and supporters.

On Saturday October 4^th Merseyside WDM will be staging a ‘Bankers Day Out ‘ in Liverpool city centre as part of the Climate Change campaign. We propose to pose as city bankers celebrating the big bail out and the lack of regulation over our activities especially our investments in dirty energy. We will have a Liverpool version of Jeremy Paxman challenging us to ‘come clean ‘ and warning an interested but unenlightened crowd of bystanders ( enacted by WDM supporters and friends) of our nefarious activities. Banks to be targeted include Lloyds and HSBC, Barckays and RBS NatWest

There will be a briefing session before the stunt at the Bluecoat Chambers at 10 30 and then the stunt will start about 11 am and finish not later than 1p.m. when we will go somewhere nice for lunch/

Please do come along and give us your support as activists and fellow actors!!

Any queries please contact at the above address.

Update on Food Sovereignty

September 25, 2014 by merseyside

Thanks to Ian – now working of Food Sovereignty for this important contributition to the campaign and letting us know how the small farmers around the world – (an estimated 12million) have updated their farming skills through these very important Farmers Field Schools – Local small farmers are securing local sustainable nourishing food for their local community without the interference of monocultural agribusinesses who push the small holders off their land and into poverty.

F is for farmer field schools

By Ian Fitzpatrick, 24 September 2014

The latest in our A to Z of food sovereignty: farmer field schools (FFS)

Farmer field schools (FFS) are an educational forum for farmers to learn and share practical knowledge related to farming based on a central learning garden.The approach was first used in Kenya in 1995 and has since spread across Africa (and other parts of the world). To date an estimated 12 million farmers around the world have had some form of training through a FFS. The impacts of FFS have been considerable, ranging from increasing food production (by anything from 50% and 85%), to increasing access and control over food production by women and children.

Organic agriculture school in Morogoro, Tanzania. Photo credit: Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania

In Uganda, what started as a FFS with a central learning garden, has evolved into Farmer Family Learning Groups (FFLG), where farmers learn and support different farms each time they gather for a visit:

“FFLG members work together and thereby reduce labour costs. They open more land than when working alone. Due to proper and timely management practices, productivity has increased. The selection of commercial enterprises based on group decisions helps planning for larger quantities to be marketed as a group. In addition to crops that double as both food and cash crops, the purely cash crops grown are coffee, cocoa, and cotton. All FFLGs have established savings and credit schemes. Most groups have increased their minimum total savings from a mere US$1 to around US$3 000. All this has been made possible by the social trust and interaction which enables farmers to access better markets through group marketing.”

The impact of FFS goes beyond learning new skills and increasing crop production. FFS increase people’s ability to make decisions and choices both as individuals and through collective action.

About the A-Z of food sovereignty project

We will be going through the A to Z of food sovereignty each day until world food day on 16th October. The words have been chosen to show the positive alternatives to corporate-led agriculture. Africa’s small-scale food producers already know how to produce enough food sustainably to feed themselves but the political and economic rules which govern the food system are set against them. These rules are written by and for multinational companies and political elites, in support of a global food system that benefits them rather than the millions of smallholders and family farmers who produce the food and get little in return.

– See more at: http://www.wdm.org.uk/food-and-hunger/farmer-field-schools#sthash.X6aGkPJi.dpuf

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

May 1, 2014 by merseyside

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.