Global Justice Merseyside

We believe a fairer world is possible

Global Justice Now

Corporations V Farmers. The battle for food sovereignty in Tanzania

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Dan Illes with a group to Tanzanian farmers on his recent Fact Finding visit to Tanzania
Dan will speak at our event on 27th April in Liverpool

dan Illes Tanzania talk

On 27th April we have a great opportunity to hear Dan Illes on  how the farmers in Tanzania are fighting  back against the new agribusiness corporations  stitchup and land grab of their assets and live hoods.

The central venue for this important meeting is yet to be decided.

Here’s what Dan will be talking about on the evening:

Tanzania is a country at forefront of the global battle for control over our food. On one side corporations are lining up to seize control over the country’s land, seeds and soil. On the other side passionate small-scale farmers are strengthening their networks and deepening pre-existing knowledge in an attempt to keep control of their resources.

For this reason, Dan Illes from  Global Justice Now spent 10 days traveling around the country with the job of collecting stories and finding out how we can offer our solidarity to the growing food sovereignty movement. In this talk Dan will guide you through the main players in struggle over Tanzania’s food system and discuss the wider context in Africa and around the world

 

 

See you at the Brink Liverpool – September 23rd for our Autumn meeting

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We invite you to come and join us for our next meeting and help campaign for a fairer society for all.

Venue:    The BRINK, 21 Parr Street, Liverpool,  L1 4JN.

Time:       7.30 PM Wednesday September 23rd September

Global Justice Merseyside  is the local branch Global Justice Now

Global Justice Merseyside challenge corporate power and the policies that cause poverty and inequality all over the world;     we   do creative street campaigning, lobby politicians, get media coverage and organise local events such as film screenings and workshops.

Our present campaigns include actions on:

 Energy injustice and climate change

The corporate grip over energy keeps 1.3 billion people without access to electricity. And energy privatisation, supported by the UK government in countries like Nigeria, is putting equitable energy access even further out of reach;

Africa is producing more and more food. Why is hunger rising?

Huge corporations are scrambling to take control of Africa’s food at the expense of the small-scale farmers who feed most of the continent.

Help us end the support for the corporate take-over of Africa’s food via the international movement for Food Sovereignty;

TTIP: a threat to democracy, standards and jobs’

TTIP is a deal that aims to remove ‘non-tariff barriers to trade’. There’s very little obstacle to trade between the EU and the US at present — tariffs are at an all-time low. But corporations, on both sides of the Atlantic, want to remove other rules and regulations that might be stopping them from making even bigger profits.

 

Join us  and help  make  another, fairer world possible

Take Back Our World report

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Hannah and I attended a very lively relaunch of WDM as Global Justice Now and returned I think more committed to  the new brand after hearing so many discussions about the injustices of corporate control across the world. The venue Rich Mix was a little cramped for the numbers who attended but this at least meant we never felt isolated! There was a great range of ages and interests, and excellent speakers.

Our day opened with Paul Mason in dialogue, an excellent survey of people’s protest movements against corporate and undemocratic  control  across the world which he is closely following and analysing and has described  in his recent books . These movements have grown as a result of social media. Interestingly he said that the Taksim square demonstrations in Turkey were possibly the most significant because of the number of women who took part, contrasting with Greece.

How do  these popular movements ensure their survival and achieve positive lasting change? Possibly by small group discussions finding common ground despite some ideological differences. We engaged in a practical example of this in a later session when we broke into small groups to discuss issues such as energy under the broad heading ‘Another World is  possible’

Workshops included .’The people versus corporate power.How we bear TTIPs.’ ‘Take back our city: the housing crisis and global capitalism’. ‘Economics is  for everyone?’   Children could create a meadow in an art workshop!

Nick Dearden director of Global Justice Now speaks with great clarity and authority. He was one of the panel at the session ‘How do we take on Global agribusiness ?’ Together with Samia Nkrumah daughter of former President Nkrumah and chair of the Convention  People’s Party in Ghana. She has been heavily involved in the campaign against Ghana’s Monsanto law which would deprive small farmers of their traditional practices up in seed banking.

 

There was an excellent bookstall and we would highly recommend the new Global Justice Now magazine ‘Ninety Nine’ and the magazine ‘Red Pepper’ the latest edition of which has a leading article by Nick Dearden ‘The end of Poverty and other Development myths’. Naomi Klein’s book ‘This ChangesEverything. Is a’ must read ‘ for those campaigning for action on climate change.