• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Global Justice Oxford

Campaigning for justice for the world's poor in Oxfordshire

  • Press Releases
  • Contact us
  • About

News

Bankers Anonymous: time for bankers to quit

10 April 2013 by kate Leave a Comment

WDM campaigners set up stall to help bankers quit gambling: Saturday 6th April

 Campaigners from Oxford World Development Movement (WDM) were on Cornmarket Street on Saturday to raise awareness of bankers gambling on food prices.

 The tongue-in-cheek “Bankers Anonymous” campaign highlights a serious issue: financial speculation by banks and hedge funds is driving up food prices, sending the cost of basic foods spiralling beyond the reach of millions of the world’s poorest people. It also impacts food prices in richer countries such as the UK.

3 of the Oxford WDM group campaigning on Cornmarket
Bankers Anonymous: help them kick gambling!

The World Development Movement is calling for tough controls on food speculation. The Oxford campaigners were asking passers-by to write to their MP calling for tighter regulation. It’s part of a “five-step programme” to stop the gambling.

Tweet

Filed Under: News, Press Releases

Want to see a fairer world? Come and meet us!

3 April 2013 by kate Leave a Comment

Would you like to do something about the injustice in the world, but don’t know where to start?  Or perhaps you’ve heard of World Development Movement (WDM) but don’t know how you could get involved?  Then this is the event for you!

The next meeting of Oxford WDM will be a relaxed, fun and interactive session where you can find out more about Oxford WDM and our campaigns.  There’ll be a short film, a guest speaker and the chance to ask questions.  You’ll even have the opportunity to take action for justice right there and then!  Come along to find out more…

Entry is free. Tuesday April 9th, 8 – 9pm, Oxford Town Hall (St Aldate’s Room). We’ll have a short committee meeting before that, at 7:30pm, to wrap up some outstanding business. Early arrivals welcome to stay for the “business” part of the meeting too.

Tweet

Filed Under: News

Bankers Anonymous need your help

23 March 2013 by kate Leave a Comment

Saturday 6th April

We’ll have a stall to help those poor bankers break their addiction to gambling on food prices. We’d love you to join us. Contact Sam Partington (sam AT samsolutions.co.uk) for more details.

Tweet

Filed Under: News

Empowering women in the world’s poorest communities

19 February 2013 by kate Leave a Comment

Tuesday 26th March, 1pm-2pm

The United Nations Association (Oxford Branch) presents a talk on Empowering women in the world’s poorest communities. The speaker is Simeon Mitchell, Deputy Director of the Methodist Relief and Development Fund. He will explore some of the challenges and successful strategies for empowering women, who make up 70% of the world’s poor. The event takes place at Wesley Memorial Church, New Inn Hall Street, OX1 2DH.

Tweet

Filed Under: News

Oxford WDM Group March meeting

18 February 2013 by kate Leave a Comment

Tuesday 12th March2013

7:30pm-9pm. Monthly campaign meeting, discussing upcoming campaigns and activities. Newcomers very welcome.

Venue: Oxford Town Hall

Tweet

Filed Under: News

Time for a food revolution

30 January 2013 by kate Leave a Comment

If the world produces enough food to feed everybody, how come hundreds of millions of people don’t get enough to eat? Last night’s film screening made it clear that the problem is with food distribution rather than production.

Growing Change is a documentary about Venezuela’s food revolution with an inspiring message. Despite the rainy January weather, nearly 70 people came to the screening, which was organised by Oxford World Development Movement (WDM).

We learnt that Venezuela used to be a victim of its own success; after tapping into enormous oil wealth, it was no longer worth it economically for the country to grow its own food. Instead, it began heavy reliance on imports, an all-too-common phenomenon apparently known as the “Dutch disease”. It happens when countries see food supply in purely economic terms. But reliance on imports makes a country vulnerable to global food shocks.

Global free-market economics isn’t good for small producers either. Cocoa producers told stories of buyers holding off until supplies were piled up and money was low. Then the buyers could turn up and use their stronger position to negotiate a lower price. In the fishing industry, local fishermen couldn’t hope to compete with industrial fishing vessels. When you realise that these industrial trawlers were only using 6% of their catch and throwing the rest back into the water as waste, you start to see that the corporate model isn’t the best way to manage natural resources either.

Then everything changed. A social movement, driven by communities and the government, pushed Venezuela towards “food sovereignty”. That means that control of food supply and distribution is in the hands of the people who grow and eat the food, rather than large corporations.

How? Land reform laws allowed unused land to be claimed and used for agriculture; fishing laws banned the wasteful industrial trawlers so that local fishermen could thrive again; the government changed rules on providing credit to farmers; new state-led systems of food purchasing meant farmers get a fair price for their products. This all happened in tandem with increased unionisation of farming and fishing workers and a move towards more organic, sustainable methods of farming.

Did it work? Well, malnutrition in Venezuela fell from 21% to 6% in a decade. The country has also become completely self-sufficient in the key crops of maize and rice. Workers now get a fairer price for what they grow. And Venezuela still has lots of oil money; it’s just that now they’re spending it on things like improved, accessible healthcare rather than on unnecessarily imported food.

The situation in Venezuela isn’t perfect, but it provides an interesting model for how to think differently about your country’s food supply.

After the film, there was a lively but respectful discussion about how the lessons of Venezuela can be applied here in the UK, specifically here in Oxfordshire. The audience included people from Abundance Oxford, The People’s Supermarket, East Oxford Farmers’ Market, Barracks Lane Community Garden, OxGrow, Cultivate and more. We agreed that we face different issues here, including a “lack of urgency” about food supply and a lack of political will at government level. But there were inspiring stories, including food being grown on a former tennis court! Many are also part of Food Sovereignty Now. This is a UK network of the global food sovereignty movement that includes growers, retailers and suppliers, calling for a food system that respects people and the planet. Nobody was waiting for a helping hand from government, but there was general agreement that we should keep campaigning for change at global, EU and Westminster level. In the meantime, these exciting local projects will continue ploughing their own furrow – and they deserve much more media attention.

 

Kate Griffin, Oxford WDM campaigner

Tweet

Filed Under: News, Press Releases

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 18
  • Go to page 19
  • Go to page 20
  • Go to page 21
  • Go to page 22
  • Go to page 23
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Next meeting

We usually meet on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 19:30, in-person at the Oxford Town Hall and online on Zoom.

There will be no meeting in August.

Write to your MP

Banbury, Victoria Prentis
Henley, John Howell
Oxford East, Anneliese Dodds
Oxford West and Abingdon, Layla Moran
Wantage, David Johnston
Witney, Robert Courts

Or put in your postcode to find your MP

Local Links
  • Fairtrade at St Michael's
  • Farringdon Fairtrade
  • Friends of the Earth Oxford
  • Greenpeace Oxford
  • Oxfam Oxford Group
  • Wallingford: Just Trading
  • Witney Fair Trade
General links
  • Fairtrade Foundation
  • Focus on the Global South
  • Jubilee Debt Campaign
  • Trade Justice Movement

Footer


We’re part of Global Justice Now, a democratic membership organisation which campaigns against inequality and injustice in the global economy. We want to see a world where ordinary people control the resources they need to live a decent life, rather than corporations and the super rich calling the shots.


Join Global Justice Now | Get involved | Get in touch