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Climate change, capitalism and citizen power were just a few of the things discussed at last night’s Global Justice Oxford relaunch. Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, travelled from London to help us celebrate.

Why the relaunch? We used to be known as WDM (World Development Movement) but in recent years it’s become clear that the meaning of the word “development” has changed to the point where it actually describes the kind of approach we’re fighting against.

So WDM polled members around the country, consulted all the local groups (like ours) which form such an important part of the organisation, then took a democratic decision to change the organisation’s name to Global Justice Now in January 2015. Local groups have renamed themselves on the same pattern and have been holding relaunch events up and down the country to celebrate the change.

It was cheering to see a healthy turnout for our event – surely they weren’t all motivated by the delicious cake on offer! – and so much engagement with the issues. We talked about corporate takeover of global resources, alternative models for energy generation, higher education, the Greek economy and more.

We showed three films to give some context about our campaigns. If you missed the event, you can watch the (short) fims on YouTube..

How our banks finance climate change (4mins)

The story we’re told is that there’s no money to fight climate change… but apparently there’s plenty of money spare for causing climate change?

Naomi Klein Says Climate Activists Need to Get Comfortable Attacking Capitalism (8 mins)

Interview with the author and activist, whose Oxford book launch sold out the Sheldonian Theatre last autumn.

IBEKA, micro hydro power in Indonesia

Energy doesn’t have to be corporate-owned, environmentally damaging and expensive. The IBEKA story presents a positive alternative to the “Big Energy” model.

A consistent theme in everything we talked about was the idea of challenging the narrative: not accepting the stories we’re told about how the world does and should work, but coming up with our own stories. One great example is the dreaded Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (better known as TTIP) which might have been accepted as a broadly positive trade deal if there hadn’t been such a well-orchestrated campaign against it. Global Justice Now has been working in collaboration with other organisations to expose the truth of TTIP at national and European level; meanwhile, at a local level, several of the campaigners from Global Justice Oxford have been working with Oxfordshire campaigners from other groups such as 38 Degrees.

We had to bring the fruitful discussion to an end when time ran out, but we hope to see some of the people who came last night at our next “regular” meeting on Tuesday 14th April.