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Campaigning for justice for the world's poor in Oxfordshire

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Press Releases

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.

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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

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What is poverty anyway?

7 November 2012 by kate Leave a Comment

Global anti-poverty campaigner comes to Oxford: Thursday 13th November

What does it mean to be poor? Before we can fight poverty, we need to understand it. International poverty campaigner Sabina Alkire will be speaking at Oxford Town Hall next week about using multidimensional indicators of poverty to build up a detailed picture and advocate effectively for the world’s poorest people.

Dr Sabina Alkire is director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). She will be speaking at a free event organised by Oxford World Development Movement (WDM).

Sam Partington, chair of Oxford WDM, said: “Sabina Alkire’s research work with Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative is an excellent complement to WDM’s focus on activism and campaigning for a global economic justice, so I’m delighted that this event can bring Sabina’s work to a wider audience.”

“Poverty reduction and global economic justice are two key goals that OPHI and World Development Movement share. This will be a great chance to bring Sabina Alkire’s cutting-edge thinking and research to bear on those aims for which we campaign so hard.”

OPHI is best known for working with the United Nations Development Programme to develop the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), now the standard index for assessing a country’s poverty levels.

The talk will take place on Tuesday 13th November at Oxford Town Hall. 8pm-9:15pm. Entry is free. There will be the opportunity for questions and discussions after the talk.

—-
For more information, interview requests or photographs, contact:

Sam Partington
07754 686168
sam@samsolutions.co.uk

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Oxford campaigners hold food protest at Barclays

16 April 2011 by kate Leave a Comment

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0uwyNJDQXg[/youtube]

Between 11am and 1pm on Saturday 16th April, local campaigners from the anti-poverty campaign group the World Development Movement [1] held protest at the Barclays branch on Cornmarket, Oxford. This was to highlight the role that the bank is playing in creating hunger by pushing up the price of key staple foods, through its reckless speculation on the global food markets. Protests are taking place in a further 22 locations across the UK this month, from Glasgow to Worthing. [2]

Full press release: 2011 4 16 Press release re Barclays and further photos.

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Oxford WDM at the march for the alternative

27 March 2011 by kate Leave a Comment

Oxford WDM member, 
Julieanne Porter, at the march in London

Oxford WDM member Julieanne Porter in front of the ‘WDM Cuts Monster’, at the march in London

Members of Oxford WDM joined the national ‘march for the alternative’ march and rally in London on Saturday 26th March.

WDM members joined the rally against cuts and privatisation, and to show the links between ‘austerity’ in the UK and that which has been imposed on developing countries in the last 20 years. The march aimed to counter the government’s arguments that there are no alternatives to the spending cuts, which will damage public services and put more than a million people out of work.

The government says that the cuts are the only way to get the country back on its feet. However, recent analysis has shown that the cuts will not help the economy to grow, and will hit the poorest members of society the hardest. It will increase the gap between rich and poor.

Oxford group member Julieanne Porter said “WDM has spent years fighting the same neo-liberal policies imposed on the global south that are now being brought to the UK. It’s time to learn the lessons from countries around the world and we joined the march to say no to the cuts”.

Further photos

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Protest against Royal Bank of Scotland in Oxford

24 April 2010 by kate Leave a Comment

Oxford WDM members protest outside the RBS Branch in Oxford

Angry that the part nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland is investing taxpayers’ money in companies linked to human rights abuses and climate change, protesters are taking part in a week of action against the bank. In Oxford, on 24th April at 11am, campaigners from Oxford World Development Movement protested outside the RBS branch in St. Giles to demand that our money stops financing companies involved in devastating activities, such as oil extraction from tar sands.

The campaigners say that RBS is involved in financing tar sands related companies to the tune of $7 billion, since its bail-out by the UK public. Extracting oil from tar sands in Canada has recently come under the spotlight as highly controversial because it violates indigenous peoples’ rights and contributes more to climate change than conventional oil extraction.

A week of action that will see protests across the country around the bank’s AGM on 28 April has been organised by the World Development Movement and student network, People & Planet.

Chris Manley from Oxford World Development Movement said:
“We are calling on the government to force RBS to stop investing taxpayers’ money in tar sands companies because of the devastating impact that it has on indigenous communities and climate change. Since the bail-outs RBS has continued to use our money in highly damaging ways, and this has to stop. Instead our money should be invested in projects that are beneficial to people in the UK and to the poorest people in the world.”

ENDS

Further photos

Notes to editors:

• The RBS AGM is taking place on Wednesday 28 April in Edinburgh; there will be protests across the country including outside the AGM and in London.
• Indigenous people in Canada have been marginalised and discriminated against throughout history. Now because of tar sands projects financed by the publicly-owned Royal Bank of Scotland, their lives are being destroyed.
• Tar sands are found in the ground and consist of oil mixed with sand, clay and water. To get to the oil the sand, clay and water need to be removed using very expensive and energy intensive techniques.
• This makes oil extracted from tar sands the dirtiest energy source and the Cree people’s land in Alberta, Canada, has been poisoned with mercury and arsenic from the mines. They report boils and tumours in the fish and game they rely upon for food, and soaring cancer rates in their towns.
• WDM wants the government to stop RBS using our money to destroy the lives of poor and marginalised people, and instead fund socially useful activities like public services and clean technology.

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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.

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Banbury, Victoria Prentis
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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
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  • Focus on the Global South
  • Jubilee Debt Campaign
  • Trade Justice Movement

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