Campaigning for justice for the world's poor in Oxfordshire
If you were inspired by our speaker meeting in March, perhaps you’d like to come to a “regular” meeting of Global Justice Oxford. Newcomers are always welcome and it’s a chance to get to know us in a slightly more relaxed setting.
Where? Oxford Town Hall
When? Tuesday 14th April
Meetings are on the second Tuesday of the month and usually happen at Oxford Town Hall. We always do our best to book a wheelchair-accessible room.
On Saturday 7th March there will be a huge march against climate change taking place in London. There is a coach going from Oxford (picking up in central Oxford and Headington) with seats priced at only £6. At the time of writing there are still seats left.
Global Justice Oxford is relaunching! To celebrate our name change from Oxford WDM, we are holding a relaunch event in Oxford. It’s one of many Global Justice Now relaunches happening all over the country as local groups look forward to campaigning with a new identity. Entry is free and everybody is welcome – you don’t have to be a supporter of our organisation.
Director of Global Justice Now comes to OxfordNick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, is coming to Oxford to speak at our event. If you don’t know much about Global Justice Now – or perhaps you’ve never even heard of us – Nick’s talk will be an accessible introduction to who we are, what we do and why it matters.
To give a bit of context about our campaigns, we’ll be showing three very short but thought-provoking films.
The Long Room at Oxford Town Hall holds up to 50 people. We’d like to get as many people along as possible on the night. Please share this blog post far and wide so people know about our event!
When? Tuesday 10th March, 7:30pm
Where? The Long Room, Oxford Town Hall
Saturday 18th April will be an international day of action against TTIP and other damaging trade deals.
Why should corporations have the right to sue governments for making decisions that damage their profits? Under TTIP, this could be a reality. Cigarette companies suing governments for bringing in plain tobacco packaging, energy companies suing governments for phasing out nuclear power…this kind of thing has already happened under similar trade deals elsewhere.
The global fightback continues with a day of protest, awareness-raising and action on Saturday 18th April. There’s nothing specifically happening in Oxford that we know of, but the interactive map on the Global Justice Now website shows just how many different things are happening all over the world. The site also gives details of what’s happening in central London and Manchester, but they won’t be the only UK protests!
Global Justice Oxford has co-signed a letter to all parliamentary election candidates for the Oxford East and Oxford West & Abingdon constituencies. The letter asks what party policy says about the urgent need to halt carbon emissions to prevent runaway climate change. Here’s what we asked.
To have some chance of keeping future climate change from moving into unknown and possibly catastrophic levels, climate scientists agree that global temperature increase must be restricted to below 2˚ C.[1] Accordingly, at the Copenhagen Conference in 2009, 167 of the world’s governments – representing countries responsible for 87% of carbon emissions and including our own – subscribed to that figure.
To keep within that limit, it is calculated[2] that the world can afford to pump only one trillion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere – that is the total global carbon budget. It doesn’t matter exactly when this is done but the limit must not be exceeded. This in turn means leaving 80% of known fossil fuel reserves in the ground. [3]
On behalf of Low Carbon Headington, Low Carbon South Oxford and Global Justice Oxford, we are writing to all prospective parliamentary candidates to ask the following:
· Does your party accept the need to leave 80% of known fossil fuel reserves in the ground?
· Which of your party’s policies will ensure the rise in global temperatures is restricted to below 2˚C and how will they achieve this level?
· What is your personal commitment to ensuring these limits are adhered to?
On 14 February 2015, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband signed a joint pledge to tackle climate change. Point three of that pledge stated the intention “to accelerate the transition to a competitive, energy-efficient low-carbon economy and to end the use of unabated coal for power generation.” Capping the exploitation of fossil fuels at 20% of known reserves will force that transition to occur. We think it is essential for political parties to work together on this and strongly support the joint pledge. Will your party commit to working towards a cross-party agreement to pursue policies nationally and internationally to cap the exploitation of fossil fuels at 20% of known reserves, in order to ensure global warming is less than 2˚C?
We would be grateful for a reply before March 31st so we can share your response with our members, supporters and local residents.
We’re meeting at 7:30pm tomorrow (Tuesday 10th February) in a wheelchair-accessible room at Oxford Town Hall. As ever, non-members are welcome to come along and learn a little more about us.
