Global Justice Now Reading

On 11^th June, Achame Shana representing Africa, pushed off the corporates like Unilever, Monsanto and Diageo who are trying to take over African land, seeds and agriculture. They are being helped to do this with hundred’s of millions of pounds of our taxpayers’ money through a scheme called ‘The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.’

Everyone who attended the meeting was shocked to hear that this is the way the UK is spending our Aid budget rather than supporting the African farmers who produce 70% of the countries food.

Concerned about the outcome of the TTIP trade talks between the European Union and the U.S.A, we staged a tug of war between Corporate Power and Citizens Rights. Passers-by joined in enthusiastically so the local citizens won convincingly! We asked passers-by to sign cards asking their MPs to demand full transparency on the TTIP negotiations and to protect democracy, public services and the environment by opposing this aggressive new trade deal.

New corporate trade deals threaten to increase global inequality, undermine democracy and hand public service provision to multinational companies. Corporations will be able to sue governments if their profits are threatened, with no such ability available to countries.

This is a key time to ask MEP candidates to show their commitment to trade justice by supporting the Alternative Trade Mandate by signing the: Take back the power pledge

Kate Byron of Trade Justice Movement and Alex Scrivener of WDM will update us on these issues.

Wednesday 30 April 7.30pm

On 7th December Jackie Oversby spoke to the Soroptimist International Regional Meeting about our Carbon Capital campaign.

On 9th November, members of the group protested outside HSBC, Reading as HSBC is the largest bank investing in fossil fuels.  For example, between 2010 and 2012 it underwrote share and bond issues worth ￡75 billion to fossil fuel companies, including funding for the Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia, which Jazmin Romero told us about at our last meeting.

The group called on HSBC to divest from all its coal investments: Burning coal gives off more carbon emissions than any other fuel and contributes massively to Global Warming; coal mining has devastating impacts on local people and the environment.

Friday 25 October

Jazmin Romero Epiayu, from the Wayuu indigenous people of Colombia, inspired everyone at the meeting, by the strength of her character and her determination to work peacefully for the rights of her people and their ancestral territory, even though she knows she is putting her life at risk by doing this. Her people have lived in the area for thousands of years but, she said, ‘it seems as if the coal company is trying to exterminate us’. She continued, ‘The indigenous peoples of Colombia and Latin America are fighting for the freedom and the respect of Mother Earth. No more mining. No more exploitation. We demand that our ancestral territories remain ours. Our people are defiant and courageous. For ever.’

The mine, already the largest open-cast mine in Latin America, has swallowed whole Wayuu villages, displaced people, and polluted land, air and water. At the beginning of October, Jazmin and over 2,000 other indigenous people from Colombia who are trying to stop the expansion of the mine, blockaded the railway which takes coal from the mine to the port, and kept it closed for a week. Cerrejón is owned by three UK-listed mining companies, including BHP Billiton whose AGM Jasmin will attend. The companies receive money from HSBC, Barclays, RBS and Lloyds.

The Reading group are joining in WDM’s campaign to stop UK banks pouring billions of pounds into fossil fuels.

‘Next Action Saturday 9th November. ‘