Don't miss WDM at 6 Billion Ways

With only a week to go until 6 Billion Ways, we are busy getting the final preparations ready and there is a definite buzz of excitement among WDM supporters and staff.

There’s a huge range of workshops, debates, films and event art, but some will be of particular interest to those engaged in our campaigns.

Kirsty Wright, WDM’s climate justice campaigns officer, will be chairing a session on climate justice with top-line international speakers.  Lidy Nacpil from Jubilee South in the Philippines, Ricardo Navarro from CESTA in El Salvador and Larry Lohmann will be looking at ‘climate debt’, false solutions such as carbon trading, and how climate change is an economic justice issue.

One of the highlights of the day will be a panel discussion about reclaiming the global food system. WDM director Deborah Doane will join Arthur Potts Dawson from the grocery co-op The People’s Supermarket (recently featured in a series on Channel 4) and Kirtana Chandrasekaran from Friends of the Earth International in examining the problems caused by the globalised food system and how we can democratise it.

WDM supporters might also be interested in sessions on the origins and impact of the financial crisis; whether the anti-poverty movement needs a more radical vision of the global economy; and the extent to which Latin American countries have managed move away from neoliberalism in the last decade.

Our website officer Pontus Westerberg has been taking the lead on organising a citizen journalism project. We’ll be setting up a media centre with laptops and internet so people can take part using social media tools– blogging, photography and video production – to report for the 6billionways.org.uk website. Drop by the building to find out more.

And finally, don’t forget to pop by the WDM stall in the mezzanine at Rich Mix to pick up brand new WDM badges and bookmarks, and a a new briefing links the UK cuts to free market policies imposed on the global south.

If you’re feeling inspired and still buzzing after Saturday (which you’re bound to be given the exciting line-up), I’m helping to facilitate an ‘open space’ afternoon themed ‘building the movement for global justice’ on Sunday. This will be a space for reflecting on the discussions and themes of 6 Billion Ways and sharing ideas and skills for moving forward.

With so many interesting and high quality speakers and events, 6 Billion Ways is sure to be a highlight of the year for WDM. Don’t miss it!