The latest from WDM

Food campaign news

DZ Bank switches sides

The food speculation campaign in Germany: why we can't do without it

The EU passes regulation to protect bees – will it be so considerate towards people?

World Development Movement blog

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Report back from the World Social Forum 2013, Tunis

Kirsty Wright

30 March 2013

I have spent this week at the World Social Forum in Tunis. It’s been a slightly chaotic week of overrunning schedules, last minute room changes and broken translated equipment, but in spite of some frustrations, it is undeniably an incredible feat of organisation.

Run by a group of activists, with no office or paid staff, the World Social Forum has still succeeded in brining together thousands of activists – some reports say as many as 70,000 – together from around the world to discuss where we’re at in the quest for real solutions to the poverty, inequality and injustice we see in the world today.

Celebrate World Water Day by being part of something big

Christine Haigh

22 March 2013

Today is the twentieth World Water Day. While over a billion people still lack access to sufficient safe clean drinking water, there’s an opportunity now to help change this.

Bankers Anonymous: Step three

Heidi Chow

20 March 2013

Last month we launched Bankers Anonymous – a five step recovery programme to help bankers quit their addiction to gambling on food. So far we've asked people to take two steps: to write to their MP and to spread the word on twitter and Facebook. Now it's time for step three.

WDM joins Black Activists Rising Against Cuts with the launch of MLK 50

Effie Jordan

15 March 2013

This week I was proud to represent WDM at the launch of MLK50 at the House of Commons. MLK50 is an initiative in response to the cuts to, and privatisation of, our public services that has been driven by the neoliberal ideology of the Con-Dem government.

Africa: Growing concerns

Admin

11 March 2013

Economic growth rates in many African countries have soared in recent years. But real development is still sorely lacking argues Rick Rowden in this guest post for our blog

What a racket

Ralph Allen

1 March 2013

Argentina has been battling vulture funds for over a decade from profiteering from its 2001 debt crisis. Jubilee Debt Campaign demonstrated to draw attention to a New York court case which will determine the outcome of an appeal against a $1.3 billion judgement for vulture fund NML Capital.

RBS: Stop defrauding us, manipulating us, lying to us and trashing our climate

Paul Daly

28 February 2013

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) reported a £5.2 billion loss as it announced its annual results today The bank’s boss Stephen Hester is four years into his original five-year plan to bring RBS back on track – yet things don’t seem to be getting much better for the publicly owned bank. RBS blames a year of heavy fines. But let’s just remind ourselves of what these fines were:

PPI: The bank knowingly mis-sold its customers insurance which they neither needed nor could use, over a period of years. Fine: £2.2 billion

Why banks can't be trusted on food speculation

Heidi Chow

26 February 2013

Deutsche Bank is one of the world’s leading players in food speculation. In public it denies that excessive speculation is one of the key drivers of recent food price spikes, but in private it has known it for years. Yesterday, German NGO Foodwatch pointed to Deutsche documents showing that the bank is fully aware of the impacts of excessive speculation on food prices and global hunger.

Growing the food movement in south west England

Dan Iles

22 February 2013

The latest developments of the food sovereignty movement in the UK.

Diverting aid to military spending ignores the link between poverty and conflict

Deborah Doane

21 February 2013

Cameron’s announcement today that some of the aid budget should be diverted to peace-keeping should come as no surprise. After the multi-lateral aid review was completed two years ago, the direction was written on the wall, as the World Development Movement pointed out at the time.

Life and debt in Thessaloniki

James O'Nions

19 February 2013

Yesterday was the end of a European conference against debt and austerity being held in Thessaloniki, Greece. The conference was organised by the recently established International Citizen Debt Audit Network (ICAN), which advocates public audits of national debt to determine what is illegitimate and shouldn't be paid - a model used successfully in Ecuador to achieve a measure of social justice.

Bankers Anonymous

Heidi Chow

18 February 2013

“There are absolutely thousands of undiagnosed gambling addicts in the City. The difference is that the odds are slightly more in your favour than if you’re gambling in a Ladbrokes, and so there are many more people who can be successful gambling addicts.” An unnamed trader quoted in the Guardian

Campaign success: Barclays pulls out of food speculation

Heidi Chow

13 February 2013

Along with its annual results yesterday, Barclays revealed its new strategic plan to haul the bank from the pits of public disdain. As part of its new direction, Barclays – the UK’s leading commodities speculator - announced it is pulling out of food speculation. After three years of public campaigning and calling on the bank to stop betting on hunger, this is very exciting news!

A new year's revolution

Sam Sender

5 February 2013

At 11.34am on Tuesday 22 January, more than 260,000 of us who had campaigned for a radical Robin Hood tax had big news: we had won.

Even the EU head of tax admitted that we made "tax history". I think that's a bit like making history, but with more paperwork and probably less fun. To be honest, I don't know: as far as I'm aware I've done no "making history" to compare it to. There was that time I made a lego statue for my grandma and she said I'd truly made history, but I think she was just being nice.

Time for a food revolution

Guest

31 January 2013

A guest blog by Kate Griffin from Oxford WDM.

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.