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World Development Movement blog

1 June 2012

I went along to the TUC organised “Grassroots” conference on Saturday 26th May at Congress House, Great Russell Street, just off the Tottenham Court Road. The wonderfully sunny weather set the positive mood for the conference: on arrival, conference attendees were not only treated to an array of stalls from a number of progressive organisations and campaigning groups, but the particularly impressive “Save our Placards” exhibition organised by students of Goldsmiths University. 

29 May 2012

The Rio+20 conference on sustainable development taking place at the end of June 2012 bills itself as an opportunity for people to come together to "shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection". Sounds great, but here at the World Development Movement we're a bit sceptical about some of these claims (to say the least). I suspect some of you are too. 

29 May 2012

Guest post by Lucy Hurn, south west London group

South west London group member Lucy Hurn has been ‘doing the alphabet the hard way’ to raise vital funds for WDM. With B out the way Lucy tells us how she got on with C.

23 May 2012

On Monday I went to an event organised by the UK parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee, on the Rio+20 Earth Summit. Held at St-Martin-in-the-Fields church in London, it was advertised as a public debate bringing together MPs, faith groups and civil society. 

22 May 2012

Guest post by Tim Jones, Jubilee Debt Campaign

Debt payments by the most impoverished countries are set to rise over coming years as part of the fallout from the global financial crisis. The new report from Jubilee Debt Campaign, The state of debt, shows how this threatens to extend the 30-year pattern of debt crises across the globe, from the Mexican debt crisis of 1982 to the Eurozone crisis today.

16 May 2012

Last week’s Queen’s Speech saw a glaring omission – the failure to include a key coalition promise to enshrine into law the commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of our gross national income on development aid. 

15 May 2012

At the recent Barclays AGM, World Development Movement campaigners dressed up as evil Barclays eagles to highlight the bank's role in speculating on food prices. This inspired our favourite cartoonist, Ben Jennings, to take the eagle to new heights. 

10 May 2012

Author Tim Gee will be speaking at our Scottish campaigner convention on the 19th May. Here he talks to WDM Scotland about his new book on the history of social movements across the globe - Counterpower: Making Change Happen - and how history has shaped his own global justice campaigning.

9 May 2012

Guest post by Lucy Hurn, south west London group

Last week Lucy from our south west London group kicked off her fundraising challenge with a difference: doing the alphabet the hard way. Here she explains.

I blame the WDM London groups Christmas social! For some reason, no doubt spurred on by beer, a few of us started talking about doing the Berlin marathon. Having found that was already booked up, our plan changed to Amsterdam. Which begins with an ‘A’. And that’s where it all started…

8 May 2012

Among the many participants at Corporate Europe Observatory’s EU in Crisis conference this weekend were a host of WDM allies – people we’ve campaigned with against water privatisation, on climate justice and on debt cancellation. This time they were coming together with other organisation and movement representatives to debate the Eurozone crisis and organise against the dead hand of austerity and corporate capture which is gripping the continent.

1 May 2012

Last week we reported how developed countries, with the UK as one of the worst offenders, were attempting to remove the remit of UNCTAD to work on economic development issues – including food speculation.

But action by campaigners and developing countries has prevented this, as the statement below, published by global justice groups at the end of last week’s conference, explains:


Final Statement of Civil Society on the Outcome of UNCTAD XIII 

April 26, 2012

1 May 2012

Shareholders attending the Barclays AGM in London on Friday were greeted by the World Development Movement’s two ‘evil eagle’ bankers on Barclays bikes as they entered the meeting, and our chants of ‘one two three four, Bank on hunger no more!’, and ‘speculation means starvation, what we need is regulation!’. Catchy, huh?

26 April 2012

It’s been the hot topic of conversation in the WDM office for last few weeks - the Barcalys AGM. In preparation for the big day tomorrow we held a photo stunt at Barclays HQ to hand in the Public Eye 'shame award' that Barclays won earlier this year for its role in food speculation. 

23 April 2012

The World Development Movement's food and finance campaigner Christine Haigh reports on attempts by rich countries to silence the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the UN body providing an alternative perspective on the global economy.

17 April 2012

Yesterday I went to the launch of ‘Greenwash Gold’: the campaign against Olympics corporate sponsors: Rio Tinto, Dow Chemical and BP. Although there are other controversial sponsors of the games such as Coca Cola and McDonalds, the coalition of groups running the campaign have chosen to focus on these three companies.

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