World Development Movement blog

UPDATE: Bettina has now been released. However, she still faces the charges. We have updated the information below, so please write to the contacts listed below challenging these charges. We have suggested some points you could make.

I have just heard news through friends in Mexico that Bettina Cruz Velázquez, an indigenous Mexican activist who WDM has been campaigning with, has been arrested. The information available suggests that she is the target of unfounded charges and detention as a way to deter her from her campaigning to defend the rights of indigenous people over the interests of multinational corporations. Please read on to find out what has happened, and how you can take action to support Bettina.

Guest post by Jonathan Stevenson, Jubilee Debt Campaign

As Eurozone finance ministers sat down in Brussels to decide on Greece's future, across town a well-timed University of London conference was underway to try to learn lessons from Latin America's own debt crisis in the 1980s and '90s. Eurozone ministers would have done well to attend because what happened in Latin America three decades ago bears a striking resemblance to what is currently taking place in Europe.

If you've ever been to the World Development Movement's offices in South London, you'll know that our walls are covered in posters from various demonstrations, events and social movement struggles around the world. Earlier today I went around the office and photographed five of my favourites.

The Tax Justice Network has launched a new 15 minute monthly podcast service with the latest news, research and analysis of events in tax evasion, tax avoidance and the shadow banking system. TAXCAST producer Naomi Fowler explains why it's so important.

This blog appeared on the Guardian's Poverty Matters blog on 6 February 2012.

Guest post by James Angel, used to be campaigns and policy intern

Remember 2008? After decades of unchecked greed and corruption, the neoliberal house of cards finally toppled over, leaving us with the worst economic crisis since the great depression. The big banks have been gambling with our money for years but, as we all know, the costs of the crisis – the unemployment, the lost homes, the austerity measures – have been borne by us. 

Soon after it got light on Saturday morning, I set off from a tiny chalet, lugging my bags through a blizzard down a snowy track impassable to cars. The bags were heavier than when I’d arrived, because I was carrying an award. The previous day, Barclays – the UK’s biggest food speculator – had declined to show up to the Public Eye Awards to collect its prize for being the world’s worst corporation. Following WDM’s nomination, Barclays was selected by a jury, while the ‘winner’ of a second prize decided by over 90,000 voters was mining giant Vale.