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WDM joins World Social Forum day of action
25 January 2008
The World Development Movement spent Friday 25 January supporting the World Social Forum (WSF) day of action with two protests in London. The first protest was against Europe imposing unfair trade deals on developing countries. The second was at the headquarters of E.ON, the power generator which is proposing to build a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent.
The World Social Forum is an annual gathering of the world’s social movements to discuss opposition to corporate-led globalisation, injustice and war. It first took place in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and has happened every year since in different places in the global south. But this year, instead of another huge conference, the organisers called on everyone involved to organise protests and events on or around 26 January, so we can take worldwide action for global justice.
The World Development Movement, War on Want and Friends of the Earth visited the European Commission building in London to present a letter to the head of the EU’s UK office. We were objecting the EU’s new trade strategy, which involves aggressive attempts to open developing country markets to European multinationals through ‘free trade’ agreements. This will be a disaster for sustainable economic development in the global south.
View photos of the Trade event from Flickr
WDM also joined a protest against the proposed new Kingsnorth power station, which will emit more CO2 each year than the whole of Ghana. The UK needs massive investment in renewables in order to reduce its carbon emissions by enough to prevent catastrophic climate change. Building new coal-fired power stations will make this impossible.
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