Local groups news

Global Justice Bradford members have continued their campaign for fossil fuel divestment in the West Yorkshire pension fund. They marked a full year of weekly pickets in December with a bigger event addressed by Naz Shah MP and our own Dan Willis.

In January, Global Justice Brighton and Hove held a meeting framed around the outcomes of COP27 and are now planning some kind of public action on the Energy Charter Treaty with some of the new folks who came along.

Global Justice Sheffield held a meeting, Solving the Debt and Climate Crises Together, and pulled an impressive audience of over 50 people. As a result the group and Sheffield African diaspora have begun a joint project to help their families in eastern Congo to reverse the problem of poverty-driven local deforestation.

After ten months working on the issue, Global Justice Central London have established a (London wide) Justice Congo Group, working on solidarity and support for the DRC, especially in relation to exploitative extractive industries.

Global Justice Cambridge: had a stall at a big community event; were interviewed on Radio Cambridgeshire; had an article on loss and damage in East Anglian Bylines (a citizen journalism project); and raised £154 for Global Justice Now at their annual carol singing event!

Global Justice Portsmouth members led their local COP27 protest, held a stall at the rally and spoke on loss and damage. Sue was also quoted in coverage of the event in Portsmouth News.

Global Justice Nottingham also played a leading role in protests and events in the city to mark COP27, followed by a vigil for the COP15 on biodiversity and a January reportback meeting.

Global Justice Reading screened a great 30 minute film Boomerang: how the legacies of Empire are Breaking Britain (it’s on YouTube). 35 people attended, and had a wide-ranging discussion.

Global Justice Leicester held stalls at a Green Harvest event and an Autumn Fayre, where the loss and damage campaign connected well with the general public. The group also took part in two events run by Climate Action Leicester and Leicestershire, to which they are affiliated. A screening of The Ants and the Grasshopper, about Malawian farmers and climate change, had a good turnout and they were able to make the connection with our campaigns. The group also took part in a one-hour climate change vigil.

Global Justice York managed to both join the climate justice protest in Sheffield and run a successful stall at an event organised by Acomb Churches Together (see photo) on the same day!

Members of Global Justice Bexhill and Hastings got a letter published in the Sussex Express about the Energy Charter Treaty, calling on the two local MPs to oppose it.

Many youth groups had successful local meetups post freshers fairs - some in areas where previously there hadn’t been youth groups, like Essex, Cardiff, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle.

Since forming in September Tyneside Youth Collective have run three campaign stalls and joined the Newcastle climate demo. The Reading Youth group attended the climate justice march in London as a big group (see photo page 9), organised a film screening on campus and have started work on a creative poster and zine project. Glasgow Youth are organising a workshop at Strathclyde University titled System Change not Climate Change. Cardiff Youth held a meeting with Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden.

Global Justice Stirling made it to the front page of the Bridge student newspaper, with an article about Stirling University’s investments being linked to fossil fuels and other harmful companies. They also organised a fundraiser solidarity rave for Just Transition Stirling, a panel on eco-anxiety, and joined striking teachers at the NEU picket lines in Edinburgh! Merseyside Youth and Our Future Now in London both restarted their book groups.

Members of the network in London and Brighton have been working as part of the recently-formed Action Against Detention and Deportations and took part in protests calling for the closure of the notorious Manston Detention Centre in Kent which was facing dangerous overcrowding towards the end of last year. And in mid-January youth network members in Scotland took part in a day-long occupation of a Leonardo UK arms factory in Edinburgh, protesting sales of arms to Israel.

We Rise, at the end of January (postponed from November due to train strikes), was a great success. Over 100 people came to the Manchester event (photos above) and were joined by speakers via video link from across the globe, including prominent Pakistani activist Ammar Ali Jan. Attendees travelled from across the country, including some catching overnight buses back to Scotland!