Local groups news

Global Justice Dundee, our newest group, have been getting stuck into the campaign against the Energy Charter Treaty. They’ve had a letter in the local paper, lobbied Chris Law MP (SNP, Dundee) and Wendy Chamberlain MP (Lib Dem, NE Fife) and are now turning their attentions to other MPs and MSPs in their area.

Global Justice South East London held their annual stall at the Nunhead Cemetery Open Day, petitioning on the big pharma raid on NHS funding, even meeting one of the NHS negotiators who is trying to fend off the grasping hands of Pfizer et al. They held a fascinating meeting with Julie Kosgei when she was in London for the Resisting Monopoly Capitalism conference in March.

Global Justice Bradford’s relentless picketing of the West Yorkshire Pensions Fund’s office is making advances. We know the pension fund investment panel held an online meeting with a new York public sector pension fund on divestment. There seems to be an increase in the number of picketers of late as well!

Global Justice York organised a very successful walking tour of the financial sector of Leeds targeting the legal firms embroiled in corporate courts. They attracted people from all over Yorkshire and had more than 30 people on the walk despite the rain.

Global Justice Sheffield took part in the Chesterfield May Day Gala on 1 May, carrying their banner in the march through Chesterfield town centre, and later holding a stall. They also had a public meeting in the annual Sheffield Festival of Debate, entitled Global Debt and Climate Justice: Growing the Movement, with a panel of three black women speakers, who all made valuable contributions, particularly regarding working in a coalition with others.

Global Justice Nottingham are focussed on a joint campaign with Nottingham Friends of the Earth on Corporate Justice Law and the Energy Charter Treaty.

Global Justice Macclesfield joined the local May Day march, were part of the Macclesfield mobilisation to The Big One in London, are supporting the campaign to Save Danes Moss (local peat bog) and met with David Rutley MP (Conservative, Macclesfield) to discuss the ECT. Next up is Macclesfield Green Fest on 11 June.

Global Justice Richmond and Kingston met with Kingston and Surbiton MP Ed Davey, leader of the Lib Dems, and had a productive conversation about the Energy Charter Treaty. We await the policy announcement!

Global Justice Herts and Beds focussed on the ECT and other trade deals for stalls at Green Party events and spring fairs.

Global Justice Reading screened a video of a recent debate How to Save the Planet: Degrowth vs Green Growth, featuring Jason Hickel and moderated by Kate Raworth, holding their own discussion afterwards. The group also ran a stall at the Beanpole Festival – a gardening event.

It’s been a busy few months for Global Justice Youth. Following our We Rise event in Manchester in January, Manchester Youth have involved lots of new people and have become more plugged into wider youth climate activism in Manchester. They put on a film screening on the Stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) campaign and organised around 30 youth activists to come to the April XR protests in London (The Big One) running workshops from the Global Justice Now tent space at the protest.

The Big One was also a great opportunity for youth network groups across the country to meet up. We had a social in the Global Justice Now office attended by around 80 people(!), with great music, poetry, arts and food.

Merseyside Youth have started a campaign to demand that the Liverpool LGBTQ pride march drops Barclays as a corporate sponsor, because of their funding of the fossil fuel industry. They have successfully organised a meeting with the board of Pride in Liverpool and look forward to next steps.

The network has also organised workshops on corporate courts and climate justice in various parts of the country, including in Essex, Leeds and Cardiff. Leeds Youth are now working with Student Rebellion, a group of students who are demanding their university cut all ties with the fossil fuel industry – we will support them with trainings and workshops and hopefully build our Global Justice Youth presence in Leeds.

In April we held a Scotland youth gathering (also attended by activists from Newcastle). Edinburgh Youth started work on a book club and a walking tour on the theme of colonialism and capitalism. Global Justice Stirling organised educational sessions on the Kurdish struggle and held a Ceilidh to raise funds for the Kurdish

Red Crescent. They put on a photography exhibition and speaker event about migrant justice and held a Collective Rave to raise funds for Collective Aid Calais. They organised and actively participated in regional Climate Strikes and People’s Assemblies. They’ve been making progress on their university fossil fuel divestment campaign and also supported UCU at the picket line, co-organised panel discussions on decolonising education and campaigned to reduce food prices on campus.

We’ve also led successful media trainings in both Scotland and London, which have already led to some people in the youth network doing great news interviews. Plus we’ve started working on a podcast project about trade and colonialism: we have had lots of interest from all over the country and over the summer youth network members will be starting research.