Jobs, Justice, Climate – Alternatives to the G20 – Book NOW!

In March, we marched in our tens of thousands to demand the G20 Put People First. Far from putting people first we’ve seen nothing but a tinkering around the margins followed by the return to business as usual.

On Nov 7, as the G20 returns to the UK, the agenda on the table nurses an already failed economic model back to life, whilst looking to sew up an international climate deal of unprecedented urgency.

They bailed out the banks to the tune of billions, and now the only choice offered is between what cuts are made to pay for it.

Government intervention to create a Green New Deal is slipping off the agenda, and yet strong alliances are forming – environmentalists and trade unionists have been standing side by side at Vestas to save the UK’s largest wind turbine factory.

• In the run up to Copenhagen, how do we get a global agreement on climate that truly puts climate justice at its heart?
• How do we respond to the jobs crisis and growing poverty around the world
• How do we ensure the global green new deal the world needs?
• How we do we show that cuts are not the only option, and demonstrate what Putting People First really look like?

This counter-conference will bring together academics, activists, campaigners, unions, policy makers and YOU to share ideas on what the alternatives are to cuts, cuts and more cuts, and how we must organise across our issues, of jobs, justice and climate, to make the alternative the reality.

Speakers include:

• Sarah-Jayne Clifton, Friends of the Earth
• Jon Cruddas MP
• Deborah Doane, World Development Movement
• Diane Elson, University of Essex
• Jesse Griffiths, Bretton Woods Project
• Noel Hatch, Compass Youth
• Billy Hayes, CWU
• John Hilary, War on Want
• Catherine Howarth, FairPensions
• Tony Juniper, Princes Rainforests Projects
• Neal Lawson, Compass
• Larry Lohman, The Corner House
• Caroline Lucas MEP
• Poul Nyrup Rasmussen MEP
• Andrew Simms, New Economics Foundation
• Glen Tarman, BOND
• Hilary Wainwright, Red Pepper
• Mel Whitter, UNITE

Book your FREE place now for an inspirational day of discussion and organising and help spread the word:

• Register for the counter conference
• Download the conference agenda (pdf)
• Download the conference flyer
• Join us on Facebook

The conference is supported by: ActionAid, Action for a Global Climate Community, BOND, BrettonWoods Project, Change is Coming, Compass, Ekklesia, Fairtrade Foundation, Friends of the Earth, Global Call to Action Against Poverty, GMB, Helpage International, Jubilee Scotland, Jubilee Debt Campaign, National Union of Teachers, New Economics Foundation, New Internationalist, People and Planet, Progressio, Stop AIDS Campaign, Stop Climate Chaos, Stamp out Poverty, TUC, UNISON, WILPF, World Development, Movement, War on Want, WWF

Friday 4 September 2009, 10am-6pm, Central London

This autumn the G20 is back. On Friday 4 September, the G20 Finance Ministers are meeting in London to discuss the financial crisis, for the first time since April’s G20 summit. So far they’ve flunked the challenge of putting people first in response to the financial crisis, preferring instead to patch up the old system that has led to poverty, inequality and the threat of climate chaos.

Join us in central London this Friday to tell the G20: No More Business As Usual. We’ll be demanding action on jobs, justice and climate, learning more about some of the key institutions behind the crisis, and discussing what’s next for Put People First campaigning.

To register to attend, email events@jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk or phone 020 7324 4722.

Online audio:

If you want to hear the Joint service in Central Hall held before the rally on 28th March, click play on the widget below to listen online on esnips.com

Individual contributions:

• Christine Allen
• Father-Joe-Komakoma
• Rt Revd Dr Richard Chartres
• Revd Joel Edwards

Church and agency leaders joined with 1500 Christians in an ecumenical service that formed part of the “Put People First” event on Saturday. Entitled “Standing for Justice, United in Hope,” the service took place at Central Hall in Westminster.

Keynote speakers were Christine Allen, Executive Director of Progressio; Fr. Joe Komakoma, Secretary General of the Zambia Episcopal Conference; The Rt Revd Dr Richard Chartres, Bishop of London; and the Revd. Joel Edwards, International Director of Micah Challenge and former General Director of the Evangelical Alliance.

Asked to reflect on “the mess we’re in,” Christine Allen began with statistics that showed the global impact of the current financial crisis. An estimated fifty-one million people, she noted, would be made redundant, and the World Bank has suggested that 2.8 million more children may die by 2015 if the crisis persists.

“Lent,” she said, was an appropriate time for an event that sought to respond to this crisis, as it “is a journey of reflection on wrongs, of self-discovery, of turning, turning away form what is wrong and broken towards God.” For “so many people around the world, the system was broken before” the current financial crisis, she added. The crisis offered “an opportunity to think differently and to repent.”

Allen offered three “signposts” for considering a new path: accepting the poor as partners beloved by God, recognising our interconnectedness, and taking on our role as stewards of God’s creation. “Our God is a God of life and love who has a particular concern for the poor,” she said, and “poor people are our partners in the shared task of building a more just world.” Jesus asks us “to see our interconnectedness with and mutual responsibility towards one another . . . to love one another – to put the good of all over our individual wants and to cherish our common humanity.” And he asks us to recall that “the earth is the Lord’s and all within it. . . . When someone who loves us gives us a gift, do we trample on it?”

“Today,” she said, “is a sign and symbol of our desire to heal those broken relationships. We turn, we turn to God.”

Father Joe Komakoma spoke of the Zambian perspective on what was happening. The current crisis, he said, “highlighted to the whole world the scale of global poverty and inequality” Countries like Zambia, he noted, were “hit hardest” at present, as “Whereas rich countries can afford to come up with stimulus packages worth billions of pounds, poor countries have limited opportunities to cope with the current crisis. This is because we from the poor countries are still struggling with providing the basic needs for our people such as food, clean water, sanitation and decent housing.”

In the Copper Belt in Zambia, he explained, 3,000 mineworkers had lost their jobs in the last 3 months. This had in turn led to job losses in other sectors. At the same time, key prices in the cost of living were rising, and the fall in copper exports also meant that government had less revenue to put into the social sectors. The combination hit hard in a country where “more than half of the population is classified as living in abject poverty,” and, for example, 59% of the people already had no access to safe drinking water.

“The situation of entrenched global poverty and injustice now made worse by the current economic crisis is not acceptable,” Komakoma said, “as it goes against God’s vision for humanity. It violates the God-given dignity of human being.” To solve it, “all nations and institutions [need] to put people first” and pursue “right relationships for proper human development.” This needed to be done in a genuine partnership of rich and poor countries: “There should be room for everyone, even including the poor, even at the table of the G20.”

The Bishop of London spoke on the need to respond not only to the financial crisis, but also to the environmental crisis that threatens the planet.

Emphasising the interconnected nature of the world, he commented: “If we take more than our fair share of the Earth’s resources, and if we contribute to climate change, then it is going to be the most vulnerable and poorest people of the world who suffer first.”

“Loving God,” the bishop noted, “is expressed and tested in our love of our neighbour and in an interconnected world the people of Bangladesh are our neighbours.” The bishop also called for justice for future generations, noting that our current lifestyle is mortgaging “our children’s tomorrow to fund our today.”

He continued with a request to Christians to set the context in which political action on climate change was possible. “As the financial turbulence continues with its grievous toll of redundancies and broken dreams in the midst of efforts to re-invigorate the world economy,” he said, “there is obviously a danger that we shall be tempted to put off facing climate change. We can help sympathetic politicians and enlarge their room for manoeuvre by showing that there is a passion for justice among Christians which will not forget poor countries and the poorest people in the world who are the most exposed to the effects of climate change.”

“In particular at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen later this year we must press for agreement on substantial domestic cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gases in an effort to keep global average temperature increases below 2 degrees centigrade. We also need to support the efforts to help poorer countries adapt and develop in a sustainable way.”

The Revd. Joel Edwards took as the basis of his talk one of the stories Jesus tells to encourage his disciples to prayer, the story of the man who knocks at his friend’s door at midnight to request bread for an unexpected guest. (Luke 11:5-10). Several elements of the story particularly resonated, Edwards said. The first was the concept of “midnight,” which can represent the point at which one goes into complete darkness, or the dawn of a new day. “For the first time in human history we have reached the place where we are potentially irreversibly damaging our environment,” he stated, and we face key choices about our present status and potential future.

The concept of binding agreements was also significant. In the Biblical context, Edwards noted, “hospitality is a cardinal virtue,” and agreement on that cardinal virtue underlies the actions of all the people in the story. Edwards pointed out that in the Millennium Development Goals “our world has agreements, which we are in danger of reneging on.” We need, he told those assembled, to “remind our world of an agreement we made to be hospitable and just to everyone on our planet.”

Edwards noted that the “door shut, gone to bed” initial response of the friend would also be familiar to any who had struggled against red tape and other forms of opposition in the search for justice. He closed by emphasising, however, that the whole point of the story was the “power of persistence.” Many of the people in Central Hall had been present for the Jubilee rally in Birmingham and for the Make Poverty History rally in Edinburgh. People of faith were involved “not just for today, but for the long haul.” Christians, he said, were called to be “persistent people for justice.”

The police estimated thirty-five thousand of us marched peacefully through London today. That’s a strong, clear signal, calling for a radical break with the failures of the unfettered free market.

Faith and women’s groups, trade unions, development and climate campaigners were all mixed together on one of the most colourful demonstrations in years. Not even sleet showers and heavy rain put off the thousands who made it the four miles through central London to Hyde Park, to hear the speakers, films and music.

Thanks especially to everyone who covered today’s events on the internet – so people all round the world have a record of what happened in London today. Check our Twitter buzz page, where you’ll find some links to great videos, photos and text reports.

Next week, the Put People First coalition will be working to ensure the G20 leaders know we’re still watching them. Today’s action, and those staged in cities around the world, will have given them food for thought as they start their meeting.

Make sure you get a ring-side seat by following the G20Voice project. 50 expert bloggers, given a high level of access to the G20 Summit, to let you know exactly how well the leaders are getting on towards the action we want to see from them. www.g20voice.org

Media from today: BBC, Guardian, Al Jazeera, Telegraph, Times, Wall St Journal, Le Monde, Huffington Post

Listen to the radio as you go, and call local and national radio shows, asking for Put People First related requests:

“There’s a minibus full of us on the way down to the Put People First G20 march in London, and we’ve been driving since 6am – We’d love to hear ‘What’s going on?’ by Marvin Gaye to get us ready for it”.

Obviously tastefulness is a factor and picking tunes suited to the station you call, but it could be a lot of fun to think up and try on the journey. Have a look at Media UK’s radio stations directory for details on how to contact them.

How about The Beloved’s ‘Come together’, Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’, Dolly Parton’s ‘Working 9 to 5′, or Sister Sledge’s ‘We are family’? Give us your own suggestions in the comments here, and let us know if you get your request on – We’ll be listening out for you!

Berlin and Frankfurt are holding big rallies on 28 March, named “Wir zahlen nicht für eure Krise!” (We’re not paying for your crisis). Organisers in Austria are using the same slogan for a big event in Vienna. Translating that into French, Parisiens will be marching on the same day, under the banner “Nous ne paierons pour leurs crises“. In Madrid, protestors will be declaring “Es hora de cambiar” (it’s time for change). There will also be events happening in Italy, India,  Indonesia and the Philippines. A big Tokyo event is planned for 2 April.

We’re not going to be marching alone on 28 March, but as the G20 leaders are coming to our home turf, the world’s eyes are going to be on what happens in London, and what happens on this demonstration. Make sure you don’t miss it!

1500 GMB members from all over Britain plan to be in London on Saturday, 28th March 2009 to take part in a national demonstration called for by the TUC and a number of other organisations (see note 1) to coincide with the G20 summit taking place in London next week.

The GMB contingent on the march will assemble from 11am Saturday 28th March 2009, at Temple Place, Victoria Embankment, London WC2R 2PP. The march will move off at 12 noon to a rally in Hyde Park from 2pm.

Mary Turner GMB National President will be one of the speakers. GMB members on the march will have flags, banners and placards and will be accompanied by a marching jazz band.

The demonstration is being staged to coincide with the G20 summit taking place is for decent jobs and public services for all; for justice to end global poverty and inequality and to build a green economy to stop climate change. For more information visit www.putpeoplefirst.org.uk

Paul Kenny GMB General Secretary said:

“On 28 March GMB members will join the thousands of people that will march through London to demand decent jobs, a low-carbon world and a fair distribution of wealth. Be one of them.

The economy is in crisis with job losses announced everyday. Public services are under threat as tax-payers foot the bill for stopping the collapse of the banks.

Barack Obama will join other world leaders in London for the G20 summit at the start of April. Some want business as usual, but we need a new start. One that puts people – not top bankers’ bonuses – first.

Even before the crisis, the world suffered poverty and faced the threat of climate change. The G20 must fight recession by making the world fairer and greener.”

Notes to Editors:

Contacts: Steve Kemp: 07730 898 102, Tony Goode: 07917 224 330, Steve Pryle: 07921 289 880 or Rose Conroy: 07974 251 823

GMB members will be available for interview

I’m sure if you are living on less than a dollar a day in one of these ‘happy’ countries you may challenge such claims. However they add to the growing body of evidence that maximising income doesn’t actually make us happier. In fact, it could lead to greater unhappiness as we work longer hours to earn more money, to buy more stuff that we barely need and rarely use – at the same time pushing the world towards environmental disaster.

So?

Here we are in the middle of a global economic crisis. We are also facing the greatest threat that humanity has ever conjured up for itself – climate change. Throw in the fact that on the table at the G20 are mind-boggling sums of money that the UK and US (at least) want to spend on kick-starting global consumption, and we have before us an unprecedented opportunity to recast the way we live.

What are our choices?

We can spend all this money on more cut-throat economics and more carbon-loaded consumption.

Or…

We can put it into a green new deal, investing in making the transition to a low carbon economy and the sustainable use of the earth’s natural resources (instead of relentlessly draining them). And, if we also fix the flaws in the global economic system which currently maintains poverty across the world, then we can create new, better jobs and, yes, more happiness.

Amidst all the doom and gloom, this sounds like a pretty exciting possibility to me.

- Ashok Sinha Director of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition

Or check out our coaches page, as there are still a number of places available on coaches from around the country that would be returning on the same day, so you don’t need to stay over.

Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis will be speaking at the Put People First G20 rally in Hyde Park on Saturday. Here he explains why he and many of his union’s members will be taking part in the march.