[OccupySheffield] WDM Sheffield E-news July 2012

[WDM sheffield]

WDM IN SHEFFIELD E-NEWS – JULY 2012
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*Hi everyone, especially those who we have met recently at Jamaica Heritage
day, Peace in the Park, the food sovereignty talk or the Green Fair. Incase
you have forgotten, WDM (World development movement) is a campaigning
organisation for justice for the world's poor and people before profit, you
can find out more about us on the website below. Hope to see you somewhere
soon.*
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*Website:  www.wdm.org.uk/sheffield*
*Phone:  07800 666553 *
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*Warning:*
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*There is NO CAMPAIGNING MEETING ON THURSDAY 5TH JULY, as the AGM and food
sovereignty talk on Thursday 28th June replaced it and **there will be NO
CAMPAIGN MEETING IN AUGUST. **So our next Thursday meeting is on Thursday
6th Sept. The pub meetings are happening as usual, see below.*
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*MEETINGS*

*Mon. 9th July, **Pub Meeting* <http://wp.me/PPV0V-2Z>*, *8-10pm at the Red
Deer, Pitt Street (off Mappin Street, off West Street).  Another chance to
meet up, talk about campaigning issues, share ideas and make plans, along
with a pint or a coffee.  An especially warm welcome to newcomers,
including the very many people who have been showing such interest at our
recent summer festival stalls.  Hope you can drop in.
*Mon 13th August, **Pub Meeting* <http://wp.me/PPV0V-2Z>*, *8-10pm at the
Red Deer.

*Thurs. 6th Sept., **Campaigning meeting**, *7–9pm at Central United
Reformed Church.  Including finalising plans for our involvement in the
food conference at the annual Sheffield Food Festival (see Events Organised
by Other Groups, below) and for the autumn campaigning season in general.

*WDM STALLS AT OTHER EVENTS*

*Sun. 8th July**, Abbeyfield Park,* 1–6pm, (Pitsmoor, between the south end
of Abbeyfield Road and where Burngreave Road becomes Barnsley Road).

Mon. *6th* Aug., Jamaica's 50th Independence Day Parade, SADACCA, The
Wicker.  (Date-error typo in the May E-news now corrected).  See next
section for more details.

*Offers of stall help, please, to Oliver at <o.blensdorf at virgin.net>
or 0114-265
5896.*

*EVENTS ORGANISED BY OTHER GROUPS*
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 Wed. 4th July, 7pm, Sheffield Equality Group meeting - Sheffield Quaker
Meeting House, St James Street (just up from the Cathedral).  Discussion on
actions to highlight income inequality in Sheffield, bring your bestest/
most brilliant/ wildest ideas! Sheffield Equality Group meets on the first
Wed. of every month, all welcome.  http://sheffieldequality.wordpress.com/
and http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=160354332203

Thurs. 5th July, Fixing Our Broken Economy - 7:30pm, Sheffield Quaker
Meeting House.  Talk and discussion around how our debt-based money system
is the root cause of many of our economic problems, and explains the
Positive Money proposals to reform and democratise our money supply.
http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/2012/06/fixing-our-broken-economy-talk-sheffield-thu-5-july/

Sat. 14 Jul 2012, Rally for our Future - from 11.30am, Devonshire Green -
marching to Barkers Pool for 12 midday.  Rally to defend education, public
services, pensions, pay and jobs. Called by the NUT and NASUWT unions,
supported by various unions, trades councils & Shef. Anti-Cuts Alliance.
http://alt-sheff.org/events/2130/
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*Jamaica's 50th year of Independence celebrations, events organised by Jamaica
Society Sheffield:*
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Fri. 6th July, Cultural Extravaganza, 7.00pm, SADACCA, The Wicker,
Sheffield.

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*Sat. 4th Aug., Joint Independence Social with SADACCA, 10pm., SADACCA:
 dinner and dance.*

Sun. 5th Aug., Independence Church Services, 3pm., Sheffield City
Cathedral, Church Street.   Everyone is invited to return to SADACCA for
light refreshments.

Mon. 6th Aug., Independence Day Celebrations, with Parade and Flag Raising
Ceremony, 11am. till late, SADACCA.   *Jamaica became an independent nation
on 6th August 1962.*

The parade, led by Sheffield's crowned Miss Jamaican, will include a float
and will leave SADACCA at 11.00am.. At the City Hall, there will be a flag
raising ceremony for the Jamaican flag.  The parade will then make its way
back to SADACCA for further celebrations.  Food and drink will be
available.  The celebrations will go on into the night.

*Fri. 14th to Sun. 16th Sept., Sheffield Food Festival.   **WDM Sheffield
is hoping to be involved.*  And Transition Sheffield is negotiating to plan
*a Food Conference, which WDM may become involved in*, as one of the
weekend's events.   Further info at the bottom of this webpage
http://groups.wdm.org.uk/sheffield/past-events-and-photos/food-sovereignty-information/

*ACTIONS*
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Food speculation: follow the real George Osborne at
http://therealgeorgeosborne.com/  and take the email action.   Financial
speculation is pushing up food prices and causing hunger and poverty around
the world. George Osborne can act to prevent this. Email him now.
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ACTIONS AND EVENTS FEEDBACK

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Food Sovereignty public meeting, "Food Sovereignty: Just Food… as if people
and planet mattered", held on Thurs. 28th June at Central United Reformed
Church, Sheffield, with excellent speaker Patrick Mulvany of Practical
Action.  This was a very enjoyable and well attended meeting, with many of
the key local food campaigners coming, and all of these and all the WDM
members from whom we have had feedback so far have indicated that they were
very impressed and energised by what Patrick had to say.

To quote from our thank-you letter to him: "… your inspiring talk… gave us
a clear picture of some of the very worrying features of the present
system, but also some hope that already there are good and exciting things
happening,  and that we can be part of this movement to lead to real food
sovereignty for all.  Thank you for your skill in blending humour and
video, figures and anecdote, and for making the whole subject so
interesting".
Follow-up emails so far from some of those attending from other local
campaign groups have included:  "For me, what 'Food Sovereignty' and
Patrick's address for the local WDM has done is… [to] provide a language
and underlying narrative to talk meaningfully about all these issues, and
to challenge the business and technology led status quo. This narrative
could bring us together in Sheffield to further stimulate implementing the
type of local solutions required, as well as challenging the local
establishment, private and public".

And that comment drew the reply:  "I agree wholeheartedly with what you
took from the WDM meeting - it crystallised out for me in the same way -
let's build a Sheffield network around food sovereignty!".

So, as WDM continues to put pressure on UK ministers and on EU politicians
and planners to restore proper financial regulation to put an end to the
speculation on global food prices which has been and still is creating
price-rises which impoverish poor people in all countries, and price
crashes which impoverish food-exporting countries in the global South, our
public meeting has helped to energise those who are making local
connections with WDM's global campaigns.  (And see Events Organised by
Other Groups, regarding the planned food conference in September).  WDM's
own very good Food Sovereignty briefing is at:
www.wdm.org.uk/sites/default/files/Food%20sovereignty%20briefing_10.11_0.pdf

Patrick Mulvany has kindly sent us the slides which he used (which are now
up on our website: see top of this e-news), and also the references and
other materials he used and/or recommended.  We will be arranging to make
these available as well, along with the MP3 sound recording that we made of
the evening.  Enquiries welcomed.


UN's Rio+20 Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20–22 June.
 Nothing was decided. The bad news is that it was a disappointing damp
squib for us, and also that the corporations did have a malevolent
influence at the summit, with 37 financial sector companies clubbing
together to sign a Natural Capital Declaration calling for a price to be
put on nature. Another communiqué signed by a number of multinationals
including Coca Cola and Nestle called for a ‘fair’ price to be put on
water, potentially pricing millions out of access to clean water.

Far more worrying than the main summit was the attempt by the UK and the
World Bank to push through its agenda of privatising nature on the
sidelines of the conference. Nick Clegg made a speech to the Natural
Capital Summit on this plan, during which he got a surprise from Sarah, our
climate campaigner, who interrupted him wearing a Clegg mask to denounce
the UK’s support for putting a price tag on nature.

The good news is that it was also a disappointing damp squib for
corporations and rich-country governments.  Thanks to the efforts of the
developing countries of the G77 in the run up to the event, the very worst
was avoided. The final declaration did not contain any overt references to
valuing ‘natural capital’, which we believe would be a key step on the way
to the total commodification of nature and its domination by the financial
sector. The document also reaffirms the hard-won rights to food and water
as well as the principles of equity and ‘common but differentiated
responsibility’ which is the recognition that rich countries bear a greater
responsibility to fight environmental degradation than poor countries in
the global south.




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