Campaign blog

It’s been amazing to see the spread of tax justice over the last couple of years.  It’s no longer just organisations like ActionAid and a smattering of MPs leading the charge.  Influential sections of the media have also joined the charge.

Ethical Consumer have been playing a leading role, both covering the issues and giving people the information they need to ask the right questions of corporations.

On 28 September, I’ll be talking about ActionAid’s tax justice campaigning at an event they’re running, alongside Richard Murphy from Tax Research and UK Uncut.  It’s at 4.00 on 28 September at the Human Rights Action Centre.

Even more excitingly, they’ll be launching their own tax justice campaign at the event. 

“The tax justice movement is really gaining momentum, from the introduction of country by country reporting in Norway, to procurement criteria in French local authorities. We hope that this event will inspire more people to take action against those companies avoiding tax and to start to pressure local councils in making positive changes to their procurement procedures here in the UK.”

It’s shaping up to be a brilliant event. Entry is free - hope to see you there! 

This week a proposal on new European legislation (no honestly, it is exciting!) around biofuels was leaked which gave us our clearest indication yet that we are winning the argument on biofuels, as well as indicating good opportunities for progress towards our campaign aims. The proposal includes a 5% cap on biofuels made from food crops and incentives for using waste products (such as cooking oil) which has much greater potential to allow European countries to meet their targets without having to use biofuels with damaging social and climate impacts.

Whilst only a proposal, it gives a good indication of the way the debate in Europe is going. It is a significant win in terms of making such an explicit link to the food versus fuel debate and represents clear admission that the EU 2020 ‘biofuel’ target is fundamentally flawed. The leaked proposal was swiftly followed by the French announcing they would call for a pause in the development of biofuels which compete with food at both international and European level, in a bid to avoid crisis prompted by surging grain prices. And all this this comes on top the growing clamour for action to end or suspend biofuels targets in response to current rising food prices.

Whilst we welcome the direction of the new proposal, it does not yet go far enough - without a total ban on food and land based fuels, millions will still go hungry because food prices will continue to be affected and land will still be grabbed.

Clare Coffey, biofuels policy advisor at ActionAid said: “A law to limit biofuels made from food crops is a very encouraging first step, though largely tokenistic since the limit would be set above current food to fuel levels. As recent events in the US drought-stricken corn-belt show, a mandate to turn food into fuel can destabilise world food prices and worsen world hunger. Crop based biofuels should have no part in EU or UK renewable energy policy”.

We will continue to campaign around the damaging consequences of biofuels targets and call on the EU to bring in legislation that will end them for good and stop all food and land being used to fuel cars.  We will also continue to put pressure on the UK to drop its own controversial biofuel targets, and are hopeful this new legislation, if passed, will allow the UK more space to end its own use of damaging biofuels.

Help us build this pressure by signing our petition calling on the UK and EU to end their support for biofuels.

A guest blog today from Community Campaigner Maddie, who we hooked up with one of our partners in South Africa. She’s spent the summer doing research for her master’s degree and got the opportunity to visit the South African Reflect Network to see some of the work we support on the ground.

In July I had the exciting opportunity to visit a training day for REFLECT practitioners in South Africa. REFLECT is a teaching method that’s used by many of ActionAid’s partners to empower communities and the people we work with.

I spent the day with members of the network as they were training community workers in the REFLECT methods. The day was filled with exercises that helped the community workers construct fun and exciting lesson plans in which they could facilitate, rather than control people’s learning.

What I found so amazing about the day was the people. The community workers were so open, enthusiastic and eager to use what they had learnt in whatever field they worked in across the country. For some this was to help children read and write, and for others to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in their own communities.

I think this approach truly captures learning that can be meaningful and empowering by placing the individual’s needs first. It was really practical and hands-on, and anyone can do it.

I had a great day and really got to better understand what ActionAid’s partners do on the ground.

Maddie is an ActionAid Community Campaigner and has recently been lobbying her MP and campaigning on tax justice.

Reshuffles can be an anxious time, and not just for those Ministers whose own positions are in question. As an organisation fighting the causes and consequences of global poverty we of course know that the position of Secretary of State for International Development is a critical one for determining the UK’s response to the issues and challenges facing the world’s poorest. The combination of the global food crisis and the current economic turmoil presents a unique and challenging environment for any incoming Secretary of State.

Today the Prime Minister announced that the new Secretary of State is Justine Greening, who moves from the Department for Transport. I warmly welcome her appointment to the Department for International Development at what is a critical time for the world’s poor.

At home...

Domestically one of the first tasks she will face is maintaining the Government’s pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of our national income on aid by 2013. This is the culmination of decades of international commitments and we will be asking her to ensure that the Government delivers on its pledge to introduce legislation to enshrine this commitment into law. The new Chief Whip and former International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, is in a good position to help ensure this happens.

...and abroad

On the world stage she will need to maintain the UK’s global leadership role. Countries around the world will be working together to draw up successors to the new set of Millennium Development Goals and the Prime Minister has made clear that women's empowerment must be at the heart of this. This is a defining period for international development and the outcome of these discussions will define the international approach to development for the next twenty years.

As Britain prepares to take on the challenge of chairing the G8, we will encourage Justine Greening to ensure the Government makes sure that there is a proper international focus on the root causes of poverty. This includes issues that ActionAid UK has been campaigning on such as the proper payment of taxes in developing countries by multi-nationals; the stopping of landgrabs and the use of desperately needed arable land to grow biofuels for use as fuel in rich countries.

As a Cabinet Minister who has seen first-hand the crippling effect of poverty on people and communities – she once spent time in Rwanda teaching English – I believe she will bring that experience to bear in her work. I welcome Justine Greening to her new role, and I look forward to working with her!