Development

E mail Action. We have an opportunity at the Westminster Parliament to further one of the core aims of the Fairtrade Schoolwear Campaign, raising awareness of issues in the supply of cotton.  Early Day Motion 1284  "Human Rights and the Cotton Production Industry in Uzbekistan" refers to the hundreds of thousands of children forced to pick cotton in Uzbekistan. We need people to ask their MPs to sign the EDM. If enough sign, it could lead to a debate. Details of the EDM here. There is also information on the Environmental Justice Foundation website.  Only five Scottish MPs have signed the EDM so far:

    

UK government ministers are planning to use cancellation of a made-up debt to help meet their overseas aid target. Sudan currently 'owes' £678 million ($1bn) to the UK, and might qualify for debt cancellation in the next few years according to the Jubilee Debt Campaign.   Read More...

Monday 14th November marked the 10th Anniversary of the launch of the Doha Development Round of negotiations at the World Trade Organisation. Ten years on and the world's poorest countries are still demanding justice from this 'soap opera' - as recently described by a representative from the African Group of States. Ahead of the next WTO ministerial in December,  take a moment to sign the petition to US Ambassador Louis Susman calling on him to end these damaging subsidies   Read More...

At the November G20 meeting, a growing group of G20 countries from South Africa to Brazil backed the Robin Hood Tax, and the link between the Robin Hood Tax and fighting poverty and climate change became clearer than ever. Momentum is building and leaves leaders like David Cameron who opposed the tax looking increasingly isolated having sided not with the 99% suffering the effects of the economic crisis, but the interests of a privileged few in the financial sector.   Read More...

Commenting on the failure of the G20 to do anything to bring in a global system to deal with debt crises, Tim Jones, Policy Officer at Jubilee Debt Campaign said: "It is incredible that the in the midst of another global debt crisis, the most powerful countries are still failing to regulate irresponsible lenders."  Jones continued: "An orderly system is needed to cancel unjust debts, neutral of both creditors and debtors. Yet the G20 seem happy to continue with the debt debacle currently being played out in Europe, as has been seen across the world for the last thirty years."   Read More...

Newly uncovered documents by Jubilee Debt Campaign reveal that Vince Cable’s Department for Business is still demanding money from the Egyptian government in payment for loans made to General Mubarak to allow him to buy arms.  Egypt owes £100 million to the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), nicknamed ‘the Department for Dodgy Deals’ because of its support for arms, aviation and fossil fuels.   Read More...

Jubilee Debt Campaign: Comedian and activist Mark Thomas narrates their new short film explaining how Britain’s Dodgy Deals continue to result in unjust debt around the world. These debts have arisen from supporting deals with dictators, arms exports, and projects which have harmed people’s human rights and environment.    Read More...

Graeme Morrice, MP for Livingston, has tabled Early Day Motion 2205 calling on parliament to support the aims of debt week and push for the cancellation of unfair and unpayable debts owed to the UK. Please email, write or visit your MP asking them to sign this motion. You can view the motion here.   

People in Europe are experiencing what those in the global South have known for generations: the power of debt to dictate the course of people’s lives.  Millions of people are living in extreme poverty while governments use our money to bail out a financial system that is making the world more unequal. From 8-16 October 2011 Jubilee groups around the world will take part for a week of action against debt and the international financial institutions.   Read More...

A recent survey shows that 81% of Scottish people polled were aware of Fair Trade products, above the UK average of 77% who are aware of the Fairtrade Mark. Read more from a recent survey by the Scottish Fair Trade Forum online   Read More...

Excellent defence of fair trade by Margaret McGowan of Motherwell J&P and by Martin Rhodes, Director, Scottish Fair Trade Forum in recent editions of the Herald   

Call on governments to save millions of lives in the Horn of Africa
Parts of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia are facing one of the worst droughts for 60 years, and nearly 12 million people are desperately in need of food, clean water and basic sanitation. Despite the urgency of the situation, most world leaders are responding too slowly. Immediate aid is essential. Yet at the same time we must not let them drop the ball on long term solutions as has too often happened in the past.   Read More...

Channel 4 recently screened a Dispatches documentary, The Real Price of Gold. You can watch again online and see some of the issues with the gold that is available to buy on the high street. 
The programme highlights the need for Fairtrade and Fairmined Gold. Watch it again here and sign the pledge opposing dirty gold   

Community leaders in countries including Nepal, Bangladesh, Mozambique and Yemen have written to British cabinet ministers Chris Huhne and Andrew Mitchell rejecting the loans the UK is providing to their countries to help them cope with climate change.   Read More...

But millions of people whose lives they’ll affect, from Sierra Leone to Greece, have had no say. Let’s demand Christine Lagarde and Agustín Carstens are quizzed directly by people from around the world. Send an urgent email today   

Contact your MSP
Patrick Harvie, MSP, on behalf of Jubilee Scotland, has officially lodged motion S4M00148, 'Supporting Jubilee Scotland's call for Debt Arbitration'. This motion is a vital part of Jubilee Scotland's Defuse the Debt Crisis campaign this year. We now need your help to ensure that as many MSPs as possible sign up to this motion - and in doing so bring us a significant step closer to debt justice.   Read More...

Email the Treasury now asking it to support strong and effective regulation to stop banks from betting on hunger. The Treasury is the government department which decides whether the UK will support international regulation to rein in excessive speculation on food prices.   Read More...

Take action before April 27
Jubilee Scotland asks you to call on MPs to support a 10 Minute Bill which seeks to clean up the Export Credit Guarantees Department (ECGD).  On 27th April Lisa Nandy MP will introduce the Export Credit Guarantees Department Bill) At present, the ECGD lacks transparency and accountability, and its activities fuel poverty, human rights abuses and environmental destruction. The Bill seeks to make the ECGD more accountable and ensure its operations are in line with wider government  policy on promoting development and human rights.   Read More...

The Government has announced that it’s going to make the Vulture Funds law permanent. Many of you campaigned very hard to get this law passed in literally the last few minutes before the election last year. It was a tribute to people power – but there was a danger it would expire in June after a ‘sunset clause’ was added at the last minute.   Read More...

Email Andrew Mitchell MP, the International Development Secretary, now
At the start of 2011, the people of South Sudan voted to become the world’s newest country. South Sudan is due to become independent in July, and negotiations are taking place right now on what should happen to Sudan’s $35 billion debt   Read More...