Wisdom shouts in the streets, She cries out in the public square.
[proverbs 1:20]
The picture above is from a joint demo centred on our new SQUEEZED pray & post card! (That is a SPEAK person inside that dog costume, we promise!). As many of you will know, we are campaigning that the new Groceries Code Adjudicator currently being created by the government is given enough power to regulate supermarket power - giving the watchdog teeth! (Download the Volumize pull-out from the link above for plenty more info). As you can see, we were outside the Department for Business, Investment and Skills where we were able to meet Jo Swinson MP (who is heading up the Bill), the recipient of our pray & post cards! Friends from Traidcraft, Action Aid, Friends of the Earth and War on Want were all part of the action too - pray that with such a decent coalition of campaigners, we can encourage the government to SPEAK UP for small farmers in the UK and abroad by responding to our calls!
Earlier in the week, Joel had joined in with an action to raise awareness about arms companies trying to recruit graduates...
On Tuesday I joined members of CAAT (Campaign Against the Arms Trade) at the London Graduate Fair to protest the presence of Raytheon, the world's sixth largest arms manufacturer, at the fair. When we got there, there was a massive queue of people waiting to get in, so we set to work distributing flyers, to inform people of the truth about Raytheon and to encourage them to feed back that a graduate fair should not be providing a platform for arms companies to promote themselves as respectable businesses.
Finally yesterday, we went along to the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition demo called 'Green is Working' - to convey the message that green industries are really benefitting the economy (it has already added 1 million new jobs, according to a new report by the Green Alliance). Therefore we believe it is of crucial importance that the government continues to act with environmental responsibility - namely by passing a strong Energy Bill this year (that includes a target for the decarbonisation of the energy industry), and by adding aviation and shipping emission targets to the Climate Change Act it passed in 2008. (SPEAK worked hard to campaign for the Act back then, but these specific targets have not yet been included and the Law stipulates that they need to be by December 31st). You can read about the demo in the media here and here, and take part in an online photo action here (highly recommended!)
Have you been to a demo recently? Fancy writing us a short splurge on why you went, what happened, how it left you feeling, and if you'd do it again? We'd love to hear your stories! Please email speak@speak.org.uk or feel free to ring us on 020 981 9441.