What: The G8 is fuelling hunger with false solutions. Activists with popup gardens warn that a £395m aid for giant companies will destroy African livelihoods. This is a peaceful, family friendly event.
Find out more about the New Alliance…
When: Saturday 8th June, morning
Where: London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Manchester and Stroud – see full details below
Online: You can also follow us on twitter at @UKFoodSov and find out more about the London event on Facebook or the Edinburgh event on Facebook
London
Meet up point: outside The Blackfriar Pub, 174 Queen Victoria St, London EC4V 4EG. Nearest tube: Blackfriars on the Circle line – take the Blackfriars Bridge exit and the pub is on your right as you exit the station. From there we will move as a group to a nearby location for the action. See the location on google maps.
Time: Meet up at 09:30
Things to bring: Tools, plants to plant, seeds, soil, banners, and anything else to make a pop-up community garden flourish.
Contact: info [at] foodsovereignty.org.uk You can also let us know you’re coming on Facebook
Edinburgh
Meet up point: Outside the National Gallery at the bottom of the Mound, where the pyramid steps are in the square.
Time: 11:00
Things to bring: Tools, plants to plant, seeds, soil, banners, and anything else to make a pop-up community garden flourish.
Contact: a.mayfield [at] hotmail.co.uk You can also let us know you’re coming on Facebook.
Bristol
Contact: info [at] foodsovereignty.org.uk
Manchester
Contact: info [at] foodsovereignty.org.uk for details of the event and meet up point.
Stroud
Time: 10:00-12:30
Things to bring: Tools, plants to plant, seeds, soil, banners, and anything else to make a pop-up community garden flourish.
Contact: Please get in touch with lady [at] macbeth.me.uk or 07977 174717 for the venue and full details
What is the New Alliance
Sat 8 June will see David Cameron host a ‘hunger summit’ in London, the first in a series of events leading up to the G8 summit in ten days’ time. The event will include a meeting of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, a private investment initiative launched by the G8 in order to expand the reach of multinational companies into Africa. The UK government has pledged £395m of taxpayers’ money to the scheme.
African civil society groups have condemned the New Alliance as part of a ‘new wave of colonialism’ that will hand over their farmland to foreign investors and destroy their livelihoods. Over 40 companies have signed up to profit from the initiative, including agribusiness giants Monsanto, Syngenta and Diageo. Today’s hunger summit is being held at the headquarters of Unilever, another company set to make a killing from the scheme.
We stand in solidarity with African civil society in rejecting the New Alliance. Already more than two thousand people in the UK have signed a statement calling on the prime minister to withhold the £395m in UK aid money that he has pledged to the initiative, and to invest it instead in support for smallholder farmers in Africa.
More resources with information and critiques on the New Alliance…