Justice Mail Request 29 Jan 2013

Dear Justice Mail Friends

There is plenty of food in the world and yet one in eight people are hungry and approximately 2 million young children die every year from malnutrition. On 23 January in Somerset House, London, more than 100 British organisations joined together to launch a new campaign entitled “Enough Food for Everyone – IF”. David Cameron is chair of the G8, which meets in June in Northern Ireland. This is the year when we need a massive campaign to demand an end to the causes of world hunger, including action to prevent tax dodging by corporations, which is estimated to deprive developing countries of $160 billion every year.

Many of you will already have received invitations to join the campaign. Christian Aid, Oxfam, UNICEF, Save the Children and many others are sponsoring it. I have decided to ask you to join the campaign through CAFOD, the overseas development organisation of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, simply because we have not yet supported a CAFOD campaign, and I think we should!

When you follow the link below you will be taken to the CAFOD website. All you have to do is provide your name and postcode and send it. You will then receive an email giving you more information about the campaign and what you can do. We need to persuade hundreds of thousands of church members to join and abolish global hunger.

 

http://www.cafod.org.uk/Campaign/Take-action-today/Joint-campaign-on-food

John Hull

Queens Foundation 

Justice Mail Action 15 Jan 2013

Dear Justice Mail Friends

Justice Mail now has a website http://www.justicemail.org.uk . Among other items the website has information about the five current Justice Mail Groups and also links to all the organisations whose campaigns that we support. It also explains how new groups can be set up. We hope that the website will be a means greatly expanding Justice Mail. I hope you enjoy looking at the site.

ACTION

Since 2006 at least 500 Bangladeshi garment workers have died in factory fires while sewing clothing for giant fashion companies, like Gap and H&M.

Six months ago Gap publicly promised it would sign on to a worker safety program that would include independent inspections, mandatory repairs and renovations of safety hazards, a central role for workers and unions, transparency and binding commitments to protect workers.

Labour Behind the Label ask us to join Bangladeshi and international unions and labour groups that are calling on Gap to implement this fire safety program that will save the lives of Bangladeshi garment workers. Use the link below to email such a request to Gap.

http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent-actions/gap-appeal

Cheers

Mike Cross
All Saints Kings Heath

Justice Mail 4th January 2013

Dear Justice Mail Friends

CAFOD Writes:

We produce enough food to feed the world – but one in eight people don’t have enough to eat.

The way that food is grown, sold and shared out is not working for the world’s poorest people. But we have the power to change this injustice and to tackle global hunger.

If you believe no one should go hungry, please join our campaign and take action using the link below.

Speak out with us to help poor families get enough to eat – today, tomorrow, and in the long term.

Are you hungry for change?

http://www.cafod.org.uk/Campaign/Take-action-today/Hungry-for-change

Cheers

Mike Cross
All Saints Kings Heath

 

Justice Mail 17th Dec 2012

Dear Justice Mail Friends

Garment workers in Cambodia sewing festive items on sale on our high street this Christmas make less than 35p an hour. Low wages come at a high cost. Workers often live in small shared rooms without water and sanitation. Many are overworked and suffer from malnutrition.

Use the link below to send a Christmas message to H&M, GAP and Zara to ask them to commit to pay a living wage in Cambodia.

http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/campaigns/itemlist/category/267-take-action

Cheers

Mike Cross

All Saints Kings Heath

 

Justice Mail 5th DEcember 2012

Dear Justice Mail Friends

Christian Aid is asking the EU to take urgent action to promote a lasting and just peace in Gaza and the Middle East.

The European Union has the power and influence to get the peace process moving again. It is a member of the Quartet Group (alongside the UN, US and Russia), tasked with facilitating peace negotiations between the two sides since 2002.

It has close economic and political ties with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority and is a major provider of humanitarian assistance to the occupied Palestinian territory, which includes Gaza.

But the EU has not always used its power to provide the leadership it ought to.

Use the link below to write to the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Baroness Ashton, to remind her of the EU's obligations and the urgent need for the EU to play a key role in securing peace. Your message will also be sent to the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, as the UK can also exert considerable influence over the situation both within the EU and in the region.

http://act.christianaid.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=48&ea.campaign.id=17602

Mike Cross

All Saints Kings Heath

 

Justice Mail 17th November 2012

Dear Justice Mail Friends

Tax dodging has been in the news again this week. The scale of tax avoidance by international names such as Facebook, Starbucks and Amazon has been exposed. Some MPs are now calling for a Parliamentary Inquiry into these practices. If we act now, we can get more MPs to join them.

Use Church Action on Poverty’s link below to ask your MP to speak out on Tax Dodging.

http://action.church-poverty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=128&ea.campaign.id=17041&ea.tracking.id=capwebsite

 Cheers

Mike Cross
All Saints Kings Heath

Justice Mail: 2nd Nov 2012

Dear Justice Mail Friends

Supermarkets wield enormous power over the farmers and suppliers that want to sell the products we buy every day, by dictating terms and agreements to suit their profit margins. These pressures often get passed on...

to workers in the form of low wages, long hours and poor working conditions.

Traidcraft State: after a long campaign by Traidcraft and others, we are very close to having a watchdog (the Groceries Code Adjudicator) that will help hold supermarkets to account for how they treat their suppliers. The Bill to set up the supermarkets watchdog is making its way through parliament – we’re nearly there!

Use the Traidcraft link below to email Jo Swinson, the minister responsible for setting up the watchdog, and call on her to give it the power it needs to be effective: the power to fine.

http://www.traidcraft.co.uk/get_involved/campaign/watchdog_take_action_email_jo_swinson

Mike Croos
All Saints Kings Heath

Justice Mail Action 16th October 2012

Dear Justice Mail Friends
                              
Locally thousands of people are living in awful conditions because their landlords are getting away with renting out homes that are in an appalling state of repair.

Please use Shelter’s link below email your council demanding they ensure that rogue landlords in your local area are made to provide adequate housing.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns/evict_rogue_landlords/email_your_council?src=hpban-c

Cheers
Mike Cross
ALL SAINTS CHURCH
KINGS HEATH

Justice Mail Action 30th September 2012

Free Polictical Prisoners in Burma

Dear Justice Mail friends,

Slow progress is being made towards democratic freedom in Burma and there is still a long way to go. Please go to the Burma Campaign site and take the action regarding freeing political prisoners. You can use the link below.  

 

Free Polictical Prisoners in Burma

John Andrews
The Church of the Martyrs
Leicester Martyrs’ Justice Mail

Justice Mail Action 15th September 2012

Dear Justice Mail Friends

Campaigners in Zimbabwe are calling for a debt audit to increase transparency and accountability, learn lessons from past lending and borrowing, and find out whether or not all the debts are legitimate. Although Zimbabwe stopped paying much of its debt in the year 2000 Zimbabweans simply don’t know the origins of all the $7 billion debt, nor who benefited from the loans in the first place.

Use the Jubilee Debt Campaigns link below to email Donald Kaberuka, the President of the African Development Bank, which is leading the discussions among Zimbabwe’s creditors, and ask him to support a democratic audit of Zimbabwe’s debts.

http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/?lid=7536

 

Mike Cross

Kings Heath All Saints

Justice Mail Action 31st August 2012

Dear Justice Mail Friends

 

At her Nobel Peace Prize speech, Aung San Suu Kyi made an impassioned call to governments to increase funding for refugees from Burma, saying:

“Can we afford to indulge in compassion fatigue? Is the cost of meeting the needs of refugees greater than the cost that would be consequent on turning an indifferent, if not a blind, eye on their suffering? I appeal to donors the world over to fulfil the needs of these people who are in search, often it must seem to them a vain search, of refuge.’

 

The British government is currently reviewing aid to Burma. Use the link below to write to Andrew Mitchell and ask him respond positively to Aung San Suu Kyi’s appeal for help.

Cheers
Mike Cross
All Saints Kings Heath

 

http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php/campaigns/actions/aid-to-burma-letter/aid-to-burma-letter

Justice Mail Action 14 August 2012

Dear Justice Mail Friends

URGENT ACTION: deadline 21^st August.

Once a chic hotel, the Mauá building in the centre of São Paulo was abandoned and empty until five years ago when over 200 homeless families moved in. They cleaned up the building and began trying to win legal rights to their home – as Brazilian law allows. Over 2,000 people who live in abandoned buildings, including Mauá, faced an eviction order but this was suspended in July. But a judge has now upheld the eviction sentence and 21 August has been set as the eviction date.

Emily Mulville, Cafod’s Brazil Programme Officer said, "The struggle of homeless families in São Paulo is enormous, but not fighting is not an option when you are seeking justice.”

Use the Cafod link below to email the Brazilian Authorities asking them to halt the evictions.

http://www.cafod.org.uk/get-involved/take-action/brazil-stop-the-evictions?utm_medium=ET_mail93893&Utm_content=cross_xmacx@yahoo.co.uk&Utm_campaign=142012August&Utm_source=CCR34751+Action+News+JUL+2012

Cheers

Mike Cross

All Saints Kings Heath.

Justice Mail Action 10th July 2012

Dear Justice Mail Friends

The sportswear company Adidas is an Official Sportswear Partner of London 2012.

In January 2011, the owner of PT Kizone in Indonesia fled, resulting in the closure of the factory in April the same year, and leaving 2,800 workers without work and the severance pay they were entitled to. Sportswear brand Adidas had been sourcing from PT Kizone for many years, where workers were paid as little as US$ 0.60 an hour.

Adidas are now refusing to pay anything to PT Kizone workers who are still owed US$ 1.8 million in severance pay a year after their factory closed down.

Use the Labour Behind The Label’s link below to ask Adidas to ask for justice for the workers of PT Kizone

http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/urgent-actions/item/1048-kizone-adidas-action

Cheers

Mike Cross
All Saints Kings Heath

Justice Mail 22nd June 2012

Dear Justice Mail Friends

Food speculation greatly increases the cost of commodities on the world markets. Justice Mail supported the World Development Movement’s campaign to end this practice that is having a negative impact on low income consumers in the UK and also results in millions of people in developing countries being forced into poverty and hunger (see Justice Mail Action 4^th Jan 2012) .

WMD states:

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is supposed to be the UK’s 'independent' financial regulator, but is involved in behind the scenes lobbying for food speculation.

Use the link below to write to Lord Adair Turner, the chair of the FSA, to ask him to support regulation to reduce excessive food speculation.

http://www.wdm.org.uk/action/fsa-regulate-banks

Mike Cross

All Saints Kings Heath.

Justice Mail Action 7th June 2012

Dear Justice Mail Friends

JCB claim on their website that “JCB’s bright yellow machines make a difference in improving people’s lives”. At 6am on Monday 13 February, bright yellow JCB machines were caught on camera demolishing the children’s playground in Silwan, East Jerusalem. JCB equipment has also been used in the construction of the illegal Apartheid Wall, Israeli settlements and the demolition of Palestinian homes.

On 1 June people were encouraged by war on Want to phone JCB to demand that the company end their complicity in Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. We can add our voice to this campaign by using the link below to send an email to Chief Executive of JBC Anthony Bamford

http://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/justice-for-palestine/hide/action/17529-act-now-stop-the-bulldozers

Mike Cross
All Saints Kings Heath

Justice mail Action 21 May 2012

Dear Justice Mail Friends

Last month Church Action on Poverty asked John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, why some church lay staff are not paid the Living Wage. He responded with the challenge: "If your church doesn't pay the Living Wage, may the Holy Spirit put a bomb in your heart!"

Follow the link below to ask the Bishop of Birmingham ( or of another Diocese if you do not live within the Birmingham Diocese) to ensure all those working for the diocese receive a living wage.

http://action.church-poverty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=128&ea.campaign.id=8603&forwarded=true

Cheers

Mike Cross

All Saints Kings Heath

Dear Justice Mail Friends

Three nights a week, Esther lies awake, listening for the splash of water on concrete. This is her cue to run from her bed. Esther queues for hours to collect water before the village tap runs dry. The Zambian government cannot afford to continually pump water to Esther’s village. So when the tap stops, she draws dirty water from the river – which Esther knows could make her family sick.

CAFOD are running a campaign, First For Change, asking the G8 to make water sanitation a top priority.

Please use the link below to email PM David Cameron and call on him to lead the world in demanding clean water and safe sanitation for all.  CAFOD will hand in the emails on water sanitation into No.10 in nine days time.

http://www.cafod.org.uk/thirst?utm_medium=ET_mail93893&Utm_content=cross_xmacx@yahoo.co.uk&Utm_campaign=62012May&Utm_source=CCR34751+E-Alert+Thirst+for+change+MAY+2012

Cheers

Mike Cross

All Saints Church