Not content with RBS: The Return (see below), we’ve now done a double take with Barclays, this time in Hove where we highlighted the big bank’s morally dubious gambling on food prices.

We were also recorded for posterity – and this time not by security. Watch our one and a half minute video here or follow the link below right.

Thanks to Vicki for taking the time to film us, especially as she’s so busy being an award-winning documentary film-maker herself

Hot on the heels of our Barclays stunt, we did our bit for International Stop the Tar Sands Day with a spot of tarring and feathering outside our local publicly-owned branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland, in conjunction with People & Planet.

RBS are using taxpayers money to finance companies drilling for oil in the tar sands, the most environmentally destructive project on earth.

We told RBS what we thought of them for their involvement in the tar sands two years ago, but as they’re now about to begin financing drilling in Madagascar, we decided to let them know we haven’t gone away yet.

More photos (and in higher-res) on our photobucket page.

We pitched up outside Barclays on North Street on 6th May to highlight how its bankers are making a killing (literally) by speculating on food prices, causing dizzying fluctuations in the real price of commodoties which push poor people further into poverty.

We had an evil banker-eagle, foodstuffs at vastly inflated prices, a megaphone and lots and lots of action cards & letters to the chancellor signed. There were also several promises to change bank accounts from customers, and a private surveillance van parked across the street. We must be upsetting somebody…

more photos on our facebook page

We like to link up with other local campaigning groups and there are none more active than South Coast climate camp. They’ll be setting up a self-sufficient camp somewhere in Sussex from 23rd April to the 1st May, with the aim of learning about the state we’re in and finding solutions to those problems.

There’ll be workshops on everything from resisting the cuts to allotment keeping, a vegan food kitchen, space for kids and lots of like-minded people.

And best of all it won’t be far to travel. See their website for details of exactly where it’ll be and how to get involved.

See the poster here

If the government’s massive cuts in public spending have angered you as much as it has us, then come to the huge London march on Saturday 26/3/2011 and join in with the WDM contingent.

We’ll be getting the Stop the Cuts Coalition buses from St Peter’s Church at 8:30am – to reserve a place email brightontradescouncil@gmail.com

Alternatively some people are meeting at Brighton Station at 8:30am to travel up by train. See the main WDM site for the gathering point

See you there!

On 12th Feb 2011 we held a “hunger casino” in the centre of Brighton in collaboration with Global Xchange, a group of young people from Nigeria and all over the UK.

We asked passers-by to play blackjack against George Osborne and a bowler-hatted banker to highlight how bankers, backed by the UK government, are gambling on the future price of food, causing the price of food staples to fluctuate wildly and pushing the world’s poor into greater poverty.

Jellybeans were handed out to the winners, and people were asked to sign cards to send to their MPs or sign a letter to George Osborne demanding strict regulation of the banks and an end to secret deals.

The event was a huge success; it seems that bankers aren’t too popular in Brighton. Many thanks to all the guys from Global Xchange for lending their support and for helping to make the day go so well.

Protesters take to the roof of Churchill Square shopping centre to voice anger at Arcadia boss Phillip Green’s massive tax avoidance scheme. Arcadia owns British companies Topshop, BHS and Dorothy Perkins, amongst others, yet paid no UK income tax on £1.2 billion it earned in 2005.

Christian Aid are running a campaign, TRACE THE TAX, to end tax haven secrecy. See here

The country’s first Green MP, Caroline Lucas, has demonstrated 100% support for WDM’s climate debt campaign.

In a meeting with WDM Brighton & Hove members she said:

“I completely support WDM’s campaign to urge the government to provide sufficient resources as grants, not loans, to developing countries in order to help them adapt to climate change, especially as we in the West are the primary cause of global warming. It is absolutely wrong to saddle developing countries with more debt.”

She also confirmed that she would be taking up the issue with Andrew Mitchell the Development Secretary, as well as asking him why DfID were refusing to pass on the pound coins donated to the UN Climate Adaptation Fund.

Two vodafone stores in Brighton were closed down on Saturday 30th October by protestors angry that the company has been reported as avoiding a £6billion tax bill.

The store on Western Road was closed for Saturday afternoon as protestors chained themselves to each other outside the doors. Eight people were arrested by the police. The action coincided with 17 others across the country on the same day.

The Argus on the protest here

Private Eye’s original investigation into Vodafone here

BBC Sussex on the protest here

In October we took to the streets of Brighton armed with a World Bank ‘loan’ shark to illustrate the issue of climate debt being forced on developing countries.

The campaign highlights how the UK government has refused to grant any money to the United Nations Climate Adaptation Fund, and is instead insisting that all money to developing countries be dispersed through the World Bank, which has a history of dishing out money as loans with strings attached.

We asked passers-by to donate a pound to the Fund, which would be passed onto the Department for International Development as an indicator of how the British public feel on the issue of new debt for developing countries.