The climate camp will be in or near Edinburgh this year, 21-24 August, and it’s going to be targeting the ‘oil and gas bank’, the Royal Bank of Scotland. It’s a great chance to share skills, create a positive vision for social change and turn up the pressure on public investment in coal, oil, gas and tar sands via RBS.

And there’s a gathering this weekend in Glasgow to do some final planning :

31st July and 1st August, 9-6pm

3rd Floor, 18 Albion St, Glasgow G1 1LH

Ayrshire Power have now submitted their planning application for a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston in Ayrshire. This is a mad plan and we need to stop it now!

• It’s completely unnecessary – ‘The Power of Scotland Renewed’ showed that Scotland can meet 60-143% of its energy needs from renewables by 2030. See http://bit.ly/cQtqC9 for the full report
• It will completely undermine Scotland’s world-leading climate change legislation – even Ayrshire Power are only claiming that 15% of the CO2 will be removed from day one with Carbon Capture and Storage. And they haven’t even said how they will do this!
• The proposal is being handled in an anti-democratic way - it was shoe-horned into the National Planning Framework after the public consultation period, Ayrshire Power are doing everything they can to avoid proper consultation, and the Scottish Parliament has already voted by 66 to 26 calling on the Scottish Government to throw the plan out.

Take just a couple of minutes to send in an objection and stop this madness  – http://www.wdm.org.uk/scotland-campaign-actions or go to the Communities Opposed to New Coal at Hunterston website for lots more info and a sample objection letter – www.conchcampaign.org/

The final table...

A late rally from Spain led them to victory in the West End Festival mini-football World Cup. Thanks to the ingeniously designed ‘moving goalposts of justice’, the trophy was always more likely to go to a country with a better social justice record. And Spain’s position at number 9 in the ‘Who Should I Cheer For?’ league table ensured them plenty of support, although there were strong challenges from Brazil and Cameroon.

Despite strong support on the day (who said Glaswegians would rather support anyone but…) England only managed a parlous 3 wins, hampered by their position at number 27, whilst the USA at number 31 only  managed one win all day.

GOOOOALL!!!!

Now all we need is for FIFA to recognise the result…

We’ll be at the West End Festival, helping people to decide who to support in the World Cup

Sunday 13th June, 12pm until we run out of energy

The World Cup sets large countries against small, rich against poor, but how do you decide who to cheer for? If you’re tired of just cheering for whoever England are losing to, come along to our stall and find out about another way of deciding who to support.

For more info, see http://whoshouldicheerfor.com/

The Global Poverty Project is bringing their groundbreaking presentation, 1.4 Billion Reasons, to Glasgow. Based on leading research, the 90 minute presentation clearly articulates the facts of extreme poverty and demonstrates that by making simple changes everyone can be a part of the solution.

No-nonsense Canadian documentary about the horrors of tar sands extraction in Alberta and the damage being done to local communities as well as the pristine arboreal forest.

Wednesday 5th May, 5:45pm at the GFT

Followed by a short discussion on the issues and what you can do to make a difference.

For more details, see http://bit.ly/bHubeS

If you didn’t get a chance to come and join the action on the day of the RBS AGM, here’s a glimpse of us on Reporting Scotland on the BBC…

http://bit.ly/ct6uf3

And here’s Claire talking about the campaign on Radio Scotland…

http://bit.ly/cLkdHy

Those lovely people at RBS called the police about us, but unfortunately we don’t have a picture of the two very friendly PCs who came to tell us we weren’t doing anything illegal. We’re planning to do this stunt again elsewhere in Glasgow, so watch this space or contact us to get involved.

Come and join us in taking action outside the Royal Bank of Scotland in Sauchiehall Street, to coincide with the RBS AGM

Wednesday 28th April, 12:30-1:30pm

RBS, Sauchiehall Street (near Buchanan Galleries)

As taxpayers, we own 84% of RBS, so we’ll be asking the people of Glasgow whether they want to invest their share of the bank in the Royal Bank of Shame, or the Royal Bank of Sustainability

For more info about the issues and to see us in action, see this article from the Sunday Herald… http://bit.ly/9v3Fu3

There’s one of those election things coming up (if you hadn’t noticed), so there are a few things happening to get our message across to the prospective politicians…

Ask the Climate Question Hustings – Glasgow Central Constituency
Wednesday 14th April, 6:30pm, Renfield St. Stephens, 260 Bath Street
 
Vote Global Hustings – Glasgow Wide
Tuesday 27th April, 7:00-8:30pm, Boyd Orr Building, Glasgow University, University Avenue
It would be helpful if you book for this one – email office@wdmscotland.org.uk
 
Glasgow North Constituency Hustings
Sunday 25 April at 7:00pm, at Hillhead Baptist Church, Cresswell St
 
Or, if you’d rather stay at home…
Take action by contacting your candidates to let them know how important you think global justice is -
www.wdm.org.uk/take-action