World Development Movement visits Oaklands

This week, Jeff Heine from the World Development Movement (WDM) came in

to talk to Citizenship students about what they represent and the

current issues they deal with.

The WDM, established in 1970, is a UK based pressure group lobbying

governments and multinational companies to end global injustice. They

also work to bring developing countries out of poverty. Past successes

include working with the Government on policies such as Fairtrade for

bananas in the 1990’s.

Jeff, from WDM’s St Albans branch, gave an interesting talk about the

importance of ending speculative food markets and ensuring that those

responsible for climate problems should pay their debts to the

developing nations suffering the effects. They are also concerned with

the banking system adhering to environmental and human rights conditions

throughout their trading.

He underlined the effectiveness of campaigning through letters to MPs

and world leaders. He stressed the importance of protesting peacefully,

lobbying and raising awareness of an issue through marketing tactics.

The World Development Movement exists in the political arena and thus is

not a charity. It works to deal with the root cause of poverty and

injustice rather than simply addressing the symptoms. Students found the

lecture complimented and reinforced their studies on the issues

discussed.