Our current main campaigns include:

1/ Debt Justice is asking for economic justice for people impacted by debt, as well as an end to the unjust debt of countries leading to economic abuse by richer countries and international institutions.

2/ Human rights and Arms Trade SPEAK has been campaigning for an end to the UK government’s promotion and subsidization of the arms trade where it fuels conflict, aids oppression, and harms development. We have been campaigning on this since 2003 (20+ years= Link). We have also been campaigning for the end of UK arms sales to oppressive regimes with poor human rights records such as Saudi Arabia and to the end of DSEi Arms Fair (Defence & Security Equipment International).

We also support a lot of action for Climate Justice mainly by supporting Partners and being part of various coalitions. 
In our campaign journey over the last 20 years, we have touched on various campaign issues we share news and key info as it relates to those campaigns. 

We would like to have the capacity to do more especially on seeding change and permaculture in the future. If you are able to donate or volunteer/ get involved it increases our capacity to do more active campaigns. Keep In touch, and stay on the mailing list.

We produce digital and physical resources called ‘Pray and Posts’ which give people:

• Information on situations of injustice
• A suggested Action (Often In partnership with another Charity/NGO/ Community)
• Points For Prayer/Meditation/ or Reflection

Over recent years we have distributed these resources from a variety of subjects:

• Injustice and debt- (personal debt and majority world debt) In partnership with Jubilee Debt Campaign
• Injustice and the UK arms trade- in partnership with Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT)
• Ecocide and Environmental Justice

We have been producing Pray and Posts since 1998 when we produced our first Pray and Post on refugees’ rights and the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. In 2023 we will have been producing Pray and Posts and taking action as the SPEAK Network for 25 years.

We have a whole history of them written here as well as campaign achievements of specific unjust policies we have changed that have impacted people’s life experiences.

https://www.speak.org.uk/about-us/history-track-record

Exciting and inspirational that we are not just people who talk conceptually but aim to bring real changes.

Ways Of Receiving Pray and Posts

We used to produce physical Pray and Posts but in recent years we have distributed them more digitally through:

*WhatsApp,

*Telegram

* Email

*Social Media- mainly Facebook.

Also at one point, we made it available through a phone app (the Beta stage currently going through re-development). This has the impact of saving financial resources and environmental resources but we acknowledge that for some participants the physical resources were really helpful.

We now trying to forge a creative vision where we can combine it all these different elements and cater to different groups of people.

Please sign up to our mailing list here and let us know how you would like to receive the Pray and Post

www.speak.org.uk/stay-touch

Donate To Keep SPEAK Going In 2025 and Beyond!!

We could not be the organization we are today without your support. We have a history of amazing campaigns that brought about real changes, and your donations have truly made a difference!

https://www.speak.org.uk/donate

Regular Updates also via our Facebook page www.facebook.com/thespeaknetwork This is useful if we start receiving responses from the decision maker following the action having been sent out. Stay tuned there as we have more capacity to send out fast updates via Facebook than via email. They will come via email it just takes a bit longer. 

SPEAK has been running campaigns since 1998 (at the time of writing 25 years).

More detailed accounts of our Campaign history are currently being compiled in our archive for more details on our campaign journey see (LINK)

Our Campaigns Include

1 Refugees and Asylum seekers rights 1998- today

2 Debt Justice 1998-today

3 Trade Justice 2001-today

Our Trade justice campaign has several sub-sections including campaigns on different trade rules

3A/ Intellectual Property patents and health

3B/ Justice in Garment Industry= Big Dress Trade Justice in Garment Industry 2001-2012

4/ Corporate Social Responsibility (Core) 2002-today

6/Climate Justice 2002- today

6/ Arms Trade and Human Rights 2003-today

7/ Seeding Change 2011-today- (Justice, Food justice agriculture, no land grabs, seed protection and permaculture). 

*To read about the history of our campaign success here.

Some of our campaigns have limited life span including those that involved tours, the big dress tour (2005-2012) and seeding changes tours (2012-2014). Some of our campaigns have never ended but we just have limited resources to focus on them in the moment. At the moment, Arms Trade and Debt justice remain ongoing campaigns in 2023 -2025 but we would like to have the capacity to work on campaigns like Seeding Change again as more volunteers come forward.

Permaculture has stayed part of our journey, we have linked with local actions and groups in Portugal with SPEAK international partners Mount of Oaks https://mountofoaks.org  to learn about permaculture and explore getting land for a community, so some of ongoing action is facilitating local skill/ resource shares, capacity building as well as campaigns.

Photo Seeding Change, Network members planting seeds at a previous Vocal Training SPEAK event

We have been massively inspired by Crops Not Shops and there is some crossover with our current active BeSpoke groups and networks and what Crops Not Shops for doing with a vision for planting seeds and a new economy by sharing:

https://www.cropsnotshops.co.uk/our-mission/ 

We are also inspired by https://www.mayproject.org  they are providing practical, affordable, and collective solutions for people to live sustainably and challenge power structures that don’t serve their interests.  Connecting the tools – nature, food, and creative arts – to foster people’s personal transformation! 

 Guiding Values Summary

Campaigning, living and taking action for Justice

    Prayer

    Community

    Empowerment and participation

    Arts and Culture

These are 5 guiding values, but we do have a core values booklet that lists more values for people exploring in more detail email admin@speak.org.uk and make a small donation to cover postage if you want to be sent one! 

More Values Info

If you are interested in exploring the spiritual prayer values please read SPEAK Monastic Core Values (LINK)

If you are interested in exploring more values of what radical action for justice could mean please read about our current campaigns (LINK) and our radical values blog posts. (LINK)

“The fine folks of SPEAK are some of my favorite holy troublemakers. They are gentle prophets. Their joy is contagious and disarming. Their imagination provokes us, stirs us, invites us to refuse to settle for the world as it is now, and to dream of the world as it could be. SPEAK’s revolution exposes injustice and interrupts death… but their revolution also knows how to dance, and laugh — and therein lies its power. They are not just protesting — they are protestifying… they don’t just tell you what’s wrong with the world, they invite you to imagine how it could be made right again. So if you haven’t already jumped on SPEAK’s freedom train… jump on. Plot goodness with them. Dive into their holy mischief. Join them as they join God in storming the gates of hell and bringing heaven down to earth.”

Shane Claiborne author and activist
www.thesimpleway.org
Facebook: @ShaneClaiborne

We want to see it in all our relationships, and in our lifestyle as a whole. We believe that to do this we need to NETWORK and work in connecting and bringing people together with a similar heart. Networking means that all are connected, and we can build unity in our actions and our prayers. In praying about situations of injustice and speaking out about the same things at the same time, we can make our call for change louder! 

Our Vision 

We want to see it in all our relationships, and in our lifestyle as a whole. We believe that in order to do this we need to NETWORK and work in connecting and bringing people together with a similar heart. Networking means that all are connected, and we can build unity in our actions and our prayers. In praying about situations of injustice and speaking out about the same things at the same time, we are able to make our call for change louder!

SPEAK is not an organisation. SPEAK is a network because we believe it takes all of us to recognize that we have a responsibility to those who are suffering as a result of global injustice. In the past, we have spent long enough believing that an organisation will do it all for us and that giving limited financial assistance to a charity is enough. However, global problems are more deeply rooted, connected with unfair trade and debt, and many other issues.

We believe in changing unjust policies and legal structures, but not just that.. we believe in modeling new systems, money systems, and trading systems locally to transition local revolutionary peaceful change. We believe in acting to enhance local participation and encourage our community network to build new structures of participation with partners locally!

We are committed to questioning unjust, illegitimate power structures of nation-states, corporations, and international institutions. We are committed to not just criticising existing structures but modeling new positive alternatives locally.

SPEAK is not another organisation existing to soothe our consciences. SPEAK exists to stir the conscience of everyone. We act as a movement to stir people, especially the emerging generation, into action and see them released as catalysts to motivate the movement for social justice as a whole. It is not served up to you on a plate – it is up to you to take initiative. SPEAK is an evolving, dynamic movement of relationships.

The relationships formed within the Network are constantly sparking off new initiatives. We believe that we are empowered and resourced in a relationship with God and in a relationship with each other, rather than just through an organisation. It is difficult to box this movement or to give a totally accurate neat description.

We want to encourage and support people do community and spirituality in a way that works for them, rather than feeling obliged to join intuitions to tick a box. The most important thing is real relationships with each other and the source/ spirit (aka God) not joining institutions even our institution!

It’s about being a motivational catalyst in areas of spiritual and political community. It’s about lifestyle. It’s about moving into action. It’s about getting things going, creating an infectious movement that seeks to change unfair power structures. It’s about modeling something new, to people disillusioned by institutional models of Organised religion. Also rekindling faith in the source and spirit energising our activism and in a mysterious way helping those with honest intent and determination.

Campaign History

SPEAK has an amazing history of campaign Successes and events and actions. Here is our whole journey history.

The SPEAK Network exists to campaign on issues of Social Justice, and the last 25+ years have seen the SPEAK Network’s integral role in several Campaigns, that have achieved significant victories!

SPEAK campaigns through sending our Pray and Post cards (digitally and previously physically) and supporting local groups in action. We are currently in motion with making a full list of all the Pray and Post cards we end out over the years as well as lists of all the campaign manuals and other physical resources we produced. 

Read on for some exciting examples of what SPEAK have helped to achieve over the years:

Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History 2005

Many SPEAK members took part in Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History Marches in 2005 in London and Edinburgh, alongside a coalition of many other charities such as Oxfam and Christian Aid. SPEAK members also kept up the pressure on politicians with dedicated Pray and Postcard Campaigns to alleviate debt in the majority world.

Tony Campolo is an honorary president of SPEAK, and Tony managed to get one of our SPEAK Pray and Postcards to Bill Clinton whilst he was the US President, and speak to him about Debt reduction. The conversation Tony Campolo had with Bill Clinton led to President Clinton beginning to advocate for cancellation of debt in International forums! – An example of SPEAK campaigning achieving amazing outcomes in changing the hearts and minds of some influential people at the time. 

Jubilee 2000 later changed its name to Jubilee Debt campaign and now to Debt Justice we are continuing in 2023 to campaign with them please see our latest Pray and Post on UK debt (LINK).

RESULT: The fantastic result of this Campaign work resulted in $100 billion of poor countries’ debt being cancelled over the last 10 years through then Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History Campaigns. SPEAK’s role in the coalition was acknowledged by Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History coalition founder member Christian Aid. Jubilee 2000

1999 – Arms Trade – Indonesia and East Timor

In 1999 the SPEAK Network Pray and Postcard Campaigned for an Arms Embargo on Indonesia for the safety of East Timorese people.

East Timor was being terrorised by the Indonesian army, who were using machinery and war planes, made and subsidised by the UK Government. SPEAK campaigned for the Government to place an Arms Embargo on Indonesia to halt these human rights abuses being made, especially with arms produced by the UK!

RESULT: In 1999, this resulted in Securing an Arms Embargo on Indonesia for the safety of East Timorese people.

2001 – Access to AIDS medication in South Africa

In 2001, SPEAK Members in partnership with OXFAM began a dedicated Pray and Postcard Campaign focusing on access to AIDS medications in South Africa, particularly campaigning to the Drugs Giant Glaxo-SmithKline.

The medicine was too expensive for the majority of the population, yet it had the power to save THOUSANDS of lives. SPEAK Members held a prayer vigil with letters on their backs spelling out the words “MAKE TRADE FAIR”, kneeling in prayer outside the Foreign Office.

A Rally was also held in a nearby church and Glaxo-SmithKline responded and sent a representative from the company to address our Pray and Posts concerns on medicines patents. Caroline Spellman MP for Bishops Stortford also attended and spoke at the lobby.

RESULT: In 2001 this campaign successfully stopped GlaxoSmithKline taking the South African Government to Court, over the use of other alternative AIDS drugs!! Helping secure more affordable medicines for patients with AIDS. On top of this, SPEAK also managed to campaign for a change to trade rules on unfair patenting as well. GlaxosmithKline also sent a representative to respond at our lobby of Parliament and MPs in 2001.

2005/6 – Trade Justice and Multinational Corporation Transparency 

2006 saw SPEAK Network members campaign for the Company’s Act which saw the biggest change in company law for 150 years! Bringing greater transparency and accountability to UK multinational companies.

RESULT: In 2006 The UK became the first country to include clause for the Environment and Human Rights. Further to the Company’s Act, from October 2007 Directors of companies are now be required to “have regard to” employee, community, environment and business relationships (with suppliers & customers), as well as having a reputation for high standards of business conduct, as they make decisions to benefit shareholders”. Effectively this meant large UK companies with publicly quoted shares would have to report on Employee, Community, and Contractual relationships and Environment issues as part of their annual business reviews.

2007 – Arms Trade – UK Government

In 2003, SPEAK first launched an Arms Trade campaign, which enabled us to expose the UK Government’s funding of private arms deals which fuel conflict, aid oppression and harm’s development. Between 2003 and 2007, SPEAK actively campaigned for the closure of the Governments Defence Exports Services Organisation (known as DESO) a Government department which existed to promote UK Arms exports. In 2004 we held a big Day of Action. Over 400 people prayed outside and lobbied DESO:

RESULT: 2007 saw the closure of DESO (Defence Exports Services Organisation)!

                                                  SPEAK’s campaigning role in this closure was acknowledged publicly, by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (known as CAAT) and documented on Wikipedia.

Over 200 MPs were in support of SPEAK’s EARLY DAY MOTION, with the support of Stephen Timms MP, pictured above. The campaign post card prompted support from MPs, with 679 voting for closure of DESO and 686 voting for closure in Early Day Motions.

We have had some success along the way when we helped close DESO in 2007.

Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO) which was set up in 1966 and ran until 2007 it, spent £15m a year on helping British firms sell military equipment abroad. Whilst the UK government allows small charities UK charities providing proportionally more jobs to struggle.

(Article By Elizabeth Clifford-Marsh in https://www.army-technology.com/news/news1941-html/ 2007).

2008/9 – Action on Climate Change

In 2008 and 2009 SPEAK members successfully campaigned, via Pray and Postcard campaigns, and taking part in the Climate Change Rally in London, as part of The Climate Coalition, for the introduction of the UK Climate Change Act.

RESULT: The UK Climate Change Act 2008 was the first ever legally binding commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 (from 1990 levels) and move to a low-carbon economy.

2009/12 – Trade Justice – Groceries Code Adjudicator

SPEAK’s “Squeezed” Campaign called for justice in our food supply chains by asking Parliament for a Groceries Code Adjudicator, which has the power to fine from day one. What this would basically do is force our powerful UK supermarkets to treat their suppliers fairly – applying to both farmers here and abroad.

RESULT: SPEAK campaigned alongside Traidcraft, Action Aid, the Fairtrade Foundation and Friends of the Earth for the introduction of the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA), also called the ‘supermarket ombudsman’. The GCA ensured improved corporate accountability by regulating supermarket’s behaviour with their suppliers, and guaranteed that the 2010 Code of Practice is properly adhered to. The Groceries Code Adjudicator was mentioned in a Bill by Baroness Wilcox and was announced in the Queen’s Speech that year. Furthermore, in 2012, Tesco were the first Supermarket to be investigated for breaches to the code. Currently, DEFRA is campaigning for the Groceries Code Adjudicator to be able to extend its powers to Dairy Farmers in the UK to ensure they are properly paid for the milk they supply… a potential future Campaign for SPEAK!

2012 – Nigeria and the Shell Oil Company

Since 2012, SPEAK UK worked closely with SPEAK Nigeria, giving support to a legal case against the exploitative practices both on a human and environmental level, of the multinational Oil Company Shell. SPEAK held a Vigil outside the Shell Oil Company London Headquarters.

RESULT: The Shell Oil giant has now compensated families impacted by their practices in the Region!

2013 – The Enough Food for Everyone IF Campaign

SPEAK played a big part in 2013’s “Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign”. The national IF campaign urged politicians to stamp out tax dodging, to help free up money that could be used to build schools and hospitals in developing countries.

SPEAK called on MPs and G8 leaders to reform tax laws. SPEAK was one of 208 members of the coalition and held a stall at the Big IF event in Hyde Park in June 2013 and produced the video for the Big IF Fast. SPEAK joined 55,000 people who rallied in London and Belfast. SPEAK members joined in the Pray and Postcard campaign on this issue and SPEAK members met their MPs to encourage them to speak up on this issue.

RESULT: The UK became the first G8 country to keep a 43-year promise to spend 0.7% of national income on aid to the world’s poorest people! David Cameron also announced that all UK-affiliated ‘tax havens’ will now have to share financial information, so that Companies in G8 countries will now be open to scrutiny by tax authorities.

2013 – Arms Trade Campaign – Against the Arms Fair London

In September 2013 SPEAK members joined others to peacefully protest outside the large Arms Fair which happens every year in East London, and sells arms to countries all over the World including those with questionable Human Rights records.

This drew the attention of the National Media highlighting this issue to the General Public, and also the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams who lent his support to SPEAK Campaigners, and said the following:

“I am very grateful for those who have courageously drawn attention to the scandal of this situation, and to the wider question of the way governments support and subsidise the arms trade.”                                                                          

“Outrage about one kind of horrific and illegal weaponry will not be taken seriously unless it is part of a comprehensive willingness to tackle all forms of collusion with technologically advanced violence against human beings.”

“The world’s conscience is rightly shocked by the use of chemical weapons in Syria; but we need to remember that there are many other illegal forms of weaponry – and the international arms trade continues to turn a blind eye to the promotion and sale of many of these (cluster munitions, for example)” ~ Rowan Williams (Former Archbishop of Canterbury).

2013 – How the Banking System treats Charities

In June 2012, Halifax merged with Lloyds TSB and the Royal Bank of Scotland. During this union, it was announced that they had decided to close a number of bank accounts.

Unfortunately for SPEAK, one of the bank accounts undergoing closure contained one third of our standing orders from regular givers. SPEAK were told that we would not be able to transfer these standing orders to a new account and that SPEAK’s bank account would be shut immediately. To make matters worse we were told that we had no option to challenge the decision. By closing this account, we would lose all the future funding which these regular donations would provide.

In the space of a few days, 10 years of SPEAK’s efforts to become financially sustainable would be considerably reduced after only gaining ground slowly over a long period of time. We felt like the decision was desperately unfair and caused us real considerable stress. We began a long effort to keep the bank account open and to save the funds that we’d worked so hard to secure. We called, we emailed, we met with the bank staff – all the time asking that our standing orders be transferred to a new account with the Co-Operative Bank.

When efforts to change our situations through direct contact with the banks failed to bring justice to our situation, we decided to contact a number of MPs, treasury groups and people of influence to start a lobbying campaign against the banks. We also started a campaign called ‘New Leaves’ to raise awareness of the lack of transparency and accountability within the internal system.

And then, miraculously, we made contact with the Charity Finance Group, an extremely helpful finance advisory body, who told us about the rather cryptic-sounding ‘SOFA’ – this stands for a ‘Standing Order File Amendment’, which would allow us to transfer standing orders between bank accounts – in other words, it was the answer we’d been waiting for!

RESULT: Initially the bank refused to acknowledge the SOFA…. However, eventually, after much pressure from our part, the bank admitted that we were eligible for a sofa and had been from the very start. This meant VICTORY! We could keep our bank account open for 13 months and transfer all of the standing orders across via the sofa: a third of our standing orders had been saved!

The Campaign was successful with the Banks now offering a Standing Order File Amendment, helping both The SPEAK Network and many other Charities and organisations in the process

2017-2020- Arms To Saudi- Partial Success with on-going action (LINK)-

2017-2020- In August 2017 we sent out our first digital Pray and Post campaign, in Partnership with CAAT asking people to ask their MP to sign the Early Day Motion (EDM)124.
We teamed up with CAAT who advised us on asking to communicate with our MPs on this Early Day Motion (EDM)124 pushing for Parliamentary Scrutiny of Arms Export control. https://www.parliament.uk/edm/2017-19/124
This EDM called for the re-establishment of the Committees on Arms Export Controls (CAEC), as a matter of urgency, to provide scrutiny over current UK arms sales and the UK’s arms export control regime post-Brexit; and notes the considerable public concern about UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the use of such arms in the Yemeni civil war.
The Good News is that Committees on Arms Export Controls (CAEC) has now been established! Yes a partial campaign success!

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Injustices such as land grabbing across Africa, investing money in unsustainable energy and many other works that require somebody to speak out for those who are being left destitute.

Please donate to us using the methods below to help make sure that there is a voice who will speak out for those who can’t for themselves..

UK taxpayers – tick GiftAid and give 25% extra for free

You can make monthly payments or one-off payments to SPEAK. Please see below…

Donate by bank transfer

Large or regular donations are easy by direct bank transfer. Please email speak@speak.org.uk or call 0208 9819441 to give us your name and email address so we can send you our account details securely.

Or if you can instruct your bank to set up a standing order to the following accounts;

Giving to SPEAK

Give to SPEAKS RADICAL CAMPAIGNs by support SPEAKS not for profit company

Account name: SPEAK NETWORK            

Sort Code: 089299

Account Number: 65074819

Or support our educational, events and prayer work by supporting the charity especially if you are eligible for gift aid

Account Name: SPEAK Network Events Support and Training (sometimes abbreviated to SPEAK NTWRK EVNTS SUPP&TRNING)

Sort Code: 089299

Account Number: 65204126

Standing orders regular monthly donations make all the difference because they mean we can plan.

Donate by cheque

Make cheques payable to ‘SPEAK NETWORK SUPPORT AND TRANING’
Please include your name and address so we can thank you.
Send to SPEAK, St Margaret’s House Settlement, 21 Old Ford Road, London, E2 9PL.

If you when you have done this, you can send an email to let us know and say hi that would be a great encouragement to meet you and say hello! But we are also happy for you stay anonymous too. Or if you still want to be kept informed please make sure you also fill in this form for data law

www.speak.org.uk/stay-touch

You can read more about our campaigns history here:

https://speak.org.uk/about-us/history-track-record