SPEAK Campaigns Archive Intro

SPEAK CAMPAIGN SUCCESSES

The SPEAK Network exists to campaign on issues of Social Justice, and the last 18 years have seen the SPEAK Network’s integral role in several Campaigns, that have achieved significant victories! Read on for some exciting examples of what SPEAK has 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 the cancellation of debt in International forums! – An example of SPEAK campaigning achieving amazing outcomes in changing the hearts and minds of some of the most influential people on the planet!!

RESULT: The fantastic result of this Campaign work resulted in $100 billion of poor countries’ debt being canceled over the last 10 years through the 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.

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 warplanes, 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 for 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 from 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.

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 clauses for the Environment and Human Rights. Further to the Company’s Act, from October 2007 Directors of companies are now 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 that fuel conflict, aid oppression, and harm’s development. Between 2003 and 2007, SPEAK actively campaigned for the closure of the Government’s Defence Exports Services Organisation (known as DESO) a Government department that 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 postcard prompted support from MPs, with 679 voting for closure of DESO and 686 voting for closure in Early Day Motions.

2008/9 – Action on Climate Change

In 2008 and 2009 SPEAK members successfully campaigned, via Pray and Postcard campaigns, and took 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 supermarkets’ behavior 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 was the first Supermarket to be investigated for breaches of 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 was 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 that 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 on 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.