Trade Justice Movement
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The Trade Justice Movement is a British coalition, founded in 2000, of more than 80 organisations campaigning for Trade Justice - fundamental change of the unjust rules and institutions governing international trade so that it is made to work for all, particularly poor people, and the environment.
The coalition has a particular focus on UK and EU trade policies. This includes the abolition of the European Union's agricultural export and other subsidies that result in dumping, and the right of national governments to follow protectionist trade policies in the pursuit of social and enviromental goals. Members of the Trade Justice Movement have had a major focus, working with allies internationally, on negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since its first public event ahead of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001.
The Trade Justice Movement has a present priority campaign on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), the European Union (EU) is negotiating with its former colonies in Africa, Carribean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
The coalition also campaigns for effective regulation of the corporations that make up 70% of world trade. In 2006 this included one of the largest UK campaigns of that year with over 100,000 UK voters contacting their MP, resulting in changes to UK company law in the Companies Act 2006.
The Trade Justice Movement includes development and environment NGOs, trade unions, human rights campaigns, Fairtrade organisations, faith and consumer groups. Current members include:
- ActionAid
- CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development
- Christian Aid
- Friends of the Earth
- Oxfam
- Save the Children
- SCIAF, The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund
- Tearfund
- Traidcraft
- The World Development Movement
The Trade Justice Movement has established a reputation for public mobilisation in support of its goals. Its Mass Lobby of Parliament in November 2005 was the largest-ever such event in the history of modern British democracy with 375 MPs lobbied in a single day. This surpassed the previous record of 346 MPs lobbied in June 2002, again set by the Trade Justice Movement. In 2003 the coalition staged the biggest national lobby of MPs when more than 500 parliamentarians were lobbied in their constituencies ahead of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancún, Mexico, when talks collapsed. In April 2005 the coalition staged the biggest mass protest of the UK election campaign when over 25,000 people filled Whitehall at an all-night vigil.
The Trade Justice Movement secretariat shares its Baldwin's Gardens premises in London with the Fairtrade Foundation, which promotes Fair trade labelling in Britain. The coalition's current co-ordinator is Glen Tarman, formerly publicity manager at OneWorld.net.
In 2005 the Trade Justice Movement was one of the networks at the core of Make Poverty History, an unprecedented UK coalition of more than 500 organisations calling for trade justice, drop the debt and more and better aid.
