The latest from WDM

Welcome to the World Development Movement news pages. You can view our news by category in each campaign section, or get the whole lot below. For press inquiries please contact the press office.

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News

Speculative frenzy is hurting consumers warns charity

14 June 2011

The World Development Movement has warned that a new ‘summer of speculation’ is fuelling record food prices, as new figures show that financial betting on maize prices has contributed to a doubling in the cost of corn over the past year.

Bailed-out bank RBS to finance Madagascar tar sands – campaigners demand bank pull-out

23 May 2011

A human rights campaigner from Madagascar is in the UK this week to demand that the Royal Bank of Scotland withdraw its financing of companies mining tar sands in her country.

Barclays AGM: Protests over bank's role in food crisis

27 April 2011

Following a month of protests at over 22 local Barclays’ branches around the country [1], campaigners from the World Development Movement [2] protested at the Barclays AGM this morning over the banks leading role in food speculation. The campaigners - dressed as Barclays eagles, bankers and selling food at hugely inflated prices - say speculation is fuelling the price of staple foods, and having a disastrous effect on the lives of millions of the poorest people across the world.

First Nations protest tar sands investment at Royal Bank of Scotland AGM

19 April 2011

Representatives from some of Canada’s First Nations are today preparing to demand in person that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) stops financing the controversial tar sands industry in Alberta, Canada, at the bank’s AGM today.

New research shows that, since public bail-out in 2008, RBS has raised more than £5.6 billion for companies involved in controversial Canadian tar sands projects, £2.2 billion of which was in the last twelve months.

Flippin' bankers push up pancake prices

8 March 2011

Press release, 07.03.2011

People making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday will face higher prices of key ingredients, such as flour, milk and sugar, as prices have sky rocketed to a new record high on the global markets.

Government aid spending plans criticised by World Development Movement

28 February 2011

The Department for International Development will tomorrow announce changes to the way aid money is spent. Aid for ‘fragile’ states will be a priority, as will maximum value for money and the UK's national interests. It will also cut aid to UN agencies that support agricultural development in favour of emergency relief programmes. The news has been met with criticism from anti-poverty campaigners, the World Development Movement who criticised the government for 'fighting terrorism, not poverty, with the aid budget'.

Protest over RBS bonuses and dirty investments

24 February 2011

As bailed-out bank RBS publishes details of its 2010 financial results, campaigners call on the government to cure RBS of its high-risk oil addition. RBS’s results show that it is still not making a profit and today’s photo call highlights the unhealthy investments of an unhealthy bank.

Protests in South Asia against World Bank climate loan

21 February 2011

Tim Jones, Jubilee Debt Campaign

Activists in Bangladesh and Nepal speak out against new debt, whilst a Nepalese parliamentary committee has said the country should ask for grants rather than loans.

G20 finance ministers urged to tackle financial speculation on food

18 February 2011

Over 100 European and international organisations are calling on the G20 Finance Ministers, who are meeting this weekend, to rein in speculation on food prices by banks, hedge funds and pension funds.

UN and French government call for urgent action on record food price

4 February 2011

Press release, 04.02.2011

At a joint press conference, Director-General Jacques Diouf of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the French Agriculture Minister, Bruno Le Maire called financial speculation on food both economically dangerous and morally unacceptable. They called for an international response at the G20 to the record food prices and volatility including regulation of financial speculation on commodity markets. The World Development Movement welcomes this and supports action to tackle dramatic food price rises and volatility by reducing speculation on food by banks, hedge funds and pension funds.