We’ll be putting a write-up on the website soon, but in the meantime, here are links to all the films and campaigning resources to put on your own Power Hungry film night anywhere in the country (or world!)

Opening trailers:

• Green Peace spoof of fox striking oil in the Arctic
• Green Peace spoof of Shell’s readiness for a spill
• Greedy Lying Bastards (trailer)

First half:

Our corporate controlled energy system and industry attempts to keep it that way

• Worse than Bad (campaign against Shell’s activities in Nigeria)
• Short interview with Wole Solyinka (from 27 minutes in)
• Tar Sands: To the Ends of the Earth – not out yet, sorry!
• Fracking Hell: The Untold Story

Second half:

Resisting the system and building a new one

• Friends of the Earth International Chair, Nnimmo Bassey, talking about recognising Ecocide
• Green Peace activists closing down Shell forecourts
• IBEKA’s community-owned micro-hydro electricity projects in Indonesia
• Brazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) wind turbine workshops

Information on speakers and shout-outs:

• Arts and activism organisation, Platform, who are looking at the social, environmental and economic impacts of the oil industry
• The Oil Road, which was referenced by speaker Emma Hughes
• Greenpeace’s Save the Arctic campaign
• UK Tar Sands Network
• Frack Off!
• Friends of the Earth International; ERA Nigeria
• Eradicating Ecocide
• Ashden Awards (who support projects like IBEKA’s)
• Friends of the Earth’s Clean British Energy campaign
• Community Energy Warwickshire (and Co-operatives UK’s guide to community energy co-ops and what it takes)
• Fuel Poverty Action
• Brixton Energy Cooperative
• Alliance for Jobs and Climate
• Friends of the Earth Hackney and Tower Hamlets local group
• Occupy LSX

Food sovereignty is a concept developed by La Via Campesina as an alternative to neoliberal policies. It focuses on local agricultural production, access of peasants to land, water, seeds, and credit, and popular participation in determining agricultural policy. More information can  be found in this video by La Via Campesina on food sovereignty. The global campaign for food sovereignty, which is growing in momentum, is therefore a crucial aspect of the fight for social, economic, and environmental justice.

Discussion was animated and thought-provoking and we were fortunate enough to be joined by Kirtana Chandrasekaran, a food campaigner for Friends of the Earth International, and Dan Iles, a local food campaigner in Bristol and a UK delegate to the recent Nyeleni European Food Sovereignty Forum in August. A range of issues were addressed, including the significance of local grassroots action, the relative merits of food sovereignty and fair trade, and the potential of ‘traditional’ agricultural methods.

It was great to hear so much enthusiasm from everyone about getting involved in campaigning on food sovereignty. More information about our organisations’ food campaigns can be found on our respective websites. For those that were unable to attend our event or would like to spread the word about food sovereignty through local groups with similar events, many of the films we screened can be downloaded or viewed online:
 
The Real News report from Honduras

Not a very green revolution

I Eat Therefore I Am

Detroit: Rising from the Ashes

Natabar the seed farmer

Upendra has Worms

Called by various unions and campaigning groups in France and supported by others across Europe, a mass demonstration on 1 November will be followed by days of action and the Alter-Forum. This will include open meetings and debates on the following themes:

1. End inequalities and austerity: employment, social rights, welfare, and debt
2. People before the market: financial regulation and debt
3. System change, not climate change: environment and development
4. Don’t gamble with our food: agriculture and food
5. Indignados, rebels, and solidarity: democracy, the Mediterranean struggles, rights and liberties
6. They are 20, we are billions: global governance.

Details are still in the planning stages and more information will be available soon. Keep checking the 6 Billion Ways website for more updates and details on how to get involved.

For more information, see the website of the French G8G20 2011 Coalition.

The meeting used open space facilitation, which meant that the agenda was constructed by the people who came based on what they wanted to discuss, and people were free to move around to different discussions at any point. About 60 people came, most of whom had been the previous day. Many more made excuses based on too much partying the previous night…

Hot topics
There were a variety of issues raised, from carbon trading to housing, fixing the financial system to what UK Uncut should do next, and what to do about arms company Lockheed Martin running the census. One of the most popular discussions was about plans for the 26 March anti-cuts demonstration in London, which led to a callout for a national day of publicity for the demonstration on Saturday 19 March, on high streets and on Facebook and Twitter (use #March26 #whyiammarching #demo2011).

Keeping up the momentum
Another popular session was on ‘Keeping up momentum after 6 Billion Ways’. As one of the organisers of 6 Billion Ways, I was particularly interested in this one. So far 6 Billion Ways has been an event we’ve held twice to bring together lots of different strands of the movement and encourage cross-fertilisation to make it stronger. But this session indicated an appetite for more than that. Some of the suggestions that came up in the session were:

• Holding 6 Billion Ways once a year not every two years (the first event was in 2009)
• Regular meet-ups in London every two or three months. These could be public meetings in the manner of the sessions at 6 Billion Ways or open-space sessions like the Sunday event.
• Organiser training for global justice activists around the country, perhaps with a focus on making links between issues and networks as at 6 Billion Ways
• A web portal where people can find out about global justice campaigns, including being able to filter by region and issue. Like False Economy but not just on the cuts. It could be a list of existing campaigns and maybe aggregate from other sources like Google News.
• More co-ordination at national level between all global justice organisations, so that people feel part of something bigger (Make Poverty History, Stop Climate Chaos and Put People First were examples of where this has been/is being done before, in different ways)
• Using the 6 Billion Ways Facebook page to build up a network of global justice activists and discuss the issues raised. Also perhaps to identify some priority global justice issues for people to work on together

What do you think?
Some of these things, or things along the same lines, may be happening already, but not everyone might know about them. Some of them might not be useful, and some of them might be easier said than done!

As the 6 Billion Ways organisers we’re thinking about what we do next, and we want to know what you think. So let us know in the comments.

When: 17.00

Where: Rich Mix bar (by the stage)

For more info see www.countmeout.me.uk

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