Action Briefing June 2004 - July 2004
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

European Social Forum: Birmingham Initiative launched

Birmingham Friends of the Earth and partners are launching an initiative to promote the third European Social Forum (ESF) taking place in London, 14th-17th October 2004.

The ESF came out of the 2001 World Social Forum (WSF) in Brazil and the first two ESF gatherings, in Florence 2002 and Paris 2003, brought together tens of thousands of environmental, human rights and social justice activists from across the continent.

The Birmingham ESF Initiative includes representatives from Birmingham Community Empowerment Network, West Midlands National Union of Teachers, Birmingham Trades Union Council, Birmingham Stop the War Coalition, Birmingham Friends of the Earth, Jubilee Debt Campaign, Localise West Midlands and Women’s Aid. The group aims to raise awareness and get local activists geared up for October by distributing literature, giving talks, and screening films.

A season of film evenings with speakers and debate is scheduled from 14th June to 7th September at the Midlands Arts Centre (the MAC, next to Cannon Hill Park, opposite the County Cricket Club on Edgbaston Road), beginning on the 14th June at 8pm with the screening of ‘Another World is Possible’, a documentary charting the 2002 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, and ‘The New Rulers of the World’, an investigation by John Pilger into the realities of globalisation in Indonesia. Subsequent evenings will be on the themes of: war (Tue 27th July); the environment (Tue 3rd August); racism and refugees (Sun 15th August); globalisation and neo-liberalism (Sun 22th August); and gender (Tue 7th September).

An additional date for your diary is the Tue 15th June, 6pm, when Jai Sen from the WSF organising committee, and representatives from War on Want will be speaking at the centre for the study of Global Ethics, University of Birmingham.
For more information contact Simon Ware or Hannah Worth at Birmingham Friends of the Earth or email Simon at sid_132@hotmail.com. For tickets and info call the MAC on 0121 440 3838.

Simon Ware and Hannah Worth

ESF Initiative Environmental Evening: Programme

'Suits and Savages: Why the World Bank Won’t Save the World'
Shown at this year's World Social Forum in Mumbai, this documentary delves beneath the rhetoric of the World Bank and their Global Environment Facility (GEF) to present a view from the bottom up. Spanning the gulf between economists in Washington DC and the remote group at the heart of a contested eco-development project in India, the film exposes the gap between policy and reality, and raises the difficult questions conservation initiatives inevitably raise.

'Baked Alaska'
Despite the evidence that Alaska is warming ten times faster than the rest of the world, US President George W Bush wants to drill there for oil. The dilemma faced by the indigenous population has split them in two; the Inupiat wish to benefit from the jobs and the money, but the Gwitchin are concerned that the drilling will lead to the destruction of their reindeer. This documentary visits both sides of the debate, conscious of the undeniable consequences for Alaska of perpetuating the destructive cycle of fuel consumption.