100 Campaigns that Changed the World

Greenham Common Peace Camp

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 11:51:32 GMT

In this episode, we go back to the 1980s, to Greenham Common in Berkshire, where thousands of women built one of the longest‑running peace camps in history. They marched from Cardiff, set up camp outside a US nuclear base, and over nearly 20 years turned a protest site into a global symbol of feminist, anti‑nuclear resistance. From chaining themselves to the gates to “Embrace the Base” human chains of tens of thousands of women, Greenham rewrote what non‑violent direct action could look like. It was noisy, creative, and defiantly women‑led – the biggest women’s protest movement in Britain since the suffragettes.

To explore what Greenham meant then, and why it still matters for campaigns today, we welcome writer, performer and activist Rebecca Mordan. Rebecca is the artistic director of feminist theatre company Scary Little Girls and co‑founder of the Greenham Women Everywhere project, which has collected over 200 testimonies from camp veterans. She is the co-author of Out of the Darkness, Greenham 1981-2000. Out now in paperback.

In this conversation, we talk about life at the camp, the tactics that made Greenham so powerful, and the 19‑year protest. We also look at what today’s climate and peace, and other campaigners can learn from Greenham’s mix of humour, disruption and community care.

Here are some resources

Greenham Women Everywhere, interviewing Greenham Women, archiving and sharing their stories and holding events across the UK.
The Greenham Effect for Radio 4’s Archive on 4, and a subsequent podcast series on the camp commissioned by Oxford Modern Art.
A screening of Carry Greenham Home will transport you back to the early days of Greenham with Beeban Kidron and Amanda Richardson’s fly-on-the-wall masterpiece, shot whilst they lived at Greenham in 1982-83.
Women Against the Bomb, Sonia Gonzalez’s prize-winning look at the impact of the Greenham Women, reflected through interviews and footage from women who took action and never looked back.
Gentle, Angry Women, Barbara Santi’s coming of age documentary follows a new generation of young female activists as they embark on a journey of discovery, following in the footsteps of over 30,000 women who forty years earlier united in peaceful, liberating protest, the remarkable Greenham Common Women's Peace Movement.
Mothers of the Revolution, Briar March’s tale of how a small number of Greenham Women made connections with their counterparts in the peace movement behind the Iron Curtain, travelling to the Soviet Union to advance peace and, eventually, contributing towards the end of the Cold War.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Climate Change: Weald Action Group

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:27:09 GMT

This episode explores how a local campaign in a small corner of rural England helped reshape climate law far beyond it. The Weald Action Group began as a grassroots response to oil drilling proposals at Horse Hill in Surrey. What followed was a determined, citizen-led challenge to the idea that new fossil fuel projects could be approved without accounting for the climate damage caused when the oil is eventually burned.

Against long odds, campaigners took on local authorities, developers and the planning system itself, pushing the question of responsibility for carbon emissions all the way to the UK Supreme Court.

At the centre of the campaign was Sarah Finch, a community organiser and one of the claimants in the landmark legal case that now bears her name. Her work with Weald Action Group helped establish a crucial legal principle: that the climate impacts of fossil fuel extraction cannot simply be ignored. Sarah joins us to reflect on how a local campaign grew into a legal precedent, what it took to sustain the fight, and what this case means for future climate campaigns in the UK and beyond.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Patriotic Millionaires

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 08:00:00 GMT

Our guest is on this episode Rebecca Gowland, the executive director of Patriotic Millionaires UK, which is a network of British millionaires, from multiple industries and backgrounds, from across the UK, to use what they call the ‘voice of wealth’ to build a more just, stable, and inclusive economy, and their aim is the end of extreme wealth. They have a profound concern about the destabilising level of economic and political inequality. And they want to see more economic and political equality. In the U.S., the group was founded in 2010 by Erica Payne under the name "Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength". It was initially formed to advocate for the expiration of the Bush tax cuts during the Obama administration.

This is episode is sponsored by 38 Degrees. Go to: www.38degrees.org.uk/100campaigns

Sound is by Derek Gray. Music is by Alex Gordon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

3 Hijabis

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 08:17:38 GMT

The guest on this episode is Shaista Aziz, one of The Three Hijabis—a powerful anti-racism campaign that began with a viral tweet in 2021. What started as three British Muslim women watching England play in the Euros soon became a national movement, after racist abuse targeted Black players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka. Their petition to ban racists from football for life gained over a million signatures in just 48 hours, forced government action, and sparked a global conversation about inclusion in the sport. With 12 million petition views and a lasting impact on football culture, their story is a testament to how activism can challenge hate and reclaim spaces for everyone. Amnesty crisis response campaigner, working on gaza.

Sound is by Derek Gray. Joe Townsend was the producer.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Making Football Safer

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 08:13:01 GMT

The guest on this episode is Dawn Astle. Dawn is the daughter of Jeff Astle, who played football for West Bromwich Albion in the 60’s and 70’s. At the age of 55, Jeff was diagnosed with dementia, and he died four years later. The pathologist who officiated Jeff’s death said his brain looked like the brain of a boxer. Dawn has been campaigning since then for a change in the rules about heading in football. She has also helped win significant victories, notably with a ban coming into place in youth football this year and next year. But there is a lot more to do.

Sound is by Derek Gray.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duncan Green

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 09:47:00 GMT

In this opening episode of Season 3 of 100 Campaigns that Changed the World, I speak with Duncan Green – one of the most respected thinkers and practitioners in global development and social change. Duncan is Senior Strategic Adviser at Oxfam GB, Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics, and author of the widely read blog From Poverty to Power. His influential book How Change Happens has shaped how campaigners and policy-makers think about power, systems, and transformation. Drawing on decades of experience in international advocacy, Duncan reflects on what it really takes to create lasting change – and what campaigners today can learn from the past.

Sounds is by Derek Gray.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Live: Trust and Truth, Campaigning in the Disinformation Age

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 09:10:58 GMT

An expert panel of seasoned campaigners who have dealt with disinformation and falsehoods, our first live panel event sheds light on how campaigners can navigate the issues and counter conspiracy theories, lies and half-truths. The panel consisted of

Dr Charles Kriel, who is co-Founder of Metrotone Media, co-Director of the documentary People You May Know, which follows his breakthrough Cambridge Analytica investigation while serving as Special Advisor to the UK parliament Select Committee on Disinformation and Fake News.A list of other target panellists is available on request.
Tessa Kahn, who is the Director of Uplift UK, which supports efforts to create a rapid and fair transition away from oil and gas production in the UK. Mythbusting and debunking the industry’s increasing tendency towards misinformation has become a stock-in-trade for Tessa and her team.
Chitra Karve, who is Chair of Action for Southern Africa was an Anti-Apartheid Movement staff member from 1986 to 1989. She helped organise the 1988 Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70 campaign.
Nathan Oswin, who leads the Trade Union Congress's involvement in the Covid Public Inquiry and was previously Campaigns Director of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign. Through these roles, he has dealt with large-scale and sometimes harmful types of disinformation and mistruths

The event was sponsored by 38 Degrees and University of Westminster Media and Communications School and their MA in Media, Campaigning and Social Change https://www.westminster.ac.uk/media-and-communication-courses/2026-27/september/full-time/media-campaigning-and-social-change-ma.

It was also supported by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation and the Advocacy Hub. Music is by Alex Gordon. Sound is by Derek Gray and Solomon Collins.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kush Kanodia

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 07:58:49 GMT

Dr. Kush Kanodia is a multi-award-winning campaigner on disability rights and is Sheila Mackechnie Foundation’s Campaigner of the year. His own disability has fuelled his lifelong commitment to social justice. He shifted from a successful investment banking career to focus on disability rights.

In this episode, we discuss three successful disability rights campaigns which he has played a leading role in. One of these targeted the Premier League and the number of wheelchair-accessible spaces in stadiums which didn’t accurately reflect the needs of disabled fans, a second was on parking charges for disabled people at NHS hospitals and a third was on the London Ultra Low Emissions Zone.

Sound is by Derek Gray and Solomon Collins.

find him at https://kushkanodia.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Berlin Housing Campaign

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 09:58:46 GMT

The Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen movement wants the city of Berlin to transfer real estate into public ownership, expropriating the city’s large corporate landlords: those who have more than 3,000 units (an estimated 11% of the city’s housing stock). Launched in 2018 but dating back to 2010, the initiative focused on increasing rents and poor-quality housing in a city where 85% of people live in rented accommodation.

Campaigners uncovered a mechanism under the constitution to hold referenda. 7% of those eligible to vote were needed to sign a petition and some 171,000 signatures were collected. A referendum was held in 2021, with the campaign winning 59.1% of the vote, gaining over a million votes. Campaigners are now planning a new, binding referendum.

One prominent activist within the movement is Polish-born Joanna Kusiak, who the guest in this episode. Joanna lives in Berlin and works at the University of Cambridge where her work focuses on urban land, housing crises, and the progressive potential of law. In 2021 she was one of the spokespeople of Deutsche Wohnen & Co. enteignen. Joanna describes both the campaign and some of the tactics and strategies it employed, with the legal-constitutional strategy at the heart of the effort.

Sound is by Derek Gray and Solomon Collins.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Corn Laws

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 14:02:49 GMT

The Corn Laws were a series of trade restrictions and tariffs on imported grain (wheat, oats, barley and rye – not corn) that were in effect in the UK from 1815 to 1846. The Passed by Prime Minister Lord Liverpool in response to a strained post-war economy, they were intended to favour domestic agriculture by making it more difficult to import grain. Campaigning on the laws focused on the Manchester-based Anti-Corn Law League. The goal of the League was the ‘immediate and total abolition’ of the Corn Laws, the wording deliberately echoing the successful anti-slavery agitations, but the broader aim was to promote global free trade. Free traders used abstract reasoning to argue that their policy was in the national interest. They also used masive public petitions. One further outcome of the campaign was the founding of The Economist magazine.

Our guest in this episode is Dr Henry Miller, Vice Chancellor's Fellow, Northumbria University. He is an academic historian researching and teaching on modern Britain and is an expert on the Corn Laws and the Anti-Corn Law League. Henry offers some interesting and surprising observations and lessons for current campaigners from the League's operations nearly 200 years ago.

Sound is by Derek Gray and Solomon Collins.

Image courtesy of East Lothian Museums / Creative Commons.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stop taxing periods. Period.

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 11:42:53 GMT

The guest on this episode is Laura Coryton, a British campaigner, feminist activist and author who started the "Stop taxing periods, period" campaign in 2014, while she was still a student. The campaign sought to abolish the 'tampon tax' in the United Kingdom by making menstrual products exempt from VAT. The campaign and petition on Change.org successfully pushed the UK Parliament into establishing the Tampon Tax Fund in 2016, through which almost £100m was donated to female-focused charities. Her campaign finally succeeded in 2021, when the tax on all period products was axed. Loads of great insights from a campaigner who started from scratch and changed something important through determination mixed with strategic direction.

Sound is by Derek Gray and Solomon Collins.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dumb Animals

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 09:09:16 GMT

Lynx began their anti-fur campaign back in the mid 1980’s. By using innovative advertising and media campaigns such as the famous David Bailey ‘Dumb Animals’ poster and cinema commercials, consumer attitudes towards the wearing of fur in the UK changed dramatically. Most department stores used to have fur salons and fur could be found almost everywhere on the high street. More and more department and high street stores started to adopt ‘fur free’ policies such as the Fur Free Retailer programme and the wearing of fur is no longer seen as acceptable. Partly thanks to the campaign, fur farming has been banned in England and Wales since 2000 and in Scotland and Northern Ireland since 2002

In this episode we speak with Lynx co-founder Lynne Kentish, who recalls the campaign, what made it successful and also how it was brought down by the industry that it helped bring to an end.

Sound is by Derek Gry and Solomon Collins.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Climate Change: Senior Swiss women vs the Government

Fri, 06 Sep 2024 08:37:15 GMT

In a really fascinating example of litigation-led campaigning, a group of senior women in Switzerland argue that - because they suffer more from frequent and intense heatwaves - Switzerland must do its bit to keep global heating below 1.5ºC. KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz (Senior Women for Climate Protection) is a group of elderly women in Switzerland, initially formed by a group of 40 in 2016, but now numbering more than 2,500. After exhausting all national options, they took their case to the European Court of Human Rights. The Court’s decision this April (2024), has set a crucial legal precedent that establishes States’ human rights climate change obligations..

The interview is with KlimaSeniorinnen's Elisabeth Stern, a retired ethnologist who worked at the Pestalozzi Foundation Children’s Village for intercultural education. She taught ethnology at the University of Zurich, worked as a research associate at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare and as a Senior Lecturer for intercultural management competence at the University of St. Gallen. She was the co-director of an environmental company for the financing of environmental projects.

Sound is by Derek Gray and Solomon Collins.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stop Funding Hate

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 10:47:43 GMT

Stop Funding Hate is a pressure group which asks companies to stop advertising in, and therefore stop providing funds for, certain British newspapers that it argues use "fear and division to sell more papers". It was launched in August 2016, by a group of people who came together online to highlight how some British newspapers were using hate and division to drive sales. This was a time of unprecedented amounts of negative headlines about migrants and refugees in newspapers: particulary the Sun, Daily Mail and the Express.

The guest in this episode is Richard Wilson who is the Director and co-founder of Stop Funding Hate. He previously worked for Amnesty International UK and the Child Poverty Action Group, and has been involved in human rights campaigning since 2001. Richard is the author of two books – Titanic Express (2006) and Don’t Get Fooled Again (2008).

Richards highlights some important lessons about what the campaign has done, its effectiveness, what success looks like and also about the campaigns longer term plans.

Sound is by Derek Gray and Solomon Collins.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Uber drivers: Yaseen Aslam

Tue, 21 May 2024 10:21:26 GMT

Yaseen Aslam is a great example of a 'lived experience' campaigner. He started working as a private taxi or ‘minicab’ driver in London in 2006 and moved to taxi firm Uber when the company launched its Uber X service in 2013.

Between 2015 and 2021, he and other Uber drivers campaigned to ensure that the company treat its drivers as “workers” which entitles them to more rights than independent contractors. Uber had a position that the drivers were self employed 'contractors'. They maintained this position throughout years of legal proceedings and appeals that took the case all the way to the Supreme Court. Eventually, in 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Uber drivers and allowed them the entitlement to a basket of rights such as the minimum wage, working-time protections and holiday pay. As a result, the company has been forced to announce new benefits for drivers including a pension plan and holiday time.

Sound is by Derek Gray and Solomon Collins.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

WASPI Campaign

Fri, 03 May 2024 14:06:25 GMT

This spisode features an interview with Angela Madden, the Financer Director and Chair of WASPI - the Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign.

In 1995 the John Major government raised state pension age from 60-65 to bring in line with men. In 2011, a new Pensions Act was introduced that shortened the timetable to increase the women's pension age to 65 by two years but also raised the overall pension age to 66 by 2022. Both the 1995 and 2011 changes came as a shock to many, with women discovering that they would have to wait up to six years longer for their state pension, potentially affecting their retirement plans.

In 2015, WASPI was formed by five women to argue for the government to provide transitional payments to women born in the 1950s receiving their pension after the age of 60. They also call for compensation to women who now receive a state pension but had to wait longer.

In March 2024 the Parliamentary Ombudsman (PHSO) ruled that WASPI women should get apology and compensation. The women are still waiting for any compensation and the campaign continues. Find out more at https://www.waspi.co.uk/

Sound is by Derek Gray and Solomon Collins.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marcus Rashford Free School Meals

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 09:01:37 GMT

Marcus Rashford is a professional footballer who plays for Premier League club Manchester United and England. He has launched and been involved with quite a few campaigns, most notably on child food poverty. in this episode we talk with Jo Ralling, who helped to run the feed the future and the #EndChildFoodPoverty campaigns for the Food Foundation, where she is head of campaigns. She previously worked with Jamie Oliver on various food campaigns including Sugar Smart. The Food Foundation spearheads the End Child Food Poverty Coalition which consists of a group of more than 30 organisations supporting the call from Marcus Rashford for the Government to improve the diets and food access of children in low-income families.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Infected Blood Campaign

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 09:19:14 GMT

In the 1970s and 80s, 4,689 British haemophiliacs were treated with blood products contaminated with HIV and Hepatitis C. More than half of them have died. At the time, the medication was imported from the US where it was made from the pooled blood plasma of thousands of paid donors, including some in high-risk groups, such as prisoners. If a single donor was infected with a blood-borne virus such as hepatitis or HIV then the whole batch of medication could be contaminated. Official documents presented to the inquiry revealed this therapy was given as part of clinical trials.

Jason Evans is my interviewee on this episode. He is the Director and Founder of the campaigning organisation Factor 8, which is seeking justice for the familes impacted by the scandel. Jsson is also the lead claimant in the Contaminated Blood Products Group Litigation currently before the High Court and a Core Participant in the Infected Blood Public Inquiry. Jason's Father, Jonathan, died when Jason was just four years old, in October 1993. Jonathan was infected with both Hepatitis C and HIV from infected Factor VIII blood products. Growing up without his father, it was during his teenage years that Jason began to understand the circumstances around how his father came to die from AIDS.

You can find out more about the scandel and the campaign here. There is also an excellent TV documentary.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anti-Apartheid Movement

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 11:05:53 GMT

The British Anti-Apartheid Movement was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African racial segregation system, Apartheid . By the late 1980s the UK Movement had unleashed a number of campaigns and branches and become one of the most powerful international solidarity efforts in history.

In this interview we feature three prominent UK anti-apartheid activists and organisers from the time: Chitra Karve, who was an Anti-Apartheid Movement staff member from 1986 to 1989 and helped organise the 1988 Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70 campaign, Suresh Kamath who was formerly Vice-Chair of the Movement, and helped to organise the Mandela freedom concert at Wembley Stadium in April 1990, and Tim Oshodi who was Chair of the London School of Economics AA Group and took part in an occupation of the LSE, and was a member of the Black Solidarity Committee.

The three interviewees give some really fascinating insights into what was one of the most important and ultimately successful campaigns of the 20th Century, and reflect on what what went well, what went wrong and what contemporary campaigners can learn from their experience.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freedom Rides

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 09:22:42 GMT

Emilye Crosby, professor of history and the coordinator of Black Studies at SUNY Geneseo, and Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Associate Professor for the History Department in the Ohio State University, reflect on the tactics and strategies of the Freedom Riders. The Freedom Rides were a key part of the American civil rights movement of the 1960s and the Riders rode buses through the American South in 1961 to protest against segregated bus terminals. They tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters at bus stations in Alabama, South Carolina and other Southern states. Along their routes, the freedom riders were met with violence and confrontation by police and white protestors (many of whom were members of the Klu Klux Klan. The protest drew international attention to the civil rights movement and was a pivotal moment in the wider civil rights struggle.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mum's for Lungs

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 12:05:34 GMT

Tackling air pollution in a city like London is a big and important job. Mum's for Lungs founder Jemima Hartshorn explains how setting up and running a community-based, grassroots campaigning organisation on a part-time basis is both inspiring and challenging. Crowdsourcing campaign ideas and operating a parent-friendly model are some of the ways in which Mum's for Lungs stands out. Jemima also reflects on issues like the ULEZ (London Ultra Low Emmissions Zone) and how the issue has become politically weaponised in recents months.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jubilee 2000 Debt Campaign

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 08:52:31 GMT

Jubilee 2000 was an international coalition movement in over 40 countries that called for cancellation of poor country debt by the year 2000. The campaign was hugely successful, leading to large quantities of debts being cancelled. Here I speak with Adrian Lovett, formerly Deputy Director of Jubilee 2000 and leader of the successor organisation, Drop the Debt. Adrian, now CEO of Development Initiatives, which seeks to harness the power of data and evidence to end poverty, talks about how the Jubilee campaign became very high profile, getting noticed by world leaders and finding media coverage through celebrity engagement, and combined that with mass mobilisation, policy and evidence. We pick out some lessons for campaigners and reflect on what worked and some things that didn't.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Together for Yes: Abortion in Ireland

Fri, 28 Jul 2023 07:45:02 GMT

Together for Yes is an abortion rights campaign group in Ireland. It campaigned successfully for a Yes vote in the 2018 referendum to remove the Eighth Amendment's constitutional ban on abortion in Ireland.

In this episode I talk with Ailbhe Smyth, an Irish academic, and the founding director of the Women's Education, Resource and Research Centre at University College Dublin. As well as being involved in campaigns on women’s liberation in the 1970s and on equal marriage she was named as one of the Time 100 most influential people, which she helped found and which was the umbrella organisation for the campaign for repealing the 8th amendment of the Irish constitution which had afforded the unborn the same rights as a pregnant woman. .

There is lots of interesting stuff in this interview. The campaign was hugely successful and Ailbhe was one of the people directing it and making sure it didn't make the mistakes that a lot of coalitions make.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Equal Marraige Campaign

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 16:10:52 GMT

This episode is on the campaign for equal marriage in the uk, sometimes referred to as gay marriage. The interviewee is Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK. Andrew was very much involved as a leader of the campaign which led legislation to allow same-sex marriage in England and Wales. The legislation was passed by the UK Parliament 10 years ago, in July 2013.

In England and Wales, the first major campaign for same-sex marriage was Equal Love established by Peter Tatchell in 2010. The Coalition for Equal Marriage is a British campaign group created in 2012 by Conor Marron and James Lattimore, a same-sex couple, to petition in support of civil marriages for gay couples.

There are strong lessons in here for groups looking to campaign across the political divide, tacking into the political and social zeitgeist and using broad coalitions to achieve change.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Looking back and learning lessons

Sun, 09 Jul 2023 09:34:53 GMT

In this episode, long-time friend and collaborator Chris Stalker and I look back at some of the previous campaigns that the podcast has covered and try to tease out some common lessons and insights for campaigners and people interested in campaiging think about.

Chris lives in Brooklyn, New York and has over 30 years of experience working in the non-profit sector having conducted close to 100 campaigning evaluations as well as working in senior advocacy roles at Oxfam, Amnesty International and the UK’s National Council of Voluntary Organisations. He is Adjuct Assistant Professor of Public Service at New York University.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

End Our Cladding Scandal

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 08:59:10 GMT

The start of season 2!

I speak with Paul Afshar who is spokesperson for the campaign end our cladding scandal. The scandal in the UK started to come to the fore after the grenfel tower fire. In June 2017, a high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in west London,. 72 people died, two later in hospital, with more than 70 injured. It was the worst UK residential fire since World War II. The fire was started by an electrical fault but This spread rapidly up the outside of the building -accelerated by dangerously combustible aluminium composite cladding and external insulation.

Nearly five years after Grenfell, millions remain trapped in unsafe buildings, facing life-changing bills they can’t and shouldn’t have to pay.

The End Our Cladding Scandal campaign is a bottom up, resident-led campaign and a collaboration between Inside Housing, UK Cladding Action Group, Manchester Cladiators, Grenfell United, and many other resident groups. It calls on the Government to lead an urgent, national effort to fix the building safety crisis exposed by the Grenfell tragedy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Covid-19 Bereaved Familes for Justice

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 11:23:04 GMT

Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice is a campaign that has called for accountability for the UK Government Response to Covid and for the lessons to be learned so that mistakes are avoided in future pandemics. In this episode Campaign Director Nathan Oswin tells us how the campaign has been successful, and what the challanges were.

You can join here: https://covidfamiliesforjustice.org/ and there is also a Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/covidfamiliesforjusticeuk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Better Together Campaign: Scottish IndyRef

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 15:00:09 GMT

Blair McDougall explains the success of - and the stories around - the Better Together Campaign which set out the case for staying in the UK during the Scottish Independence Referendum of 2014.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Surfers Against Sewage

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 11:14:32 GMT

I speak to Hugo Tagholm from Surfers Against Sewage who have been campaiging UK government and water companies to end sewage pollution in rivers and the ocean.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stop the European Super League

Wed, 14 Jul 2021 12:24:09 GMT

Joe Blott talks about the campaign to stop the European Super League proposal, which included some of Europe's biggest clubs and collapsed within 72 hours after widespread criticism from fans, players and governing bodies and politicians.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Suffragettes

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 14:52:39 GMT

My guest is Helen Pankhurst, women's rights activist and great grandaughter of Emily Pankhurst, and togther we examine the Suffragette's role in the campaign for women's suffrage.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Tatchell

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 09:58:11 GMT

Peter has been campaigning since the 60s on issues of human rights, democracy, LGBT freedom, and global justice. From the late 70s onwards, he proposed a single, comprehensive Equal Rights Act to harmonise the uneven patchwork of equality legislation. This proposal was eventually secured with the passage of the Equality Act 2010. In 1994, he named 10 Anglican bishops and urged them to “Tell The Truth” about their sexuality; accusing them of homophobia and hypocrisy. Four years later interrupted the Easter Sermon of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, in protest at his opposition to gay equality. In 1999, in London, he ambushed the motorcade of the Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, attempting a citizen’s arrest on charges of torture. A repeat attempt in Brussels in 2001 resulted in him being beaten unconscious by Mugabe’s bodyguards. He coordinated the Equal Love campaign from 2010, in a bid to overturn the UK’s twin legal bans on same-sex civil marriages and opposite-sex civil partnerships – helping win same-sex marriage but, not yet, opposite-sex civil partnerships. He is Director of the human rights organisation, the Peter Tatchell Foundation https://www.petertatchellfoundation.org/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Windrush Campaign

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 17:21:58 GMT

The Windrush scandal erupted in 2018 when it emerged that many British people who arrived from the Carribean before 1973 were being wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and in some cases wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office. Guy Hewitt exaplains how the campaign to get justice for the affected was a kind of campaigning 'perfect storm' and how his heterodox background helped him play a leading role.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Close Guantánamo Bay

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 11:41:55 GMT

Clive Stafford Smith is the founder of Reprieve and the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center and in this episode we talk about his role in the long running campaign to close the prison on the US military base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. To date, Clive has helped secure the release of 69 prisoners from Guantánamo Bay (including every British prisoner) and still acts for eight more and he talks candidly about the challenges he has faced and how he and other overcame them.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spycops

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 16:33:03 GMT

In November 2015 London's Metropolitan Police was forced to apologise to seven women "tricked into relationships" over a period of 25 years by officers from two undercover police squads. The officers involved - just some of 140 officers who took part in such operations - had eventually vanished, leaving victims feeling as if – in their words - they had been subject to "psychological torture". The disclosures led to the closing of the units concerned, and the setting up the Undercover Policing Inquiry under retired judge Sir John Mitting.

One group representing at least 30 victims of such practices, which my interviewee in this episode is associated with is Police Spies Out of Lives who work with other groups and jointly operate a campaign called Spycops, which aims to bring out the truth and get justice for the victims to ensure that such activities never take place again.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Campaign to Abolish the Slave Trade

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 14:37:52 GMT

This podcast features back to back interviews with two experts on the slave trade and the British campaign to end it: Dr Richard Huzzey, Associate Professor of History at Durham University and Dr Richard Benjamin, Head of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool. the two Richards talk about aspect of the campaign to end the slave trade, and what lessons there are for modern campaigners.

As a side note, Richard Huzzey is a co-author of a report commissioned by Friends of the Earth about how campaigners can learn the lessons of past campaigns.

https://policy.friendsoftheearth.uk/sites/files/policy/documents/2019-02/Campaigning_for_change_lessons_from_history.pdf

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HIV Campaigning in the 2000s

Tue, 02 Apr 2019 13:59:32 GMT

in the 2000s AIDS campaigners took the issue of access to free drugs for HIV and AIDS global ... and won. With Kirsty McNeill and Simon Wright from Save the Children UK.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kumi Naidoo

Thu, 10 Jan 2019 12:21:45 GMT

Episode 5 contains an interview with Kumi Naidoo, the South African Secretary General of Amnesty International, and well known campaigner on global poverty, climate justice and human rights. He covers and touches on several campaigns including Make Poverty History, Anti-Apartheid and climate change campaigns. Kumi speaks frankly about the current state of civil society, progress being won and lost and how he keeps motivated in the face of external and internal challenges.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ozone Layer Campaign

Mon, 06 Aug 2018 11:32:14 GMT

This interview is with Fiona Weir who is talking to me today about the Ozone layer campaign which led to phase out of most products that deplete the ozone, such as aerosols and air conditioning coolants with chlorofluorocarbons.

Scientists first discovered a hole in the ozone layer hole in 1985 and attributed its appearance to the use of CFCs. Friends of the Earth along with other organisations quickly mobilised to get an international agreement which saw CFCs being phased out. It is widely regarded as one of the most successful environmental actions ever and has been credited with the observed shrinkage of the hole in the decades that followed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hillsborough Justice Campaign

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 08:30:04 GMT

This episode features Margaret Aspinall, chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group. The Hillsborough disaster led to the campaign for justice for the 96 Liverpool fans who died in a crush in Hillsborough stadium during a football match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. There is a lot of information to be found about the disaster, for instance a very good BBC film from 2016. The Hillsborough justice campaign has been one of the most high-profile campaigns in the UK, which has seen the families of the 96 set against parts of the British establishment, especially the police, who have been shown to have spread misinformation on a grand scale.

Music is by Alex Gordon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tax Justice

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 13:59:31 GMT

The Tax Justice Network is an independent international network launched in 2003. Their mission is to ‘change the weather’ on a wide range of issues related to tax, tax havens and financial globalisation. We push for systemic change.

in this episode I interview John Christensen is the chair and director of the Tax Justice Network. I have worked on the tax justice campaign with John, and he doesn’t fit the mould.

He trained as a forensic auditor and economist, he has worked in many countries around the world, including a period of working in offshore financial services. For 11 years he was economic adviser to the government of the British Channel Island of Jersey. In 2003 he became what was described as “the unlikely figurehead of a worldwide campaign against tax avoidance.”

The campaign is one of the most successful campaigns that there has been in recent years on a economic issue. And it is one where the unlikely issue of tax has become – almost – trendy.

Music is by Alex Gordon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robin Hood Tax

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 13:59:33 GMT

In this pilot episode recorded last year I talk to David Hillman, who cut his campaigning teeth on the anti-Apartheid campaign before going on to work on the hugely successful effort to ban landmines and drop developing country debt. He is currently director of Stamp Out Poverty, working for a number of years on new sources of finance for development and leading UK campaigning for a Financial Transaction Tax. In 2010 he also helped create the Robin Hood Tax campaign, a network of more than 100 UK charities, trade unions, faith organisations and green groups pressing for a tax on financial transaction.

Music is by Alex Gordon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.