People and Planet at MMU

News and updates from the People and Planet team at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Boycotting Coca-Cola January 18, 2011

Filed under: campaign — ppmmu @ 9:41 pm
This term teaming up with Amnesty International and the mmu Pakistani society as part of the Buy Right campaign our agenda is getting Coca-Cola off campus! The coca-cola company has many controversies with it’s human rights violations and environmental destruction among its unethical practises. This is a company based on corruption, from taking up precious local water supply in Plachimada, India in April 2002 – “Barely six months after the factory set up, villagers and farmers living around the bottling unit began noticing changes in the quantity and quality of well water. Water from a well in Plachimada, a tribal colony with nearly 100 families living along the eastern wall of the factory, rapidly turned brackish and milky white in colour. The water was unfit for drinking, cooking and bathing.” leaving life miserable for nearby villagers, women were forced to walk up a kilometre away for water and return in time to get to work – to its anti-union standpoint; in the 1980′s three General Secretaries of a union in Guatemala City were murdered and five other workers killed, four more people were kidnapped and have disappeared. Most recently in 2010 another human rights abuse lawsuit had been filed against Coca-Cola in the supreme court of New York, the case involving a campaign of violence – including rape, murder and attempted murder – against trade unionist and their families at the behest of the management of Coca-cola bottling and Processing plants in Guatemala. Again their track record with unionist is evident as in 2005 in Istanbul, Turkey when 105 people joined a union and were terminated. After several weeks of protesting, leaders of the workers were meeting with management for the company, when their company ordered Turkish riot police to attack the workers who were peacefully assembled – many with their spouses and children. Nearly 200 were beaten badly and many required hospitalization. Lawsuits are still pending.

With murders in Colombia, Child labour in El Salvador, Stealing and polluting water in India, El Salvador and Mexico other universities have boycotted Coca-cola terminating their contracts and removed Coke machines or banned the sale or distribution of Coke products from their premises.

With 43 universities in the United States
6 Universities in Canada
Universities in Norway, Sweden, Italy and Ireland
4 Universities in the UK including University of Sussex, University of Manchester and The University of Bangor

come along and support the cause at our film showing of Mark Thomas on Coca-Cola, see facebook for more information at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=175879752447812

see you there!

 

Freshers’ Fair September 24, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — ppmmu @ 7:50 am

It was brilliant to meet so many great new people at Freshers’ Fair over the past couple of days. Interest was really strong and we’re all excited to start a new year with lots of new members and fresh ideas.

Remember our first meeting will be next Wednesday 2pm on the top floor of MMUnion.

Also remember to join our Facebook Group

We’ll keep it pretty short and informal, just to introduce you to our group and what we’ve done previously and we can have a think of what we hope to achieve this year.

Also a BIG date for your diary. Sunday 10th October is 10:10′s Global Day of Doing http://www.1010global.org/uk and People and Planet MMU, in collaboration with several other Manchester environmental groups, will be holding a Low-carbon Fair in All Saints Park with bicycle powered smoothie machines, free veggie food, recycled craft and loads of other low-carbon treats.

Watch this space for more info coming soon…

 

People and Planet at Parklife! June 16, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — ppmmu @ 11:35 am

A few of us went along to Parklife this weekend to try and get festival goers thinking about how they could make their life more environmentally friendly. We took along our ‘Pledge Bank‘ and asked people to make a pledge of how they could reduce their carbon footprint and make the world better. We had some great ideas and here’s a summary of a few of them.

5 people pledged to recycle more.

5 people pledged to reduce energy through turning off appliances.

1 person pledged not to fly for a year.

2 people pledged to buy more sustainable clothes.

6 people pledged to drive and take the bus less.

1 person pledged to start a compost bin.

6 people pledged to eat veggie or vegan more often.

13 people pledged to start cycling more.

6 people pledged to encourage others to reduce their carbon footprint.

And 1 person pledged to climb everest for charity.

We’ll be emailing people soon to see how they’re getting on carrying out their pledges.

We also had a wishing tree which we asked people to fill with wishes for a greener world.

And thank you to everyone who made a pledge or a wish, let’s hope they come true!

 

GO GREEN WEEK April 28, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — ppmmu @ 5:11 pm

Apologies for the delay, here are the photos from Go Green Week, which was brilliant and raised over £350 for MSF who are working in Haiti. Thanks to everyone who donated and came along to an event.

Follow The White Rabbit - A Mad Hatter's Tea Party made from rubbish! Read more about this event in Student Direct http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2010/03/activists-go-down-the-rabbit-hole/

Going Bananas for Haiti - giving away 1500 Fairtrade bananas

Green Graffiti Night - this event has been praised for being the best contribution to Go Green Week nationwide!

 

Go Green Week February 1, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — ppmmu @ 5:22 pm

Go Green Week at MMU

22 – 27 February 2009

 Please come along to the people and planet meeting every Wednesday if you want to help to plan for go green week.

People and Planet MMU,

Every Wednesday at 2pm,

Man Met union 2nd floor.

 

Shared Planet November 19, 2009

Filed under: Uncategorized — ppmmu @ 6:50 pm

Shared Planet is the UK’s largest student conference on world poverty, human rights and the environment. And this year it’s here in Manchester!

It promises to be an awesome weekend with various workshops to get involved in, films to watch, and a massive party on the Saturday night!

It’s being held at both University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University over the weekend 20th – 22nd November.

And you can still get yourself a ticket, buy online or just turn up to registration on the Friday to buy a weekend ticket for £21 or a day ticket for £12.

Hope to see you all there!

 

 
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