From Pink to Prevention activities & toolkit this Breast Cancer Prevention Month
Dear friends, supporters and colleagues,
As we find ourselves mid-way through the global fundraising phenomena that is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we ask are environmental and occupational links to the disease ‘an elephant in the room’?
We want to draw attention to a breast cancer narrative that is excluded from the ‘pink’ limelight.
For decades now, scientists and activists alike have argued that the persistent exclusion of environmental and occupational risk factors for breast cancer (eg carcinogens and hormone disrupting chemicals) by government, breast cancer charities and industry is, at the very least baffling and, at worst, obstructing a basic public health right to know. We argue that the time has come for policy-makers to explain why they are refusing to acknowledge the evidence that links these risk factors to breast cancer.
We hope you find something of interest in our activities listed below – from our new online toolkit, to our book launch on 31st October, to our calls for action on breast cancer charities and politicians alike. Help us widen the breast cancer risk-factor debate – and let everyone know about this ‘elephant in the room’ each and every October.
Best wishes
Deb, Diana, Helen & Ho-Chih
From Pink to Prevention Campaign
ONLINE TOOLKIT TO HELP WIDEN THE DEBATE ON BREAST CANCER RISK FACTORS
BOOK LAUNCH MONDAY 31ST OCTOBER 6PM-8PM.
From Pink to Prevention supported by Unison, the Alliance for Cancer Prevention and the Breast Cancer Consortium, are hosting the launch of So Much to Be Done, a book of writings by the late Barbara Brenner, with readings by her partner of 38 years Susie Lampert. Barbara was 15 years as the director of the hugely influential organisation Breast Cancer Action based in San Francisco and was a leading contributor to the film Pink Ribbons, Inc.
Venue: UNISON Café 130 Euston Road London NW1 2 AY
Event is free. Please RSVP to info@frompinktoprevention.org
Tea, coffee and snacks will be provided.
SPREAD THE WORD AND SIGN OUR BIG QUESTION PETITION
We advocate that better diagnostics and treatment is not mutually exclusive with looking at how our profoundly polluted environment, homes and workplaces impact on our bodies and health, while also taking into consideration the ‘precautionary principle’ – better safe than sorry.
https://www.change.org/p/breast-cancer-charities-remove-the-pink-ribbon-blindfold-and-ask-the-big-question-3
EARLY DAY MOTION
We are delighted that Caroline Lucas MP will table an Early Day Motion to Parliament calling upon the Government to act upon the urgent inclusion of environmental and occupational risk factors into all National Cancer Plans and strategies.
It will run until spring 2017. We would like to get as many MPs signing as possible. Once our EDM is live, we will let you know!
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FROM PINK TO PREVENTION
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Here for all to read and understand was shocking scientific evidence of harm to every form of life from the widespread use and persistent presence of manmade chemicals in the environment. Her book, published in 1962, ‘Silent Spring’ was, and still is, a stark wake-up call to the irreversible consequences for all living organisms, as well as to the extreme risks from the multiplier effects of such toxic chemicals for humans at the top of the food chain.
Our work at From Pink to Preventionis to keep asking The Big Questionof all those individuals, organisations and institutions with the power to make or to influence decisions on breast cancer incidence in particular WHY they persist in refusing to acknowledge the role of environmental and occupational toxicants and WHY they persist in ignoring decades of 
Alongside our existing films and campaigning work, we are developing a number of new projects that address economic justice issues. They chime with a wider civil society desire for a re-balancing of political and economic systems in favour of social need and away from the special interest groups that have accumulated power and wealth for themselves over the past three decades. We are developing an Attlee Celebration Festival; an international event and campaign to mark Martin Luther King’s 1968 Poor People’s Campaign; and a feature length documentary comprising short film essays on a new vision for Britain in advance of the 2020 election.
Country-by-country reporting would make transnational corporations break down the financial results for each country they operated in, so that citizens could see what those companies and their affiliates were doing and what, if any, tax was paid or avoided. While ‘country by country reporting’ was central to the development debate, it was a tough, detailed issue to communicate to the wider public and media.
In 2017, we mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Clement Attlee. This event aims to bring the much under-valued and largely sidelined story of Clement Attlee, and his government, to a new generation. It will be a contemporary cultural project which explores his legacy through documentary films; film and photo archival material; talks; debates and exhibitions. Attlee oversaw the largest and most wide-ranging social reform while in government. Despite being in the most difficult of times, his government laid down the foundation for the subsequent rapidly rising living standard, decreasing inequality and growing prosperity. A celebration for all generations, the Attlee Unity Festival in 2017 will explore how, 70 years ago, politicians did push back powerful vested interests for a caring social democracy – and what lessons we can bring forward for today’s ‘austerity’ debate.
We are in the early stages of developing an international project to mark 50 years since Dr Martin Luther King launched the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. At the time of his murder in April 1968, Dr. King was working on a Poor People’s March on Washington planned for summer 1968 which was a more radical successor to the March on Washington in August 1963. The 1968 campaign had a radical new idea at its heart: An Economic Bill of Rights. By 1968, King had been developing political strategies that forged links between race and class, within the framework of a profound challenge to the wider economic system. He said ‘we must rapidly begin the shift form a thing oriented society to a people oriented society’. And he argued that ‘something is wrong with capitalism’.
May 7-15th. We will be taking part in PSC led programme of events to mark ‘Nakba’ – ‘catastrophe’ in English. Background: Every year Palestinians mark the Nakba – “catastrophe” in English – when in 1948 around 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes during the creation of the state of Israel. Palestinian society was all but destroyed, with refugees scattered around neighbouring states and across the world. The ethnic cleansing continues today, with hundreds of Palestinians losing their homes due to Israel’s demolition policies in 2015, and the Palestinian Bedouin suffering repeated dispossession and displacement in the Naqab/Negev desert in Israel, to give a few examples. While Israel’s Law of Return entitles automatic citizenship to Jews born anywhere in the world, Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return to their homes and land, from which they were expelled. 
July 18th Mandela Day: Watch this space for forthcoming events on this day. We launched MAH on Mandela Day 2015 and 
The long term vision of 
Alongside our existing films and campaigning work, we are developing a number of new projects that address economic justice issues. They chime with a wider civil society desire for a re-balancing of political and economic systems in favour of social need and away from the special interest groups that have accumulated power and wealth for themselves over the past three decades. We are developing an Attlee Celebration Festival; an international event and campaign to mark Martin Luther King’s 1968 Poor People’s Campaign; and a feature length documentary comprising short film essays on a new vision for Britain in advance of the 2020 election.
Country-by-country reporting would make transnational corporations break down the financial results for each country they operated in, so that citizens could see what those companies and their affiliates were doing and what, if any, tax was paid or avoided. While ‘country by country reporting’ was central to the development debate, it was a tough, detailed issue to communicate to the wider public and media.
In 2017, we mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Clement Attlee. This event aims to bring the much under-valued and largely sidelined story of Clement Attlee, and his government, to a new generation. It will be a contemporary cultural project which explores his legacy through documentary films; film and photo archival material; talks; debates and exhibitions. Attlee oversaw the largest and most wide-ranging social reform while in government. Despite being in the most difficult of times, his government laid down the foundation for the subsequent rapidly rising living standard, decreasing inequality and growing prosperity. A celebration for all generations, the Attlee Unity Festival in 2017 will explore how, 70 years ago, politicians did push back powerful vested interests for a caring social democracy – and what lessons we can bring forward for today’s ‘austerity’ debate.
We are in the early stages of developing an international project to mark 50 years since Dr Martin Luther King launched the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. At the time of his murder in April 1968, Dr. King was working on a Poor People’s March on Washington planned for summer 1968 which was a more radical successor to the March on Washington in August 1963. The 1968 campaign had a radical new idea at its heart: An Economic Bill of Rights. By 1968, King had been developing political strategies that forged links between race and class, within the framework of a profound challenge to the wider economic system. He said ‘we must rapidly begin the shift form a thing oriented society to a people oriented society’. And he argued that ‘something is wrong with capitalism’.
May 7-15th. We will be taking part in PSC led programme of events to mark ‘Nakba’ – ‘catastrophe’ in English. Background: Every year Palestinians mark the Nakba – “catastrophe” in English – when in 1948 around 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes during the creation of the state of Israel. Palestinian society was all but destroyed, with refugees scattered around neighbouring states and across the world. The ethnic cleansing continues today, with hundreds of Palestinians losing their homes due to Israel’s demolition policies in 2015, and the Palestinian Bedouin suffering repeated dispossession and displacement in the Naqab/Negev desert in Israel, to give a few examples. While Israel’s Law of Return entitles automatic citizenship to Jews born anywhere in the world, Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return to their homes and land, from which they were expelled. 
July 18th Mandela Day: Watch this space for forthcoming events on this day. We launched MAH on Mandela Day 2015 and 
There is a dogged refusal to widen the remit from primarily lifestyle risks to include our everyday lifelong exposure to hormone disrupting chemicals and carcinogens. We are also keen to explore why this is the case and to start to research the 
The long term vision of 
While we continue Five Percent conversations with potential NGO stakeholders and other civil society groups, we also are encouraged by a growing public engagement with the issue of military spending (and consistently positive reactions to We Are Many included). For the first time in a very long time, the debate on Trident has been opened up. The UK decision to renew (or not) is due in 2016 and with cuts to public services, the cost of Trident renewal is one challenged by the new Labour Party leadership. And the peace movement is also growing – Feb 27th saw a 
Tipping Point North South 