We at Tipping Point, through our work on our From Pink to Prevention campaign, are proud to be marking the birthday of an extraordinary woman –the citizen/scientist Rachel Carson.
Dear friends and supporters,
This 7th-15th May, an incredible range of activity across the UK organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, will mark the 68th anniversary of the ‘NAKBA’ – Palestinians’ loss of their land when the state of Israel was created in 1948. The programme’s closing evening event (15 May London) includes Maxine Peake reading excerpts from The Shroudmaker, by Ahmed Masoud and first performed by Justin Butcher earlier this year.
Full Events Listing: http://www.palestinecampaign.org/events/nakba-week-events/
On 15 May, people will remember the violent dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948. These events, which took place during the creation of the state of Israel, are known to Palestinians as ‘the catastrophe’ or, in Arabic, the ‘Nakba’. They are the events which have led directly to today’s situation, with Palestinians dispossessed, stateless and living under occupation in the West Bank, under occupation and siege in Gaza, or in exile around the world, including millions in refugee camps to this day. And the Nakba is not over for Palestinians, as the Israeli Government continues to steal their land in the West Bank through illegal settlement building and the construction of the separation wall.
See more at: Palestinians prepare to mark nearly 70 years of dispossession
And this is what displacement looks like today – one of many thousands of stories.
Almost 800,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes in 1948-9 and during the June 1967 war a further 325,000 Palestinians became refugees. Under UN Resolution 194, the Palestinians have the right to return to their homes, but Israel has always refused to implement the Resolution. Today over 6 million Palestinians are refugees, hundreds of thousands of whom still live in overcrowded refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, and in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
The past 40 years have seen the establishment of over 200 illegal Israeli settlements, housing nearly 500,000 settlers, within occupied Palestine. The separation wall in the West Bank, construction of which was started in 2002, cuts deep into Palestinian land and, along with the “settler only” roads, cuts off many communities from water supplies, hospitals and their agricultural land. Palestinian residents face severe travel restrictions and for many it is impossible to enter Jerusalem or to travel abroad. The treatment of Palestinians, both within Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territory, is widely recognised as a system akin to the Apartheid regime of South Africa.
Palestinians are continually under attack from Israel’s occupying forces and are increasingly harassed by settlers, who attack farmers and steal their land. Collective punishments, such as prolonged curfews and house demolitions are frequently imposed.
Palestinians living in what is today the state of Israel, also face discrimination and are treated as second class citizens.
For more information on the historical background and the situation today, read this [pdf].
What does the ongoing ‘Land grab’ started in 1948 look like?
Established in 1979 to protect and promote human rights and the rule of law in the occupied Palestinian territory, Al-Haq is an independent Palestinian non-governmental human rights organisation based in Ramallah, West Bank. They have utilised the power of Google Maps to create interactive presentations that illustrate aspects of the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and present Al-Haq’s written and visual documentation of human rights violations.
Virtual Field Visits http://alhaq.mits.ps/index.php/virtual-field-visits
If you’d like to know more about Make Apartheid History, some links are below
Best Wishes from Deb, Justin, Ho-Chih & all MAH partners
This 7th-15th May, an incredible range of activity across the UK organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, will mark the 68th anniversary of the ‘NAKBA’ – Palestinians’ loss of their land when the state of Israel was created in 1948. The programme’s closing evening event (15 May London) includes Maxine Peake reading excerpts from The Shroudmaker, by Ahmed Masoud and first performed by Justin Butcher earlier this year.
Full Events Listing: http://www.palestinecampaign.org/events/nakba-week-events/ Continue reading
Open Bethlehem is now completed; had its UK release in 2015; its Bethlehem Premiere in Spring 2016 and continues its journey across the globe – the Middle East, Europe, North America. For more info click here.
NB Open Bethlehem is the new release title for The Road to Bethlehem.
In 2004 director Leila Sansour set out to find the answer for herself. Four years later, she found it.
This documentary is a personal story filmed over four critical years in the life of Bethlehem. This most famous little town also happens to be Leila Sansour’s hometown. She left it as a teenager, pledging never to return. But in 2004 she went home for Christmas. The journey changed her life.
The film is shot over four Christmases in the life of Bethlehem as, piece-by-piece, hundreds of slabs of concrete are lowered into place to build a wall that will seal the city from the outside world. The story is told through the eyes of the film’s director. It is her own very personal story.
To hear the latest news from Leila read her blog, or for a small taster of the film watch the clip below.
Tipping Point Film Fund has helped raise funds in excess of £100,000 to support the editing and completion of the film, as well as the international outreach plan for the film.
The film mobilised a fund-raising base that raised more than £70,000 towards this final sum – from individual donations, collective group contributions, dedicated fund-raising events and appeals. Supporting donor organisations include Trocaire (Ireland), Development and Peace (Canada) CBA Dfid (UK), and most recently McCabe Educational Trust.
Leila has a proven track record as a feature documentary director – her first film was the internationally acclaimed Jeremy Hardy versus the Israeli Army.
The film is now complete. The campaign accompanying the film on its release will be a 2-3 year long international effort to engage the public and decision-makers on the critical issues affecting Bethlehem and Palestine more widely, and inspire audiences around the world to get involved and really help make a difference.
At the heart of the film and the campaign, founded by the director herself in 2005, is Open Bethlehem, an international campaign set up to address the state of emergency in Bethlehem. It has secured widespread attention and endorsement from world figures such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter and is a campaign that will enhance the film’s international impact with the intention of creating a positive impact for her home town.
July 2014
TPFF hosted NGO screening for organisations working in or on the Israel/Palestine issue. Hosted at Mosaic rooms.
Sept 2014
The film was previewed at the Royal Geographical Society in September 2014 at a sell-out event hosted by Melvyn Bragg.
Open Bethlehem at the Royal Geographical Society with Melvyn Bragg
Dec 2014 – and into 2015 – UK release
“One of the most remarkable and moving documentaries I have seen. The tragedy
of the Palestinians encapsulated in the life of one town, Bethlehem”
Jon Snow
Open Bethlehem was released across the UK, beginning on December 5th. It has been shown in London, Liverpool, York, Oxford, Bristol, Norwich, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness to full house audiences with enthusiastic feedback. There were great Q&As of Leila with Jeremy Hardy, Irvine Welsh, Paul Laverty, among others. TPFF hosted two sell-out screenings at the Lexi cinema and the Ritzy Picturehouse. Screenings start again in the new year. Don’t miss the chance to see this wonderful film in the cinema.
“Leila Sansour’s documentary Open Bethlehem follows her campaign to stop occupying Israeli forces encircling her hometown with a concrete wall. Sansour’s film, which follows her attempts to unite Christians, Muslims and Jews in their desire for free access to the Holy City, is the kind of art that peace processes are built on.”
Peter Bradshaw
Watch the whole Guardian’s video review here.
Bethlehem syndrome: understanding the little town of ‘Brand Holy Land’
‘We might not achieve a victory, but we at least can tell a story’
Open Bethlehem Campaign
Integral to the release is an international outreach campaign of same name. Open Bethlehem works to promote global engagement with Bethlehem as a real and contemporary city in the Middle East. It does so by supporting the distribution of communication tools about Bethlehem to boost international interest and awareness and by promoting visits to Bethlehem through established and specialized tour operators. The campaign also works to develop a network of passionate ambassadors for the city through the Bethlehem Passport Program.
More information:
Leila recently wrote this article for The Elders website, ahead of the Pope’s visit, warning that the city’s tradition of peaceful coexistence is in danger of vanishing completely.
http://theelders.org/article/pictures-bethlehem-under-threat
Leila Sansour writes about her and her family’s experience of life growing up under Israeli occupation and considers the impact of Palestine’s UN Bid for recognition.
‘As a child growing up in Bethlehem, I was entrusted with burning all the political books in my father’s library whenever there was an Israeli raid. Now my city is surrounded by walls and ring-fenced by more than forty Israeli settlements built on Palestinian land.’
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/palestinian-inhibition-in-the-walled-city-of-bethlehem-1.435911
In September 2011, as Palestine prepared for its bid for UN recognition, Leila writes about this hugely significant step. ‘The Palestinian UN bid – an uncharted territory. Is the risk going to the UN? Or is the greater risk doing it half- heartedly? Read it here.
TV and Radio
Renowned “60 Minutes” series on US network CBS report on Christian Palestinians
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf1z4oHygPo
And for US faith group audiences, here are some syndicated radio reports about The Holy Land
http://en.lpj.org/holy-land-report/radio-spots/
Early on, as Leila and her team started making the documentary, they decided to commission a nationwide survey in the United States about American perceptions of Bethlehem. The findings where stunning and in total contrast to another survey we commissioned in Bethlehem at the same time.
The survey, carried out by top US political pollsters Zogby International, showed that only 15 percent of Americans realized that the biblical Bethlehem is a Palestinian city and even fewer still guessed that its inhabitants were a mix of Christians and Muslims or that Bethlehem was located in the West Bank. 15000 Americans were canvassed.
The Zogby survey showed strong support for the town in the US, where 65.5% of the population wanted the UN to list it as a world heritage site. It is worth mentioning that Bethlehem was finally listed as a world heritage site only in 2012.
The film crew also conducted 150 interviews in the streets of London at the same time producing a humorous montage of people’s perceptions. One woman said: “I don’t know where it is but I strongly believe the men there must be very attractive”. The clip did not make it into the film but it will be part of our press kit and promotional film take outs.
To read more about the survey http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/897171788.html
Dear friends, colleagues & supporters,
We hope our Spring newsletter finds you well and that there’s something of interest for you in our fulsome round-up below!
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.
There is no doubt that the latest revelations in the Panama Papers will further add to public anger about the way in which our societies are being hi-jacked by a small number of super-well connected individuals and businesses. We need to keep the faith that we can make change, rather than succumb to the sense that there is nothing we can do in the face of such widespread abuse of economic and political power.
The Panama Papers, and the debate that’s ensuing, has a special resonance for some of us here at Tipping Point. Back in the mid 2000s, we in the Christian Aid campaigns team took up ‘country by country tax reporting’ as one of our key messages on tax justice. It was founded on the work of Tax Justice Network experts John Christensen and Richard Murphy.
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.
But the global financial crisis catapulted the tax issue to the foreground. Tax is on everyone’s agenda and country by country reporting is now integrated into the wider tax debate. And the Panama Papers have put the UK PM himself in the spotlight. In his defence, David Cameron argues his government has done more to advocate tax transparency than any other government.
If the Tax Justice Network, UK Uncut and all the other NGOs and tax justice campaign supporters hadn’t pushed the government, HMRC and the rest, would the UK government have paid any attention to the immorality of tax havens? Of tax avoidance and evasion? Of the billions lost to public services, especially in the global south, but here in the UK and other developed nations too?
Campaigning works.
It may take years, decades even. But you can’t forever sideline those progressive campaigns whose time has come.
Deb, Kev, Justin& Ho-Chih
NEW PROJECTS
Event Attlee Celebration-Unity Festival: films, debates, exhibition
“the twentieth century’s greatest prime minister.” IPSOS-MORI poll of historians and political scientists (2004)
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.
Read http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/09/unromantic-hero
Watch: Spirit of 45 Ken Loach, Dogwoof http://dogwoof.com/thespiritof45/
Event & Campaign Project 2018 (working title)
‘For years I labored with the idea of reforming the existing institutions of society through a little change here and little change there…but now I feel quite differently. You have got to have a reconstruction of the whole society, a revolution of values… We are not interested in being integrated into this value structure. Power must be relocated, a radical redistribution of power must take place.’
Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
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’.
We are currently exploring partnerships with church networks and movements in the USA, sub-Saharan Africa and the UK to mobilise around a renewed call for us all to march on power with a progressive manifesto for transformative change founded on King’s original Economic Bill of Rights. A Manifesto that will reverse economic inequalities, racism, militarism and climate change that, combined, are destroying families, communities, nations and the very planet we live on.
Film 10 for 2020 (working title)
The grassroots support for politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders is a public call for action on the gross inequality our societies face. Both men over their long political careers have given active support to many issues that other politicians would not address for fear of public or media backlash or simply because there were no votes in it. Now it seems the time has come for their voices to be heard on national platforms.
In Development: We are working with several independent producers to develop a documentary which will invite a range of directors to offer up their ‘vision’ for Britain in 2020 – one which will reflect the spirit of hope that delivered Corbyn’s election. Reversal of profound inequality; renewed respect for the political process and increased investment in public services; prioritising green jobs and a green economy; development of a new vision of Britain in the world where Trident is not renewed and going into illegal wars is out of the question.
FILM & CAMPAIGN UPDATES
Films
Open Bethehem had its Palestine Premiere in Bethlehem on March 29! It was hosted by Dar Al-Kalimah University for Arts and Culture in association with Visit Palestine and NEPTO (The Network of Experiential Palestinian Tourism Organisation). The film received a great reviewfrom one of the region’s leading commentators Daoud Kattab.
Leila Sansour’s ‘film Open Bethlehem is not just another documentary; it is a ninety-minute epic that transcends politics and normal cinema and gives the viewer a personal view of the life and passions of a single individual who is committed to giving her townspeople a better future…After seeing Open Bethlehem you can’t sit still. A clear and powerful case is being made through the efforts of a human being who is bringing to the world a call in which she wants the world to join her. So let us all say it loud and clear: OPEN BETHLEHEM.’
And in January Malala, Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel Prize Laureate, and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai, the United Nations Special Advisor on Global Education, became the newest citizens and ambassadors of Open Bethlehem.
Find out more at http://www.openbethlehem.org
We Are Many The Iraq War remains a live issue 12 years after the invasion and is never from public debate, especially now, with anti-war campaigner Jeremy Corbyn leading the Labour Party and Bernie Sanders campaign gaining so much support in the USA. Plans are being finalised for the release of the film in the USA; and TPFF and Amir plan to hold a number of public screenings in the UK later this year. Watch this space.
New Release: On the subject of war and the arms trade, we are delighted that the film based on the book The Shadow World, also titled The Shadow World, has just been premiered in New York. It carries interviews with, amongst others, Colonel (retired) Lawrence Wilkerson, Fmr. Chief of Staff to US Sec. of State, Colin Powell also a contributor to We Are Many. Andrew Feinstein’s work to expose the arms trade and its impact on democracy and development has been a foundation stone for our Five Per Cent military spending campaign research. We cannot wait to see the film on its UK release.
The Power of Us (working title) We’re delighted to be picking up on our Co-op Movement Film again, which has had a new wave of interest and energy. We are currently updating the original proposal with a view to getting the film into production sometime in the next 12-18 months.
Campaigns
Make Apartheid History – we had a busy December/January period with our Advent Calendar and our re-edited WALL animation which took off on Facebook. We are now working towards some key 2016 calendar moments.
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. http://halifaxfriendsofpalestine.org.uk/nakba-week-of-action/
July 18th Mandela Day: Watch this space for forthcoming events on this day. We launched MAH on Mandela Day 2015 and our first eventwas at the South Bank. (Photos here ). Find out more about why we want to Make Apartheid History: Our ‘Rationale’ – Jeremy Hardy, Adjoa Andoh, Ken Loach and Juliet Stevenson explain; and leading Palestinian artists who support MAH tell how apartheid is a daily reality.
Watch: Recent MAH videos. Brian Eno interview and Gaza poem; Mark Thomas at MAH partner Artists For Palestine UK first anniversary.
Support: New Documentary London Recruits The sensational story of the young men and women who undertook clandestine missions for the ANC during the bleakest years of the apartheid regime. It is a gripping tale that has remained secret for over 40 years.. Ronnie Kasrils was a key player in recruiting British activists. The film is fundraising its production budget. Ronnie is a supporter of MAH and speaks about the similarities between apartheid South Africa and Israel
From Pink to Prevention
Following on from our February meeting with the CEO of the UK’s leading breast cancer charity, Breast Cancer Now, we are continuing to push them for acknowledgement and action on the established evidence that links environmental and occupation risks to the disease. 
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 vested interests that may be standing in the way of this issue being taken up. The BIG QUESTION sums up our core concerns and is one that we will be asking of government, cancer charities and industry – for some to come! We have a full programme of campaign activity planned throughout 2016/2017.
If you would like to get more involved with this work, please contactDeborah@tippingpointnorthsouth.org
The FIVE PERCENT Campaign
The long term vision of this campaign is to redirect excessive military spending to global social need via a feasible formula, applicable by civil society across the globe, delivering deep, sustainable cuts. Inevitably, it will expose the winners & losers in the $1.7 trillion of annual global military spending that pits defence industry gains against civil society losses.
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 very large anti Trident Demo in London, addressed by Corbyn.
The annual Global Day of Action on Military Spending is upon again! Every April, citizens around the world take various actions to highlight the immorality of runaway military spending and the harm that comes from spending $1.7 trillion p/a on the world’s military.Take Part: April 18th, 11am-1pm, Friends House in central London. Find out more and vote for a safer world.
Rethink the War on Drugs
TPNS is a partner of Health Poverty Action with regard to their ground-breaking work on this issue and the challenge of integrating drugs reform policy into the development agenda.
On April 19-21st the UN General Assembly will hold a Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS). The development sector drug policy forum, an informal coalition of UK based international NGOs working to address the impacts of drug policy and illicit drugs on development, has drafted a set of recommendations for UNGASS, calling for drug policy to align with the Sustainable Development Goals. Tipping Point North South is a signatory to this call and is a member of the development sector drug policy forum initiated by Health Poverty Action and Christian Aid.
Health Poverty Action recently produced a short animation to show the links between damaging drugs policies, the impact on development in general and health in particular.
Learn More: Christian Aid report [pdf]
Finally, a quick word of congrats to two of our brilliant Management Committee members!
Justin Butcher’s extraordinary The Devil’s Passion – “A light sandblasting for jaded souls, a gleefully heretical flavour … timely, beautifully-written, ingenious, poignant – an impressively versatile performance. Butcher’s writing shines.” (The Huffington Post)
“One of the most amazing evenings I have spent in the theatre. It’s left me speechless. A MUST SEE. Riveting.” (David Suchet)
Karen Lee Street’s new novel Edgar Allan Poe and the London Monster(2016) is the first novel in a Poe & Dupin mystery trilogy. Karen is currently working on a sequel provisionally called A Charm of Ravens, set in Philadelphia 1844. The third novel in the trilogy is Edgar Allan Poe and the Empire of the Dead, set in Paris 1849. Point Blank Books (Oneworld Publications) is the UK publisher; Pegasus Books, USA; and Vulkan in Serbia.
http://www.karenleestreet.com/
Dear friends, colleagues & supporters,
We hope our Spring newsletter finds you well and that there’s something of interest for you in our fulsome round-up below!
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.
There is no doubt that the latest revelations in the Panama Papers will further add to public anger about the way in which our societies are being hi-jacked by a small number of super-well connected individuals and businesses. We need to keep the faith that we can make change, rather than succumb to the sense that there is nothing we can do in the face of such widespread abuse of economic and political power.
The Panama Papers, and the debate that’s ensuing, has a special resonance for some of us here at Tipping Point. Back in the mid 2000s, we in the Christian Aid campaigns team took up ‘country by country tax reporting’ as one of our key messages on tax justice. It was founded on the work of Tax Justice Network experts John Christensen and Richard Murphy.
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.
But the global financial crisis catapulted the tax issue to the foreground. Tax is on everyone’s agenda and country by country reporting is now integrated into the wider tax debate. And the Panama Papers have put the UK PM himself in the spotlight. In his defence, David Cameron argues his government has done more to advocate tax transparency than any other government.
If the Tax Justice Network, UK Uncut and all the other NGOs and tax justice campaign supporters hadn’t pushed the government, HMRC and the rest, would the UK government have paid any attention to the immorality of tax havens? Of tax avoidance and evasion? Of the billions lost to public services, especially in the global south, but here in the UK and other developed nations too?
Campaigning works.
It may take years, decades even. But you can’t forever sideline those progressive campaigns whose time has come.
Deb, Kev, Justin& Ho-Chih
NEW PROJECTS
Event Attlee Celebration-Unity Festival: films, debates, exhibition
“the twentieth century’s greatest prime minister.” IPSOS-MORI poll of historians and political scientists (2004)
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.
Read http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/09/unromantic-hero
Watch: Spirit of 45 Ken Loach, Dogwoof http://dogwoof.com/thespiritof45/
Event & Campaign Project 2018 (working title)
‘For years I labored with the idea of reforming the existing institutions of society through a little change here and little change there…but now I feel quite differently. You have got to have a reconstruction of the whole society, a revolution of values… We are not interested in being integrated into this value structure. Power must be relocated, a radical redistribution of power must take place.’
Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
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’.
We are currently exploring partnerships with church networks and movements in the USA, sub-Saharan Africa and the UK to mobilise around a renewed call for us all to march on power with a progressive manifesto for transformative change founded on King’s original Economic Bill of Rights. A Manifesto that will reverse economic inequalities, racism, militarism and climate change that, combined, are destroying families, communities, nations and the very planet we live on.
Film 10 for 2020 (working title)
The grassroots support for politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders is a public call for action on the gross inequality our societies face. Both men over their long political careers have given active support to many issues that other politicians would not address for fear of public or media backlash or simply because there were no votes in it. Now it seems the time has come for their voices to be heard on national platforms.
In Development: We are working with several independent producers to develop a documentary which will invite a range of directors to offer up their ‘vision’ for Britain in 2020 – one which will reflect the spirit of hope that delivered Corbyn’s election. Reversal of profound inequality; renewed respect for the political process and increased investment in public services; prioritising green jobs and a green economy; development of a new vision of Britain in the world where Trident is not renewed and going into illegal wars is out of the question.
FILM & CAMPAIGN UPDATES
Films
Open Bethehem had its Palestine Premiere in Bethlehem on March 29! It was hosted by Dar Al-Kalimah University for Arts and Culture in association with Visit Palestine and NEPTO (The Network of Experiential Palestinian Tourism Organisation). The film received a great reviewfrom one of the region’s leading commentators Daoud Kattab.
Leila Sansour’s ‘film Open Bethlehem is not just another documentary; it is a ninety-minute epic that transcends politics and normal cinema and gives the viewer a personal view of the life and passions of a single individual who is committed to giving her townspeople a better future…After seeing Open Bethlehem you can’t sit still. A clear and powerful case is being made through the efforts of a human being who is bringing to the world a call in which she wants the world to join her. So let us all say it loud and clear: OPEN BETHLEHEM.’
And in January Malala, Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel Prize Laureate, and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai, the United Nations Special Advisor on Global Education, became the newest citizens and ambassadors of Open Bethlehem.
Find out more at http://www.openbethlehem.org
We Are Many The Iraq War remains a live issue 12 years after the invasion and is never from public debate, especially now, with anti-war campaigner Jeremy Corbyn leading the Labour Party and Bernie Sanders campaign gaining so much support in the USA. Plans are being finalised for the release of the film in the USA; and TPFF and Amir plan to hold a number of public screenings in the UK later this year. Watch this space.
New Release: On the subject of war and the arms trade, we are delighted that the film based on the book The Shadow World, also titled The Shadow World, has just been premiered in New York. It carries interviews with, amongst others, Colonel (retired) Lawrence Wilkerson, Fmr. Chief of Staff to US Sec. of State, Colin Powell also a contributor to We Are Many. Andrew Feinstein’s work to expose the arms trade and its impact on democracy and development has been a foundation stone for our Five Per Cent military spending campaign research. We cannot wait to see the film on its UK release.
The Power of Us (working title) We’re delighted to be picking up on our Co-op Movement Film again, which has had a new wave of interest and energy. We are currently updating the original proposal with a view to getting the film into production sometime in the next 12-18 months.
Campaigns
Make Apartheid History – we had a busy December/January period with our Advent Calendar and our re-edited WALL animation which took off on Facebook. We are now working towards some key 2016 calendar moments.
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. http://halifaxfriendsofpalestine.org.uk/nakba-week-of-action/
July 18th Mandela Day: Watch this space for forthcoming events on this day. We launched MAH on Mandela Day 2015 and our first eventwas at the South Bank. (Photos here ). Find out more about why we want to Make Apartheid History: Our ‘Rationale’ – Jeremy Hardy, Adjoa Andoh, Ken Loach and Juliet Stevenson explain; and leading Palestinian artists who support MAH tell how apartheid is a daily reality.
Watch: Recent MAH videos. Brian Eno interview and Gaza poem; Mark Thomas at MAH partner Artists For Palestine UK first anniversary.
Support: New Documentary London Recruits The sensational story of the young men and women who undertook clandestine missions for the ANC during the bleakest years of the apartheid regime. It is a gripping tale that has remained secret for over 40 years.. Ronnie Kasrils was a key player in recruiting British activists. The film is fundraising its production budget. Ronnie is a supporter of MAH and speaks about the similarities between apartheid South Africa and Israel
From Pink to Prevention
Following on from our February meeting with the CEO of the UK’s leading breast cancer charity, Breast Cancer Now, we are continuing to push them for acknowledgement and action on the established evidence that links environmental and occupation risks to the disease. 
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 vested interests that may be standing in the way of this issue being taken up. The BIG QUESTION sums up our core concerns and is one that we will be asking of government, cancer charities and industry – for some to come! We have a full programme of campaign activity planned throughout 2016/2017.
If you would like to get more involved with this work, please contactDeborah@tippingpointnorthsouth.org
The FIVE PERCENT Campaign
The long term vision of this campaign is to redirect excessive military spending to global social need via a feasible formula, applicable by civil society across the globe, delivering deep, sustainable cuts. Inevitably, it will expose the winners & losers in the $1.7 trillion of annual global military spending that pits defence industry gains against civil society losses.
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 very large anti Trident Demo in London, addressed by Corbyn.
The annual Global Day of Action on Military Spending is upon again! Every April, citizens around the world take various actions to highlight the immorality of runaway military spending and the harm that comes from spending $1.7 trillion p/a on the world’s military.Take Part: April 18th, 11am-1pm, Friends House in central London. Find out more and vote for a safer world.
Rethink the War on Drugs
TPNS is a partner of Health Poverty Action with regard to their ground-breaking work on this issue and the challenge of integrating drugs reform policy into the development agenda.
On April 19-21st the UN General Assembly will hold a Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS). The development sector drug policy forum, an informal coalition of UK based international NGOs working to address the impacts of drug policy and illicit drugs on development, has drafted a set of recommendations for UNGASS, calling for drug policy to align with the Sustainable Development Goals. Tipping Point North South is a signatory to this call and is a member of the development sector drug policy forum initiated by Health Poverty Action and Christian Aid.
Health Poverty Action recently produced a short animation to show the links between damaging drugs policies, the impact on development in general and health in particular.
Learn More: Christian Aid report [pdf]
Finally, a quick word of congrats to two of our brilliant Management Committee members!
Justin Butcher’s extraordinary The Devil’s Passion – “A light sandblasting for jaded souls, a gleefully heretical flavour … timely, beautifully-written, ingenious, poignant – an impressively versatile performance. Butcher’s writing shines.” (The Huffington Post)
“One of the most amazing evenings I have spent in the theatre. It’s left me speechless. A MUST SEE. Riveting.” (David Suchet)
Karen Lee Street’s new novel Edgar Allan Poe and the London Monster(2016) is the first novel in a Poe & Dupin mystery trilogy. Karen is currently working on a sequel provisionally called A Charm of Ravens, set in Philadelphia 1844. The third novel in the trilogy is Edgar Allan Poe and the Empire of the Dead, set in Paris 1849. Point Blank Books (Oneworld Publications) is the UK publisher; Pegasus Books, USA; and Vulkan in Serbia.
http://www.karenleestreet.com/
At a “state of the Air Force” press conference, Air Force secretary Deborah James and Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh listed seven companies that will build components for the new plane. They didn’t provide many details as to what those contributions will be, but a quick look at the history of the companies provides some indication of how this project will be built. It also shows the program is being designed to have broad political support by spreading the work across numerous states and congressional districts.
Veteran military reformer Franklin “Chuck” Spinney described political engineering as “business as usual” for programs of this kind. “By designing overly complex weapons, then spreading subcontracts, jobs, and profits all over the country, the political engineers in the Defense Department deliberately magnify the power of these forces to punish Congress, should it subsequently try to reduce defense spending by terminating major procurement programs.”
Continue reading
Answering this simple question, the Pentagon said, would take the department — hold your breath now — 15 million labor hours. Doing so would cost — no, don’t breathe yet — $660 million, the Pentagon said. …
In a two-page response to Peck, the department’s FOIA office said Robert Jarrett, the Pentagon’s Director of Operations, Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy, had explained that although the Pentagon maintains a database of all its contracts — in something called the Electronic Documents Access (EDA) system — it cannot be comprehensively searched. Continue reading
The Power of Us, a new film about co-operation, is fully developed and seeking production funding.
Co-operation is in our DNA – from the personal to the political, from the social to the economic. The fruits of this human endeavour is all around us to see – and not least in the global economy where co-ops have a turnover of $1.1 trillion, represent 800m members securing the livelihoods of 3bn people. (UK Co-operative Economy, Co-ops UK 2011)
Picking up the baton of the UN Year of Co-operation, The Power of Us will be a film to shine a very bright spotlight on a global movement that has its roots in the UK and will initiate an urgent and timely global conversation about the power and possibility of cooperation.
There is a quiet revolution taking place across the world, right here, right now. Sometimes it’s hidden and often it’s missed by the global media. But it’s there – a low-level rumbling, motivated by the financial crisis, bolstered by the Arab Spring and global protest movements; and fueled by a general sense that something has to change.
The Financial Crisis exposed many things. One was that our economic model is fragile. Another is that the way the majority of people choose to live is not the only way. When the global economy went into free-fall, people started to look around and ask – can we stop it happening again? Is there an alternative? But in fact, there were people are already out there, living the alternative. These groups of individuals were more than surviving the crash, they were often immune from it. And these people who have chosen a different model are not just in Wales or California: they are all over the world. These are the stories at the heart of this film.
The film will show that beyond the brutal individualism of our world today lies a thrilling – and viable – future alternative. An alternative that has already been put into practice across the world for more than 150 years and has been flourishing in recent times. It evokes a future, which could bring about a radical shift in human values and happiness. A future which could result in a more stable economic model, more benign business processes, smarter technology, more meaningful government, leveled inequality, reduced crime. A future whose potential is infinite.
It’s safe to say that the co-op movement as a whole – its principles, reach and success – is far from being as prominent or as widely appreciated as it deserves to be. The Power of Us intends to build on the success of the UN Year of Co-operation by delivering a film of quality and impact that will reach audiences, media and decision-makers around the world in order to raise the level of awareness and debate about co-operation. In other words, the power of ‘us’….
And you can help us achieve this!
Reflecting the film’s international content, we will be launching a major global crowd-funding campaign for The Power of Us.
In readiness for this, we’re putting the word out and developing our co-op partnerships around the world as we invite the international co-op movement – from the smallest to the largest co-operatives– to be involved in this fundraising campaign.
The Power of Us can take up the baton of the UN Year of Co-operation, and play an important role for the movement in the coming decade.
Values and principles that underpin much of what we cherish in our day to day human relationships also are embedded in the ethos of co-operation and the co-operative movement. Values that are being re-discovered as essential to a fully rounded (global) society.
Such values and principles have been central to the co-operative movement for more that 165 years – and then as now, it was forward-looking and standard setting.
A century before the application of ethical labour standards were main-streamed into the consumer conscience of today, the co-operative wholesale (CWS) movement had adopted a ‘no sweat’ principle to the production of its garments. (See image – from Wheatsheaf Magazine 1899. Thanks to the National Co-operative Archive).
This is a truly global movement founded on the principles first laid down by the Rochdale Pioneers in 1844. Today, the International Co-operative Alliance (founded in 1895) has 222 member organisations from 85 countries active in all sectors of the global economy. Together these co-operatives represent more than 800 million individuals worldwide.
For More Information:-
Dear friends, colleagues and supporters,
As we continue our effort to ask The Big Question on environmental and occupational links to breast cancer, here are some links to our latest blogs and campaign updates.
MEETING WITH BREAST CANCER NOW
Earlier this month, Helen Lynn and Deborah Burton met with key Breast Cancer Now staff – Delyth Morgan (chief Executive) and Eluned Hughes (Head of Public Health and Information) to primarily discuss the reasons why their organisation (the UK’s leading breast cancer charity) persists in categorising environmental risks as doubtful along with the body of evidence that does link the two. We also wanted to ask if and when BCN could join with us and start to both accept and act upon the existing evidence (not least, share the information with the public who look to them for guidance). It was a constructive first conversation and we are looking forward to keeping the issue on their agenda.
Our latest blog about the meeting is here and our post-meeting follow up letter in full is here.
OUR BIG QUESTION PETITION
Keep sharing our PETITION! We are running this throughout 2016 and we want it to act as an informative as well as a lobbying tool.
MORE FABULOUS CARTOONS
Di Ward has added more wonderful cartoons to our gallery. Her pictures paint a thousand words on the many aspects of this debate and we have recently submitted a proposal for her work to be included in a publication in Canada on the subject of Pink-washing along with an article. And here is another recent posting by Di – observations from Tasmania on health, pollution and the lack of public education.
PLANS FOR 2016
In the UK: Throughout this year we will continue our effort to push for Breast Cancer Now to update and widen their RISK brochure; moreover, From Pink to Prevention is calling upon all breast cancer charities – not just BCN – to acknowledge and act upon environmental and occupational risk factors for the disease. We will also be taking The Big Question to government – especially the new Labour Shadow Health team.
This is also an international issue and campaign and we look forward to building on our work started last year, when 16 international organisations signed our open letter calling on breast cancer charities everywhere to remove their pink ribbon blindfolds and ask why, despite all the money raised, more and more of us are getting this disease? The groups believe we are not getting the full picture on this breast cancer epidemic that has taken us from a 1 in 12 chance of a woman getting the disease in her lifetime in 1995, to a 1 in 8 chance today. We need urgent action now.
So keep spreading the word – we MUST keep pushing for environmental and occupational links to breast cancer to be acknowledged and acted upon.
Best from all at From Pink to Prevention
Di, Helen, Deb & Ho-Chih
Dear friends, colleagues and supporters,
As we continue our effort to ask The Big Question on environmental and occupational links to breast cancer, here are some links to our latest blogs and campaign updates.
MEETING WITH BREAST CANCER NOW
Earlier this month, Helen Lynn and Deborah Burton met with key Breast Cancer Now staff – Delyth Morgan (chief Executive) and Eluned Hughes (Head of Public Health and Information) to primarily discuss the reasons why their organisation (the UK’s leading breast cancer charity) persists in categorising environmental risks as doubtful along with the body of evidence that does link the two. We also wanted to ask if and when BCN could join with us and start to both accept and act upon the existing evidence (not least, share the information with the public who look to them for guidance). It was a constructive first conversation and we are looking forward to keeping the issue on their agenda.
Our latest blog about the meeting is here and our post-meeting follow up letter in full is here. Continue reading
Britain is at centre of global mercenary industry, says charity
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/03/britain-g4s-at-centre-of-global-mercenary-industry-says-charity
RAND Report Questions Nuclear Role In Defending Baltic States
https://fas.org/blogs/security/2016/02/nato-nukes-rand/
Feeding the Military-Industrial Complex
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34683-feeding-the-military-industrial-complex
In surprise move, France rejects Israeli drones
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/surprise-move-france-rejects-israeli-drones
The F-35’s turbulent march to combat readiness is far from over — here’s everything that’s wrong with it
http://uk.businessinsider.com/f35-problems-2016
What we’ve learned from fifty years of Saudi arms deals
https://opendemocracy.net/uk/harry-blain/what-we-ve-learned-from-fifty-years-of-saudi-arms-deals
GOP candidates need to focus more on waste and inefficiency in Defense budget
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/presidential-campaign/268294-gop-candidates-need-to-focus-more-on-waste-and
This NHS crisis is not economic. It’s political
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/08/this-nhs-crisis-is-not-economic-its-political
Taiwan – the un-noticed Asian tax haven?
http://www.taxjustice.net/2016/02/10/taiwan-the-un-noticed-asian-tax-haven/
Bernie Sanders Is More Serious on Foreign Policy Than You Think
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/bernie-sanders-foreign-poicy-213619
Trident: the British question
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/11/trident-the-british-question
Commentary: Obama’s Gift to Next President: A Defense Budget Train Wreck
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/commentary/2016/02/11/commentary-obamas-gift-next-president-defense-budget-train-wreck/80199380/
Is Everything We Thought We Knew About Russia Wrong?
http://reinvent.net/is-everything-we-thought-we-knew-about-russia-wrong/
Saudi Arabia leads surge in arms imports by Middle East states
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/22/saudi-arabia-surge-arms-imports-middle-east
SIPRI Report: World crises driving international arms trade
http://www.dw.com/en/sipri-report-world-crises-driving-international-arms-trade/a-19064590
Practical Theoretical Ethics
http://www.ianwelsh.net/practical-theoretical-ethics/
U.S. Air Force Arsenal Plane Could Help Outgun China
http://warisboring.com/articles/u-s-air-force-arsenal-plane-could-help-outgun-china/
What is the F-35B and Why is the UK Buying It?
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2015/08/what-is-the-f-35b-and-why-is-the-uk-buying-it/
New U.S. Stealth Jet Can’t Fire Its Gun Until 2019
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/31/new-u-s-stealth-jet-can-t-fire-its-gun-until-2019.html
The Trillion Dollar F-35 Won’t Even be Able to Shoot its Gun Until 2019
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2015/01/the-trillion-dollar-f-35-wont-even-be-able-to-shoot-its-gun-until-2019/
New US fighter jet on course to becoming ‘one of history’s biggest white elephants’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/new-us-fighter-jet-on-course-to-becoming-one-of-history-s-biggest-white-elephants-10238761.html
Throughout 2015, Tipping Point delivered a number of short films for the Make Apartheid History project – the follow up to Bethlehem Unwrapped.
Films: Main Promo; MAH Rationale – Katie Barlow
Events: Make Apartheid History Readings at the Southbank – HC Lin
Interviews: Ronnie Kasrils; Jeff Halper – Katie Barlow; Beginnings; Freedom Theatre – HC Lin
Creatives: WALL Graphics: Edited by HC Lin; Aerial Stunt; Paulo Coll, Alta Vista
And from our event at St James Piccadilly, 2013/14:
Bethlehem Unwrapped by Tom Pursey
‘Kill-Em-All With Airstrikes’ Is Not Working
http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/01/kill-em-all-airstrikes-not-working/124946/
Why Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Want Your Vote
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-bernie-sanders-fundraising/
F-35 Ejection Seat Fix Delayed to 2018; Pilot Restrictions Continue
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/2016/01/08/f-35-ejection-seat-fix-delayed-2018-pilot-restrictions-continue/78519892/
UK should prepare for use of drones in terrorist attacks, says thinktank
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/11/drones-terrorist-attacks-security-thinktank
Revealed: British government refusing to accept evidence of civilian fatalities in UK air strikes
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14193998.Revealed__British_government_refusing_to_accept_evidence_of_civilian_fatalities_in_UK_air_strikes/
Revealed: UK military doesn’t know the number of people it has killed in airstrikes
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/3121/revealed-uk-military-doesn-t-know-the-number-of-people-it-has-killed-in-airstrikes
What Would a Realist World Have Looked Like?
https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/08/what-would-a-realist-world-have-looked-like-iraq-syria-iran-obama-bush-clinton/
The IMF Confirms That ‘Trickle-Down’ Economics Is, Indeed, a Joke
http://www.psmag.com/business-economics/trickle-down-economics-is-indeed-a-joke
Note To Joe Stiglitz: Banks Originate, Not Intermediate, And That’s Why Aggregate Demand Is Stuffed
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevekeen/2016/01/06/note-to-joe-stiglitz-banks-originate-not-intermediate-and-thats-why-aggregate-demand-is-stuffed/
Congress offers Christmas cheer to F-35 and F/A-18 programmes
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/congress-offers-christmas-cheer-to-f-35-and-fa-18-p-420170/
Is Britain a nation of debt bingers? History tells a different story
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/12/britain-nation-debt-bingers-history-household-credit
Will a Basic Income turn us all into entrepreneurs?
https://www.crunch.co.uk/blog/small-business-advice/2016/01/11/will-a-basic-income-turn-us-all-into-entrepreneurs/
The man who exposed the lie of the war on drugs
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/26/man-who-exposed-lie-war-on-drugs-roberto-saviano-ed-vulliamy
Britain Has Sold £5.6 Billion Of Arms To Saudi Arabia Since David Cameron Came To Power
http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/britain-has-sold-ps56-billion-of-arms-to-saudi-arabia-since#.aa70bBL3r
UK, US buying made-in-Pakistan weapons
http://nation.com.pk/islamabad/12-Jan-2016/uk-us-buying-made-in-pakistan-weapons
Airbnb lists properties in illegal Israeli settlements
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/12/airbnb-listings-illegal-settlements-israel-palestine-west-bank
UK government misses own green targets
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/11/uk-government-misses-own-green-targets
Hard Evidence: this is the Age of Dissent – and there’s much more to come
https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-this-is-the-age-of-dissent-and-theres-much-more-to-come-52871
BoE official oversaw FCA retreat from inquiry into banking culture
https://next.ft.com/content/414f6e0c-b918-11e5-b151-8e15c9a029fb
Renew Trident? It’d make more sense to put Dad’s Army on the case
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/13/renew-trident-dads-army-jeremy-corbyn-labour
Made in Britain
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2016/01/13/elliot-murphy/made-in-britain/
Davos and Its Threat to Democracy
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/01/17/davos-and-its-threat-democracy
Blimey: TfL to take over most of London’s rail network, says government
http://www.citymetric.com/transport/blimey-tfl-take-over-most-londons-rail-network-says-government-1765
Just Who Exactly Benefits Most from the Global Giving of Billionaires Like Bill Gates?
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/20/just-who-exactly-benefits-most-global-giving-billionaires-bill-gates
Ultra-Rich ‘Philanthrocapitalist’ Class Undermining Global Democracy: Report
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/01/15/ultra-rich-philanthrocapitalist-class-undermining-global-democracy-report
Philanthropy: Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/01/15/philanthropy-looking-gift-horse-mouth
Is Britain’s media biased against the left?
https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/greg-philo/is-britains-media-biased-against-left
Dark Money review: Nazi oil, the Koch brothers and a rightwing revolution
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/17/dark-money-review-nazi-oil-the-koch-brothers-and-a-rightwing-revolution
It is wrong to blame China for the global economy’s woes
http://www.primeeconomics.org/articles/3wytec2ja3q7ulxrgrlqeuam5tykbb
No, it’s not time for Britain to be intensely relaxed over household debt
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/no-it-s-not-time-for-britain-to-be-intensely-relaxed-over-household-debt-a6817926.html
Richest 62 people as wealthy as half of world’s population, says Oxfam
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/18/richest-62-billionaires-wealthy-half-world-population-combined
Meet Chengdu’s Ace Fighter Designer
http://thediplomat.com/2016/01/meet-chengdus-ace-fighter-designer/
UK most unequal country in the West
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk-most-unequal-country-in-the-west-1329614.html
We’ve been conned by the rich predators of Davos
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/19/davos-super-rich-wealth-inequality
The Return of Public Investment
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/public-infrastructure-investment-sustained-growth-by-dani-rodrik-2016-01
Big Pharma’s worst nightmare
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/26/big-pharmas-worst-nightmare
UN report into Saudi-led strikes in Yemen raises questions over UK role
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/27/un-report-into-saudi-led-strikes-in-yemen-raises-questions-over-uk-role
You Won’t Like It, But Here’s the Answer to ISIS
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176091/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_how_to_resolve_the_isis_crisis
Type 45 destroyers: UK’s £1bn warships face engine refit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35432341
The Forgotten Benefits of Offshore Balancing
http://lobelog.com/the-forgotten-benefits-of-offshore-balancing/
Cameron desperate to stop scandal as secret plans to sell the NHS are discovered
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/01/27/conservatives-block-access-secret-nhs-privatisation-documents/
Brimstone missiles target the British public, not Islamic State
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/brimstone-missiles-target-british-public-not-islamic-state-1698303657
More Bad News for the Snakebit F-35
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/01/29/More-Bad-News-Snakebit-F-35
The U.S. May Build 500 Jets Before Finding Out If the F-35 Works
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-01-29/pentagon-risks-building-500-f-35s-before-completing-combat-tests
We came, we saw, he died
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n03/jackson-lears/we-came-we-saw-he-died
The World’s Favorite New Tax Haven Is the United States
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-27/the-world-s-favorite-new-tax-haven-is-the-united-states
Martin Luther King Jr. Celebrations Overlook His Critiques of Capitalism and Militarism
https://theintercept.com/2016/01/18/martin-luther-king-jr-celebrations-overlook-his-critiques-of-capitalism-and-militarism/
Dr. King’s Antiwar Legacy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-hartung/dr-kings-antiwar-legacy_b_9014048.html
Henry A. Giroux | Gun Culture and the American Nightmare of Violence
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34349-gun-culture-and-the-american-nightmare-of-violence#14549852864731&action=collapse_widget&id=0&data=
How does NHS spending compare with health spending internationally?
http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2016/01/how-does-nhs-spending-compare-health-spending-internationally
Behold: How the US blew $17 billion in Afghanistan
http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-12-18/behold-american-taxpayer-what-happened-nearly-half-billion-your-dollars
Dear friends,
A short end-of-year email with Season’s Greetings for all our supporters and funders; colleagues and friends. This year has seen so much turmoil in the world – millions of people fleeing war; austerity measures deepening while, at the same, inequality grows; and the Paris climate talks just about saved. But, across the board, we also know that there are many who work for the common good –and it’s this spirit of solidarity that we celebrate this holiday season.
It’s our honour to work with some of those people who are making that difference. For Tipping Point, 2015 was a busy year with lots of good things coming to fruition – films finding their audiences and campaigns finding their supporters.
Open Bethlehem continues its journey to new countries, festivals and communities;
We Are Many ended the year with actor Tim Robbins calling it ‘ the most important film of 2015’ – one highlight for us being a special screening with Melissa Benn, days after the Corbyn election win;
Make Apartheid History launched its rolling programme of events on Mandela Day July 18, supported by a growing number of artists, performers and activists alike, in the UK, Palestine, USA and South Africa;
(Photographs by Katie Barlow)
and our campaign to challenge the main breast cancer charities to address environmental and occupational links to breast cancer got a boost when 16 international organisations and networks signed our From Pink to Prevention sign on statement in October 2015.
(Cartoons: Diana Ward, campaign co-founder)
As we end this year, sadly, we are witnessing a widespread commitment by governments around the world – not least the UK – to increase military spending. We continue to share and refine our Five Percent Campaign proposal with potential and already interested partners – not least, as we can see a time where the world hits the completely unacceptable $2trillion p/a global military spending figure.
Next year we will continue our campaigns work; we have some new film projects in development; and some exciting events planned for 2017 will, hopefully, be set in motion. If you’d like to know more about how you could support our work, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at info@tippingpointfilmfund.com
Thanks for all your support and interest throughout 2015
Wishing you a peaceful New Year
Deborah, Kevin, Justin & Ho- Chih
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Two carols released this Christmas. Share if you can
Dear friends,
A short end-of-year email with Season’s Greetings for all our supporters and funders; colleagues and friends. This year has seen so much turmoil in the world – millions of people fleeing war; austerity measures deepening while, at the same, inequality grows; and the Paris climate talks just about saved. But, across the board, we also know that there are many who work for the common good –and it’s this spirit of solidarity that we celebrate this holiday season.
It’s our honour to work with some of those people who are making that difference. For Tipping Point, 2015 was a busy year with lots of good things coming to fruition – films finding their audiences and campaigns finding their supporters.
Continue reading
Hilary Benn’s ‘Internationalism’
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2015/12/03/michael-chessum/hilary-benns-internationalism/
Defense Contractors Cite “Benefits” of Escalating Conflicts in the Middle East
https://theintercept.com/2015/12/04/defense-contractors-cite-benefits-of-escalating-conflicts-in-the-middle-east/
Osborne reliant on rising immigration levels to achieve budget surplus
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/01/osborne-reliant-on-rising-immigration-levels-to-achieve-budget-surplus
Finland plans to give every citizen 800 euros a month and scrap benefits
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/finland-plans-to-give-every-citizen-800-euros-a-month-and-scrap-benefits-a6762226.html
The ISIS Fight Is Reshaping US Arms Exports to Its Partners
http://www.defenseone.com/management/2015/12/isis-fight-reshaping-us-arms-exports-its-partners/124161/
Why Russia needs China to buy its weapons
http://www.dw.com/en/why-russia-needs-china-to-buy-its-weapons/a-18870472
UK flooding, austerity and the media
http://mainlymacro.blogspot.be/2015/12/uk-flooding-austerity-and-media.html
NHS trust urges staff to ration stationery and stamps as cash crisis plumbs new depths
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-trust-urges-staff-to-ration-stationery-and-stamps-as-cash-crisis-plumbs-new-depths-a6762741.html
None Of The Seven Foiled UK Terror Plots Was Directed From Syria, Senior MPs Claim
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/34962228/army-chief-were-still-failing-to-attract-enough-young-recruits
UK To Boost Investment in Technology Innovation
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/policy-budget/2015/12/07/uk-boost-investment-technology-innovation/76927888/
Do little, hide the evidence: the official neglect that caused these deadly floods
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/07/hide-evidence-storm-desmond-floods-paris-talks
The Isis papers: leaked documents show how Isis is building its state
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/07/leaked-isis-document-reveals-plan-building-state-syria
The fall of Jersey: how a tax haven goes bust
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/08/fall-of-jersey-how-tax-haven-goes-bust
NHS rationing ‘is denying patients care’ as cash crisis deepens
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/08/nhs-rationing-denying-patients-care-cash-crisis-survery-doctors
Osborne will miss target of doubling exports
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/osborne-will-miss-target-of-doubling-exports-9907273.html
Blair’s frail legacy shows why Labour must win arguments as well as votes
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/11/blair-frail-legacy-labour-corbynistas
The Unbearable Lightness of America’s War Against the Islamic State
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/12/11/the-unbearable-lightness-of-americas-war-against-the-islamic-state-obama-san-bernardino-us/
James Hansen, father of climate change awareness, calls Paris talks ‘a fraud’
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/james-hansen-climate-change-paris-talks-fraud
Defense Contractors Cite “Benefits” of Escalating Conflicts in the Middle East
https://theintercept.com/2015/12/04/defense-contractors-cite-benefits-of-escalating-conflicts-in-the-middle-east/
Paris climate negotiations won’t stop the planet burning
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/paris-climate-negotiations-won-t-stop-planet-burning-1543258788
UK looks at nuclear option over Rolls-Royce crisis
https://next.ft.com/content/41a4756a-a1a2-11e5-bc70-7ff6d4fd203a
British parties are suffering a slow death. What’s left are elites and cults
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/14/british-party-democracy-long-slow-death-elites-cults
The new nuclear arms race
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-new-nuclear-arms-race/2015/12/11/83445bc0-a021-11e5-bce4-708fe33e3288_story.html
Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp: Finland’s basic income: a test case for our global economic future?
http://www.thenational.scot/comment/gordon-macintyre-kemp-finlands-basic-income-a-test-case-for-our-global-economic-future.11067
GO SEE “THE BIG SHORT” RIGHT NOW — AND THEN READ THIS
https://theintercept.com/2015/12/14/go-see-the-big-short-right-now-and-then-read-this/
Britain’s Nuclear Arsenal Is a Hazardous Mess
http://warisboring.com/articles/britains-nuclear-arsenal-is-a-hazardous-mess/
NHS faces unprecedented funding black hole, warns National Audit Office
http://home.bt.com/news/uk-news/nhs-faces-unprecedented-funding-black-hole-warns-national-audit-office-11364029103635
US Defense Spending: Amid Tight Military Budget, Air Force F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Military Purchases May Need To Be Reduced
http://www.ibtimes.com/us-defense-spending-amid-tight-military-budget-air-force-f-35-joint-strike-fighter-2226281
Revealed: Cuadrilla and leading fracking firms’ tax haven ownership
https://energydesk.greenpeace.org/2015/12/16/revealed-cuadrilla-and-leading-fracking-firms-tax-haven-ownership/
NHS Hospitals Forced To Take Out Emergency Loans To Pay Doctors And Nurses, HuffPost UK Reveals
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/12/15/nhs-hospitals-loans-salaries-staff-doctors-nurses_n_8811780.html
The Corporate Takeover of the Red Cross
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-corporate-takeover-of-the-red-cross
By Funding Foreign Militaries, the U.S. Is Spreading Terrorism
http://fpif.org/funding-foreign-militaries-u-s-spreading-terrorism/
The Big Short, the Housing Bubble and the Financial Crisis
http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/the-big-short-the-housing-bubble-and-the-financial-crisis
A Brief History of ISIS
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/isis-syria-iraq-war-al-qaeda-arab-spring/
Dutch city plans to pay citizens a ‘basic income’, and Greens say it could work in the UK
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/26/dutch-city-utrecht-basic-income-uk-greens
U.S. Foreign Arms Deals Increased Nearly $10 Billion in 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/26/world/middleeast/us-foreign-arms-deals-increased-nearly-10-billion-in-2014.html
Dear Make Apartheid History supporter,
Thank you for signing up to our MAH e-list – and we’re delighted to share details of our latest MAH activity with you.
It’s our online Palestine Advent calendar which goes live today, Tuesday 1st December 2015.
Our calendar has 24 star symbols and each day a star will be unlocked to release new content, right up until 24th December and will largely carry videos & info-graphics.
Continue reading
Dear Make Apartheid History supporter,
Thank you for signing up to our MAH e-list – and we’re delighted to share details of our latest MAH activity with you.
It’s our online Palestine Advent calendar which goes live today, Tuesday 1st December 2015.
Our calendar has 24 star symbols and each day a star will be unlocked to release new content, right up until 24th December and will largely carry videos & info-graphics.
From 1-6th December, we tell the story of how life is for Palestinians today; from 7-12th December, we explore what apartheid looks like for Palestinians; from 13th-18th December, we look at why BDS has evolved and how it is already making a difference; and from 19th to 24th December, we look at resistance, hope and Christmas in the Holy Land.
We start with this – our own MAH animation about Israel’s Separation Wall.
Look out for facebook and twitter and do share!
Best wishes from the MAH team
PS We run on shoestring! If you can help support this work, please visit
https://www.patreon.com/makeapartheidhistory Thank you!
MAKE APARTHEID HISTORY lead partners: OPGAI (Occupied Palestine and Syrian Golan Heights Advocacy Initiative), PSCC (Popular Struggle Co-ordination Committee), Bedouins Without Borders, Tipping Point North South, Pressure Cooker Arts, ICAHD UK (Israeli Committee against House Demolitions UK). In partnership with Artists for Palestine UK and Palestine Legal Action Network
ABOUT MAKE APARTHEID HISTORY
Our Intro film (3.5mins ) UK- Adjoa Andoh, Jeremy Hardy, Juliet Stevenson, Ken Loach, Leila Sansour; Mark Steel Palestine- Atef Abu Saif, Iman Aoun, Raja Shehadeh; Reem Talhami, Sliman Mansour
Website www.makeapartheidhistory.org
The video gallery has contributors from Palestine, UK, South Africa and USA.
Find us here on Facebook and Twitter
Make Apartheid History is a follow up to Bethlehem Unwrapped – a full-scale replica of Israel’s apartheid Wall revealed on Christmas Eve 2013 in front of St James’s Piccadilly.
Dear friends, supporters & colleagues,
We had a busy month with two of our campaigns – From Pink to Prevention and Make Apartheid History. Below are a few links you might like to click and catch up on.
Best wishes from all at Tipping Point and our colleagues at Make Apartheid History and From Pink to Prevention.
Find Us
Tipping Point: Facebook, Twitter
Make Apartheid History: Facebook, Twitter
From Pink to Prevention: Facebook, Twitter
FROM PINK TO PREVENTION
This Breast Cancer Awareness Month saw us build on our April Open Letter to Breakthrough Breast Cancer (now called Breast Cancer Now) concerning their refusal to accept environmental links to breast cancer, signed by a number of campaign groups. This October, 16 organisations and networks (UK/EU, USA, Philippines) signed our petition calling for breast cancer charities to acknowledge the every growing body of evidence linking environmental and occupational risks to the disease.
We also ran our ‘Remove the Pink Blindfold’ action on October 1st and set up a petition at Change.org which will run until October 2016. It’s asking one BIG QUESTION:-
Why do breast cancer charities persist in refusing to acknowledge the role of environmental and occupational toxicants by ignoring decades of evidence up to the present day on the link between our lifelong (womb to grave) exposures to toxics and the escalating incidence of breast cancer?
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’ – ie better safe than sorry. Breast cancer charities can lead on this, rather than ignore it.
Visit our petition at Change.org, learn about our call and sign and share if you can. You can also visit our campaign site for latest campaign news and scientific information.
MAKE APARTHEID HISTORY
October 24th was the 10th anniversary of the death of inspirational civil rights activist Rosa Parks. To mark this, we interviewed Huwaida Arraf, American-Palestinian human rights activist, lawyer, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement and member of the Palestinian Freedom Riders.
Speaking with a deep personal and political passion, she talks about how the actions of Rosa Parks and the USA Freedom Riders inspired the Palestinian Freedom Riders; she also talks about collective international action against Israeli apartheid and the ever building success of the BDS movement
Make Apartheid History (once and for all) is an international project that brings together creative individuals, organisations and networks from around the world – starting with Palestine and the UK; South Africa and USA, linking civil rights, anti-apartheid and Palestine solidarity movements. This is the Intro film (4 mins) and our Apartheid Rationale film (4 mins). Our first public event in July, saw UK Actor Paterson Joseph perform a reading at the Southbank about Rosa Parks and the Freedom Riders of Palestine
FIVE PERCENT CAMPAIGN ON RUNAWAY MILITARY SPENDING – recommended reading
War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification – a disturbing insight into the new ways world powers forge war today. It is a subliminal war of surveillance and whitewashed terror, conducted through new, high-tech military apparatuses.
October saw the publication of Jeff Halper’s extraordinary book which details how Israel has set out to secure for itself a central position within the global defence industry – its research niches and political influence secured through making its defence industries invaluable to various foreign government security and defence contracts. And as a result of all this, how Israel has come to play a pivotal role in this global ‘war against the people’.
Halper argues that all this is a direct result of the occupation, where many such techniques have been developed and ‘battle tested’ on the Palestinian population – hidden camera systems, sophisticated sensors, information databases on civilian activity, automated targeting systems, unmanned drones. The book makes the compelling and disturbing case that Israel has used, and continues to use its occupation as a means to develop and apply the technologies and strategies of ‘pacification’; and increasingly, effectively, exporting both (technologies and strategies) to other nations from the USA to China; Brazil to the UK.
Jeff Halper is the head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). He is the author of An Israeli in Palestine (Pluto, 2008) and Obstacles to Peace (ICAHD, 2015).
War Against the People Publisher: Pluto Press.
ISBN: 9780745334318
Tipping Point North South 