THE NHS REINSTATEMENT BILL MATTERS – and it’s going to happen if Labour are elected

In 1945, Attlee promised an NHS and delivered an NHS. Clear-sighted, principled political vision, deep compassion & economic courage ensured a healthcare system free at point of delivery for generations to come.

To fund it, in shattered post-war Britain, Attlee went cap in hand to ask for loans from a hostile American Congress, strongly opposed to the NHS and the ‘featherbedding of socialists’.

Despite this, on 5 July 1948 Clem Attlee and Nye Bevan delivered us a precious institution. It was the jewel in the crown of a massive programme of policies that would transform the face of British society.  The optimism about the creation of the NHS is illustrated in many of the public information films of the time – we’ve made a little archive selection below.

But in 2018 we’re losing the NHS to privatisation and underfunding – this year alone £9bn of contracts have been handed over to private providers, often in community health services or patient transport and when a private provider doesn’t win a contract they can sue the NHS  (as did Virgin).

Don’t let them take it away from us..

DO YOUR BIT FOR THE NHS.  Celebrate its birthday in two simple but significant ways

Now, in this 70^th year, the NHS Reinstatement Bill is now Labour Party Policy.

1.  Get your MP to support We Own It’s #NHSTakeBack Campaign Pledge.

https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/nhstakeback-action

2. .Ask your MP to support NHS Bill http://www.nhsbill2015.org/mp-support-2017/

More info below on both the NHS Bill & Take Back Pledge 

AN NHS FOR THE WORLD

Back in 1945, they could have hardly have known how the concept of their NHS would capture the world’s imagination. Even now, in the midst of being undermined, underfunded and  ‘made to fail’, it  is held up as gold standard. Our friends at Health Poverty Action, who work on health justice  international development campaigning,  argue that ‘Every country should have an NHS.’ The Guardian published their letter last week and here is their short 5 point plan video.  The NHS means everything to British people and, increasingly, to many in the global south, who see it as beacon of hope – the health service model to emulate.

The NHS cannot be allowed to die.

Attlee, Bevan and all who fought so hard to bring our NHS into life, for us, would be so, so proud of this fight back.

Please join it.

http://www.nhsbill2015.org/mp-support-2017/

https://weownit.org.uk/nhstakeback

Keep fighting for our NHS

Deb, Kev, Ho-Chih & all at TPNS

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FILM & ANIMATION – NHS ARCHIVE 1948

Clem Attlee on the NHS Audio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3EMjoRPh1U

Public Information Films / Animation NHS 1948
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFhEB3gG8HA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tymq5CefW-E

‘Here’s Health’ – 30 min b&w archive documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHoBdd1caH4

Nye Bevan on the founding of the NHS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCAyUxY0Cm0

BBC Welsh Greats: Nye Bevan BBC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyLLUgsqHys

MORE ABOUT THE NHS BILL –A TURNING POINT IN THE SAVING OF THE NHS

• Jonathan Ashworth and Eleanor Smith would publicly sign up to show their support for the ‘NHS Takeback’ pledges, based on the Reinstatement Bill, that is promoted by the We Own It campaign
  https://weownit.org.uk/nhstakeback.
• Labour will seek the earliest opportunity – if possible before the summer recess – to table a shorter version of the Reinstatement Bill as a 10 minute Bill, to be moved by Eleanor Smith. This would echo the Takeback pledges and the NHS Reinstatement Bill as previously tabled.
• Further detailed meetings will take place beginning immediately – between the Leader’s office, the shadow health team and the drafters of the Reinstatement Bill, but also on a wider level to draw in and engage with campaigners, trade unions and other significant stakeholders – to draw up more detailed Labour legislation based on the Reinstatement Bill. Meetings will also take place with other committees as appropriate with the aim of developing an agreed draft Bill by the end of 2018 suitable for inclusion in a Queen’s Speech.
• Campaigners will continue to work with and advise Jon Ashworth and the shadow health team in responding to any NHS England proposals for new legislation or amendments to the Health & Social Care Act that might be tabled by the current government. Joint efforts to expose and challenge privatisation and encourage those such as the Wigan strikers who are actively fighting it will continue.

The unique and historic nature of this meeting and these agreed proposals was stressed by Jonathan Ashworth and recognised by the meeting. This unprecedented level of collaboration is a result of years of hard work on the ground by campaigners.

The result will be a stronger and broader campaign in Parliament and across the country for legislation that will restore and improve the NHS as a publicly owned, publicly funded, publicly provided and publicly accountable service.

Find out more 

NHS Bill and Reinstatement
http://www.nhsbillnow.org/our-aim/
http://www.nhsbillnow.org/the-bill/
https://www.facebook.com/nhsbill/

The We Own It Pledge
https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/nhstakeback-action
http://www.nhsbillnow.org/nhs-takeback/

NB
Is the pledge the same as the Reinstatement Bill? No. The Reinstatement Bill is a comprehensive plan for legislation that would take back our NHS. The pledge has 5 key principles for a public NHS – it reflects the demands in the Bill but it’s much simpler. If MPs sign up to the pledge, they’re not signing up to the Bill. But they might want to sign up to both, because the Bill is the best way of putting the pledge into action.

Spring News

Dear friends, supporters and colleagues,

Below is our Spring news round-up with all our latest film, events and campaigning information.  We hope there’s something of interest for everyone.

Best wishes
Deborah, Ho-Chih & TP team

FILMS

From Montgomery to Memphisis a rarely-seen documentary directed by the highly respected Hollywood director Sydney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Serpico).

Lumet co-directed and co-produced the film with another Hollywood luminary, Joseph L. Mankiewicz.  The clips trace King’s life and accomplishments from the 1955 bus boycott to his 1968 assassination.

As part of our MLK Global project, we have purchased a licence from the distributor Kino Lorber enabling us to tour the film around the UK throughout 2018 and beyond.  All events will be free admission.  Our next screening will be on Saturday 23^rdJune in central London, details below.

And staying with Dr. King, we are underway with our in-house developed ‘King Assassination Project’ which looks at more than 40 years of controversy surrounding the case. Filming starts in London in June.  To mark the 50^th anniversary of the assassination we wrote this article to both illustrate King’s journey post 1963 and at same time suggest that to better know the facts of his murder is to better appreciate the power – and danger – of his activism 1965-68.

We are also working with producer / director Michael Oswald and John Christensen (Tax Justice Network) on their follow-up to ‘The Spider’s Web’ as they raise the production budget for a fascinating film that will explore the origins of the neoliberal project.

If you would like to know how you can support our film fund work-  these and other projects – please email Deborah@tippingpointfilmfund.com

EVENTS

MAKE APARTHEID HISTORY 
1948-2018: Palestine’s 70 year commemoration of the Nakba

Israel was founded 70 years ago, on 14th May 1948.  Palestinians commemorate the next day, 15th May, as their ‘Nakba’ – day of catastrophe. This Arabic term refers to the mass expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from British Mandate Palestine during Israel’s creation (1947-49) when between 750,000 and one million Palestinians were expelled and made refugees by Zionist paramilitaries, and subsequently Israeli forces, during Israel’s creation in 1947-49.

Our Make Apartheid History campaign marked the 70^th anniversary of the founding of Israel by sharing our interview with MAH supporter (and Stop the War President) Brian Eno. In it, he talks about ‘being born on the same day as the founding of Israel.

MAH also filmed a number of NAKBA week events:  @70 Celebration of Contemporary Palestine Culture’ curated by Gazan author, playwright Ahmed Masoud and ICAHD UK’s annual conference, founded by Jeff Halper.  Both Jeff and Ahmed are MAH contributors. Visit our extensive MAH Video Gallery for more interviews.

As Israel marked its 70 years and ‘celebrated the Trump administration’s opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem, IDF forces massacred 62 Palestinians in Gaza, bringing the death count since Israel began firing on the Great Return March to at least 110. More than 12,000 have been injured; many so severely that they will require the amputation of limbs.’ (PSC).  This attack was on Palestinian people, trapped in Gaza, exercising their right to protest their’ Great Return March’.

You can donate to Medical Aid for Palestine Appeal here. The numbers of casualties rushed to desperately under-equipped hospitals is recorded in this hard-to-read twitter feed from MAP CEO Aimee Shalan.

Palestinians will continue their Great Return March, which will culminate in a huge mobilisation in Gaza on June 5^th to mark the 51^stanniversary of Israel’s occupation of Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank. PSC are calling for a national day of demonstrations across the UK on the same day. Details will be confirmed soon. https://www.palestinecampaign.org/

MLK GLOBAL 
Film & Discussion ‘From Montgomery to Memphis’ 

Date: Sat 23 June 5pm. Venue: Bloomsbury Baptist Church.

In 1961, on one of his visits to the UK, Martin Luther King, himself a Baptist, preached at the historic central London Bloomsbury Baptist Church.  King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference led the American civil rights movement – a movement which King would later lead into coalition with both anti-war and anti-poverty campaigners. MLK was becoming the moral conscience of America – indeed the world. Join us for the film and a line-up of fantastic speakers who will explore why King was such an outstanding leader and why his analysis is as relevant now as 1968.  Email info@tippingpointfilmfund.com to be added to the reservation list (email subject:  RSVP MLK + the number of seats required.)

ATTLEE NATION 

This year marks 70 years since the founding of the NHS. Just this week Jonathan Ashworth, Shadow Health Secretary, announced that the NHS had just reached the record of delivering 53 million babies since 1947. And on another Attlee government achievement, this article is an excellent summary by Anthony Broxton of the story of rail nationalisation under Attlee and up to the present day via privatisation and the renewed call for re-nationalisation.

Last October, we launched our Attlee Nationproject with our Attlee Remembered mini-festival of films, talks, discussion and theatre. Festival photos and videos here.

Ken Loach on the importance of Attlee and knowing our history​

We may know the term ‘Thatcher’s Children’ but the truth is that every single one of since 1945 has been a beneficiary of Attlee’s government – one that embodied the ‘pay it forward’ or ‘generosity towards the future’ ideal.  To know how Attlee and his government delivered the huge programme of reform after the devastation of WW2 is to know what courage of commitment to social change looks like; the long-lasting impact such reform can deliver; and why we need that level of commitment to social reform once more.

CAMPAIGNS

FROM PINK TO PREVENTION

Stopping Breast Cancer Before It Starts: environmental & occupational links to the disease.

As we have come to profoundly realise, Brexit is going to touch every conceivable aspect of life.  Over the past 12 months our campaign has been part of the lobby to ensure the UK stays inside the EU Chemical Regulatory regime known as REACH.  Helen Hayes MP has been incredibly supportive of our work on this.  She hosted our Westminster Portculllis House event ‘Brexit and Breast Cancer’, and recently submitted a Written Parliamentary Question on this same issue to Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Gove, on behalf of From Pink to Prevention and our partner The Alliance for Cancer Prevention.

Earlier this year, in February, we met again with senior staff at the leading UK breast cancer charity Breast Cancer Now.  Our primary task in our discussions with the organisation remains two-fold: to keep the pressure up for them to acknowledge the overwhelming scientific evidence that links environmental and occupational risk to breast cancer and leading on from that, to carry this information in all their public-facing information materials.  We argue it is to deny women the full picture on breast cancer risk to be ‘airbrushing’ this aspect of the disease out of the picture.

Every May 27 we mark Rachel Carson Day – a visionary scientist, campaigner and author of The Silent Spring.

“We poison the gnats in a lake and the poison travels from link to link of the food chain and soon the birds of the lake margins become its victims. We spray our elms and the following springs are silent of robin song, not because we sprayed the robins directly but because the poison traveled, step by step, through the now familiar elm leaf-earthworm-robin cycle. These are matters of record, observable, part of the visible world around us. They reflect the web of life ­ or death ­ that scientists know as ecology.”
Rachel Carson

This Rachel Carson Day we will be sharing our FPTP toolkit. Please share! Ongoing awareness raising is vital, given the decades of resistance by the ‘cancer establishment’ (government, research breast cancer charities and industry) to address the issue.

THE FIVE PERCENT CAMPAIGN

A framework through which reverse runaway military spending.

Increasingly, the links between UK foreign policy, military spending/defence and the fall-out for international development are becoming clear. The campaign by CAAT & OXFAM and the subsequent court case continues to be highly effective at drawing attention to UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia.  The UK has licensed over £4.6 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since the bombing of Yemen began in March 2015.  We see arms sales to all sides in Syria by the many foreign powers with a geo-political interest in the region.  SIPRI (the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) reported in March 2018 that ‘most states in the Middle East were directly involved in violent conflict in 2013–17. Arms imports by states in the region increased by 103 per cent between 2008–12 and 2013–17, and accounted for 32 per cent of global arms imports in 2013–17.’ And the international outrage at Israel’s recent attack on protestors in Gaza saw Save the Children recently speak out as a campaign to halt UK arms sales to Israel gets more attention. The UK has sold $445m of arms to Israel including sniper rifles.

And below, Andrew Feinstein , author of The Shadow World, describes how the British arms trade impacted on South Africa’s development.

The arms trade drives the gargantuan amount spent on ‘defence’ every year – $1.6 trillion in 2010 alone…It accounts for almost 40 per cent of corruption in world trade. The very small number of people who decide on multibillion dollar contracts, the huge sums of money at stake and the veil of secrecy behind which transactions take place (in the interests of ‘national security’) ensure that the industry is hard-wired for corruption. I experienced this first hand as an ANC Member of Parliament in South Africa’s nascent democracy. At the time that our then President, Thabo Mbeki, claimed we did not have the resources to provide life-saving medication to the over five million people living with HIV/AIDS, we spent $10 billion on weapons we didn’t need and barely use today. About $300 million in bribes were paid to senior politicians, officials, go-betweens and the ANC itself. The British company BAE Systems contributed $180 million of the bribes and received the biggest contract, even though the jet it sold had not made an initial shortlist and was two and a half times more expensive than the plane desired by the air force. The time has come to lift the veil on this shadow world, to demand that our taxes are not used to develop another deadly weapon for the material benefit of a tiny self-serving élite, but are rather employed to enhance the lives of those who go hungry, who are without work or who suffer the deadly consequences of the trade in arms’.
Andrew Feinstein, former ANC MP

THANKS TO

… all our funding supporters – individual donors, grant-makers and major donors.

Follow us on Facebook

Tipping Point Film Fund

From Pink to Prevention

Make Apartheid History

Attlee Nation

MLK Global

Dear friends, supporters and colleagues,

Another Spring and another election is underway. History has shown us that when far-right politicians reassure or exploit people’s sense of insecurity with easy-fix populist slogans, it can only end bad, yet we are seeing just this playing out across Europe (east and west) and the USA, despite the warnings from history. The French Presidential result is something to take hope from, though 11 million French voters opted for Le Pen. Macron now has a tough ahead if he is to unite his country.

But in the USA, since the inauguration of Donald Trump, an interesting exercise has been taking place as Bernie Sanders and his supporters hold meetings and go out door to door to speak to Trump voters, alienated by the entire political system. And they’re finding that – at the very least – they thank him for simply engaging and listening.
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Dear colleagues and friends, supporters and funders,

It’s been a tough year. We end 2016 with the June Brexit vote and Trump election win in November; devastating conflicts in Syria and Yemen and news that has seen Arctic temperatures rising far higher and faster than scientists had predicted.

After Trump’s USA election win, there were some in the USA who drew strength from the idea that it’s ‘darkest just before the dawn’ and that now is the time for progressives to rise to the challenge with policies and campaigns that can push the far-right back. Let’s hope this observation proves to be the case as we do all we can to support those ever-growing justice movements around the world who are fighting to make this a reality.

Below is our 2016 round-up.  Please be in touch if you want to know more, get involved or help our work in any way.  Where-ever we are, what-ever we do, there’s a lot to ‘push back’ in the coming months and years.
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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 50^th 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 7-15^th. 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 18^th 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 27^th 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 18^th, 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 19-21^st 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,

As we emerge from the General Election, with much analysis undertaken and much more yet to come, it may be quite some time before the deeper meaning and consequences of the 2015 Election become apparent. The superficial speed of our 21^st century life can trick us into thinking that change can happen equally fast. But does it? Drivers of change – for example, the neo-liberal project that has shaped our politics for more than four decades – move much more slowly than we might imagine, their impact deep and prolonged. And those who oppose, protest, dissent and march for rights and against injustices, often endure a long wait before seeing change. But, more often than not, change is what they see…
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Dear friends,

April sees us launch our first major Tipping Point Funding Appeal  – it’s a campaign that we will run from April to June and is being done via the PATREON funding platform.

PATREON is very much about continuous support for creative projects – we are increasingly seeing our work as ‘creative activism’ and feel that this USA platform is the best place for us to showcase our work.
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Dear friends, supporters & colleagues,

As we come to the end of 2014, it’s fair to say that we would have wished to see a much more peaceful and equitable year than the one we have just witnessed.

But as long as more and more people actively engage with a variety of (inter-connected) issues – realizing that if we are to make our society better, we need to come together – there is hope for change. Inequality has been successfully challenged in the past and can be again; the war machine can (and must) be resisted; our shared environment must be protected.
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Autumnal greeting to all our supporters, friends and colleagues,

With the return of Occupy to London; the UK parliament’s (non-binding) vote to recognize Palestine and the thousands who marched around the world in solidarity with the people of Gaza; with hundreds of thousands of people around the world who marched for action on climate change ahead of UN Climate Summit in New York and not forgetting the Scottish referendum here at home – slowly but surely, we can take hope that tides are turning on some of the biggest issues of today and that civil society is finding its voice and its strength on many, often connected, issues.

On which note, here’s a quick round-up of Tipping Point’s projects.
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