Trade Justice Movement

The Trade Justice Movement is a British coalition, founded in 2000, of more than 80 organizations campaigning for trade justice.

The coalition has a particular focus on UK and EU trade policies. This includes the removal of the European Union's agricultural export and other subsidies that result in dumping, and the right of national governments to follow protectionist trade policies in the pursuit of social and environmental goals. Members of the Trade Justice Movement have had a major focus, working with allies internationally, on negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) since its first public event ahead of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, in November 2001.

The Trade Justice Movement has a present priority campaign on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), the European Union (EU) is negotiating with its former colonies in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

The coalition also campaigns for effective regulation of the corporations that make up 70% of world trade. In 2006 this included one of the largest UK campaigns of that year with over 100,000 UK voters contacting their MP, resulting in changes to UK company law in the Companies Act 2006.

The Trade Justice Movement includes development and environment NGOs, trade unions, human rights campaigns, Fairtrade organizations, and faith and consumer groups. Current members include:
*ActionAid
*CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development
*Christian Aid
* [http://www.foe.co.uk Friends of the Earth]
*Oxfam
*Save the Children
*SCIAF, The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund
*Tearfund
*Traidcraft
*The World Development Movement

The Trade Justice Movement has established a reputation for public mobilization in support of its goals. Its Mass Lobby of Parliament in November 2005 was the largest such event in the history of modern British democracy with 375 MPs lobbied in one day. This surpassed the previous record of 346 MPs lobbied in June 2002, which had also been set by the Trade Justice Movement. In 2003 the coalition staged the biggest national lobby of MPs when more than 500 parliamentarians were lobbied in their constituencies ahead of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancún, Mexico, when talks collapsed. In April 2005 the coalition staged the biggest mass protest of the UK election campaign when over 25,000 people filled Whitehall at an all-night vigil.

The Trade Justice Movement secretariat shares the Baldwin's Gardens premises in London with the Fairtrade Foundation, which advocates for Fair trade labeling in Britain. The coalition's current coordinator is Glen Tarman, formerly publicity manager at OneWorld.net.

In 2005 the Trade Justice Movement was one of the networks at the core of Make Poverty History, a UK coalition of more than 500 organizations lobbying for the trade justice movement, debt relief, and increased foreign aid.

External links

* [http://www.tjm.org.uk/ The Trade Justice Movement website]
* [http://www.tjm.org.uk/members.shtml Members of The TJM]
* [http://www.gerechtigkeit-jetzt.de the German Trade Justice Campaign]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfdgKsz_gFQ Video: Trade justice event, London, April 2007]