Some Good Quotes Used In The Booklet

'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

And as we let our light shine,
we unconsciously give other
people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically releases others.'

Marianne Williamson

Bible Verses

He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honours God.
Proverbs 14 v31

“…the powerful dictate what they desire - they all conspire together.”
Micah 7v3b NIV

“…the LORD your God…shows no partiality…He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow…” Deuteronomy 10:17a&18a NIV

Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right.
Psalm 106 v3

learn to do right!
Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
Isaiah 1 v17 (NIV)

Differing weights and differing measures - the Lord detests them both.
Proverbs 20: 10 (NIV)

The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.
James 5: 4 (NIV)

Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar?
Isaiah 10: 1-3 (NIV)

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12v12
(link to last two paras)

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”
Jesus, Matthew 23:23

I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.
Surely the righteous will praise your name and the upright will live before you.
Psalm 140 v12-13

‘Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned… By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries.’
Ezekiel 28:16a&18a

"And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”
Jesus, Luke 11v46, NIV

By justice a king gives a country stability, but one who is greedy for bribes tears it down.
Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.
Many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the LORD that man gets justice.
Proverbs 29 v24-26

“Because you run roughshod over the poor and take the bread right out of their mouths, You're never going to move into the luxury homes you have built…Seek good and not evil – and live!”
Amos 5: 11a & 14a, The Message

'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great, but judge your neighbour fairly.
Leviticus 19v15 (NIV)

Facts and Quotes

‘Landslides happen when small stones start to move.’
David Alton

If developing countries are to realize the potential of international trade to enhance economic growth, the main barriers to their exports need to be removed. These include tariffs (taxes) imposed by developed countries on imports from developing countries and the subsidies that developed countries provide to domestic agricultural producers.1

‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’
Martin Luther King

Tariffs are not the only obstacle to developing-country exports. Government subsidies to producers in rich countries give them an unfair advantage against imports from abroad — at a great cost to taxpayers. It is estimated that free trade in farm products alone would benefit developing countries by $20 billion a year.
The Millennium Development Goals Report 2005

Poor countries only account for 0.4 per cent of world trade. Since 1980 their share has halved. 1

‘The Earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are doing it have names and addresses.’
Utah Philips.

‘If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you come because your liberation is bound up with mine let us walk together.’
Lilla Watson, Australian Aboriginal Leader

‘The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.’
Steve Biko

There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out.
Afghan proverb

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now.
African proverb

‘We can do no great deeds, only little ones with great love’
Mother Teresa

UK companies are some of world’s biggest foreign investors, giving them huge power over communities and workers around the world. 5

Five corporations control 90% of the global trade in grains and six control over 75% of the global pesticides market3

Due to pressure from TJM and the CORE coalition, including SPEAK, in October 2006 the UK Government made a commitment to review, within two years, whether or not voluntary reporting standards are resulting in meaningful reports. We must continue to push for the Government to introduce mandatory reporting standards.

Nearly half of palm oil plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia cause forest destruction, yet Tesco does not know where it sources its palm oil.
Greasy Palms Report - www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/greasy_palms_summary.pdf

“I’ve had more letters from constituents about trade justice and the Company Law Reform Bill than any other issue since I became an MP. I have written to the Minister about their concerns as a result.”
Ed Balls MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury

The SPEAK group in Cambridge have lobbied David Howard MP a number of times, including at a debate when the Big Dress Tour visited the city, and clearly made a big impact. In the ‘Standing Committee’ stage the Liberal Democrats were lead by David Howarth and he tabled amendments to strengthen the environmental and social reporting requirements in the Bill.

‘Do what you think is best. Push for it. Be relentless. Wear them down. They want to go home at five o'clock.’
Michael Moore

‘If you go to one demonstration and then go home, that's something, but the people in power can live with that. What they can't live with is sustained pressure that keeps building, organisations that keep doing things, people that keep learning lessons from the last time and doing it better the next time.’
Noam Chomsky

Out of the 61,000 multinational companies, only 1,500 – 2,000 produce annual reports on their social and environmental impacts4

An Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development policy paper stated: ‘There are only a few cases where [voluntary initiatives] have contributed to environmental improvements significantly different from what would have happened anyway.’ And policy-makers at the World Bank concluded: ‘Voluntary standards are no substitute for a benevolent, well-informed regulator’.

‘Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.’
Saint Augustine

‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win’
Gandhi

There are more than 61,000 MNCs – too many for civil society to police! They have significant influence over the millions of people in developed and developing countries.4
Factory owners in Bangladesh say that to keep Wal-Mart contracts they have been forced to cut prices by as much as 50%, while the US National Labor Committee found workers for Wal-Mart suppliers in China’s Guangdong Province working 130 hours per week for an average 16.5 cents an hour
War on Want, Asda Walmart report

“Over 1,500 stores. Over 18% annual growth.And we’re just getting started.There’s hundreds of billions of dollars in opportunity to pursue and many new markets to explore.”
Wal-Mart 2005 Annual Report

‘Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.’
Paolo Freire

‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.’
Martin Luther King

More than 750,000 people in the UK signed a ‘Vote for Trade Justice’ action card. One of the demands of the vote was for the UK Government to make laws to stop business profiting at the expense of people and the planet.
“Right Corporate Wrongs: The Final Push” TJM & CORE 2006

Rigged trade rules cost poor countries $700 billion every year, according to the UN5

There have been over 4,000 oil spills in the Niger Delta since 1960.
US Energy information service - www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/nigenv.html

“A good company in the 21st century takes sustainable development seriously and takes responsibility for its environmental, social and economic impact.”
Malcolm Wicks MP, Minister of State for Trade and Industry, October 20056

‘Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God’
William Cary

‘Vision without action is merely dreaming. Action without vision is just passing the time of day... But combine vision with action and you can change the world.’
Nelson Mandela