Let's brave The Wave!

Most of you have by now heard about The Wave, the big climate change demo in London on December 5th (link goes to Oxfam's Wave pages, or visit the extremely cool SCC Wave website here). It would be great if loads of OOG members could be part of The Wave, and I wonder whether we can arrange to go up to London together as a group? Please reply to this post if you're up for that.

Below is a message from Mim Saxl, volunteer city organiser for Oxford, working with the Stop Climate Chaos coalition. I have her contact details if you want to be added directly to her mailing list. I also thought I'd share this fine piece of video made by Oxfam colleagues in Manchester, promoting The Wave. Please feel free to share it on your social networks.



Dear contact,
This is a quick update concerning Oxford preparation for The Wave on the 5th of December 2009.
Covered in this email:
1) New website
2) Travel update
3) Preparation at Grove House – BOOK NOW
4) Need flyers?
5) IMPORTANT: Numbers


1) New Website: The Wave has an exciting new website: http://the-wave.org.uk/
You and your supporters can really help spread the word about The Wave by uploading your Mexican wave video clips now onto the website.
So, please:
- Link to it in newsletters and e-mails to members
- Host The Wave banner advert on your website's homepage: http://dev.torchbox.com/wes/scc/scc-banner-200x250.html (If you can use the banner ad on your website's homepage, please let our webby Tom know: tom@stopclimatechaos.org, and we'll help you get it onto your website)
- Add the banner ad or web link to your facebook page
- Tweet about it, and retweet our #thewave tweets
- And include the link anywhere else you can think of!


2) Transport: Unfortunately the Megabus deal available from other cities is not available from Oxford, so, this currently leaves 3 transport options:

- The Co-operative has sponsored special buses for the day, which will be leaving from Beaumont Street, opposite the Ashmolean Museum, OX1 2PH, at 08:30am on the day, and returning that evening. Tickets are £5 return, and can be booked from:

http://www.co-operative.coop/ethicsinaction/takeaction/thewave/book-transport-for-The-Wave/#book

To book, you need to be a Co-op member or Oxfam supporter (if you’re not a Co-op member, you can join online for £1). Co-op members can add their membership number and Oxfam supporters can add their Oxfam supporter code (disseminated through their communication channels). 1 member/supporter can book up to 5 other tickets.

- Oxfordshire Climate Alliance / Oxford Stop Climate Chaos has also booked coaches, and tickets for these will be £10/£8 return – still cheaper than the usual buses available. These coaches will leave central Oxford at 10am on the 5th, and return that evening. Tickets and further details are available from the website: http://web.bethere.co.uk/OSCC/ , which is soon to be updated. Note: these coaches will not be arriving in London in time for the 11am service, so please book a place on a Co-op coach if you wish to be there in time for that.

- There third option is that you hop on your bike: There is a team of people cycling, passing by Didcot Power Station on the 3.12.2009. For more info, see http://climatechains.blogspot.com/2009/09/second-wheels-to-wave-route-planned.html


3) Preparation at Grove House – BOOK NOW
Grove House on Iffley Turn is hosting a special banner making day in preparation for The Wave, where you can go and hang out with other Oxford folk and get creative:

‘Join us on Saturday 28th November to make banners & outfits (the theme is blue) and get collectively inspired for the WAVE climate change march in London the following Saturday. If you want to, arrive at 11am for screening of material from the Be the Change symposium. We'll provide hot soup at lunchtime, and tea. Please bring your own banner-making materials and anything else you might like to eat or drink. The Rotunda will be open until about 5pm. To let us know you are coming and help us cover costs, please book a £2 place on the website: www.grovehouse.info


4) Need flyers?
A good number of flyers for The Wave have arrived in Oxford at The Old Music Hall. It would be great if you could email me if you need flyers for any events, and I can pop some in the post or drop them off.


5) IMPORTANT: Numbers
I have been asked by SCC head office to get a good idea of numbers of people coming from Oxford on the day. This is obviously a difficult thing to get right, but for those of you from local groups, I would be hugely grateful if you could let me know a rough estimate of how many people you expect to be coming that you know of from your group. To help, maybe think in terms of 1-10 people; 10-50; 50-100; 100-200 etc, and just drop me a line.
Basically, we’re trying to hit a target of getting 1000 from Oxford along on the day, so this will just help us get an idea of where we are at!


That’s all for now. Grateful if you could send news to me of any up-coming events at which we can publicise The Wave, and as ever, really grateful if you can tell everyone you know about it!
If you are on this email list in error, please drop me a line, and I’ll remove you.

Thanks!
Mim

Hurrah for this sort of thing!

There's been a flurry of activity this last couple of weeks, with a busy period likely also in the run-up to Christmas. Many thanks to everyone who has helped out in any way.

First, the weekend's Book Fair raised a fantastic £2,650 for Oxfam's work. Over 560 people came through the door, many of them finding out about the event by seeing someone carrying a placard in the street (I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's clearly vital. Actually, I rather like doing it!). Thanks to everyone who helped, and especially Helen, who put such a huge amount of work in in the run-up to the event as well as on the day. She is planning a well-deserved break from being Book Fair Supremo, and won't be organising the next one, so if you can volunteer to lead (or just take part in) the organising team, that would be great. It isn't an admin-heavy activity, but we do need someone to keep a track on things, especially the regular pricing.

The previous weekend's Stand Up and Speak Out events were also a great success. OOG members took part in the lobbies of Andrew Smith MP and prospective parliamentary candidate Steve Goddard in East Oxford, and Evan Harris MP in the Town Hall. We raised the issues of climate change and funding the Millennium Development Goals, and the reactions of all three were generally positive.

Saturday 17th saw us out in Cornmarket Street, campaigning with other members of the BOND coalition and making a public call to action on these issues. At noon a big crowd assembled, made lots of noise, waved placards, and even sung songs! A big thank you to our friends at Christain Aid for doing lots of the organising, and also to Maranda from CCOW (Christian Concern for One World), who played a huge role in making Stand Up happen across Oxfordshire. Increasingly, OOG's campaigning work (like Oxfam's nationally) is happening in coalition, which brings us huge benefits in terms of reach and resources. There are a number of local coalitions now, including fair trade, and climate change groups, both of which have had strong OOG involvement. If you are interested in finding out more about this, please get in touch.

Lastly, I thought you'd like to see one of the increasingly famous Oxfam polar bears strutting its stuff in Oxford, carrying the message "humans need saving too"!

Book Fair tomorrow!

Yes, it's time once more for the regular Book Fair. Thanks to all who have offered to help, but if you'd like to turn up and browse on the day, please do! And people tohold placards and walk up and down Cornmarket Street are always welcome....

OOG Book Fair, Saturday 24 October, 9.30am - 4.30 pm, Wesley Memorial Church Hall, New Inn Hall Street, Oxford.

Stand up and Speak Out against poverty

Stand Up event in Cornmarket this Saturday

This weekend, as part of the BOND coalition, Oxfam supporters around the country will be standing up against poverty! This in turn is part of a moment around the world, when millions of people will simultaneously stand up to symbolise their support for our call for a world without degrading, man-made and totally avoidable poverty.

In Oxford, we will be part of this global moment! Come to St Michael's of Northgate on Cornmarket Street just before noon, when we, together with campaigners from the local Christain Aid group and others, will film ourselves taking part. We are calling on world leaders to meet their promises on the Millennium Development Goals to end poverty, and to take action on climate change which will affect the world's poorest people the worst. We are running a stall from 10 until 2, so if you can help at any point in the day, please get in touch, or just show up! We also want to publicise The Wave, a massive national demo in London on December 5th, in advance of the UN climate conference in Copenhagen. You can arrange your transport to The Wave via Oxfam if you like.

Oh, if it's an added incentive, we will have polar bears campaigning with us.

The Great Persuasion, this Friday

The Stand Up event is hard on the heels of The Great Persuasion, a co-ordinated lobby of MPs and Prospective Parliamentary candidaites across the UK. In Oxford, we are lobbying in both constituencies this Friday afternoon, 16th October. Thanks to all OOG members who have offered to take part - we now have a good crowd involved in each. If you want to add your voice to the mix, get in touch! We will be calling for the candidates' commitments on the same issues that the Stand Up event is raising: the BOND Manifesto sets these out.

Clearly, whoever is in power after the next General Election (which has to happen by June 2010), they need to ensure that the UK has progressive policies which tackle poverty effectively.

Typhoon and earthquake in East Asia

Oxfam is already delivering Aid to Padang, Indonsia following the earthquake and typhoon last week. More information here
There will be a DEC appeal for funds.

Donations can be made by ringing 0370 60 60 900 or on the DEC website

The DEC consists of: Action Aid, British Red Cross, CAFOD, CARE International UK, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund, World Vision.

More on this: East Asia Disaster Appeal