Movement Magazine: Issue 162

CAMPAIGN NEWS
FAITH IN ACTION
Despite spending more time at home and less time taking to the streets than ever
before this year, SCM has not stopped taking action for justice. Here is a roundup of
the campaigns we’ve been involved with so far during 2020.
DIVERT MILITARY
SPENDING
In May SCM joined calls from Peace Pledge union and
Fellowship of Reconciliation to divert military spending
away from warfare and towards healthcare in light of the
urgent support needed for the NHS during COVID-19. This
online day of action saw individuals and organisations from
different areas of society coming together to support the
day of action on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtags
#DivertMilitarySpending and #HealthcareNotWarfare.
CLIMATE
COALITION’S
EARTH DAY
SCM has been a member of the Climate Coalition since
2017. We support their work bringing together voices from
across society to tackle climate breakdown and call for
climate justice. On the 22nd of April we joined the Climate
Coalition and organisations and people around the world to
mark Earth Day 2020 by creating green hearts at home.
CLIMATE VIGIL
In April, SCM members joined communities from the
Extinction Rebellion Faith Bridge for a peaceful prayer vigil.
The vigil saw people of various faiths pray continuously
throughout the 40 days of Lent. At first, this action was
taken in London outside Parliament to demonstrate the
urgent need for climate action from our government, but
a few weeks in we had to move the action online due to
COVID-19 restrictions.
However, the vigil was still a blessed time of prayer and
community, with daily prayer Zoom calls and a full rota
of people praying in their homes for action on climate
breakdown. A group of 14 SCM members filled an entire 24-
hour slot, setting up prayer stations at home, reading bible
passages, painting, walking, and meditating for climate
justice. The action brought our community together, and
there was a real sense, despite being socially distanced, of
people gathering from different walks of life to reflect on our
hope for real change on this issue.
Jack, our new campaign portfolio on General Council, said,
‘I feel really proud of what we’ve achieved, thank you for
organising and everyone for taking part.’ SCM member
Ellie tweeted that they were ‘Thankful for Christian Climate
Action and SCM for their leadership and community during
this Lent vigil.’
We’ll be joining in future actions for the climate in
conjunction with Christian Climate Action and the Fellowship
of Reconciliation, so look forward to similar events coming
up later this year.
PPU said of the campaign, ‘Money diverted from military
budgets could contribute towards NHS and social care costs,
initiatives to assist those losing their jobs, and support for
people whose mental health is affected by isolation. In the
long term, we need to shift “defence” resources away from
preparing for war and towards tackling serious threats to
human security, including pandemics, epidemics, poverty
and climate change.’ They also tweeted, ‘We’re delighted
that SCM Britain have declared their support for the
#HealthcareNotWarfare campaign.’
This action was part of our wider Peace campaign focus,
which will continue for the next academic year, so keep an
eye out for more peace resources coming your way soon!
THE DAILY
BREAD CAMPAIGN
We are excited to announce that food justice will be our
new campaign focus for 2020-22. We will look at everything
from food poverty in the UK, to sustainability of food
production, to the effects of our food systems on those
in the Global South. The campaign will be launched this
academic year, so watch out for more resources and events
coming your way. For now, you can start by reading about
the revolutionary effects of Guerrilla Gardening on page 23!
The organisers of Earth Day said, ‘With COVID-19 causing
public health lockdowns around the world, Earth Day, the
planet’s largest civic event, went entirely digital for the
first time in its history. On every continent, in dozens of
languages, humanity celebrated our shared home. We
resolved that after the COVID-19 pandemic ended, we
would restore our Earth to a cleaner, fairer, better world for
everyone.’
Earth Day has been an annual event since 1970 and has
seen landmark legislation passed as a result of protests
around clean air, clean water, and endangered species. In
2016 the United Nations chose Earth Day to sign the Paris
Climate Agreement.
This year, the campaign focused on rebuilding greener
after COVID-19, with calls in the UK for a green economic
stimulus including jobs in sustainable industries, sustainable
public transport, and using what we have learned from the
urgent legislation around lockdown restrictions to call for
huge changes in legislation around climate protections.
Head to twitter for the Climate Coalition’s declaration for
green and fair recovery, and news on actions in the run
up to COP-26 climate talks which will now take place in
November 2021.
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