This page links to websites from some of our previous campaigns. If you are looking for a brief history of our campaigning then visit this link.
Warning
The information on these pages is not maintained, and may be out of date. Many of the links do not work. However if you’re interested in these campaigns please contact us.
Treat AIDS Now!
Keep the promise!
In 2003, the P&P network chose the AIDS campaign at our annual democratic event, the Forum.
At the time, the UN estimated that 40 million people were living with HIV/AIDS. In rich countries like the UK treatment was available which had made AIDS an illness that could be lived with for 20 years or more, and prevention programmes had prevented a major epidemic. But 95% of HIV positive people lived in developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa less than 1% of those who needed treatment were receiving it. People & Planet insisted that all people should have access to the medicines that could dramatically prolong their productive lives and lesson their pain.
The campaign finished in 2008. In five years our campaigning:
- Persuaded the UK government to lead an international commitment to provide treatment for all by 2010 — millions more now receive treatment
- Supported countries’ rights to access affordable treatment for their people. In 2007 we helped 8,000 more people in Thailand get treatment, and in July 2008 the first steps were taken toward setting up a new international mechanism to bring down the cost of essential medicines.
- Increased the international funding for HIV/AIDS.
“Student activists from People & Planet have shown that solidarity really can change the world. Thousands of people are dying from HIV every single day. The G8 have the power to stop that - and student campaigners have the power to make them use it.”
Stop GATS
The word GATS means nothing to most people. But international negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) could have had a huge impact on the lives of people all around the world. In 2003 People & Planet joined with 13 of the UK’s biggest trade unions, including all the main education unions and UNISON, to intensify the pressure on the government to halt the secretive GATS negotiations. People & Planet successfully defended higher education from being included in the GATS Negotiations this Student-led campaign forces European Commission climb-down. In a spectacular u-turn, the European Commission (EC) announced on Wednesday February 5th 2003 that European Higher Education will not be included in the current negotiations to expand the profit-driven GATS free trade treaty.
This dramatic development, which the EC admitted was the result of public campaigning, follows the September launch of a major student campaign by People & Planet to Defend Education. Stop GATS.
Stop Esso
The Stop Esso campaign was launched in May 2001, in response to George W Bush’s announcement that the US would not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the only international treaty to help reduce climate change. Esso have spent years sabotaging international action to control climate change, and donated more money than any other oil company to get George Bush into the White House.
Esso’s influence over the Bush administration’s climate change policy was publicly revealed in 2005, proving what the Stop Esso campaign had been claiming for years!
People & Planet’s campaign targeted Esso’s university recruitment drives, with People & Planet groups giving out leaflets and ‘Esso sucks’ lollies to hundreds of students, asking them to think twice about working for such an unethical company. At Oxford Brookes, for example, Esso staff were shocked when 20 minutes into their talk, a ‘tiger’ arrived to deliver a presentation on why he was retiring as Esso’s mascot due to the company’s earth-trashing behaviour!
After two years of having their appalling stance on climate change revealed to the graduates they need to recruit, Esso decided they’d had enough, and cancelled their recruitment tour “Students drive Esso off campus”). Just shows that it’s possible to influence even the biggest of corporations!
Green Electricity
In March 2001 People & Planet launched its Green Electricity campaign to switch Britain’s universities to renewable power that does not contribute to climate change. At the beginning of the campaign only 3 universities bought any of their electricity from renewable sources - now there are over 60, with green energy contracts worth a total of £31 million, preventing the release of 275,285 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. Read the campaign report ‘Green Power Options’.
After the success of the Green Electricity campaign, People & Planet moved on to campaign for universities to Go Green. The Go Green campaign is working for a massive transformation in the total environmental impact of the university sector.
The Jubilee 2000 campaign
Back in 1999 People & Planet groups have been successfully campaigning at over 100 universities and colleges nationwide in support of Jubilee 2000. Whilst Jubilee 2000 no longer exists as a campaign, the Jubilee movement continues in various new guises, follow the links to find out more. The Jubilee Debt Campaign The Jubilee Debt Campaign is the UK’s campaigning successor to Jubilee 2000 and Drop the Debt.