Oxfam and Embrace head to London All through September and October Embrace have invited Oxfam on tour with them. Here's the latest from Damien, our campaigner on the tour bus: "Since I wrote the last blog the tour has been to Cardiff, Exeter and Bristol. The Cardiff gig coincided with freshers' week and the university venue quickly filled up with fans raring to boogie to the upbeat show that Embrace are putting on these days. At all of the gigs Danny has made sure everyone of the crowd are jumping up and down and I think that has made it the most lively Embrace tour ever. So far for me I think the best show has been in Exeter where the crowd went wild and we had an amazing time. At the Bristol gig Danny donned an Oxfam top and I got on stage (well nearly) to take some great pics. At the moment my favourite song on the tour has to be Nature's Law and I try to make sure I'm in the auditorium to watch it every time. The band and the crew are just settling into the tour and I'm just about settling into the feeling of sleeping on a moving bus. I think if I had to name a best moment so far it would be travelling up from Bristol on the band bus so I could spend my day off at home. They're all really down to earth which makes it all the better talking about Oxfam with them. At the moment I'm on the bus back down to London where tonight Embrace play the biggest gig of the tour at the Hammersmith Apollo. There's a real sense of excitement in the air and I can tell it's going to be a really good gig tonight. If you don't have a ticket yet then try to get one because I know I wouldn't want to miss it tonight." MORE BLOGS FROM THE EMBRACE TOUR 30 October Win loads of Embrace stuff 30 October End of tour blog 25 October Great tour pics 23 October Oxfam and Embrace - the end is near 17 October Embrace and Oxfam continue their tour of the UK 3 October Rocking out in London 29 September Oxfam and Embrace head to London 28 September More Photos from Cambridge, Norwich and Cardiff 27 September On the road in Cambridge, Norwich and Cardiff posted at 4:44 PM | Permalink 2 comments

Control Arms photo exhibition in London Next Thursday 5 October a brand new Control Arms photographic exhibition will be opening in the exciting and atmospheric Bargehouse, Oxo Tower, London. Caught in the Crossfire brings together amazing and thought provoking photography from some of the world's top news photographers and 'documents the daily reality of our world, a world where the arms trade is out of control'. The photography will be spread over three floors and there will be two video projector rooms and a chance to take action and sign-up to the Control Arms campaign. The exhibition will be open to the public from 11.00 am to 6.00 pm daily until 22 October and is free of charge. Find out more about the exhibition >> posted at 10:18 AM | Permalink 1 comments

Photos from our tour with Embrace Hiya, we've been having some problems adding photos with blogger, but it's all working OK today. We just thought we'd show you some pics from the tour with Embrace... Front man Danny McNamara and Embrace rock out in Cambridge. (Photo: Matthew Gallagher). Happy Norwich punters sign the petition to make health care and education available for all. Embrace keyboardist Mickey Dale helps out with the campaigning in Norwich. A big thank you to the happy campaigners from Cardiff... ...Norwich... ...and Cambridge! MORE BLOGS FROM THE EMBRACE TOUR 30 October Win loads of Embrace stuff 30 October End of tour blog 25 October Great tour pics 23 October Oxfam and Embrace - the end is near 17 October Embrace and Oxfam continue their tour of the UK 3 October Rocking out in London 29 September Oxfam and Embrace head to London 28 September More Photos from Cambridge, Norwich and Cardiff 27 September On the road in Cambridge, Norwich and Cardiff posted at 9:55 AM | Permalink 3 comments

Oxfam on the road with Embrace Woo hoo! Guitar heroes and all-round top blokes Embrace have invited us to campaign on their current UK tour! Super-campaigner Damien Percy is the Oxfam man on the Embrace tour bus, and he'll be sending us regular blogs on how he's getting on. Here's his first update: "Hello from the Embrace tour! I get the pleasure of being on the whole tour with the band and campaigning for Oxfam at each gig. So far we've done Norwich and Cambridge and tonight we're in Cardiff. At every gig, Oxfam volunteers will be asking people to sign a petition in support of health care and education for all. The first thing I've learned is that Embrace are definitely not going to split up so we can all stop worrying. And so far the band has been amazing - they're all loving it, the fans are loving it and we're loving it. We have had two amazing campaign teams so far and the signatures have been flowing in. The best campaigner has to be none other than Mickey Dale of Embrace! In Norwich he took the opportunity to get out into the crowd and spread the good word. All of the lads have been great and we have to thank them loads for showing their support so strongly and letting Oxfam travel with them. Keep your eyes peeled for the next time Embrace do some campaigning at one of their own gigs! They have now been issued with their Oxfam T-shirts (see pic above - more pics to follow) and are raring to go. Special thanks also has to go to the volunteers at all the gigs so far who have worked their little socks off and really earned their free entrance. If you're out-going and full of energy you could be a campaigner, too - and you could get into concerts and festivals for free. Find out how you can get involved. I campaigned for Oxfam a few times and now I'm on tour with one of the UK's premier rocks bands; surely it can't get any better than that!" MORE BLOGS FROM THE EMBRACE TOUR 30 October Win loads of Embrace stuff 30 October End of tour blog 25 October Great tour pics 23 October Oxfam and Embrace - the end is near 17 October Embrace and Oxfam continue their tour of the UK 3 October Rocking out in London 29 September Oxfam and Embrace head to London 28 September More Photos from Cambridge, Norwich and Cardiff 27 September On the road in Cambridge, Norwich and Cardiff posted at 8:48 PM | Permalink 0 comments

Tell us what you think and win music DVDs and signed goodies If you're into live music, we want to know what you think in a survey for Oxjam, our month-long music festival this October. Do you go to gigs? Are you in a band? Would you like to be? In return for your words of wisdom, you could win t-shirts signed by Kasabian, Hard Fi and Art Brut, and top music DVDs from Universal Music. Not bad, eh? Fill in the quick two-minute survey now >> posted at 9:55 AM | Permalink 0 comments

An Inconvenient Truth - at cinemas everywhere this weekend! This weekend cinemas up and down the country - from Aberdeen to East Finchley and Cambridge to Shepherd's Bush - will be gripping, informing, startling and mesmerizing audiences in the shape of the must-see film An Inconvenient Truth. This is the story of former Vice President Al Gore and how an interest in climate change has developed into a life devoted to reversing global warming. He's even managed to talk Richard Branson into changing his ways... Find out where you can see the film >> posted at 11:42 AM | Permalink 1 comments

Get your music on MTV with Oxjam Wanna see your band or gig on MTV? Well get involved with Oxjam and you could be stars of the screen in no time. The idea is simple: film your Oxjam gig and upload it on to MTV Flux, MTV's interactive music site. People will vote for their favourite Oxjam clips online, and the most popular will be shown on the MTV Flux channel during October and November. In December, MTV and Oxjam will select the best bands and send cameras out to film exclusive band-profiles to be shown early next year. To top it all, the best three or four bands could appear on the bill of a massive gig next April - alongside some of the major acts supporting Oxjam. Watch the MTV Oxjam trailer and find out more >> posted at 2:03 PM | Permalink 1 comments

Oxfam makes The Times top 100 graduate employers Calling all recent graduates - The Times has once again carried out a survey amongst final year students to find out the top 100 companies graduates would most like to work for, and Oxfam is at number 45 - up 8 from last year. Perhaps this shows that young people care about helping the world around them, though the only other charity in the top 100 was Cancer Research at number 66. There is also a large number of public sector organisations in the list - the Civil Service and the NHS both feature in the top 10 - again reflecting that young people want to help society whist they work. Accountancy and banking seem to be amongst the most popular career destinations for students - accountancy firms PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte and KPMG are the top three graduate employers overall. One of the more interesting success stories is supermarket Aldi, which came in at number 12 - up from 65 in 2002. But when you consider the company's starting salary for graduates (£38,000) and that they give their employees a brand new Audi A4, perhaps this isn't too surprising! If you're interested in a career at Oxfam, there are some brilliant voluntary internship schemes here which may lead to employment. These can be short-term or long-term and can mean working on a specific project, for example helping out with festivals or working on a website like Generation Why, or working in a variety of communications and marketing roles. You can find out more about these, as well as specific job opportunities, on the main Oxfam website. What do you think about The Times top 100? Do students only care about money? In our recent poll, nearly 25 per cent of you said helping society was the most important factor when choosing a job, compared to just 12 per cent who said a decent salary was more important. Do you agree? Add your comments below. posted at 11:35 AM | Permalink 2 comments

Go see these great shows in Birmingham Oxfam campaigners in Birmingham have forged a great partnership with a local venue called The Drum. The theatre will be showing a film and a play about poverty in South Africa, and have kindly allowed Birmingham campaigners to collect signatures for our all-important Health and Education for All petition at the same time. The film is Tsotsi (meaning hoodlum), a gritty drama set in the Johannesburg township of Soweto which follows six days in the life of a gang leader played by Presley Chweneyagae (pictured). It's showing on Tuesday 19 September, at 7.30 pm and tickets cost £4. The play, Township Stories, is a series of stories of life in a post-apartheid township. It's showing on Saturday 30 September and Sunday 1 October and tickets cost £10. The Drum 144 Potters Lane Aston Birmingham B6 4UU England Telephone +44 (0)121 333 2400 Fax +44 (0)121 333 2440 info@the-drum.org.uk posted at 10:03 AM | Permalink 0 comments

Day of action for Control Arms Today is a humongous day of action for the Control Arms campaign - events are taking place in 40 countries to put pressure on governments to support an Arms Trade Treaty when the UN meets in October. In the UK, campaigners have been walking through the streets of London, carrying mini video screens playing a spoof TV advert showing how easy it is to buy and sell small arms. You can follow the latest from London in the Control Arms blog. Find out more about the issues with our Control Arms quiz >> posted at 11:16 AM | Permalink 0 comments

Watch the Futureheads busk on the Underground Just a quickie - we've just put up a nice vid of the Futureheads busking on the Underground exclusively for Oxjam. It was a couple of weeks ago - they were doing it to help us promote our big month of music events. We want anyone and everyone to put on some kind of music event this October to raise money to fight poverty around the world - so find out more about Oxjam and get involved pronto. posted at 3:09 PM | Permalink 0 comments

Eat Ben & Jerry's Fairtrade ice cream If you ever fancy a cosy night in with a movie and some ice cream, make sure you look out for Ben & Jerry's Fairtrade vanilla ice cream. It's the first ice cream to carry the Fairtrade mark, and is made from Fairtrade sugar from the Manduvirá farmers’ co-operative in Paraguay, and Fairtrade vanilla from co-operatives in India. Ben & Jerry's say work is underway for more flavours - so keep your eyes open. In the meantime, fill your face with a clear conscience - the ice cream costs £3.79 for 500ml, or £1.49 for 150ml and is available in Sainsbury's and selected Co-ops. More on the Ben & Jerry's website >> posted at 12:04 PM | Permalink 2 comments

Generation Next: the BBC wants to hear from you Just been told about a cool project called Generation Next by our friends at the BBC. It's a special week of programmes to run this December, exploring the world through the eyes of the next generation (ie us). They want to hear the views and stories of people under 18 - they'll publish the best ones online, and turn the best ones into programmes and features for Generation Next. So, what do you think are the most important world issues today? What has the biggest impact on your life? Tell the BBC what you think >> posted at 4:06 PM | Permalink 0 comments

Get your white band on Did you wear a white Make Poverty History band last year? Maybe you're still wearing it? If so, this is for you - we need you to wear your white band from 16 September as part of Stand Up Against Poverty, a month of action to put pressure on world leaders to act on the promises they made last year. The first thing you can to do to support us is wear your white band, then download the month of action of toolkit if you want to find out how to get more involved. In the UK we'll be calling for more action on trade justice, debt cancellation and more and better aid. The time has come to get your white band back on - if you ever took it off - and Stand Up Against Poverty. Do it now - put your white band back on >> posted at 4:52 PM | Permalink 1 comments

Pledge to see An Inconvenient Truth A quick Friday pm blog. You may have already heard about this life-changing film about climate change, made by former US presidential candidate Al Gore. It's this year's absolute MUST-SEE movie - Gore presents a terrifying vision of the world if we fail to do anything about global warming, and challenges the preconceptions that people have about the issues involved. So, if you do one thing this autumn (oh, is it really autumn already?) go see this movie. Read Maddy Fry's (one of our Your Say writers) review of the film and then go to the Climate Crisis website and make your pledge to see the film. The film goes on UK release on 15 September, so check your local listings and get your mates along too. Pledge to see An Inconvenient Truth >> posted at 2:22 PM | Permalink 1 comments

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