Direct action

See anyone you know? More than 225,000 people encircled Edinburgh in 2005 ahead of the G8 Summit in Gleneagles. Politicians agreed to cancel some poor countries’ debt and increase aid. Brilliant, but well short of what’s needed.

Photo: Toby Adamson

Grass roots

Popular support for the ‘We Can’ campaign in South Asia is helping to create five million ‘Change Makers’ to stop violence against women. The specially trained activists are now challenging and changing attitudes wherever they live, person by person, street by street.

Photo: G.M.B. Akash

Email actions

In 2007, Starbucks voiced their opposition to moves by the Ethiopian government to trademark its best coffee beans and get better prices for poor coffee farmers. Oxfam challenged them – and 96,000 campaigners pressed the company, mostly via email, to sign a deal. Starbucks soon signed it.

Photo: Oxfam

Media work

When a ruthless ‘vulture fund’ company demanded $55 million from Zambia to repay a ‘bad’ debt they’d acquired for just $3.3 million, Oxfam flew into action to stop them. Breaking the story with Newsnight and the Financial Times, we spread the news all the way to Downing Street and The White House. Prime Minister Brown and President Bush want this kind of thing to stop. With their influence, it just might.

Photo: Androulla Kyrillou