Yesterday morning, ONE partnered with Tearfund and CAFOD as part of the broader Publish What You Pay coalition at the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills for a Valentine’s themed stunt.
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With activists dressed up as miners (flash lights and everything) and more of us holding a giant love heart, we showed our support for the important role that Norman Lamb MP has, as the UK Minister responsible for vital negotiations over a new transparency law for the oil, gas and mining industries in Brussels next week. If implemented the law could help millions of people get themselves out poverty.
We handed out 200 leaflets with a Valentine’s theme in less than an hour and spoke to many passers-by about the issue, and how signing up to the ONE petition can help.
Martin Donnelly, the Permanent Secretary, came outside to say it’s great we’re keeping an eye on the issue and we discussed the fact that behind the scenes lobbyists are attempting to water down legislation on the behalf of a few big companies. We handed him a letter pooling the growing number of more than 39,000 ONE members who’ve signed our Trillion Dollar Scandal petition in just 5 days, with Tearfund and CAFOD’s supporters who’ve been taking action on this issue too.
Thank you to some of our SOAR students for joining us, and helping this stunt be the success that it was.