Speakers

This years Shared Planet will feature a wide range of speakers from the UK and campaigners from around the world. Confirmed so far:

Opening speakers: Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Activists

This years Shared Planet will open with indigenous campaigners from the Alberta who are try to stop ‘the biggest environmental crime in history’: the exploitation of the tar sands the filthiest, most polluting source of oil on the planet.

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger

Eriel is a Dene woman belonging to the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation of Northern Alberta. Eriel is a member of the Indigenous Environmental Network and is currently employed with the Rainforest Action Network as the Freedom From Oil Campaigner in Edmonton, Alberta targeting Tar Sands development and the banks that fund it. Eriel has dedicated herself to advocating for environmental justice for her traditional First Nations community in Fort Chipewyan.

Melina Laboucan-Massimo

Melina belongs to Lubicon Cree First Nation of Northern Alberta. Melina has been working as an advocate for Indigenous rights for 9 years, is a member of the Indigenous Environmental Network and currently works with Greenpeace as a Tar Sands Climate and Energy Campaigner. She has also written and produced short documentaries covering topics ranging from the tar sands, inherent treaty rights, water issues to cultural appropriation.

Corporate Power Keynote Speakers

Reyna Elizabeth Dominguez Martinez

Reyna is Acting Secretary of the union federation CGT fighting to protect the Honduran factory at the heart of People & Planet’s Fruit of the Loom campaign. Since the plant’s closure, workers who have taken a strong stand against the abuse of their rights by Fruit of the Loom have been blacklisted in the local apparel export industry, in some cases they have received death threats.

Rod Palmquist

Rod is the International Campaigns Coordinator for the US student movement United Students Against Sweatshops. They support the right of all workers to organize unions and other democratic worker organizations, to earn living wages that meet the basic needs of their families, and to be treated with respect. Rod has recently coordinated the international campaign against Fruit of the Loom that People & Planet groups has joined.

Climate Change Keynote Speakers

Rosa Curling

Rosa is a solicitor at Leigh Day & Co specialising in Public Law particularly Judicial Review and Human Rights cases. She has been involved in many legal challenges on issues including freedom of information, environmental law, discrimination, civil liberties and, most recently, People & Planet’s case to stop the Royal Bank of Scotland pouring public money into the projects and companies driving climate change.

Climate Justice Now speaker tour

Poor counties in the Global South who contributed least to greenhouse gas emissions over the last 200 years are feeling the brunt of the impacts of climate change. The Climate Justice Now speaker tour brings together activists from the Global South to talk about how developing countries can get a fair deal at Copenhagen that recognises this climate debt.

Youth Justice Panel Debate Speakers

Allegra Stratton, Guardian Journalist (chair)

Allegra is senior political correspondent for the Guardian. She has an impressive background in news media and has reported extensively on politics and society in the UK and around the world from fall out of the MP expenses scandal to women’s rights in the Middle East. Allegra has also authored a novel called Muhajababes, which explores the youth culture of the Middle East.

Ann Pettifor, Advocacy International

Ann is an advocate and campaigner well known for leading Jubilee 2000, a campaign to cancel approximately $100 billion of debts owed by 42 of the poorest countries. She is Executive Director of Advocacy International which works to promote positive development, investment and sustainability in developing countries. Ann also co-authored the Green New Deal.

Sajjad Karim MEP, Conservative Party

Saj was the first Muslim elected to the European Parliament as Conservative MEP for the North West region. Saj made his mark on the European stage working to tackle child labour, racism and extremism. He has also worked on European environmental policy. An outspoken critic of anti-terror legislation, Saj has used his position to tackle abuses of human rights and erosion of civil liberties worldwide.

Jean Lambert MEP, Green Party

A former teacher from Walthamstow, East London, Jean has been London’s Green MEP since 1999. She works on a variety of human rights and diversity issues, and is spokesperson for the Green group in the European parliament on asylum and refugee issues. In October 2005 she was named MEP 2005 for her work on Justice and Human Rights.

Paul Rowan MP, Liberal Democrats

Paul entered Parliament in 2005 winning his seat from Labour. Since then he has campaigned against tuition fees, spoken out against Trident, questioned the Government’s stance on the “War on Terror” and campaigned for effective action on climate change. Paul is a member of the Liberal Democrat Work and Pension’s Team a position in which he aims to shake up the benefits system to reduce poverty and tackle inequality.

Other Contributors:

• Stacey Dooley, Blood, Sweat and Tee-shirts
• Barbara Crowther, Fair Trade Foundation
• Steve Grinter, International Textile
• Deborah Grayson, Climate Rush
• Sian Berry, Author & Campaigner
• Linda Fairbrother, Journalist
• Sam Maher, Labour Behind the Label
• Jimmy Brannigan, Promoting Poverty Aware Procurement on Campus
• David Leigh, Guardian Journalist
• Barnaby Pace, Campaign Against the Arms Trade
• Philip Moriarty, Professor Nottingham University
• Beth Coldwell, Corporate Watch
• Julian Oram, Head of Policy, WDM
• Mohammed Shamsuddoha, Equity Bangladesh