100 Campaigns that Changed the World

This spisode features an interview with Angela Madden, the Financer Director and Chair of WASPI - the Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign. In 1995 the John Major government raised state pension age from 60-65 to bring in line with men. In 2011, a new Pensions Act was introduced that shortened the timetable to increase the women's pension age to 65 by two years but also raised the overall pension age to 66 by 2022. Both the 1995 and 2011 changes came as a shock to many, with women discovering that they would have to wait up to six years longer for their state pension, potentially affecting their retirement plans. In 2015, WASPI was formed by five women to argue for the government to provide transitional payments to women born in the 1950s receiving their pension after the age of 60. They also call for compensation to women who now receive a state pension but had to wait longer. In March 2024 the Parliamentary Ombudsman (PHSO) ruled that WASPI women should get apology and compensation. The women are still waiting for any compensation and the campaign continues. Find out more at https://www.waspi.co.uk/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marcus Rashford is a professional footballer who plays for Premier League club Manchester United and England. He has launched and been involved with quite a few campaigns, most notably on child food poverty. in this episode we talk with Jo Ralling, who helped to run the feed the future and the #EndChildFoodPoverty campaigns for the Food Foundation, where she is head of campaigns. She previously worked with Jamie Oliver on various food campaigns including Sugar Smart. The Food Foundation spearheads the End Child Food Poverty Coalition which consists of a group of more than 30 organisations supporting the call from Marcus Rashford for the Government to improve the diets and food access of children in low-income families. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the 1970s and 80s, 4,689 British haemophiliacs were treated with blood products contaminated with HIV and Hepatitis C. More than half of them have died. At the time, the medication was imported from the US where it was made from the pooled blood plasma of thousands of paid donors, including some in high-risk groups, such as prisoners. If a single donor was infected with a blood-borne virus such as hepatitis or HIV then the whole batch of medication could be contaminated. Official documents presented to the inquiry revealed this therapy was given as part of clinical trials. Jason Evans is my interviewee on this episode. He is the Director and Founder of the campaigning organisation Factor 8, which is seeking justice for the familes impacted by the scandel. Jsson is also the lead claimant in the Contaminated Blood Products Group Litigation currently before the High Court and a Core Participant in the Infected Blood Public Inquiry. Jason's Father, Jonathan, died when Jason was just four years old, in October 1993. Jonathan was infected with both Hepatitis C and HIV from infected Factor VIII blood products. Growing up without his father, it was during his teenage years that Jason began to understand the circumstances around how his father came to die from AIDS. You can find out more about the scandel and the campaign here. There is also an excellent TV documentary. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The British Anti-Apartheid Movement was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African racial segregation system, Apartheid . By the late 1980s the UK Movement had unleashed a number of campaigns and branches and become one of the most powerful international solidarity efforts in history. In this interview we feature three prominent UK anti-apartheid activists and organisers from the time: Chitra Karve, who was an Anti-Apartheid Movement staff member from 1986 to 1989 and helped organise the 1988 Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70 campaign, Suresh Kamath who was formerly Vice-Chair of the Movement, and helped to organise the Mandela freedom concert at Wembley Stadium in April 1990, and Tim Oshodi who was Chair of the London School of Economics AA Group and took part in an occupation of the LSE, and was a member of the Black Solidarity Committee. The three interviewees give some really fascinating insights into what was one of the most important and ultimately successful campaigns of the 20th Century, and reflect on what what went well, what went wrong and what contemporary campaigners can learn from their experience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emilye Crosby, professor of history and the coordinator of Black Studies at SUNY Geneseo, and Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Associate Professor for the History Department in the Ohio State University, reflect on the tactics and strategies of the Freedom Riders. The Freedom Rides were a key part of the American civil rights movement of the 1960s and the Riders rode buses through the American South in 1961 to protest against segregated bus terminals. They tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters at bus stations in Alabama, South Carolina and other Southern states. Along their routes, the freedom riders were met with violence and confrontation by police and white protestors (many of whom were members of the Klu Klux Klan. The protest drew international attention to the civil rights movement and was a pivotal moment in the wider civil rights struggle. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tackling air pollution in a city like London is a big and important job. Mum's for Lungs founder Jemima Hartshorn explains how setting up and running a community-based, grassroots campaigning organisation on a part-time basis is both inspiring and challenging. Crowdsourcing campaign ideas and operating a parent-friendly model are some of the ways in which Mum's for Lungs stands out. Jemima also reflects on issues like the ULEZ (London Ultra Low Emmissions Zone) and how the issue has become politically weaponised in recents months. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jubilee 2000 was an international coalition movement in over 40 countries that called for cancellation of poor country debt by the year 2000. The campaign was hugely successful, leading to large quantities of debts being cancelled. Here I speak with Adrian Lovett, formerly Deputy Director of Jubilee 2000 and leader of the successor organisation, Drop the Debt. Adrian, now CEO of Development Initiatives, which seeks to harness the power of data and evidence to end poverty, talks about how the Jubilee campaign became very high profile, getting noticed by world leaders and finding media coverage through celebrity engagement, and combined that with mass mobilisation, policy and evidence. We pick out some lessons for campaigners and reflect on what worked and some things that didn't. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Together for Yes is an abortion rights campaign group in Ireland. It campaigned successfully for a Yes vote in the 2018 referendum to remove the Eighth Amendment's constitutional ban on abortion in Ireland. In this episode I talk with Ailbhe Smyth, an Irish academic, and the founding director of the Women's Education, Resource and Research Centre at University College Dublin. As well as being involved in campaigns on women’s liberation in the 1970s and on equal marriage she was named as one of the Time 100 most influential people, which she helped found and which was the umbrella organisation for the campaign for repealing the 8th amendment of the Irish constitution which had afforded the unborn the same rights as a pregnant woman. . There is lots of interesting stuff in this interview. The campaign was hugely successful and Ailbhe was one of the people directing it and making sure it didn't make the mistakes that a lot of coalitions make. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is on the campaign for equal marriage in the uk, sometimes referred to as gay marriage. The interviewee is Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK. Andrew was very much involved as a leader of the campaign which led legislation to allow same-sex marriage in England and Wales. The legislation was passed by the UK Parliament 10 years ago, in July 2013. In England and Wales, the first major campaign for same-sex marriage was Equal Love established by Peter Tatchell in 2010. The Coalition for Equal Marriage is a British campaign group created in 2012 by Conor Marron and James Lattimore, a same-sex couple, to petition in support of civil marriages for gay couples. There are strong lessons in here for groups looking to campaign across the political divide, tacking into the political and social zeitgeist and using broad coalitions to achieve change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, long-time friend and collaborator Chris Stalker and I look back at some of the previous campaigns that the podcast has covered and try to tease out some common lessons and insights for campaigners and people interested in campaiging think about. Chris lives in Brooklyn, New York and has over 30 years of experience working in the non-profit sector having conducted close to 100 campaigning evaluations as well as working in senior advocacy roles at Oxfam, Amnesty International and the UK’s National Council of Voluntary Organisations. He is Adjuct Assistant Professor of Public Service at New York University. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The start of season 2! I speak with Paul Afshar who is spokesperson for the campaign end our cladding scandal. The scandal in the UK started to come to the fore after the grenfel tower fire. In June 2017, a high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in west London,. 72 people died, two later in hospital, with more than 70 injured. It was the worst UK residential fire since World War II. The fire was started by an electrical fault but This spread rapidly up the outside of the building -accelerated by dangerously combustible aluminium composite cladding and external insulation. Nearly five years after Grenfell, millions remain trapped in unsafe buildings, facing life-changing bills they can’t and shouldn’t have to pay. The End Our Cladding Scandal campaign is a bottom up, resident-led campaign and a collaboration between Inside Housing, UK Cladding Action Group, Manchester Cladiators, Grenfell United, and many other resident groups. It calls on the Government to lead an urgent, national effort to fix the building safety crisis exposed by the Grenfell tragedy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice is a campaign that has called for accountability for the UK Government Response to Covid and for the lessons to be learned so that mistakes are avoided in future pandemics. In this episode Campaign Director Nathan Oswin tells us how the campaign has been successful, and what the challanges were. You can join here: https://covidfamiliesforjustice.org/ and there is also a Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/covidfamiliesforjusticeuk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Blair McDougall explains the success of - and the stories around - the Better Together Campaign which set out the case for staying in the UK during the Scottish Independence Referendum of 2014. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I speak to Hugo Tagholm from Surfers Against Sewage who have been campaiging UK government and water companies to end sewage pollution in rivers and the ocean. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe Blott talks about the campaign to stop the European Super League proposal, which included some of Europe's biggest clubs and collapsed within 72 hours after widespread criticism from fans, players and governing bodies and politicians. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest is Helen Pankhurst, women's rights activist and great grandaughter of Emily Pankhurst, and togther we examine the Suffragette's role in the campaign for women's suffrage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter has been campaigning since the 60s on issues of human rights, democracy, LGBT freedom, and global justice. From the late 70s onwards, he proposed a single, comprehensive Equal Rights Act to harmonise the uneven patchwork of equality legislation. This proposal was eventually secured with the passage of the Equality Act 2010. In 1994, he named 10 Anglican bishops and urged them to “Tell The Truth” about their sexuality; accusing them of homophobia and hypocrisy. Four years later interrupted the Easter Sermon of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, in protest at his opposition to gay equality. In 1999, in London, he ambushed the motorcade of the Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, attempting a citizen’s arrest on charges of torture. A repeat attempt in Brussels in 2001 resulted in him being beaten unconscious by Mugabe’s bodyguards. He coordinated the Equal Love campaign from 2010, in a bid to overturn the UK’s twin legal bans on same-sex civil marriages and opposite-sex civil partnerships – helping win same-sex marriage but, not yet, opposite-sex civil partnerships. He is Director of the human rights organisation, the Peter Tatchell Foundation https://www.petertatchellfoundation.org/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Windrush scandal erupted in 2018 when it emerged that many British people who arrived from the Carribean before 1973 were being wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and in some cases wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office. Guy Hewitt exaplains how the campaign to get justice for the affected was a kind of campaigning 'perfect storm' and how his heterodox background helped him play a leading role. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Clive Stafford Smith is the founder of Reprieve and the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center and in this episode we talk about his role in the long running campaign to close the prison on the US military base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. To date, Clive has helped secure the release of 69 prisoners from Guantánamo Bay (including every British prisoner) and still acts for eight more and he talks candidly about the challenges he has faced and how he and other overcame them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In November 2015 London's Metropolitan Police was forced to apologise to seven women "tricked into relationships" over a period of 25 years by officers from two undercover police squads. The officers involved - just some of 140 officers who took part in such operations - had eventually vanished, leaving victims feeling as if – in their words - they had been subject to "psychological torture". The disclosures led to the closing of the units concerned, and the setting up the Undercover Policing Inquiry under retired judge Sir John Mitting. One group representing at least 30 victims of such practices, which my interviewee in this episode is associated with is Police Spies Out of Lives who work with other groups and jointly operate a campaign called Spycops, which aims to bring out the truth and get justice for the victims to ensure that such activities never take place again. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.