Saffron Walden Group Letter-Writing - All are welcome to join us          

Please note that the next meeting will be on Tuesday 23^rd September, 8 – 10pm at Paul’s (3 London Road, S/W) as usual.

It’s usually the third Tuesday of the month, but for various reasons we’ll be a week later this September.

October letter-writing session: 21^st October

November letter-writing session: 18^th November

Saffron Walden Group’s Summer Garden Party raised vital funds

Supporters of our local Amnesty group met up at Paul’s on a sunny July afternoon for the annual Cheese and Wine party, which was greatly enjoyed by all who attended. We were also celebrating the Group’s 50^th birthday, and to mark the occasion we (ate cake and) gathered for a group photo which appeared in the local papers and in the Amnesty Local Groups online newsletter. The event raised over £320, much-needed funds to keep up with the postage costs for the monthly letter-writing and for the Write for Rights campaign in the run-up to Christmas.

Can you help at our Street Collection in October?

Another date for your diaries is the group’s Street Collection on Saturday 18th October. This is our annual fundraiser in the town and it is usually very successful in terms of the amount collected and, also, as a way of making Amnesty more visible locally.

NB all money raised at this public collection goes direct to the Amnesty International UK Charitable Trust (i.e. not to/via the local group).

Ian Willard has kindly taken over organisation of this from Maureen who has been our brilliant organiser for many years. Please get in touch You can give a preference for which hour you can volunteer – or just offer a half-hour if you can’t manage longer. If you’ve been part of the collection team before, please help us again. And if you haven’t tried it before, give it a go.            

It is an important way we can demonstrate our support for all aspects of the human rights agenda - which is vital in order to combat the current loud anti-migrant, anti-human rights, anti-humanitarian law noise.

It's rare that people in town question collectors about Amnesty and its work, but if you’d like to discuss how you’d respond to any questions, especially challenging ones, please get in touch with Ian or with Pam via this webpage.

OTHER CAMPAIGNS AND ACTION THIS AUTUMN:

Stop Trump Coalition March and Rally     

If you’re interested in getting out on the streets to show your feelings about the upcoming visit of Donald Trump to the UK, you could join the Amnesty section of a London march and rally on Wednesday 17^th  September, from 2pm. For more information, go to: https://stoptrump.org.uk/who-we-are/  If you decide you want to join the march, email Activism at AIUK: activism@amnesty.org.uk for how to find the Amnesty section.

Stand up to Racism

If you are considering how you can protest against the appalling racist, anti-migrant demonstrations that we’ve been seeing recently – such as in Epping –  follow this link to the Amnesty website: Stop the far right – events in your area. There are details of marches in Cheshunt and in the London area in the coming weeks and a national demo in London on Saturday 13^th September.  The site also has valuable information on keeping safe at protests.

Hong Kong Solidarity

For a quick action in support of courageous human rights activist, Chow Hang-tung, follow this link.

Petition a week

I’ve been contacted by an Amnesty member in Wales who is setting up a network of supporters who are prepared to receive by email a petition a week on a human-rights-related topic. If you’re interested in putting  your name up for that, let me know via this webpage  and I’ll forward the link to you.

Situation at AIUK

There are some serious concerns being raised among the UK membership about the leadership at Amnesty Head Office, in particular the lack of clear objectives regarding rebuilding the membership and setting of goals. A petition is in circulation requesting an Emergency General Meeting to be held in the autumn. This is of course worrying, and I will pass on to you, in due course, how this situation develops.

Please continue to support our Amnesty Local Group and consider how you can make your voice heard so that we can drown out the sound of the racists and the anti-rights movement.