In the small hours of this morning, I posted the first set of photos on my new Flickr account, of my wanderings in New York in January, at the start of my two-week US tour to campaign for the closure of Guantánamo on the 10th anniversary of the opening of the prison.

My tour — my fifth visit to the US to call for the closure of Guantánamo, and to publicize the stories of the men held there — was organized by the campaigning group The World Can’t Wait, and in New York and Washington D.C., I spent a lot of time with The World Can’t Wait’s National Director, Debra Sweet, a relentless  campaigner for justice, who, very deservedly, recently won an American Humanist Award as a “Humanist Heroine.” Read the rest of this entry »

Dovetailing with some of the key issues highlighted by the “Occupy” campaign,  which shows no sign of dissipating seven weeks after it began on Wall Street, other campaigners have declared that today is “Bank Transfer Day,” and are asking their fellow citizens to close their bank accounts and to open accounts with credit unions instead.

Over 80,000 people have declared that they are attending “Bank Transfer Day” on Facebook, where more than 48,000 people have also declared their support. The organizer, Kristen Christian, explained that she established the day as a result of proposals by banks to charge a monthly fee to customers with less than $20,000 in their accounts. “I started this because I felt like many of you do,” she said. “I was tired– tired of the fee increases, tired of not being able to access my money when I need to, tired of them using what little money I have to oppress my brothers & sisters. So I stood up. I’ve been shocked at how many people have stood up alongside me. With each person who RSVPs to this event, my heart swells. Me closing my account all on my lonesome wouldn’t have made a difference to these fat cats. But each of YOU standing up with me … they can’t drown out the noise we’ll make.”

While Kristen Christian has focused specifically on an alternative to the banks, others campaigners have also seized on “Bank Transfer Day” as an opportunity to highlight the $108 billon (out of $204 billion) that was given to the banks in 2008 but has not been paid back. The shocking details of how the banks still owe $108 billion are here. Read the rest of this entry »