HUNGER STRIKE
A MOTHER’S MANIFESTO FOR CHANGE
MARCH 2023
This Mother’s Day we are going on Hunger Strike in unity and solidarity with mothers who are unable to feed their children.
No one wants a child to go without food; to feel the pangs of hunger even for a day, let alone starve to death. Mothers will go to extraordinary lengths to protect their children. In the UK 1 in 4 mothers are missing their own meals in order to feed their children. We have some of the most severe food insecurity in all of Europe. This is not something to be proud of.
The situation is worse globally, with around fourteen million children at risk of death from severe hunger and malnutrition. One person dies every 48 seconds in East Africa due to famine, with women and children most at risk. The UN has warned that progress on nutrition has gone into reverse.
Too little has been done to address this situation. Meanwhile the government has given almost £11 billion in subsidies to oil and gas companies like Equinor, Shell and BP, whose products directly contribute to the worsening climate crisis. These companies have all just posted record profits and paid out billions to their shareholders. High fossil energy prices are accelerating this transfer of wealth from taxpayers to corporate shareholders. At the same time, these high prices are making food insecurity worse by forcing mothers to choose between heating and eating.
Without rapid and positive action to address the climate crisis, food insecurity will escalate with devastating consequences, including here in the UK. Decisive action can change this.
This Mother’s Day, we are uniting to demand action. We - who have our health and enjoy the right to peaceful protest - are going on a hunger strike for our children, and children around the world.
Our world can be one in which all children thrive because they have enough healthy food to eat. Our food systems can be good for our environment, socially just and rooted in the principle of care for each other.
Mothers can be the change that brings about that world, starting now.
We are calling on the UK government to:
MAKE SURE ALL CHILDREN IN THE UK HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT:
Provide nutritious free school meals for all
Introduce a basic rate of Universal Credit that supports life’s essentials.
Implement a Living Wage as minimum for workers
KEEP OUR PROMISES ON AID AND CLIMATE
Reverse cuts to the aid budget
Take rapid and ambitious action on the climate and ecological crisis, limiting the catastrophic risk of the collapse of our food systems. This must include no new fossil fuel exploration or developments, as advocated by the International Energy Agency
TAX OIL AND GAS COMPANIES' PROFITS
Fund increased aid and investment in a green energy transition via a 50%, loophole-free windfall tax on oil and gas companies’ record profits
We will be on Hunger Strike for six days, to demonstrate our outrage, to highlight the need for action and to show our solidarity with all the mothers and their children who are being failed by the current system. We know that we can make a difference, and that with unwavering determination we can create a world in which no child goes hungry.
We are calling for our Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to meet with us and to commit to urgently implementing our demands.
