Petitions: Uganda gay death law, BAE, Chevron pollution and Robin Hood Tax

Uganda’s parliament is preparing to pass a brutal new law that would punish gay people with prison - even death. Thankfully opposition to the bill is rising. Please sign the petition to stop the gay death law. Sign petition here. I note I have raised similar issues before with David Drew who took the issue forward - see here.

Photo: view across to Randwick

Another issue I've covered before is BAE - see for example here and here - the recent decision of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to settle with BAE Systems is outrageous. BAE will be fined £30m as a result of technical infringements in Tanzania, but lets it off in relation to arms deals in the Czech Republic, Romania and South Africa, just as it did regarding Saudi Arabia. Sign petition here.

Next up pollution - and the oil companies seem to excel at this - the final judgment is imminent after a long legal battle between oil giant Chevron and the indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon, who are seeking redress for the multinational’s dumping of billions of gallons of toxic waste in the rainforest. If Chevron is forced to pay billions in damages, it’ll be a big step forward in bringing the world’s polluters to account.Please sign here.

Robin Hood Tax - I have long campaigned for a form of 'Tobin Tax' - see here and here on my blog - but also long before that I was writing letters to politicians on this issue - there have been various proposals in the past which mostly have looked at both raising revenue and being a way of regulating speculative financial activity. Tobin was mostly about the latter - this Robin Hood Tax is putting the emphasis on the money raised. Even levied at a very low rate, a yield of $400 billion a year could be realised!! See more and sign the petition to show your support here: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/