People & Planet

Who we are

People & Planet is the largest student network in Britain campaigning to end world poverty, defend human rights and protect the environment. We’re a student-led movement that empowers young people with the skills, confidence and knowledge they need to make change happen, at home and globally. Founded in 1969, we have over forty years experience of supporting student activism and global citizenship. People & Planet trains and supports over 2000 volunteers in campaigning groups at schools, colleges and universities across Britain. Our campaigns engage and empower over 20,000 young people to take positive action for social and environmental justice each year. Our cutting-edge campaigns are democratically chosen and implemented by the members of our student network and elected students on our Board of Trustees keep us independent, original and effective. We have one of the smallest budgets of any national campaigning organisation in the UK yet we consistently punch above our weight in terms of impact and profile. You can join our FAN Club members by giving a small monthly donation to help keep us independent, radical and student-led. People & Planet’s student-led campaigns and inspiring national events are, for thousands of young people and students each year, the formative experience of active citizenship and campaigning.

We believe that change that we want to see in the world can only be achieved by strong social and environmental justice movements that include empowered students and front-line communities, working together in global solidarity to overcome the oppressive structures created and maintained by an entrenched global establishment.

Our vision is to not only reverse the trends of spiralling inequality, instability, climate crisis, biodiversity loss and resource depletion, but to fundamentally shift the balance of power in society away from the few to the many. The politics of the future needs to be be driven from the bottom up and be built on an active grass-roots civil society.

We are part of an empowered global movement that is a driving force towards a more egalitarian, sustainable world. We empower students and young people to be at the forefront of efforts to create a better world by working with partners to form strong coalitions that include affected communities themselves, and operate across national boundaries to challenge the holders of power at the transnational level.

We contribute to building a more just and sustainable world through:

• Organising and training the next generation of students to be strong activists with skills and motivations that last their whole lives, enabling them to go on to create new social realities

• Enabling powerful student activism that is able to redress injustice

• Steering the huge and growing education sector to play a just role in the economy, and act as hotbeds for new ideas able to develop a more egalitarian, sustainable world

• Identifying and challenging privilege based on UK students’ country, background and education through amplifying the voices of front-line communities

• Creating new institutions that are able to nurture solidarity on an ongoing basis, fill strategic gaps in our movements and maintain an ongoing legacy for hard won victories