Contents A message from our director
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How we’re funded
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Building a movement for a fairer world: 2015 at a glance
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Supporting the fight for food sovereignty
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Mobilising against toxic trade deals
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Demanding energy and climate justice
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People power in numbers
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Change only happens when people stand up and demand it. When you support our campaigns for a fairer future, you are doing just that. By amplifying the voices of people fighting injustice in the global south and by building a community for change in the UK, we are fighting for a better world. Together we are powerful.
Š Jess Hurd/NoTTIP
A message from our director Thanks to you, 2015 was quite a year. We changed from the World Development Movement into Global Justice Now and took up a far reaching strategy to help build a better world. The most important part of that plan is you. Because we believe that empowering a movement of people across the UK is vital to bringing about the serious changes we all want to see. Activists, members and supporters are crucial to what we achieved in 2015. We joined with campaigners across Europe to get 3.3 million people to oppose the US-EU trade deal TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership. Together we have turned TTIP into the most toxic acronym in Europe. By linking up with organisations across Europe, we got thousands of activists on the streets of Paris after the historic climate change summit, so the world didn’t simply hear the hot air of world leaders. We also visited Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya and the Philippines to build links with activists in the global south. Building a movement also means speaking out on wider injustices. That’s why we criticised the economic torture of Greece and the attack on migrants coming to Europe.
Movement building is even more of a priority in 2016. We’ve employed more people in Scotland and in the north of England. And we’ll support bigger, bolder and more diverse work – from Students Against TTIP to groups working for energy democracy. Thank you for making all of this possible. Our movement is growing and you’re an essential part of it. Together we can make a better world for the many.
Nick Dearden Director
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How we’re funded Members and supporters like you are the foundation of Global Justice Now. You give us the freedom to speak out against injustice and build the movement to take on the powerful. With your support we can research, expose, mobilise, take action, push policies, network and raise awareness to make a more just world. In 2015, three quarters of our funding came from individuals, through one-off and regular donations, and legacies. Last year, supporters with regular gifts together gave £553,370. Regular gifts, like Direct Debits, and gifts
4 © Matt Bonner
left in wills give us the stability to be able to plan long-term campaigns into the future. The rest of our funding came from trusts, foundations and faith based groups, to which we are also very grateful.
How your donation is spent Most of our income goes directly to our campaigns. Some is invested in communicating our campaigns to supporters and the public, and some into fundraising, to ensure we can continue to challenge injustice. The rest goes towards the governance of Global Justice Now.
Fundraising £431K 26%
Governance £26K 2%
Grants (unrestricted) £50K Faith based organisations 3% £24K 1% Legacies £84K 5%
Grants (restricted) £300K 19%
Expenditure
Income
Campaigns £1,171K 72%
Individual donations £1,124K 70%
Other incomes £37K 2%
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Building a movement for a fairer world: 2015 at a glance World leaders and business elites tell us that jobs and profits will trickle down if we let big business invest freely, that austerity isn’t optional and that there is no alternative. But as the power of corporations has grown, so has inequality. 62 billionaires earn the same amount as the poorest half of the world’s population; a number that keeps shrinking, as inequality grows. It’s time for change. And if we want serious change we have to think big. We work with supporters like you, activists and likeminded organisations to challenge multinationals and put power and resources into the hands of the many.
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We stand up for a trade system that works for people rather than profit, we campaign to put control of food back in the hands of communities, and we promote a democratic energy system that respects people and the planet. In 2015, your support also allowed us to be bold when speaking out on a range of social justice issues besides our core campaigns, including migration and Greek debt. We want to share with you what we achieved together in 2015, so we have put together this timeline. Thank you for making all this possible.
¡Democracia real ya! Our exhibition of Mexican street art. © Friends of the Earth Europe/Lode Saidane
We take over a hundred TTIP activists to Brussels to lobby the EU Parliament.
January We relaunch as Global Justice Now and the first issue of our new magazine Ninety-Nine lands on supporters’ doorsteps.
© Art Against Blacklisting
© Fanny Malinen
10,000 of our supporters Local group Global Justice say no to energy Bristol launch event. privatisation in Nigeria.
February Take Back Our World conference: workshops, talks, films, art and live music to celebrate our relaunch.
March Pan Africanism event with Samia Nkrumah from Ghana to connect with wider issues of power and resources.
April
Free the seeds action at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation office in London to protest seed privatisation.
© Jess Hurd
Nigerian energy activist Ken Henshaw tours the UK and talks at our AGM.
© Natasha Maria Brookes
TTIP day of action.
We persuade a majority of British MEPs to oppose the worst parts of TTIP.
May
‘Scotland Against TTIP’ launches.
Our food campaigners visit Ghana to connect with key organisations and join against Ghana’s seed bill and the local movement for agroecology.
© Hannah Wise
June
Take Back our World festival in Devon helps build Students Against TTIP.
July Throwing the dice: People vs Big Business as our life-size corporate monopoly game tours the UK.
Demand the Impossible: a week of talks and workshops to engage young people in the politics of social justice.
August We celebrate the 20th anniversary of Focus on the Global South in the Philippines with key allies from across Asia.
We stand in solidarity with the people of Greece in saying “no” to more austerity.
We help organise the biggest national food sovereignty gathering in the UK, where food activists meet and plan future action.
September
October Anti-TTIP rally in London with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.
Solidarity with refugees: Global Justice Now goes to Calais. More than 14,300 campaigners sign our joint petition to welcome refugees instead of arms dealers.
CETA speaker tour sets off from Dundee. We invite our members from around Leeds for an informal and relaxed gathering to hear updates on our campaigns.
November Food campaigners learn about agroecology in Tanzania and meet people resisting corporate farming.
Demo for action on climate change. We launch into 2016 by exposing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s role in pushing corporate agriculture.
December
We attend the WTO meeting in Kenya to push for a just trade system.
Global Justice Now activists join the movement for climate justice in Paris at COP21.
Supporting the fight for food sovereignty Big business dominates the global food system. Just four companies control almost 60% of seeds. The concentration of our food system in the hands of a few begins to explain why people still go hungry. But shockingly, rather than address this, the UK government is helping corporations expand their power. The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition is a development scheme backed by the UK government which pushes African countries to introduce new laws that benefit corporations in return for aid money. We campaign for a different, democratic food system where small-scale farmers are
supported to grow healthy food in a way that respects the planet.
Solidarity with farmers in the global south Last year, we went to Tanzania and Ghana to build alliances with activists in these countries, which are also involved in the New Alliance. In Tanzania we met up with Janet Maro. With her help, we gained a deeper understanding of ordinary people’s struggles against the corporate power grab. We also learnt how we can amplify their voices in the UK. In June the New Alliance felt the heat from our campaign. Around
“Tell your government to stop helping big corporations to come to Tanzania and profit from small-scale farmers…” Janet Maro, Tanzanian farming activist 10
Small-scale farmers in Brifo Village, Ghana, shelling harvested groundnuts.
100 global organisations signed a statement to the G8 calling for an end to the initiative. Thanks to public pressure, the scheme was scrutinised by the EU parliament at a public hearing in December. And while the parliamentary report was being written, more than 4,000 supporters wrote to their MEPs to pressure the EU to stop backing the New Alliance. In 2015, we also exposed big agricultural companies backed by the New Alliance for forcing farmers off their lands in Nigeria and Tanzania. This year we threw corporate-led models of development into question through media coverage of our report exposing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Growing the alternative in the UK There is an alternative to corporate agriculture: agroecology and food sovereignty. Agroecology is a way of growing food that respects natural resources and puts small-scale farmers first. Last year, we gathered
the evidence to prove it works. Food sovereignty is a movement to take back communities’ control of food production and trade. That’s why, last year, we helped organise the biggest food sovereignty gathering in the UK to date, which helped us build ties with other campaigners and plan how to take the movement forward.
What next? With your support we will keep pushing for a just food system by: • Continuing to pressure the EU to stop supporting the New Alliance. • Exposing the unfair practices of Monsanto, the powerful seed and chemical company leading the corporate takeover of Africa’s food. • Convincing politicians not to water down the rules which we won in 2014 to restrict food speculation. 11
Mobilising against toxic trade deals Corporate power extends into many aspects of our lives. By pushing governments to agree free trade deals and to reduce national regulation, huge companies are broadening their control of the economy for their own profit. Now, a new wave of trade deals is being negotiated in secret. If agreed, they’ll have devastating effects on people’s livelihoods. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), between the EU and the US, and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), between Canada and the EU, are a threat to people’s rights, to food safety standards, to our
public services, and the environment. We have a vision of a more equal world where our economy is democratically controlled and resources are in the hands of the many, not the few. That is why we are playing a leading role in challenging this new wave of toxic trade deals.
Trade for people, not for profit Kennedy Walker is a member of Students Against TTIP (SATTIP), a group based in the UK for young people campaigning against unfair trade agreements. The group was formed in early 2015 when we invited our members and supporters to
“It’s incredibly empowering to be a part of a UK-wide network like SATTIP that mobilises a new generation against dangerous trade deals such as CETA and TTIP.” Kennedy Walker, SATTIP 12
Students Against TTIP opposing toxic trade deals after the climate conference in Paris.
Brussels to raise their voices against TTIP at a key round of negotiations. The support from people like you allows us to assist campaigners, like Kennedy, in the UK and connect with allies globally to build a strong movement against unfair trade deals like TTIP and CETA. Later in 2015 we went to the World Trade Organisation talks in Kenya to stand with campaigners in pushing for a fairer trade model. Profit must not be put before our rights and democracy, or the planet. This is why we are fighting for a democratically controlled trade system based on public need. And we need a global movement to make this happen.
Together we are challenging TTIP In 2015, we also helped the EU-wide petition against TTIP and CETA reach a fantastic 3.3 million signatures, successfully raising international awareness about the dodgy trade deals.
The public pressure meant that most Labour party MEPs voted against some of the very worst parts of the trade deals in July. And thanks to local activists and campaigners in Scotland, all 56 SNP MPs signed an early day motion (a kind of parliamentary petition) against TTIP. With you behind us, we have helped local activists across the UK get their councils to stand against TTIP by declaring their council a TTIP free zone. We now have 42 TTIP free zones in the UK, with 11 in Scotland, and they keep on growing.
Confronting TTIP’s ‘little brother’, CETA Negotiations for CETA are already finalised and, worryingly, the deal could be approved by early 2017. But we’re fighting back. In November we set out on a speaker tour of the UK with trade experts Maude Barlow, from Canada, and Yash Tandon, from Uganda. And we shed light on TTIP’s less well known‘brother’ CETA. 13
Our local activists in Scotland have been at the forefront of our work to stop CETA and have successfully brought the deal to politicians’ attention. Alongside 38 Degrees, Scottish group members handed a petition of 8,000 signatures
to the European and External Relations Committee of the Scottish parliament calling for an end to CETA. Thanks to the pressure, the committee took up their concerns and posed key questions to the EU Commission and UK government.
What next? With your support, we will keep building the movement against unfair trade deals by: • Keeping pressure on politicians and policy makers to oppose TTIP and CETA. • Pushing for more TTIP free zones across the UK. • Supporting new campaign groups, including Students Against TTIP.
14 © Jess Hurd
• Developing a framework for what an alternative trade model would look like. • Working with allies worldwide to make a more just trade system a reality. • Reaching thousands more people who’ve yet to hear of our campaign, for example through our resource packs for faith groups.
Demanding energy and climate justice Across the world, powerful corporations control our energy. The impacts of this system on people’s lives are devastating, from fuel poverty to livelihoods jeopardised by climate change. It’s time to halt corporate control. We are working towards a fair and democratic way of controlling our energy that works within the planet’s limits.
10,000 supporters lobbied the government, to stop funding energy privatisation around the world. We also secured lobby meetings for Nigerian energy activist Ken Henshaw and our campaigners, to discuss energy privatisation with the UK Department for International Development and the Labour and SNP shadow ministerial teams.
Solidarity with Nigeria
Paris: system change, not climate change
Our government is spending millions of pounds of aid money to support disastrous energy privatisation in Nigeria. In response, last year over
In December, we took over 100 of our members and activists to Paris to mobilise around the climate talks,
“You have to ask the question, who is benefitting from the privatisation of energy in Nigeria, as it certainly isn’t the people of Nigeria...”
‘COP21’. Thanks to our supporters, 25 young activists also went to learn about the politics of climate justice and build the movement into the future.
What next? With you behind us, we will continue to mobilise people to push for energy democracy by: • Working with allies to build a global movement. • Supporting democratically and publically controlled energy systems across the UK. • Exposing trade deals that threaten energy democracy and the climate.
Ken Henshaw, Nigerian energy campaigner, has seen how disastrous energy privatisation has been in Nigeria, with price hikes, blackouts and major job losses.
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People power in numbers Time and again we have seen that people power really works. This is why we put our members and supporters at the core of Global Justice Now. It’s people like you who give us legitimacy and a strong campaigning voice in the fight for a better world. We know that there are huge challenges ahead, but by building a stronger movement together, we can bring about lasting change. Again, thank you for being a part of this. Together we will achieve even more in the years to come.
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To find out more or ask a question, get in touch at: Global Justice Now, 66 Offley Road, London SW9 0LS 020 7820 4900 offleyroad@globaljustice.org.uk www.globaljustice.org.uk @GlobalJusticeUK
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Global Justice Now
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