THINK GLOBAL
Act locally with Global Justice Now
July 2016 
Contents 02 Welcome 03 Global Justice Now news 05 Trade justice 06 Energy democracy 06 Aid and corporate power 07 Food sovereignty 09 Migration 10 Groups and activism news 12 Current materials
Defending our values after the Brexit vote Nick Dearden Director It’s difficult to be upbeat in these days following the EU Referendum. We face an economy in sharp downward spiral, a rising wave of racism, and more political uncertainty than we’ve experienced for decades. While some voted to Brexit for good reasons, an anger at the damage wrought on our society by undemocratic, neoliberal economics, we can’t ignore that for many more this was a vote against immigration. What’s more the divisions created in the campaign – between old and young, urban and rural, black and white and middle and working class – won’t be healed easily. But while looking realistically at these events, we must also have hope, for without hope, and the activism that hope can generate, we can guarantee things will get worse not better. We know that fear can be overcome and racism can be fought. People’s values can change. In the days after the referendum results, we’ve already signed up 81 new members. People are looking to get involved and change things for the better. We don’t know what will happen next. There is a chance we’ll stay in the EU when the terms of a settlement are reached. We might enter a Norwegian-style relationship with Europe. Or, most frightening of all, we might indeed become a society in which the rule of money and the repression of human rights are intensified. Which of these options we take will depend on the activism and work of Global Justice Now and other organisations fighting for progressive change. Yes, the referendum has been a serious knock, but it’s not the end of everything.
Inserts • New Alliance action card • Migration poster/leaflet • Ink jet cartridge recycling envelope 2 July 2016
Our work needs to be amended to take into account the results. In coming weeks, we will consult you on what this result means for us over the next year. In this copy of Think Global the current situation regarding our campaigns is laid out, making clear that there is much we can do in the short term – even as we also take time to reflect and develop new plans. It’s never been more important to loudly express our values, our commitment to solidarity and internationalism, equality and democracy.
Brexit and Global Justice Now activism Since the vote to leave the EU we have been in touch with a number of activists and local group members, some of whom responded to emails we sent out. There was a mixed response: people expressed their concern at the result, including what it means for migrant communities in the UK, they expressed the need to reflect on what’s happened and how to move forward, they spoke of the need to support progressive political forces including the Labour party, and there was also the view that Brexit creates opportunities for us in terms of democratising the UK. What’s clear is that both thought and action are needed. As you will see in the rest of this issue, there is some uncertainty about the campaign have engaged with most significantly: TTIP. However, there is a crucial fight over CETA which it is very important for us to engage with. Other campaigns, in particular the food campaign, remain as relevant as ever. The migration campaign, which is our newest, perhaps assumes greater significance now. There is an increasingly reactionary climate around migration, including an increase in racist incidents, and the threat of more punitive immigration controls and unjust treatment of migrants. However, it’s also our most controversial one, which groups may have reasonable anxieties about. As described in the migration session, we can send out speakers for discussions or events about migration/migrant solidarity.
Action checklist
More broadly, the Brexit vote also reveals some significant divisions in society, across age, class, ethnicity, region and nation. None of these is simple, and it’s beyond the scope of Think Global to engage in any in-depth discussion of this. But it poses important questions about how we build the wider movement for democracy and equality globally, who we seek to engage in that movement, and how. In light of all this there are some immediate implications: • Groups may wish to organise meetings to discuss the Brexit vote and what it means for global justice, perhaps by joining up with other groups as well. We can provide speakers for such meetings if desired, but any staff who come would be equally keen to hear from local campaigners as to share their own views. Nick, our director, Alex, our policy officer, or members of the activism team would all be willing to come. • As noted in Nick’s editorial, there will be a consultation document sent to groups once the council has had a chance to meet. • Since events are moving very quickly, we’d encourage groups to be in a state of readiness to respond to developments both locally and nationally. Perhaps we will have some urgent calls to action in the next few weeks – it’s impossible to say.
Organise a group discussion or public meeting, perhaps with other progressives, on the referendum. Organise a discussion or event on the migration campaign Continue to challenge Monsanto’s use of glyphosate using the honest advertising materials about Roundup
Contact the office if you are interested in hosting the Monsanto speaker tour Use the CETA action cards to demand that the deal is not implemented without national approval Use the new action card on the New Alliance on stalls or at events July 2016 3
News from Global Justice Now Media highlights
In May our illustrations from ‘This is not a migrant crisis’ were splashed all over the front page of The National newspaper in Scotland, with a large story inside explaining why we need to look at the issues of war, poverty and inequality causing people to leave their countries, rather than blaming migrants or refugees themselves. Articles about people relabeling Roundup bottles to expose the truth about Monsanto and glyphosate appeared in the Sunday Herald and a number of regional newspapers. The action was also mentioned in the Guardian. In the run up to the referendum, we placed comment pieces about Brexit relating to TTIP, financial regulation and migration in a number of news outlets including the Guardian and the Independent.
Diane Abbott speaking at our AGM
The day after the referendum result, we placed a piece in the Independent that warned that Brexit didn’t mean that we had escaped the clutches of toxic trade deals.
Group surveys
National Gathering report
Our National Gathering on 4 June attracted around 150 people and keynote speaker Diane Abbott’s speech was reported in the Guardian. Nick’s opening talk was also well received. Splitting this from other formal parts of the AGM allowed everyone to hear Nick, but then around 50 people to attend a session getting involved in Global Justice Now activism while stalwarts approved the accounts. Our ‘open space’ session, facilitated by South Lakes group member Pete Bryant, was also popular, and was part of an attempt to give more opportunities for members and activists to shape the event (and our activist network) themselves. We will look to include open space in future national gatherings, 4 July 2016
and develop the format using our learning from how this one went.
Around half of the groups filled out surveys earlier in the year and we’ve started to analyse them. We had hoped to provide a summary in this issue of Think Global; developments around Brexit have unfortunately overtaken events in the office, however, and made that impossible. However, our initial reading of the surveys has already been useful – the facilitation training we’re organising (see below) emerged from seeing groups’ interests – and we’ve been in touch with several groups following the survey to see how we can work with them. There will be an overview of the results of the survey in the next printed Think Global.
Trade justice The Brexit vote is a big step in the dark for our trade campaigning. We will need to devise a new strategy, although at the moment there are too many unknowns. Whatever happens, the campaigning and movement building we’ve done around TTIP puts us in a good position to fight whatever neoliberal trade deals we need to, and of course we’ve contributed significantly to the enormous European movement against TTIP. Here is where things currently stand.
TTIP
The referendum result could have delivered a further blow to TTIP from which it may not recover. With the level of opposition to TTIP across Europe, the Brexit crisis is likely to at least slow down a deal which is already hopelessly behind schedule. If the exit process takes as long as some are suggesting, there might theoretically be time to ratify and implement TTIP before we leave, but we currently have no idea whether the terms of us leaving the EU might leave us subject to TTIP. In any case the leverage of any UK politicians we might influence in the meantime is much reduced. We will continue to monitor developments, but it looks like the focus of our trade campaigning will be elsewhere for now.
CETA
With the EU-Canada agreement CETA it is very possible for the deal to be ratified and implemented before we depart from the EU since we’re already in the final ratification phase. Even if we then left CETA at the same time as leaving the EU, ISDS cases could still be brought against the UK for 20 years afterwards if they related to the period in which we were subject to CETA. It is therefore imperative that CETA is stopped, delayed or otherwise obstructed before the European parliament agrees
it. There are serious moves to get the deal implemented without national parliaments taking a view or being consulted. We now expect to hear in October whether CETA will be a ‘mixed agreeement’ (needing the agreement of national parliaments as well as the European Council) and whether there will be ‘provisional implementation’ (CETA would come into force provisionally while national parliaments considered it rather than waiting until they all had). Our CETA postcards are therefore still very relevant and can be used on campaign stalls throughout the summer. Contact the office if you want to order some more.
Other trade deals
The Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) is a prospective deal between a global ‘coalition of the willing’ which includes many countries in the global north and some in the global south. The UK is currently involved as part of the European Union. In order to join we would need to apply to be party to the negotiations as an individual country. It is very possible that the UK government would seek to do this, although it is complicated by the limbo of Brexit. We were already planning to put out a briefing on TISA and will do so by the time of the next print Think Global. Whether we do more campaigning on this will depend on how the situation develops. We expect that a UK outside the EU would attempt to negotiate trade deals with other countries. It is possible for the UK to try to join existing EU trade deals, but Norway and Switzerland don’t follow this route because it means joining a deal without influence over its negotiation. We already had some policy work planned on outlining what a just and sustainable trade deal might look like, building on the work of the Alternative Trade Mandate, which is a European coalition. It will be particularly relevant to elaborate this work in a British context now. July 2016 5
Energy democracy Last month we delivered our petition to DFID asking for aid money to stop being spent on privatisation projects. We were also able to submit evidence to a parliamentary inquiry into DFID’s work in Nigeria, showing the failings of DFID’s work on securing affordable energy access for poor people in Nigeria. This brought to an end our year of campaigning on this issue specifically, but has opened the way for further work on both energy democracy and DFID’s misuse of aid money. We have been working with Switched on London to help build the UK energy democracy movement in the city. We supported their launch event, and are preparing an e-action to Sadiq Khan asking him to live up to his promise of supporting a clean and democratic energy system for Londoners.
Kahra handing in the privatisation petition to DFID
Aid and corporate power We produced a new briefing on the UK’s 0.7% aid spending commitment which aims to contribute a unique position on the current aid debate taking place in the media, in policy circles and in parliament. We argue that we fundamentally support the idea of aid as a form of global wealth redistribution, but in its current form it is being wasted on disastrous aid projects, consultants and privatisation that only serve to benefit business and not alleviate poverty. You can read the briefing, ‘0.7% on aid’, online at www.globaljustice.org.uk/resources.
6 July 2016
We are also scoping out a new area of work that challenges corporate power through the creation of a UN treaty for business and human rights. We will be working with allies across Europe to make sure the UK government and the EU engages with, and supports, the treaty process, something they are currently refusing to do. We hope that this framing will provide a coherent thread across all our campaigns – the need to control corporate power.
Food sovereignty
New action card design
Update on New Alliance
In June, the European parliament voted overwhelmingly to approve a highly critical report on the New Alliance. This is a massive blow to the New Alliance and the corporate agricultural model that it represents. All the last minute amendments to water it down were not successful. Even though we are now in a Brexit scenario, the report is still relevant as it adds to mounting evidence against the New Alliance. The report criticises the New Alliance for favouring large-scale farming at the expense of smallholders, for the industrial model that it promotes and its assumption that corporate investment automatically addresses food security. It also calls for food sovereignty and agroecology, strong provisions regarding land grabs, the right of African countries to protect their agriculture through tariff and tax regimes and for the G8 not to support GMOs
in Africa.The report will now be sent to the European Commission for a formal response. We have produced a new action card (image above) in response to this new critical report to call on the International Development Committee of the UK parliament to hold an inquiry into UK support for the New Alliance. The graphics from the action card are based on an infographic that we will be launching shortly to contrast industrial agriculture with food sovereignty. We are sending 50 action cards to each group contact and if you require any more, please contact the office.
#MonsantoExposed
Thanks to the local groups who have taken part in the honest labelling campaign on Monsanto’s leading brand of weedkiller, Roundup. It’s been fantastic to see Monsanto’s corporate power exposed in communities from Glasgow to Dorset. July 2016 7
EU glyphosate decision
After four failed attempts to vote on relicencing glyphosate, the EU finally decided to extend the licence temporarily for 12-18 months while they assess the safety of the chemical. The temporary licence period will still apply to the UK while Brexit negotiations take place and so please continue to use the honest Roundup labels on stalls in the summer, to increase the pressure on companies who will still be stocking the product and spread awareness about Monsanto and control of the food system. Even though there isn’t yet an outright ban on glyphosate, this temporary licence is a big improvement on the original proposal of a 15 year relicensing of glyphosate with no restrictions, and many companies like Monsanto assumed that this would go ahead unchallenged. The work of campaigners and activists in the UK and across Europe to raise awareness around glyphosate has helped to deliver this much shorter license.
Monsanto tribunal
Civil society groups from around the world are working together to hold a tribunal in The Hague to hold Monsanto to account for its human rights violations. This will take place between 14-16 October. The tribunal will be conducted using legal professionals and judges and will hear testimonies from victims, delivering an advisory opinion following the procedures of the International Court of Justice. While this has no legal force, the aims are to expose Monasanto’s behaviour to a wider audience, undermine its power by delegitimising it, and demonstrate how Monsanto might really be prosecuted if there were the political will. A parallel People’s Assembly will take place to enable social movements to rally and plan for tackling corporate power in the food system. See more at monsanto-tribunal.org As part of our campaign to expose Monsanto we will be supporting this global 8 July 2016
#OurLand2 festival in Scotland We’re very pleased to be a partner for the #OurLand2 festival this August, working with Common Weal, Women for Independence, 38 Degrees and land reform campaigners Andy Wightman and Lesley Riddoch. The festival will feature a series of local events around Scotland covering everything from wastefully vacant land in urban areas to companies registered in offshore tax havens that own huge tracts of Scottish land. We’ll be calling for bolder and braver legislation to build on the Land Reform Bill which was passed in Holyrood earlier this year – and we’ll also be highlighting how land reform in Scotland is part of a global picture. You can find more information here: www.ourland.scot and if you’re interested in organising a local event, then please get in touch with Liz in our Scottish office on liz.murray@globaljustice.org.uk.
initiative and promoting it in the UK. We are hoping to bring one of the plaintiffs to the UK to speak in a number of locations about the impact of Monsanto on their community before going to the tribunal itself. This will probably in the two weeks leading up to 14 October. We are also hoping to take a photo exhibition with images on the impact of corporate agriculture on local communities to each of these speaker meetings. We are still working out all our plans but we wanted to check with local groups at this early stage, if you would consider hosting one of these speaker meetings with photo exhibition? Please email Ed if your group is interested: ed.lewis@globaljustice.org.uk Please bear in mind that we will only have a limited number of locations so this is just an expression of interest at this stage.
Migration The campaign leading up to the EU referendum turned out to be one of the most bitter political campaigns in a long time. By pandering to a narrow and hateful brand of nationalism the mainstream Leave campaign built a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment. In the wake of the referendum we’ve seen a rise in xenophobic and racist hate crimes and it’s now more important than ever that we stand up for migrants’ rights. In light of this new situation we will be working up a strategy for how we can do this best with the aim to develop a strong campaign to challenge anti-migrant media narratives, defend freedom of movement across Europe, and to fight for the rights of migrants and refugees from non-EU countries.
New migration leaflet/poster
In co-operation with artist Jacob V Joyce we have produced a combined leaflet/poster about the campaign. We want to challenge the scape-goating of migrants and explain that the root causes of the problem are war, exploitation and poverty, and that we need to defend freedom of movement . Copies of the leaflet/poster are enclosed. You can order more copies of it and download our briefing at globaljustice.org.uk/migration.
Surround Yarl’s Wood
On 10 September we will join thousands of others at Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire to protest against the incarceration of migrants who have committed no crimes. Last year a government report branded the centre a ‘place of national concern’ and recently the government refused to disclose figures of sexual violence against detainees because it might damage the ‘commercial interest’ of the company running Yarl’s Wood.
The plans for the mobilisation are still being worked out by the anti-racist organisation Movement for Justice By Any Means Necessary. If you or your group is interested in getting involved, email activism@ globaljustice.org.uk just to let us know. We will then be in touch as soon as plans have been developed further.
Events or discussions on migration If groups wish to organise public meetings or group discussions about migration, perhaps themed around the idea ‘building bridges not borders’, we can send out speakers and help groups organise the framing of the events. Email ed.lewis@globaljustice.org.uk if you want to organise such an activity.
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Groups and activism news
Youth activism As part of our three year strategy agreed last year, we’re increasing our work to engage young activists. In particular, we’re helping to develop a political education programme for young people, Demand the Impossible. There’ll be a course in London in the Autumn, and we’ve got one coming up in Glasgow.
Global Justice Leicester had a Monsanto stall at the Riverside festival and passed the message on to local gardeners, before taking action at their local Homebase. They also organised teamed up with local partners to organise another screening of This Changes Everything, this time reaching another 100 people and galvanising effective debate.
Demand the Impossible, Glasgow A free, political education summer school for people aged 16–25. Its aim is to engage young people with the ideas of radical politics and encourage involvement in local action for change. Themes include capitalism and the alternatives, the position of young people today, race, gender, feminism, power and policing.
The newly formed Global Justice Swindon have had their first street stalls and organising meeting, and are developing their plans for the summer.
10-12 August at Strathclyde University. Email demandimpossiblescot@ globaljustice.org.uk to find out more of request an application form. Please circulate to any young people who may be interested.
Global Justice Worthing took Round Up materials into stores as part of the campaign against Monsanto, and are organising a public meeting on debt and global inequality for early July.
10 July 2016
Global Justice Glasgow had a stall at the Gibson Street Gala, collecting around 150 signatures for the open letter to David Cameron on migration.
Global Justice Macclesfield organised a public meeting about TTIP with Gabriel SilesBrugge, attracting the interest of the local paper. Global Justice Reading have had fun with the Corporate Monopoly game at two local festivals, having had interesting conversations with people about the opportunities for community fightback in spite of the odds being stacked in favour of the 1%. They also promoted the Global Justice Now position on the referendum, leafleting locally. Global Justice Derby had a very effective day’s campaigning at the Belper Goes Green festival, promoting the Monsanto campaign, getting over 100 signatures for the petition to Liz Truss and distributing lots of the ‘brandalism’ materials. They also had some good interest in the CETA action cards. Global Justice Cambridge have organised a This Changes Everything screening, leafleted a local Sainsbury’s about the Monsanto campaign, and used the Corporate Monopoly game at a local festival. Global Justice Shropshire ran a successful high street stall raising the links between TTIP, CETA and food, using a poster of a hormone-injected cow with images relating to privatisation and declining food safety standards. They generated lots of discussion and signatures to hand to the local MP.
Facilitation training for activists One of the results of the last groups’ survey was that there is significant interest from local group members in a workshop on facilitating meetings. Good facilitation can make a huge difference to the quality of your meetings, helping to make good decisions which everyone is happy with, avoid unnecessary digressions and keep everyone involved. Facilitation training can also help a chair/facilitator to recognise who is not contributing because they are less confident, and provide techniques to draw out their contributions, and conversely to encourage the over-confident to step back occasionally. Good group dynamics also mean new people who turn up to your meeting are more likely to come back next time. We’re therefore keen to run facilitation training in the Autumn. It will take place in the Global Justice Now office in London and run for most of the day. Train fares will be covered for group members and anyone who campaigns with us (in some circumstances we may also be able to cover accommodation, so please check if you’d have to come a long way). The exact date will be chosen based on what is best for those people who show firm interest. Please let us know by 1 August if you’re interested by emailing activism@ globaljustice.org.uk or calling 020 7820 4900. It is sometimes best if the facilitator is not the person likely to be taking a lead on group activities, so please pass this opportunity around the whole group. It may be a way to help empower newer group members or revitalise a group. James, Sam, Laura or Ed can advise further on this, as well as more detail on what might be covered during the training.
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Current materials Exploring alternatives booklets
• BOOKLET: Another Economy is Possible economic democracy • BOOKLET: Seeds of Change - food sovereignty • BOOKLET: Rays of Hope - energy justice
Food sovereignty
• BRIEFING: Growing evidence against the New Alliance • BOOKLET: On Solid Ground (agroecology) • REPORT: From The Roots Up (agroecology) • POSTER: Colonial infographic poster • BOOKLET: Stop the corporate takeover of African food • BRIEFING: Problems with corporate controlled seeds • Action Card: 2 ways to grow food
Energy justice
• NEWSPAPER: The Road Through Paris, climate justice newspaper • BRIEFING: COP out: Why Paris won’t deliver and what we need instead. • LEAFLET: Give corporate controlled energy the boot • BRIEFING: Towards a just energy system (campaign overview) • BRIEFING: 10 reasons why energy privatisation fails
Migration
• LEAFLET/POSTER: this is not a migrant crisis • BRIEFING: Migrant crisis or poverty crisis
General materials
• LEAFLET: Another world is possible (about Global Justice Now with joining form) • LEAFLET: Join a local group leaflet (can be overprinted with groups’ contact details) • SIGN-UP SHEET: Double-sided, Global Justice Now branded • STICKERS and BADGES •
Recycle your inkjet cartridges Do you have old ink cartridges lying around or know someone who does? Why not turn them into people power? Global Justice Now will get up to £1 for every inkjet cartridge you send to Recycle 4 Charity for free. You can recycle your inkjet cartridge if it has a circuit board - the bit where the ink comes out - and if it is made by HP, Dell, Lexmark, Canon, Samsung or Neopost. Simply slip it into the Freepost envelope enclosed with this issue of Think Global and pop it in the post.
Trade
• REPORT: TTIP and tax justice • PRAYER PACK: TTIP and trade justice • BREIFING: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership • LEAFLET: 4-page TTIP leaflet • FLYER: group-specific TTIP flyer • BRIEFING: Five reasons TTIP and CETA are a disaster for the climate. • BRIEFING: Regulatory Cooperation • BRIEFING: CETA • TTIP Free Zone campaign pack: POSTER, BADGE and LEAFLET • NEWSPAPER: The #NoTTIP Times, third edition • BRIEFING: Profiting from people and the planet (general trade briefing) • BRIEFING: Campaigning on TTIP in local authorities • POSTER: There’s nothing beautiful about TTIP (TTIP and Chemicals in cosmetics) • TOTE BAG: TTIP ain’t my Bag