THINK GLOBAL
Act locally with Global Justice Now
November 2015 
Contents 02 Welcome 03 Activism team 04 Food sovereignty campaign 05 Climate and energy justice campaign 08 Trade justice campaign 10 Groups and activism news 12 Current materials
Inserts General
• Groups agreement (groups only).
Climate and energy justice
• Paris COP leaflet PLEASE NOTE: Due to delivery errors by the printer, we will send this separately to groups only in the next few days.
Trade
• Regulatory Cooperation briefing • CETA briefing 2 November 2015
Diversify and expand: the new ways we’re building our network Ed Lewis Activism team Stop TTIP groups, youth subsidies for the Paris COP, Demand the Impossible summer school, Students Against TTIP – there’s a whole range of new activist networks and projects that the activism team has been supporting with time and energy to in recent months. This proliferation of activities is in no way random, however – it is a direct reflection of the strategy our organisation agreed this summer. That strategy commits us to establishing “new structures to better cater for a wider diversity of activists”. This reflects a recognition across our network that we should be responsive to trends within activism and society at large, and to ensure that we become an increasingly dynamic and vibrant activist organisation. For example, some people are attracted, at least initially, more to particular campaigns rather than fully identifying with Global Justice Now as a whole. This has led to us setting up and supporting Stop TTIP groups, particularly in Scotland. Likewise, some younger people prefer to work more with other young people, and so may not choose to become members of existing Global Justice Now groups, however much they support their politics. People across the network have expressed a desire for us to embrace a greater diversity of people in terms of social class and ethnicity too. Our support for the Demand the Impossible summer school, with inner-city London youth, is one such initiative; subsidising low wage young people to attend the Paris COP mobilisations is another. I know a number of groups have thought about these complex questions too. There is no silver bullet here, and it is something where all of us can learn; we hope to continue a dialogue with groups over the long term on how we and better reflect the whole of the society we live in. It should be emphasised that all of this work sits alongside our goal, also in the strategy, to continue to build our core groups, who are at the centre of Global Justice Now and continually campaign in energetic, skillful and creative ways. We have a powerful network – but one that can be even stronger with diversity built into it.
Meet the activism team We’ve had a few personnel changes recently, so we thought it would be good to recap who’s who in the activism team.
Laura Williams Laura has just started as our new activism officer based in Manchester. Her role is primarily to help build new activism around Global Justice Now issues in the north of England. Laura joined us from the National Union of Students, and involving more students and young people in the organisation will be one of her priorities. She’ll also be working with our existing groups in the north, but a lot of regular group support will continue to be done from the London office. Laura works Monday to Thursday. Email: laura.williams@globaljustice.org.uk
Ed Lewis Ed is our groups officer and leads on providing help and advice to local groups. He is available at the end of a phone and by email, and can also visit your group meeting to problem solve with you. With our new focus on trying to bring greater diversity into our activist network, Ed has also been spending time supporting Students Against TTIP and other projects. Ed works full time. Email: ed.lewis@globaljustice.org.uk
Action checklist
Alice Hooker-Stroud Alice is our activism and events assistant. She joined us in April and does a mixture of event organisation and group support work. You’ll often find she’s the one who responds to emails to our general team inbox – activism@ globaljustice.org.uk (which is the best bet for general group support). She works Tuesday to Thursday. Email: alice.hooker-stroud@globaljustice.org.uk
James O’Nions James is the activism team co-ordinator. He leads on big events and mobilisations, manages the team, is responsible for strategy and is part of the management team for Global Justice Now’s staff body as a whole. He also does design work for the team and local groups from time to time. James works full time. Email: james.o’nions@globaljustice.org.uk
Other staff Both Liz Murray and Jane Herbstritt, our staff in Scotland, do work supporting Global Justice Now and anti-TTIP groups in Scotland. We’re also happy to have Mathilde Dahl, a Norwegian Masters student, on a work placement with us until Christmas.
Climate/energy
Book tickets to go to the Paris climate protests and get the word out to others. Organise a local film screening of This Changes Everything and/or a talk (powerpoint provided) leading up to COP.
Trade justice
Pressure your local council to become a TTIP Free Zone.
Groups only
Fill in and return the groups agreement.
Organise to come to climate demos in London, Edinburgh or Cardiff. November 2015 3
Food sovereignty
Dan, Aisha, Heidi and Marsha at the national gathering for food sovereignty in Hebden Bridge
Food sovereignty gathering
At the time of writing, the Global Justice Now food sovereignty team and several group members are at the national gathering for food sovereignty in Hebden Bridge. Global Justice Now is one of the coorganisers and we are hoping it will be a great opportunity to galvanise the movement in the UK. Our contribution is to connect the national movement here with the global movement for food sovereignty and to encourage solidarity in the global struggle. We hope that the meeting will lead to ideas to engage more people on food sovereignty, joint campaigning activity and, overall, a stronger grassroots movement for food sovereignty here in the UK. We will be reporting back on the gathering via the website and emails to supporters.
Annual progress review of the New Alliance The New Alliance is publishing its annual progress report imminently. We will produce a rebuttal of its claims once the publication has been released and will also launch an online photo gallery summarising evidence against the New Alliance on social media. 4 November 2015
Food speculation
As some of you may know, in January 2014 we celebrated a campaign victory – we were successful in our aim to get position limits written into the EU directive. This was in order to limit excessive food speculation, which had harmful impacts on people in the global south. Since then the European Commission has been tasked on working on the details of how to implement the legislation that was passed in January 2014, and where to set the position limits. However, we are now concerned that the European Commission may adopt weak position limits and thresholds, following advice they have had from a financial regulator. This would not effectively tackle food speculation and would undermine the work we have done on this issue. The Commission will be meeting with parliamentary negotiators in mid-November and this will be a vital opportunity for the parliamentarians to convince the Commission to reject weak rules. We are launching an e-action shortly to put public pressure on the UK parliamentary negotiators Anneliese Dodds (Labour, South East region) and Kay Swinburne (Conservative, Wales).
Climate and energy justice Protest in Paris: 12 December
Tickets and accommodation for the mobilisations around the UN Climate Summit (COP21) are now available online at globaljustice.org.uk/bookparis. They have been selling fast so grab your ticket soon, there are only limited places. We leave London for Paris on the morning of Friday 11 December, returning on Sunday 13 December. Tickets cost £76. Accommodation is being organised with the French organisation Coalition Climat 21 and costs £50 per person for two nights. There is also free floor space accommodation. If you are coming from Scotland, you can join the bus organised by Friends of the Earth Scotland, which leaves Edinburgh at dinnertime on Thursday December 10 and returns at midnight the following Sunday/ Monday morning. The bus will go to Dover and take the ferry across to France. The cost is £130. To get tickets go to www. foe-scotland.org.uk/come-to-paris-2015. Alternatively, Scottish activists can make their own way down to London and join people travelling from there. We’re also organising crowd funding to subsidise unwaged or low waged young
people to get there. Email ed.lewis@ globaljustice.org.uk for more information. Reclaim the Power and People & Planet are providing coach transport for people who want to go for a longer period. We’ve also produced a talk about the COP, the text and PowerPoint for which are now available for groups and supporters to use as a way of engaging others. Email sam.lundharket@globaljustice.org.uk to get hold of it.
Events during the negotiations There are activities in Paris from 5 December for a whole week in the run up to the big day of action. These include smaller protests, workshops, talks and discussions. Global Justice Now is involved in workshops on energy democracy and TTIP, among others. If you are planning on going to Paris for a longer period, find details on our website at: globaljustice.org.uk/cop21. For people interested in direct action, you may wish to participate in the Climate Games from 11-12 December. This is a realtime, real-world game which celebrates civil disobedience. You can take part in it online, in Paris or globally: www.climategames.net.
November 2015 5
Special climate justice newspaper We are producing a special newspaper for use both just before and after the Paris climate talks. It will include articles by Naomi Klein, Caroline Lucas MP and Shalmali Guttal, the new director of our ally Focus on the Global South. The newspaper will be ready in time to distribute at the climate demos in Cardiff, Edinburgh and London on the weekend of 28/29 November (see below). If you’re coming to one of these demos, could you help handing out the newspapers? If you’re planning something in your area at this time we can also post some to you. They will also be relevant for any climate work you want to do during December and the new year. To order some, or help out at the demos, email Sam on sam.lund-harket@ globaljustice.org.uk or phone 020 7820 4900.
The People’s March For Climate, Justice and Jobs There are demonstrations planned in Edinburgh and Cardiff on 28 November and in London on 29 November. In London we are organising a System Change Not Climate Change bloc as part of the demo - please join us if you can and encourage others to come. We will be assembling in Hyde Park at the Tea Hut just south of Speakers’ Corner, at 12noon. We’ll then move into the demo itself, which is assembling nearby on Park Lane. It would be great to get an idea of numbers and have a strong contingent, so please join the Facebook event and promote it to your friends: facebook.com/globaljusticeuk/ events. Global Justice Now Scotland will be joining the Edinburgh march. We would like Global Justice Now supporters and members from across Scotland to march together. If you’d 6 November 2015
like to meet up email: jane.herbstritt@ globaljustice.org.uk. For more general information about the Edinburgh march go to the Stop Climate Chaos Scotland website: www. stopclimatechaos.org/scottish-climatemarch.
This Changes Everything film
Naomi Klein’s film This Changes Everything is a great way to either encourage people to come to the mobilisations around Paris or an activity to do afterwards. The film has already been launched and there is a facility to organise ‘community screenings’ via the film website: www.filmbuff.com/screenings/ this-changes-everything. For Global Justice Now groups, we’re offering to reimburse the (reduced) fee you’ll have to pay for the screening, and help you with a publicity leaflet. Email activism@ globaljustice.org.uk for fuller information.
Labour and energy democracy We were delighted to hear Lisa Nandy, the Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, articulate a vision of a democratic energy system at the Labour Party conference recently. She spoke about the need for more community controlled energy systems that would give people more control and challenge the monopoly of the Big Six energy companies. This is already happening in places like Hamburg where the local council have bought back the local grid from multinational energy companies. And even
closer to home in Nottingham, where the local council have set up a not-for-profit energy company.
Challenging energy privatisation We continue to build the case to stop DfID using UK aid money to help privatise the Nigerian energy system. We are uncovering evidence that suggests that aid money is being used to benefit the UK think tank Adam Smith International, rather than Nigerians themselves. We will be reporting on this work towards the end of the year.
We need system change not climate change Over the past 20 years of climate talks, the fossil fuel lobby has successfully diluted targets and pushed for false solutions that are ineective in reducing emissions and increase the gap between rich and poor. The change we need will not be made by corporations or world leaders. Instead it will be made by us as a global movement of citizens. We’re going to Paris to strengthen the movement for climate justice. Come with us! Now more than ever, we need a global movement to stop climate change, challenge the corporate power which feeds it and build a just future for everyone. Watch out for mobilisations, actions and events from groups already making plans for 2016 such as Global Justice Now, Friends of the Earth, 350.org and Reclaim The Power. Sunday 29 November THE PEOPLE’S MARCH FOR CLIMATE, JUSTICE AND JOBS Central London Join us for the ‘System Change not Climate Change’ bloc on the demo. Demo in
Edinburgh on 28 November. globaljustice.org.uk/climate-march 5 – 6 December CITIZEN’S SUMMIT FOR THE CLIMATE Montreuil (Eastern Paris) Including Global Village of Alternatives and Climat Forum. coalitionclimat21.org/en/ 7 – 11 December CLIMATE ACTION ZONE Centquatre building (Northern Paris) Workshops, training and daily assemblies to keep you informed about actions and events. coalitionclimat21.org/en/ Saturday 12 December D12 MASS MOBILISATION Paris The international mass mobilisation at the peak of negotiations. An opportunity to build our global movement and have the last say, whatever the outcome of the talks. Global Justice Now and Friends of the Earth have teamed up to supply reduced price tickets for travel on the Eurostar and accommodation for 11-13 December. globaljustice.org.uk/bookparis
November 2015 7
Trade justice European Citizens’ Initiative: over 3 million signatures In a remarkable achievement for campaigners across Europe, the Europewide petition against TTIP reached over 3.2 million signatures by the time it closed in early October, a year after it was launched. Over 500,000 of these signatures came from the UK. This is an incredible testament to the efforts of activists from Global Justice Now and the many other organisations and groups involved, and one that we can justly feel proud of! There’s no question that it’s had a big impact on the TTIP negotiations, which continue to suffer from delay and division among negotiators. The EU has refused to accept the petition as a legitimate European Citizens Initiative – which would have forced a debate on TTIP in the European parliament – a decision that is being challenged in the European Court of Human Rights. But our knowledge that there is so much strength of feeling on TTIP is a great spur to us all to keep campaigning on this issue until we kill it off altogether!
Report from TTIP day of action
On 10 October we hosted a packed meeting at Conway Hall, London, with shadow chancellor John McDonnell, leader of the Green Party Natalie Bennett, and many others, including Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden and Ash Lambert from Students Against TTIP. John McDonnell told the 400-strong audience: “When this debate starts in the Labour Party, I will be saying clearly: We must oppose TTIP.” Around the country Global Justice Now groups took action to mark the day, see the groups update below for more.
TTIP Free Zones
TTIP Free Zones are popping up in every region, the latest to join the resistance came 8 November 2015
from Crawley Borough Council. If you have a campaign to get your local borough or county council to become a TTIP Free Zone, please let Guy Taylor know (guy.taylor@ globaljustice.org.uk). We can also help strengthen your TTIP Free Zone campaign by sending out more leaflets, stickers, badges and flyers. If you haven’t had the campaign pack, or briefings on local government and TTIP, please contact us and we’ll get materials in the post to you.
Influencing Scottish politicians
The Scottish Parliament elections take place next year, so autumn party conference season is a good opportunity to influence the manifesto writers. Global Justice Now held packed TTIP and CETA fringe events at both the Scottish Green Party and the SNP party conferences. A motion at the SNP conference called for all public services to be excluded from the deal, but stopped short of opposing TTIP outright. In fact, the Early Day Motion at Westminster on TTIP which has now been signed by all 56 SNP MPs goes much further in condemning the trade deal. Unite, our ally in the Scotland Against TTIP coalition, is holding a similar fringe meeting at the Scottish Labour Party conference at the end of the month. A report in the Courier in early October suggested that the Scottish Labour party may be preparing to reject TTIP at their party conference: www.gju.st/perth-conference. Scotland Against TTIP coalition meetings have been well attended recently by local TTIP activists as well as trade union and NGO representatives. We plan to meet all the Scottish MEPs in the coming months and are also preparing an anti-TTIP pledge for Holyrood election candidates to commit to.
Scottish activists in London
In October, the St Andrews Action Group, together with other TTIP activists from across
Scotland, were in London lobbying their MPs about the dangers of TTIP. Their trip included a meeting with Nick Dearden, and a protest outside a secret arbitration court. Eighteen people made the trip from all over Scotland. Scottish political news hub Commonspace sent a reporter with the group to Westminster and reported on what happened: www.gju.st/snp-against-ttip.
Students Against TTIP
The Students Against TTIP network is growing and gaining momentum. Sakina Sheikh spoke as a representative of the network to over 500 people at a recent gathering of the Momentum Project. A launch event for
a group at Goldsmiths College is upcoming on 11 November and there is interest in other universities as well. The network is now running a TTIP Free University campaign. We continue to work with Students Against TTIP and to support their activism.
New materials
We will have a new introductory leaflet and poster on TTIP soon which will be mailed out in mid-November. Two new briefings on Regulatory Cooperation and CETA (the deal with Canada) are included in this mailing and available to download from the website.
Stop the Transatlantic Trade Deals: speaker tour The CETA speaker tour kicks off now. It’s an exciting opportunity to hear from leading campaigners from Canada, Uganda and the UK. Maude Barlow, one of Canada’s most influential campaigners on social and environmental justice, trade expert and recipient of twelve honorary doctorates, is in the UK for just one week! Please help us make the most of this amazing opportunity of having Maude Barlow in the country for just one week by spreading the message through your networks and to friends and family in the various cities. Here are the details of the events: Sunday 1 November 3pm, Dundee, Dalhousie Building, Dundee University, DD1 5EN Monday 2 Nov 6.30pm, Manchester, Methodist Central Hall, Oldham Street, M1 1JQ Tuesday 3 November 7pm, Leeds The Carriageworks, Millennium Square, LS2 3AD Thursday 5 November 2pm, London, House of Commons Committee Room 16 (in collaboration with Trade Justice Movement) • Thursday 5 November, 7pm, London, Portland Hall, University of Westminster, W1W 7BY • Friday 6 November 7.30pm Oxford, Wesley Memorial Church, OX1 2DH • Saturday 7 November 2pm, Cardiff, Temple of Peace & Health, Cathays Park, CF10 3AP • • • •
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Groups and activism news It’s been a busy two months for the groups and there is simply too much to fit into this update! Here is a selection of what’s been going on.
10 October TTIP day of action
10 October was another international day of action against TTIP. Here are some of the actions our groups took: Global Justice Cambridge joined Cambridge People’s Assembly Against Austerity for an anti-TTIP action. They handed out lots of leaflets and gathered signatures, and found that the public were receptive to their message. Global Justice Nottingham brought a TTIP focus to the Frack Free Nottingham action at Barclays Bank.
Global Justice Brighton and Hove’s banner drop.
10 November 2015
Global Justice Brighton and Hove dropped a banner in front of the Royal Pavilion. The giant #STOPTTIP banner remained in place for several minutes before the protestors were ejected by the Pavilion’s security team. Global Justice Glasgow teamed up with Scotland Against TTIP to organize a photo stunt celebrating the 3,000,000 people who’ve now signed the European petition against TTIP. Green MP Caroline Lucas and Green MSP Patrick Harvie came and gave their support for the action. Global Justice South Lakes teamed up with other groups to collect signatures for their petition to Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, urging him to drop his support for TTIP. Since the action over 1,000 signatures have been collected in total and local press has covered the campaign.
Lobbying
A variety of groups have been lobbying their elected representatives to push forward our campaigns. Global Justice Merseyside has lobbied all councilors in Sefton as part of the TTIP Free Zone campaign. Each councilor was given a copy of the local government briefing and the group has been assured the motion will be debated in a full council meeting. Global Justice Reading worked with 38 Degrees activists to hand in a petition to Rob Wilson, MP for Reading East (Conservative), over his position on TTIP. He spoke to the group for 20 minutes, and the group will be sending up follow-up arguments. Global Justice Cambridge met with MP Daniel Zeichner (Labour) about the problems with the New Alliance and the benefits of agroecology. Zeichner agreed to write to leading figures in the Labour Party, including shadow secretary for international development Diane Abbott, putting forward the views of the group.
Events
Groups have also been engaging with the public with the issues we work on and wider concerns through events they have organised. Global Justice Bristol organised an extremely successful public event on food sovereignty called ‘Growing Power: Who Owns Our Food?’ It attracted over 130 people. The group combined film, food and political discussion, using speakers from the local area and Aisha Dodwell, the new campaigns and policy officer at Global Justice Now. Global Justice Gloucestershire continues to organise regular discussions on crucial issues of international politics and economics. Recently they have hosted speakers on international aid policy and and tax justice, via the Tax Justice Network.
Global Justice Derby participated in a speaker evening on TTIP in September, organised by the Derby No TTIP coalition, of which Global Justice Derby is a partner. The group launched the TTIP Free Zone campaign locally and had lots of interest in their stall.
Stalls
A number of groups have been running stalls to engage the public. Global Justice Shropshire held a stall in Shrewsbury asking people to sign a letter to a west midlands MEP about CETA. They were pleasantly surprised that half the people that signed already knew about TTIP and in general people were keen to hear about CETA. Global Justice Portsmouth were very active around One World Week, as part of which they ran a daily stall in a café where they promoted the New Alliance campaign, as well as Fairtrade campaigning. Global Justice St Albans organised two stalls recently. For one they used the Corporate Monopoly board to raise a petition on UK aid and privatisation of the Nigerian Energy System. The other focused on food sovereignty, where they created a colourful poster with passersby to craft their message about the politics of food.
Global Justice Bexhill and Hasting using the giant Corporate Monopoy board at a stall.
November 2015 11
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
• REPORT: Irresponsible Investment • BRIEFING: Growing evidence against the New Alliance • ACTION CARD: Growing Power • BOOKLET: On Solid Ground (agroecology) • REPORT: From The Roots Up (agroecology) • POSTER: Colonial infographic poster • BRIEFING: Agribusiness campaign questions and answers • BRIEFING: MP talking points (agribusiness) • BOOKLET: Stop the corporate takeover of African food • BRIEFING: Problems with corporate controlled seeds • BRIEFING: Food sovereignty • BRIEFING: Food sovereignty tricky questions
Energy justice
• **COMING SOON 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: Energy privatisation in Nigeria • BRIEFING: Towards a just energy system (campaign overview) • LEAFLET: Energy justice ‘campaign in a nutshell’ (individual and group versions) • ACTION CARD: Energy justice in Nigeria • BRIEFING: 10 reasons why energy privatisation fails • FILM GUIDE: List of films relating to the campaign •
Badges available Badges can be a great addition to stalls and we have plenty available for groups to order for free. There are eight designs, four logo badges in different colours and four ‘people before profit’ badges. Order 50 or 100 badges by emailing activism@globaljustice.org.uk or calling us on 020 7820 4900.
Trade
• **NEW BRIEFING: Regulatory Cooperation • **NEW BRIEFING: CETA • **COMING SOON New range of campaign materials on TTIP • TTIP Free Zone campaign pack: POSTER, BADGE and LEAFLET • NEWSPAPER: The #NoTTIP Times, third edition • BRIEFING: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) • BRIEFING: Profiting from people and the planet (general trade briefing) • BRIEFING: Campaigning on TTIP in local authorities
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