Ninety-Nine magazine - June 2020

Challenging the power of the

Issue 17 - June 2020

The world against the virus A special issue on the global pandemic

Also in this issue Who gets the vaccine?

Time for a global economic reset Art under lockdown

ISSUE 17: June 2020 03 Campaign news 06 Global news 08 Vaccines and big pharma 10 The world against the virus 13 Global Justice Now supporters 14 What now for the global economy?

16 Art under lockdown 18 Debt vs health in Pakistan 19 Reviews

Ninety-Nine is published three times a year by Global Justice Now Global Justice Now campaigns for a world where resources are controlled by the many, not the few.

We champion social movements and propose democratic alternatives to the rule of the 1%. Our activists and groups in towns and cities around the UK work in solidarity with those at the sharp end of poverty and injustice.

Ninety-Nine magazine, Global Justice Now 66 Offley Road, London SW9 0LS 020 7820 4900 • offleyroad@globaljustice.org.uk • globaljustice.org.uk Editor: Jonathan Stevenson Graphic Design: Matt Bonner www.revoltdesign.org Cover image: 'Tommye Austin' by Sabrina Alfaro (see page 17) Printed on 100% recycled paper.

Get Ninety-Nine delivered to your door three times a year when you become a member of Global Justice Now. Go to globaljustice.org.uk/join

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The possibilities of the new normal Jonathan Stevenson Head of communications There’s a great line in the lockdown special of spoof BBC documentary W1A about the challenge of filling the TV schedules when no new programmes are being made: “So, looking at this as an opportunity, rather than a challenge, the thing is to identify what exactly it’s an opportunity for.”

One early lesson of the pandemic was that – just as we found during the financial crisis in 2008 – the impossible could become possible overnight.

The homeless were housed, migrants were released from detention, train companies were nationalised (all temporarily) – as part of mobilising vast resources to tackle an overwhelming emergency. Climate activists, eat your hearts out. There were various declarations, as there were in 2008, that nothing would ever be the same again.

Let’s hope so. For as some graffiti in Hong Kong during their mass protests (well before the pandemic) put it: “We can't return to normal, because the normal that we had was precisely the problem.” Yet as the long history of disaster capitalism should have taught us, a crisis like this can also be an opportunity for our opponents – not least because the people in power immediately afterwards remain the same as before.

In the months and years ahead, our campaigns must push for recovery to become transformation, not just in the UK but globally.

In this issue, we bring you a special focus on coronavirus and the intersecting global injustices it has brought to the fore, from the deep problems with the pharmaceutical industry to the burning inequalities between countries that lie exposed now more than ever. In the months and years ahead, our campaigns must aim to ensure that recovery becomes transformation, not just in the UK but globally.

Much will depend on the public mood as we settle into the new normal.

In W1A the solution offered to an empty schedule is (spoiler alert) just to repeat entire years of programming, including the news. The question is which year to repeat. As we learn to manage and hopefully overcome Covid-19, will it be the spirit of post-war optimism of 1945 that emerges?

Or will it be the blaming of the poor and migrants, and the descent into populist nationalism that followed the financial crisis in 2008? Can we take inspiration from even more revolutionary times? The only thing that’s certain is there’s an opportunity.

Big pharma must not profiteer from the pandemic

CAMPAIGN NEWS

For the past few years, Global Justice Now has been challenging the power of big pharmaceutical companies and fighting for better ways to research and develop medicines that put public health before profit.

This fight has become even more relevant and urgent when it comes to ensuring new Covid-19 vaccines and treatments are affordable for all countries and free to the public.

Public money is pouring into research efforts, and the UK government has committed £544 million so far. But with big companies dominating the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, there are no guarantees that the fruits of this public funding will be affordable for people here and around the world. That’s why we are calling on the UK government to attach conditions to all its funding to ensure that any Covid-19 vaccine that results is patent-free. This would prevent high prices and corporate profiteering as well as allow a diversity of manufacturers to scale up production to meet global demand.

Over 15,000 people have so far signed our petition calling for conditions on public funding and we have used key political moments in the last few months to push this message out further. Ensuring fair access to any Covid-19 vaccines and treatments for everyone who needs them, wherever they live, is a matter of global justice and solidarity, but it’s also hugely important for global public health.

Join our campaign and take action today using the enclosed postcard to add your name to our growing petition to the government.

Find out more about the campaign at: globaljustice.org.uk/covid19 Our photo messages to the UK government in April as it co-hosted a Covid-19 virtual summit.

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CAMPAIGN NEWS

‘Drop debt, save lives’ call as global south faces corona crash Global Justice Now has joined a worldwide campaign for emergency debt cancellation for countries in the global south in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 800,000 people have signed a petition calling for debts to be dropped so that countries can deal with the twin economic and public health shock of coronavirus. Even before the crisis, over 60 countries were already spending more on debt payments than healthcare, following a boom in speculative lending since the 2008 financial crisis.

The campaign achieved an initial breakthrough in April when the G20 group of major economies announced a ‘suspension’ of debt repayments for 77 low-income countries. This covers $12 billion of debts until the end of 2020.

The IMF also agreed to cancel half a billion dollars of debt for 25 countries.

But this still leaves huge amounts – $12.4 billion due to the World Bank and IMF in 2020, as well as $10.1 billion of payments to private lenders. These funds are desperately needed in the fight against the pandemic.

What’s more, by suspending debt payments, rather than cancelling debt, the G20 has just postponed the crisis.

The UN has estimated that up to $1 trillion of debt cancellation is required across all countries in the global south to help them deal with the crisis – two thousand times as much as has been cancelled so far. Working with Jubilee and others, we will continue pushing for debt cancellation from all lenders on the scale required to save lives in the coming months.

Find out more about the debt campaign at: jubileedebt.org.uk

© Jose Jacome/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

'We demand a decent budget for health and the suspension of external debt'.

Health workers protest outside Hospital Eugenio Espejo in Quito, Ecuador, in April.

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CAMPAIGN NEWS

World Bank freezes investments in private education

© White House/Sheala h Craiug head

Trump trade talks formally launched under cover of Covid-19 As the coronavirus crisis continued to deepen in May, the UK and the US formally launched trade negotiations, with the first round taking place online. A US-UK trade deal is a big risk at the best of times, but right now, when governments and society are stretched to the limit, it is reckless – and anti-democratic – to embark on these talks.

Global Justice Now joined with allies in March to write an open letter calling on the UK government to pause the negotiations until the crisis is under control. Initially this message seemed to get through, but then came news that talks would resume. A bid to amend the Agriculture Bill in May to exclude chlorinated chicken and other lower food standards from future trade deals was defeated in the new-look House of Commons by 51 votes – with 20 Conservative MPs rebelling against the government.

Coronavirus has exposed the flaws in the pro-corporate agenda that lies behind the US-UK trade deal.

The deal threatens to further weaken public services, push up medicine prices, and lower animal welfare and environmental standards which prevent the transmission of viruses from animals to humans. But together we are building a movement that can stop this trade deal, and instead call for a radical reset.

Get involved at: globaljustice.org.uk/trump-trade-deal

There was positive news in April for the global campaign against development funds being used to fund private, for-profit education in the global south. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, announced that it will freeze all investments in for-profit education.

The IFC’s announcement follows the publication of a growing body of evidence – including Global Justice Now’s own report, In Whose Interest?, published last year – that forprofit schools exclude children and exacerbate inequalities.

We joined a global group of civil society organisations, including Oxfam, ActionAid and the National Education Union, in welcoming the move.

Our campaign is now calling on the UK government to follow suit by ending the use of UK aid to fund private education, as the Observer reported in April. It has given millions of pounds to low-fee private schools in countries including Ghana, Kenya, Pakistan and Uganda. Instead, development funds should focus on building sustainable, public education systems for all children.

Support the campaign at: globaljustice.org.uk/pupils-before-profit

© Rahat Dar/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

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GLOBAL NEWS MOVEMENT NEWS

Protests over Lebanon’s economic crisis continue in lockdown

© REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

A demonstrator wears a Covid-19 mask marked “Revolution” in a May Day 2020 protest in Beirut.

Social unrest in Lebanon has continued since the coronavirus lockdown was imposed. A wave of protests has been taking place in the country since last October, sparked by regressive tax measures designed to deal with a looming economic crisis. The country suspended payments on its debts in March for

the first time in its history.

Despite the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, Lebanese people have continued to take to the streets as the threat to livelihoods deepens.

“Dying from coronavirus is better than starving to death”, protesters shouted in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest city, in May.

Human Rights Watch has warned that more than 50% of households may not be able to afford to buy food by the end of 2020. Over half of Lebanon’s food is imported, and prices have more than doubled since the start of the year, with the economy forecast to decline by 12%.

Wales and Scotland block bailouts for tax haven companies The Welsh and Scottish governments joined a number of European countries in May in pledging that emergency finance to help with the effects of Covid-19 would not be given to companies based in tax havens. It followed the governments of Denmark, Poland and France announcing that companies

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registered in countries on the EU's tax blacklist would not be eligible for bailouts.

The UK Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has so far resisted calls to join the ban, telling the House of Commons in April only that he urged companies to be responsible. A poll in May found that 82% of the British public agree tax

haven companies shouldn’t be given the bailouts. An estimated $8 trillion is held in offshore tax havens, with countries in the global south missing out on up to $400 billion per year as a result of tax dodging.

Sign the Tax Justice UK petition via: globaljustice.org.uk/tax-bailouts

GLOBAL MOVEMENT GLOBAL NEWS

NEWS SHORTS British managers accused over Kenyan firm collapse

A BBC Africa documentary has exposed allegations of fraud and corrupt business practices against two British managers of a collapsed Kenyan construction firm.

The firm was funded by the UK’s development bank, CDC Group, via private equity fund Emerging Capital Partners. Global Justice Now has joined Kenyan campaigners to call for an inquiry. Watch at globaljustice.org.uk/kenyadoc Delhi protests live on despite lockdown

Costa Rica and WHO set up ‘global pool’ to share Covid-19 research The World Health Organisation and the government of Costa Rica launched a voluntary pool of intellectual property rights to Covid-19 tests, drugs and vaccines in May, in an effort to reduce the barriers to access for people around the world. Global Justice Now was one of 30 organisations which signed an open letter in March calling for the WHO and its members to back Costa Rica’s proposal.

At least 37 governments supported the launch, including South Africa, Brazil, Portugal and Belgium, but not the US,

Global support for Argentina as bondholders refuse to ease debt burden

Protests against the Indian government’s new anti-Muslim citizenship laws were disbanded by lockdown in March, including at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, where hundreds of women had gathered every day for months as part of a historic sit-in of up to 100,000 people. The protest lives on, however, in the form of a 60-foot mural painted at the scene.

UK refuses lone child refugees from Greece

The UK government has refused to join ten EU countries, including Bulgaria, France and Portugal, who together pledged to take in at least 1,600 lone child refugees from Greece in March.

An estimated 5,500 of the more than 100,000 refugees in Greece are unaccompanied minors.

UK, or Switzerland, which have major pharmaceutical industries.

Pharmaceutical companies have previously taken part in similar pools that have allowed treatments for HIV/ AIDS, Hepatitis C and tuberculosis to be distributed in low-income countries at affordable prices. The Covid-19 pool will draw on the experiences of the UN's Medicines Patent Pool, which allows patents for essential medicines to be voluntarily released, and the medicines licensed to generics manufacturers.

© Gustavo Garello/AP/Shutterstock

“The debt is to the people, not the IMF” – a protest at the IMF’s visit to Buenos Aires in February.

Argentina carried out a high-profile debt default in May, when the country missed a $500 million debt payment after failing to agree a restructuring of $65 billion in private debt.

Lenders made a bet on strong economic growth in Argentina in return for high interest rates under the previous neoliberal government of Mauricio Macri, but a recession in 2018 led to a $57 billion IMF bailout, the largest in the fund’s history. Despite the shock of the coronavirus crisis, international financiers

including US-based BlackRock have refused to accept the new centre-left government’s offer of reduced interest and deferred payments to enable the country to pay what it can afford during the pandemic.

More than 130 economists from 20 countries, including Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Piketty, signed an open letter backing Argentina’s offer, arguing that debt relief is “the only way to combat the pandemic and set the economy on a sustainable path”.

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PHARMACEUTICALS

Pandemic Profiteering Governments are putting large sums into the search for a Covid-19 vaccine, but unless they stand up to big pharma, billions of people could be priced out, writes RADHIKA PATEL. As the death toll continues to rise, a vaccine offers the surest way out of the coronavirus crisis, and a number of candidates are in the pipeline. But without government intervention, a pharmaceutical industry with a track record of putting shareholder profits above public health needs is likely to line its pockets, whilst the most vulnerable are priced out of treatments.

Instead, we need a Covid-19 vaccine that is patent-free and affordable for all.

That will require global collaboration, and for governments like the UK to stand up to big pharma and stand with people.

VACCINES AND PROFIT

people. A vaccine had been identified by scientists in Canada as early as 2011, but a lack of commercial interest meant it was never developed.

It’s also what happened with SARS, an earlier coronavirus similar to the one that is now spreading around the world. More than a decade after it killed 774 people in China in 2003, a potential SARS vaccine was produced, but never tested on people. Could it have made a difference to Covid-19? “We could have had this ready to go and been testing the vaccine's efficacy at the start of this new outbreak in China”, said Dr Peter Hotez, one of the lead scientists. Instead, the funding dried up.

In fact, so many companies have exited the vaccine market that today only four large pharmaceutical companies make

This global pandemic has lifted the lid on the dangers of relying on a system that isn’t fit for purpose. Pharmaceutical companies are reluctant to invest in the early, riskier stages of research Rafa lia © World Ban k/He nitsoa into treatments for infectious diseases.

Profits for these corporations come from long-term chronic illnesses, which need continuous treatment.

When it comes to vaccines, potential candidates are left at the door if there is no imminent threat.

This is what happened with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa from 20142016, which killed 11,000

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Covid-19 testing in Madagascar, which recorded its first death on 16 May.

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PHARMACEUTICALS

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There has been some international recognition that this global health crisis

Freepost RRBA-HAEG-YUHJ Global Justice Now 66 Offley Road London SW9 0LS

ACTIONS NOT WORDS

manufacturers, and the private sector must act together and ensure that the fruits of science and research can benefit everybody.”

While US President Donald Trump has refused to be part of a global platform and is vying for a ‘US only’ vaccine, EU leaders and the UK government have hosted a global funding summit and pledged to accelerate global collaboration to ensure “equitable access” to vaccines. But they have yet to specify how they will deliver this access.

The key to the problem is patents.

Patents provide companies with a legal monopoly on new treatments for at least two decades. No other company or country can develop the treatment cheaper during that time and with no competition, prices are chosen at the whim of big pharma executives.

Yet with such huge amounts of public funding for the vaccine, governments should be attaching conditions to

up 90% of production. And public money is required to plug the research gap. Between one and two-thirds of all health research and development globally already comes from the public purse.

Now, billions of pounds of public funds have been pumped into researching Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, including £544 million from the UK so far. Over a hundred different vaccine candidates are in development around the world, most with public investment, and some are in the second stage of development – clinical trials and testing. It’s promising and there’s certainly a worldwide hope for a breakthrough.

But as it stands, the results of this research will be handed back to big pharma to manufacture any successful vaccine. When it is, a system based on profit incentives will kick in and big pharma will be able to patent the vaccine and name their price. And so wealth will determine who gets the vaccine, not need.

demand that any Covid-19 vaccine developed by big pharma is patentfree. Then more companies will be able to produce it in parallel for more people.

In fact, we should go further – sharing knowledge in a time of crisis is paramount. The government of Costa Rica has proposed a ‘global pool’ to allow all know-how, technology and research required to develop a vaccine and other treatments to be shared, and the results openly licensed and accessible for every country. As it stands, this will be voluntary. But it points the way to a fairer – and more effective – future.

During a global health crisis, what we need is a system designed to save lives, not line pockets. Without intervention from governments like the UK, the pharmaceutical industry will continue to requires global solutions. “We will only halt Covid-19 through solidarity,” says Dr hold all the cards. We must pressure our Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director leaders to act now so that everyone, everywhere gets the treatments they of the World Health Organization. need to tackle this pandemic.

“Countries, health partners, Radhika Patel is a campaigner on pharmaceuticals at Global Justice Now.

Make Covid-19 vaccines

free for everyone

Sign the enclosed action card to demand affordable vaccines for all.

2020 Ninety-Nine 9

GLOBAL SOUTH

The world against the virus Below: A nurse from the Witoto group of indigenous people in Manaus, Brazil, wears a mask saying "Indigenous lives matter" in May. Right: A protest in the Eastleigh area of Nairobi, Kenya, after the imposition of lockdown in May.

© Reuters/Bruno Kelly

Far right: Kenyan protesters join the #FightInequality global day of action during the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.

During lockdown, Global Justice Now’s series of webinars, podcasts and interviews have been exploring what coronavirus means in the global south. JEAN BLAYLOCK on six things we have learnt.

1

FIRST COMES PRACTICAL SUPPORT With everyone we have talked to, people’s first response and reaction has been to reach out to provide immediate practical help to those around them. In the UK, mutual aid and street support groups sprang up and it is the same elsewhere. Ivonne Yanez from Accion Ecologica in Ecuador explained that activists have started many initiatives focused on protecting people’s basic wellbeing – food for those who can’t go out, support for elders, helping to spread core messages about the virus.

Jean Enriquez from the World March of Women, talked of similar efforts in the Philippines which are a matter of survival for the most vulnerable.

As Mercia Andrews from the Rural

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Women’s Assembly in South Africa says, the phrase we’re all using is ‘social distancing’ but that’s not quite right.

Physical distancing is what we mean, but social solidarity is what we are doing and what we need.

2

THE FAULT LINES OF INEQUALITY ARE REVEALED

As Shalmali Guttal, director of Focus on the Global South, wryly highlighted, the inequality between countries is horrifyingly visible when hit by something like Covid-19. The crisis is going to hit the global south hard.

Gyekye Tanoh from Ghana reminded us of the reasons for the south’s vulnerability.

In so many countries “basic thresholds of health care and public services have been devastated – not since yesterday, not since last year, but in an onslaught for twenty or thirty years.”

As a society will we accept that the coronavirus pandemic will be repeated unless we change our systems?

That onslaught started with structural adjustment and was then built on by liberalisation of trade through the World Trade Organisation and free trade agreements, until we reach a situation where it seems unremarkable that African

GLOBAL SOUTH

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governments should be trying to respond to the crisis on a shoestring and fill the gaps with donations from people like Jack Ma or Bill Gates.

But, as Gyekye says, it is not unremarkable: “It is unconscionable that you should have the levels of inequality where 54 countries cannot afford what one or two billionaires can afford. Or that those 54 countries have to appeal to the IMF and World Bank and G20 for a pittance in terms of arrangements that can free liquidity for them.”

None of this was inevitable. As Gyekye declares, “It is the deliberate choices, the policy priorities that govern the use and distribution of resources that are decisive.”

The case of Kerala, in India is a counter example. The response of the regional government there has been effective in countering the virus, and Aswathi Rebecca Asok from the Student’s Federation of India explained how a history of public investment in health, education and social sectors has enabled this.

Shalmali quoted Dr Larry Brilliant who helped to eradicate smallpox: “Outbreaks are inevitable, pandemics

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are optional”. She went on to say: “Structural adjustment has long been a chronicle of a disaster foretold. In our generation humanity has created the conditions for pandemics”

3

THE VIRUS IS NOT THE WHOLE CRISIS

When the Indian government announced a lockdown with literally hours’ notice, Shalmali told us it rapidly became apparent that people were going to die of hunger before they died of the virus. Food, income, water, all are as much a part of the crisis as the virus itself.

Shalmali explained that there should not be a shortage of food in India. There is food grown by local farmers. But it is sitting rotting because there is no way to get it to markets. Ivonne reported similar in Ecuador.

In South Africa, Vishwas Satgar from COPAC observed that long term inequality in access to food for millions is now being revealed even more starkly, and there have been food riots. The food sovereignty network in South Africa has been campaigning to set up ‘people’s pantries’ as a short term measure.

Vishwas further shared that activists have set up a water stress community tracking tool. More than half of households in South Africa do not have access to clean water in the household, and in this crisis the government has promised water tankers and other measures.

Community reporting is trying to hold them to account on this.

© Jess Hurd/Global Justice Now

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GLOBAL SOUTH

4

WE ARE NOT ALL IN THIS TOGETHER

Shalmali bluntly points out that class, social privilege, race, gender and ethnicity are important in determining who is exposed and who experiences the worst impacts of the pandemic. How can people practise social distancing when they live in crowded conditions?

How can they wash their hands when they have no water?

Or, Vishwas adds, how can the huge numbers of people in the informal sector, who live from hand to mouth, not go out each day to make a living? Ivonne reports that 70% of the people in the Ecuadorian port city of Guayaquil are in this position. Many of those people are now trying to flee the province.

Shalmali adds that four million Indian migrant workers were stranded in cities by the sudden lockdown with no means to support themselves. Many desperately walked hundreds of miles to their rural homes with no food, water, shelter, or healthcare.

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6

THE BATTLE FOR THE FUTURE IS NOW

As a long-term climate campaigner, Vishwas comments that Covid-19 is achieving things we haven’t been able to achieve in the climate struggle. Oil demand has crashed; governments are stepping up and taking responsibility for their populations; an appreciation that we are one humanity is emerging.

Yet obviously it’s not all good – militarisation and further steps on the road to fascism are also present. And Ivonne explains that the Ecuadorian government is looking at the wrong solutions as a route out of the crisis – expanding oil activities and changing the law to allow mining in currently protected areas. In Vishwas’ words, “the battle for the future, for what comes out of Covid-19, is now”.

Shalmali calls on us to seize the moment. We need to block the response that would lead to more austerity by pointing out how disinvestment in public services and privatisation has made us vulnerable. And we need to steer away from a return to a carboncentric world. Instead we need to take the opportunity offered to control big pharma, secure migrant rights, change our food system and build a green recovery.

Francis asks us whether as a society we will accept that the coronavirus pandemic will be repeated unless we change our systems. We created the conditions for a pandemic, as Shalmali said. Will we take up the challenge to change them?

Jean Blaylock is trade campaign and policy manager at Global Justice Now.

A socially-distanced queue for food during lockdown in Chennai, India, in April.

RACISM IS AN UGLY THREAT

In a crisis, some people seek a scapegoat and blame the outsider.

This is the situation in Thailand for migrants from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos who are facing immense prejudice, Shalmali told us.

In South Korea, Lee Dae-hoon (Francis) from Peace MOMO highlighted the xenophobia that blames the virus on China. This has led to abuse targeting either Chinese nationals or others coming from China to Korea.

Blaming the outsider is a deliberate tactic of some far right governments, and they have doubled down in this crisis.

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Watch our webinars and video interviews, and listen to our podcasts via: globaljustice.org.uk/covid19

Global Justice Now members This year’s AGM will be a bit different…

Global Justice Now AGM 2020 Saturday 5 September, 11am Attend by Zoom, register by 2 September at

globaljustice.org.uk/agm-2020

When the last issue of Ninety-Nine went to press, we were due to have our AGM in June as normal and members will have received the usual notice with their copy of the magazine. However, following the coronavirus crisis, our elected council has now rearranged it for early September and decided it will take place online, rather than in person, since it is likely we still won’t be able to hold in-person meetings of any size by then.

How will it work?

Zoom is a free web-based videoconferencing programme which has become much more widely used since the coronavirus lockdown. Many members will already have used it (including maybe for one of our webinars) but if you haven’t, it’s not difficult if you have a home computer, tablet or a smartphone.

Our plan is that the chair, treasurer, national secretary and director will be in the Global Justice Now office, but all members will join using Zoom. Members will be able to speak and take part in the normal way and we’ll use the polling function Zoom provides to take votes.

Although there are some downsides to not being able to meet in person, one advantage is that members can join from wherever they live equally easily and without the time and cost of travel.

What’s on the agenda?

Normally we hold our AGM as part of a wider national gathering with workshops and talks.

This year the AGM is just being held on its own and we expect it to be finished by 1pm at the latest. However, we have some important business to get through. The full agenda can be found in the notice enclosed for members with Ninety-Nine, or on the website at globaljustice.org.uk/agm-2020.

As usual, Nick Dearden will give his director’s report about our activities in the previous year and there will be a chance to ask questions about that. We’ll also be considering changes to the way council is elected and an increase in the membership fee.

Do I have to register in advance?

Yes. Because only members can vote, we need to check your membership status in advance and then send you details of how to join the meeting.

We therefore need you to register by Wednesday 2 September at globaljustice.org.uk/agm-2020.

What if access to the internet isn’t easy for me?

You can join a Zoom call using a normal phone if you wish. Some of the functions will not be available to you, but you will be able to hear the meeting, speak if you wish, and you can simply tell the chair your vote over the phone. If you can’t access the internet to register for the AGM, phone us on 020 7820 4900. Because of the current situation, there will be times when no-one is in the office, so leave a message if necessary, including your phone number so we can phone you back.

If you do have access to the internet but are not confident about using Zoom and want some help getting used to it in advance, please email james.onions@globaljustice.org.uk or let us know when you register.

INEQUALITY

After Covid-19, we need a global reset For many countries in the global south, the health and economic shocks of coronavirus are just the latest phase in an ongoing crisis, writes NICK DEARDEN. While coronavirus is challenging even the richest governments in the world, for countries of the global south, it exacerbates a permanent crisis, fuelled by policies imposed by western governments over many decades.

Covid-19 won’t be the last pandemic we face.

Meanwhile climate change and inequality are already causing immense suffering. Let’s use this awful disease as a wake-up call – to build a very different economy.

THE PERMANENT CRISIS The 1960s and ‘70s was often a time of hope for the global south. Many so-called ‘third world’ countries were pushing radical policies designed to make the world more equal. From the New International Economic Order adopted by the UN in the mid-1970s, to the World Health Organisation’s determination to ensure everyone on the planet had access to healthcare, these ideas could have built a radically different international economy.

Sadly, it wasn’t to be. Rich countries, cheered on by big corporations, were determined to undermine this vision. In the early 1980s, the 'third world debt crisis' enabled these powers to impose austerity and liberalisation on dozens of countries through ‘structural adjustment’ programmes attached to bailout loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. This created a permanent crisis which lasts in many parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America to this day.

Austerity and liberalisation are now ingrained throughout the global economy, preventing countries building up public, universal healthcare. High-income countries spend $3,000 per person on healthcare, while low-income countries spend a mere $41. While Britain has 28

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doctors per 10,000 people, there is much less than 1 doctor per 10,000 people in impoverished countries like Sierra Leone.

This has dramatic consequences. Each day nearly 4,000 people die from tuberculosis.

16,000 children die before their fifth birthday.

Too many people believe that some countries are inevitably poor, or that poverty is a result of unfortunate accidents. But there was nothing accidental or inevitable about this impoverishment.

THE RULE OF FINANCE In this new global economy, the answer to everything was ‘more markets’. Southern governments were told not to tax and redistribute wealth to build public services – the policies that had radically reduced Now more than ever poverty in rich countries like we need to remove the UK after the Second World War. That would scare the power of finance off international investors. over the world.

Better to turn to the private sector, both to borrow money to fund expenditure, and to provide the basic services people needed.

As a result, there was an incredible growth in indebtedness in the global south after 1980.

Debt from the IMF, World Bank and richer governments, grew considerably. But it was dwarfed by the build-up of debt owed to private investors once again. It's a pattern that continues to this day – private debt for all developing countries has more or less doubled as a percentage of GDP since the financial crisis in 2008. As rich governments poured money into the banks, investors scoured the world looking for better returns.

INEQUALITY

Relying on external finance leaves countries more vulnerable to economic shocks. When the chips are down, governments can’t prevent an exodus of capital fleeing back to the global north, where investors hope generous governments will protect them. That is precisely what has happened in response to Covid-19.

Nearly $100 billion of capital flowed out of emerging markets in the course of a few weeks – four times the damage caused by the 2008 crash. The UN reports a 37% fall in commodity prices, which many southern countries still depend on to earn dollars to pay their debts. And they predict an $800 billion collapse in export revenue.

Unable to intervene on the scale of rich governments, there is a real danger that the price of this collapse will be paid, once again, by the poorest.

THE GLOBAL RESET Now more than ever we need to remove the power of finance over the world. Debt cancellation is a vital step: deep and broad debt write-downs which are free of austerity strings, not the

temporary suspension of debt payments announced by the G20 in April, and laws to prevent vulture funds suing developing countries for debts they default on during the Covid-19 crisis.

This won’t provide sufficient funding on its own. There are relatively simple ways of injecting cash into the global economy, such as a special issue of IMF ‘currency’, currently being blocked by the USA. We should institute a windfall tax so that those who continue to make large profits during the crisis (Amazon is thought to be making as much as $10,000 a second) bear their share of the burden for the recovery.

But beyond emergency measures, we need to change the structure of the global economy. This won’t be the last pandemic, and in any case climate change carries much higher costs than even this terrible disease. A global reset is a matter of life and death for potentially billions of people.

Read our full briefing, ‘Exiting the permanent crisis in the global south’, at: globaljustice.org.uk/global-reset Nick Dearden is director of Global Justice Now.

WHAT A ‘GLOBAL RESET’ SHOULD CONSIST OF • Financial regulation allowing governments to regulate financial flows and crack down on speculative behaviour.

• A new debt system to force the private sector to write down unjust debts.

• Clamp down on tax dodging which has robbed countries of the funding they need to build up proper public services and welfare systems.

• Global trade rules which provide a framework for regulating and controlling the international flows of goods, services and capital, not the forced liberalisation of the economy in current trade deals.

• A just ecological transition using the tools deployed to fight Covid-19 to halt climate change: governments must take ownership of businesses they save from collapse and demand a transition away from fossil fuels.

• International cooperation to strengthen institutions that prioritise human need like the WHO.

© Edwin Hooper/Unsplash

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IN PICTURES

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Art under lockdown When design lab Amplifier put out a global call for Covid-19 artwork “to help promote mental health, well-being, and social change work during these stressful times,� they received more than 10,500 submissions in a matter of weeks. A selection has now been made available free to download and distribute at Amplifier.org 1

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1. Essential Immigrants JosĂŠ Camacho For years, systems of oppression have labelled many people who reside in the US without documentation "illegal immigrants" or even just "illegals" stripping many people, especially farmworkers (70% of whom are undocumented) of any human dignity.

Now, these same "illegal immigrants" are essential to the health and livelihood of all of American society, regardless of political affiliation, gender, or race. #WeFeedYou fuels the movement to educate the American people who exactly puts potatoes, carrots, and other produce on our shelves.

2. She The Culture/Saving World

Stat Phillips Inspired by a conversation with my mother and sister (both nurses), who are tasked with providing healthcare

during the Covid-19 pandemic for the foreseeable future. I developed this piece to provide an illustration for underrepresented women of color on the front lines fighting the spread of a worldly disease.

3. Mask Up

Lisa Vollrath The CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] says masks will help slow the spread. If you must go out, mask up!

4. Imagining (The Revolution)

Emma Ismawi What is politically, socially and economically possible has always been about will. When 'This is all over' we cannot go back to normal, we the people need to demand and do better. Our collective trauma needs collective healing, out of this darkness we can imagine the revolution.

5. Tommye Austin Sabrina Alfaro The subject of this print is Tommye Austin, Senior Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive of University Health System in San Antonio, TX. Nurse Austin designed and developed her own mask that was shown to be more effective than the N95 mask. Healthcare workers deserve not only messages of support but also support in congress, state governments, and local governments.

It is our responsibility to fight for procedures and policies that protect our essential workers.

6. The New Normal (Design Fights Covid)

Rohan Bhatia A reminder so people realise that normal got us here in the first place.

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DEBT

Cancel Pakistan’s debt to combat Covid-19 Coronavirus could push another 50 million people in Pakistan below the poverty line, yet it is due to spend $28 billion on debt payments over the next three years, writes ABDUL KHALIQ. Pakistan`s current external debt stands at around $111 billion and increasing. With the ongoing economic meltdown as a result of Covid-19, government revenues have started falling and debt payments are expected to increase. The country’s health system is already a shambles as Pakistan spends more on repayment of debt than healthcare. Last year, it spent over $10 billion on debt.

Around 25% of Pakistan’s 212 million people were already living below the poverty line before this crisis, and this is now expected to as much as double. GDP is projected to shrink by 1.5%, the worst in almost 70 years, with the urban economy contracting by 30-40% and 18.5 million people losing their jobs. This is a horrific scenario.

SUSPENDED, NOT CANCELLED

As of mid-May, there have been over 37,000 cases of Covid-19 with over 800 deaths.

Although the situation looks less devastating compared to European countries at present, the WHO has warned of 200,000 cases by mid-July, if effective measures are not taken. However, the government has taken a gamble by deciding to ease the lockdown from 9 May. Either way, the impacts of the crisis on Pakistan’s economy will be devastating.

Pakistan has secured one temporary relief so far, a suspension of debt payments worth $1.9 billion from the G20. This is a useful first step but, given the depth of the crisis, it is much less than Pakistan requires, just pushing the problem down the line.

Prime minister Imran Khan’s call for debt relief is appreciable, but falls short of the scale of the prevailing and increasing crisis.

Pakistan needs immediate cancellation of all bilateral, multilateral and private debt until 2023. It should be free of conditionalities Over the next three years, $27.8 billion worth of promoting privatisation, deregulation and trade payments to Pakistan’s international creditors are liberalisation, as should any additional finance, which should not create further debt. due. Around $19 billion is to four major creditors – the IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank We direly need the support of our friends in and China. There is a chance of some sort of the global north to tell the IFIs, G20 and private debt relief on the Chinese loans, but no hope lenders that the likelihood of inevitable defaults from the international financial institutions (IFIs) is there if they persistently refuse to entertain the so far. Meanwhile the IMF has approved an demand for debt cancellation. emergency loan of $1.4 billion, pushing Pakistan Abdul Khaliq is the Executive Director of the Institute for further into debt.

Social & Economic Justice in Pakistan and coordinator of the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM) Pakistan.

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REVIEWS

Reviews THE MONSTER ENTERS: COVID-19, AVIAN FLU AND THE PLAGUES OF CAPITALISM Mike Davis OR Books, 2020

VIRUS Aashiq Abu OPM Cinemas, 2019 Set in Kerala, India and based on real events, the fast-paced ‘Virus’ tells of an outbreak of Nipah – a disease caught from animals, then passed between humans, with a far higher fatality rate than Covid-19. The tragedy becomes ‘whodunnit’ as contact tracers race to isolate possible carriers and then to discredit the conspiracy theorists, proving the virus came from fruit bats, not terrorism.

In 2005 a friend of mine ordered multiple copies of this book – which Mike Davis has revised and updated in the light of Covid-19, with a fiery new 45-page introduction – and gave them to everyone he knew.

Together we helped set up a group, Pandemic Action, which campaigned for global solidarity on infectious diseases. I even travelled to the World Social Forum in Kenya to raise awareness. (Other friends laughed – they’re not laughing now!)

While the H5N1 bird flu strain didn’t turn into the ‘Big One’, as had been feared, everything that Davis sounded the alarm about then

Jonathan Stevenson

COVID CAPITALISM WEBINAR SERIES Transnational Institute April 2020 onwards (Weekly, 1hr 30 mins)

I watch this film with different eyes than I would have last year. Then, it would have seemed far away. Today instead, it’s a foretelling. So much is familiar: PPE shortages, lack of ventilators, hospital staff heroes, school closures, social distancing. And some less familiar: thorough contact tracing that doesn’t rely upon technology; thoughtful politicians able to listen and lead.

One of the side effects of lockdown has been the huge choice of interesting and useful webinars that have sprung up – which are often then recorded and turned into podcasts. With the world on pause, it has been easy to access speakers from all over the globe, as we’ve found with our own webinars (see page 10).

KK Shailaja, the health minister featured in ‘Virus’, now oversees Kerala’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak and has received many plaudits. We can only wish for the same happy ending.

This series from our Amsterdambased ally the Transnational Institute is a case in point. Since April they’ve run a weekly webinar looking at different aspects of ‘Covid capitalism’, drawing on experts and activists from all continents. From globalised food

Jane Herbstritt

continues today – from Big Pharma’s lack of interest in vaccines, to factory farming’s acceleration of animalto-human disease transfer. What’s more, re-reading the book in 2020, it’s clear that Covid-19 is unlikely to be a one-off. Another severe flu pandemic is still only a matter of time. And our global economic system will make its likely impacts more devastating – just as with Covid-19. So, if you do nothing else during lockdown: read this book.

systems, to corporations and healthcare, to prospects for a Global Green New Deal, it has proved to be an excellent resource for any internationalist in these difficult times.

Register for future webinars or watch past ones at: tni.org/webinars James O’Nions

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