Ninety-Nine magazine - March 2024

Challenging the power of the

Issue 28 - March 2024

Fossil Fuel Exit Plan

Why we need a non-proliferation treaty

Also in this issue The scramble for African energy Women in Revolt!

Colombia speaks out

ISSUE 28: March 2024 03 Campaign news 06 Global news 08 Fossil Fuel Exit Plan 10 The scramble for African energy 13 Global Justice Now supporters 14 Cooperation Jackson 16 Women in Revolt!

18 Colombia chooses life 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: A protester at COP28 in Dubai takes part in the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice on 9 December.

Photo: Mídia NINJA (CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED) Printed on 100% recycled paper.

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From the climate crisis to Gaza, we stand strong Nick Deardon Director It’s not an easy moment for those of us committed to global justice, with Israel’s brutal war in Gaza, global temperatures reaching frightening new highs, and the corporate elite building ever greater concentrations of power. But I’m still optimistic that, despite the forces lined up against us, our movements have the resilience and creativity to build something better.

Take climate change. After decades of pushback from the fossil fuel industry, there is new momentum around an alternative approach that puts ending the fossil fuel economy front and centre, as Izzie McIntosh sets out (pages 8-9). While we can’t expect an immediate change of course from a government intent on ‘maxing out’ North Sea oil and gas, by working from the bottom up, we can lay the ground for a more transformative approach.

And, as Seble Samuel explains (pages 10-12), we’re part of a global effort with the potential to build a truly just transition, which both dismantles the fossil fuel industry and challenges poverty across the world.

Then look at the demonstrations over Gaza, We're part of a which I know many of you have joined. Despite hostility global effort to both from the home secretary dismantle the fossil downwards, their moral clarity has cut through to ordinary fuel industry and people. There is no situation to challenge poverty which the solution is collective punishment of over two million across the world. civilians and the killing of thousands of children, and Israel is now under investigation for genocide (see page 6). The UK has been complicit by giving Israel uncritical support, and we have added our voice to pressure on ministers to push for a ceasefire and implement an arms embargo.

The injustices inherent in the situation in Gaza and in the climate crisis are sadly reflected, in more or less extreme ways, across the global economy.

Changing this will take time, and must be done collectively. That’s why we exist, to help undermine the myths we’re told about our economy, mobilise people across the country, and build pressure points in the political system for change.

However hard it seems, we can never give up. As Gandhi said: “It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”

CAMPAIGN NEWS

© Dorothy Guerrero/Global Justice Now

Loss and damage fund established but COP28 falls short World leaders, activists, and an ever-growing delegation of fossil fuel lobbyists descended on Dubai in December for the UN’s COP28 climate summit – and Global Justice Now was among them. Issues that loomed large included funding for the climate loss and damage experienced by countries in the global south, and the possibility of agreement on a fossil fuel phase-out.

The summit started with a step forward, as countries reached a deal for managing the loss and damage fund they had agreed to establish at COP27. This was a historic moment, and a much-needed win for the climate justice movement. Part of the deal, however, is that the World Bank – which has a history of funding fossil fuel projects, is run by rich countries and largely gives loans rather than grants – will run the fund for the next four years.

Loans for loss and damage would be unjust and counterproductive, leaving global south countries more heavily indebted rather than compensated for climate impacts.

The funds pledged to the new fund also didn't come anywhere close to the hundreds of billions that are needed annually. The US’s pledge of $17.5 million was laughable, and the UK’s £60 million – all from previously announced budgets – not much better. In total, just $700 million was pledged at COP28, less than 0.2% of the estimated economic losses the global south is facing every year.

Hopes were raised that COP28 might be the moment the world finally agreed on a fossil fuel phaseout – the long-overdue step that should be the basic starting point of climate negotiations. But once again this failed to materialise. While

countries did agree to unprecedented language on transitioning away from fossil fuels, the text contained gaping loopholes and dangerous distractions – like the use of carbon capture – that betrayed the influence of the record numbers of fossil fuel lobbyists present.

The mention of a transition from fossil fuels does, however, provide a slight opening for campaigning this year. Another step forward at COP28 was the Colombian president’s announcement of support for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (see page 18). This kind of global fossil fuel exit plan is urgently needed to complement the UN climate process, working with different rules that would make it much quicker and more effective than the COP process has become (see page 8).

Above: Climate justice activists protest in Dubai in December.

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CAMPAIGN NEWS

Deadline passes for UK to quit climate-wrecking energy deal 2023 saw Global Justice Now and allies take the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) from a little-known secret weapon of fossil fuel companies ignored by politicians, to a poisoned chalice countries are fleeing from – forcing the UK government to announce a review of its membership in September.

Ministers committed to consider exiting the deal if ‘modernisation’ proposals weren’t agreed by November. Sure enough, at November’s meeting the proposals

were again taken off the table – and by then we’d delivered over 120,000 signatures to Downing Street calling on the UK to quit this obsolete and dangerous deal.

But since then it’s been radio silence from the government, despite their acknowledgement that there is “no clear route to modernisation”. More worryingly, the November meeting discussed plans to expand the treaty’s membership to major oil-producing countries, shattering the myth of a modernised treaty fit for protecting

the green investments of the future.

As a result, Global Justice Now supporters are putting renewed pressure on ministers to carry out the review and draw the obvious conclusion of quitting the treaty. For every day they fail to do so, ministers are locking the UK into the risk of foreign companies adding billions to the cost of the fossil fuel phase-out.

Take action at: globaljustice.org.uk/ect Below: Handing in the petition in November

© James O'Nions/Global Justice Now

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© Ringo Chiu/Shutterstock

CAMPAIGN NEWS

International protests to Make Amazon Pay

Rich world blocking deal on pandemic medicines Efforts to constrain Big Pharma's ability to profiteer in future health crises are being held back by rich nations, including the UK, as talks over a global pandemic treaty head towards a deadline in May. After disastrously unequal access to Covid-19 vaccines caused over a million preventable deaths, countries in the global south are aiming to secure agreement that medicines technology will be transferred in the event of another pandemic, as well as reassurances that Big Pharma patents won't get in the way of fair access to vaccines and treatments. Despite all of the major Covid-19 vaccines receiving substantial public funding, pharmaceutical companies were allowed to privatise them with few conditions. As part of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, Global Justice Now is supporting this effort, including calls for strict public interest conditions to be applied to future research, guaranteeing wide access and affordability.

However, reports suggest that the UK, the EU and the US are resisting such measures, with negotiators dragging their feet ahead of the World Health Assembly in May, when agreement is expected to be sought on the treaty. Campaigners have argued that resistance to demands from the global south is hypocritical, with the EU recently developing new proposals to override patents to help it respond to health crises. The US administration is also facing accusations of double standards, having supported American companies to bypass patent rights for components of Covid-19 vaccines. Together with partners, we’re lobbying the government to get behind a deal that constrains the worst excesses of corporate power and pushing the UK government to back a treaty that puts global health before the interests of the pharmaceutical industry.

Take action at: globaljustice.org.uk/pandemic-treaty

Over the last year, Global Justice Now has explored across our campaigns how a small pool of corporate giants is dominating the economy that governs our basic needs – from medicine and food to energy and technology. On Black Friday in November, a broad movement of organisations and trade unions mobilised across the UK in response to one of the main villains in this story of monopoly capitalism: Amazon.

Global Justice Now led in pulling together a demonstration outside Amazon’s London HQ with allies for Make Amazon Pay day, coinciding with workers at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse walking out on strike, and actions in 30 countries around the world.

Joining the call for Amazon to pay fair wages, to pay its taxes and to pay for its impact on the planet, we added our perspective on Amazon’s monopoly power built via manipulating economic rules.

Besides lobbying to influence trade deals in their favour – to lock in deregulation and prevent data being protected in local jurisdictions – Amazon is among the Big Tech giants buying up the platforms and data needed, from farm to grocery, to profit from the entire the food system.

Read our Amazon briefing at: globaljustice.org.uk/ make-amazon-pay

GLOBAL NEWS MOVEMENT NEWS

South Africa takes Israel to the Hague for genocide

© AP Photo/Patrick Post

South Africa presents its case to the International Court of Justice in January.

The International Court of Justice called on Israel to take all possible actions to prevent genocide in Gaza in January, in a preliminary ruling following a case brought by the government of South Africa. A full investigation will now take place which could last several years, after Israel’s demand for the case to be dismissed was rejected.

Israel has killed more than 25,000 civilians, wounded at least 60,000 more, and forced over 1.9 million people from their homes during its months-long assault on Gaza, which followed attacks by Hamas in October when hundreds of Israeli civilians were killed. “The articulated intent is the destruction of Palestinian life,” South Africa’s lawyers told the court.

Global Justice Now has backed calls on the UK government to push for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as well as an embargo on UK arms sales to Israel. The situation has brought renewed international attention to the need to address the root cause of the conflict: Israel’s decades-long illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

Honduras resists $11 billion US corporate court claim Honduras’s progressive president Xiomara Castro answered mass mobilisations last year by repealing a law allowing ‘special economic zones’ – deregulated business districts first introduced after a US-backed coup in the country. But now a mammoth corporate court claim – using investorstate dispute settlement (ISDS) clauses in a trade agreement with the US – is

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being weaponised to overturn this movement win.

In these unregulated zones, companies are free to set their own laws, flout workers’ rights and siphon off wealth into tax havens. US company Próspera – brainchild of a group of extreme libertarians – had set about creating a free market utopia on the Honduran island of

Roatan. Now thwarted, Próspera is suing Honduras for an outrageous sum of almost $11 billion – two-thirds of the government’s 2023 budget. But Honduras is fighting back against this corporate colonialism, threatening to quit the World Bank’s ISDS institution, and adding its voice to the growing chorus against the wider ISDS regime.

GLOBAL MOVEMENT GLOBAL NEWS

NEWS SHORTS Argentinians resist Milei’s ‘shock therapy’ Workers across Argentina joined a general strike in January in opposition to new far-right libertarian president Javier Milei’s assault on the state, which former Ukip leader Nigel Farage has called “Thatcherism on steroids”.

Milei’s self-described “shock therapy” includes mass privatisation and massive spending cuts, as well as rolling back workers’ rights and the right to protest.

Unequal world heading for first trillionaire

UN takes historic step towards new global tax rules Countries at the UN agreed to begin the process of transforming how global tax rules are decided in November, when they voted by an overwhelming majority to establish a framework convention on tax. It could eventually move decisionmaking on the rules from the OECD – a small club of rich countries that has presided over global tax policy for more than 60 years – to the UN. “This is a historic victory delivered by countries of the global south, for the benefit of people all around the world,“

Indigenous protesters over lithium mining in Argentina defy repression

The gap between rich and poor has become “supercharged” since the Covid-19 pandemic, Oxfam found, in a report released as the World Economic Forum in Davos took place in January. The top five billionaires have doubled their wealth, while almost five billion people have become poorer, with the first trillionaire expected within a decade.

Guatemalans mobilise to defend democracy New progressive president Bernardo Arevalo was sworn in in Guatemala in January after widespread mobilisations, including

by Indigenous groups, to ensure the peaceful transfer of power. Arevalo, who has pledged to tackle corruption, won elections in August by a landslide but had been faced with multiple legal challenges by AttorneyGeneral Consuelo Porras.

said Alex Cobham of the Tax Justice Network. “Tax havens and corporate lobbyists have had too much influence on global tax policy at the OECD for too long.“ The vote followed weeks of opposition from OECD members, including a lastminute attempt by the UK to remove any mention of a convention. The result demonstrates the overwhelming demand from the global south for the meaningful voice on international tax rules which they have historically been denied.

© Mariana Nedelcu/Sipa US/Alamy Live News

A woman takes part in a protest supporting the people of Jujuy in Buenos Aires in June.

Indigenous communities in Argentina’s northern province of Jujuy have continued to protest against the imposition of lithium mining in the region, despite violent repression and constitutional changes limiting land and protest rights pushed through last summer. Amnesty International has documented the use of indiscriminate force, rubber bullets and enduring intimidation and surveillance.

Lithium, known as ‘white gold’, is crucial for smartphones, laptops and as a key component of electric car batteries. As nations vie for security over

critical minerals for the green transition, the ancestral lands of Indigenous communities in Argentina are becoming sacrifice zones threatened by land grabs, water shortage and environmental damage.

Argentina has the world’s secondbiggest lithium deposits, with 38 mining projects planned and new far-right leader Javier Milei promising to grow the industry further. "The government doesn’t care because they are in the business of making money,” Silvana Yanez, a lawyer for the protesters, told the Guardian.

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CLIMATE JUSTICE

A global plan to end the fossil fuel era After three decades of UN climate talks, countries still can’t reach consensus on phasing out the cause of the problem. It’s time for a new approach, writes IZZIE McINTOSH.

© Justin Lane/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

It wasn’t formally on the agenda of COP28, the UN’s climate talks in December, but a proposal was discussed that was both popular and powerful – and could change the course of the climate fight: a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

World leaders have failed us in many ways when it comes to the climate crisis. But one of their most egregious missteps has been their feeble approach to targeting planet-wrecking coal, oil and gas. The Paris Agreement, which is the current basis of the UN climate process, doesn’t mention fossil fuels once. UN climate conferences have taken nearly 30 years to name and shame the major cause of the problem – finally doing so last year in Dubai. But even the agreement politicians made at COP28 is full of dangerous distractions and loopholes. Considering that fossil fuels account for over 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions, this is madness.

Politicians the world over have let themselves be taken in by the fossil fuel industry’s multimillion pound lobbying machine – there were almost 2,500 fossil fuel lobbyists at COP28.

They’ve focused almost entirely on reducing demand for fossil fuels, while doing precious little to get the industry to stop extracting new coal, oil and gas from the ground. At a time when we should be phasing out our use of fossil fuels as rapidly as possible, the industry plans to continue to expand.

That’s why we need a global exit plan that tackles fossil fuels at the point of production, dismantling the oil giants’ polluting business models, and planning an orderly and fair transition to cleaner sources of fuel. Reducing individual consumption is vital, but big oil has used this necessity as a tactic to distract from

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its own climate-wrecking activities. Corporate giants like Shell and BP will keep pumping out oil, making billions from encouraging us all to use it, until governments step in and change the rules of the game. Given the scale of the challenge ahead, we know we need international cooperation to end the fossil fuel era. But our current systems are failing us. We need a new approach that complements the UN process, is set up to work much more quickly, and tackles fossil fuels directly – to manage the transition, rather than leaving it to chance.

THREE PILLARS The Fossil Fuel Treaty initiative is a global campaign supported by national governments, major cities, scientists and youth leaders worldwide. It would commit governments to three pillars of action: no new fossil fuels, phasing out existing stockpiles fairly, and a globally just transition from fossil fuels.

The campaign has been spearheaded by Pacific Island states – including Fiji, Vanuatu and Tuvalu – that are highly vulnerable to climate change. It’s a serious proposal that could make a real impact on the climate crisis. In countries like the UK – where huge wealth is propped up by oily money – we need to be building as much popular demand as possible for the treaty. It’s time to show politicians this is an idea they can’t afford to ignore.

No text has been written yet; currently, governments are being asked to endorse the need for a treaty, and to commit to coming to the negotiating table as the campaign progresses. Already, we’re seeing concrete progress. A number of national leaders agree that a treaty is needed. At COP28, endorsements

CLIMATE JUSTICE

Below: Supporters at a protest in June. The Fossil Fuel Treaty aims to emulate similar treaties which have successfully reduced the supply of nuclear weapons and landmines. © Fossil Fuel NonProliferation Treaty Initiative

from national governments grew, with Colombia taking the major step of becoming the first oilproducing country to formally endorse the treaty (see page 18). The State of California, another oil producer, also supports the proposal, and has the power to turn its commitment into an actual reduction in oil production.

The treaty is already gaining momentum in the UK too, with London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Brighton, and the Green Party all endorsing it so far. Of course, we know that the current UK government isn’t falling all over itself to end fossil fuels. That’s why there are two immediate focuses for the campaign in the UK: seeking initial political endorsements from both local and devolved governments, and building a groundswell of popular demand for a global exit plan from fossil fuels.

A powerful global coalition for a Fossil Fuel Treaty has the power to shift foreign policy

norms. If there are enough signatories around the world, and the people are demanding a global exit plan in the UK, we can force whoever is in government to act and avoid being left behind with business as usual.

We’ll be working with activists to demand endorsements from local MPs, mayors, councils, and more. We’ll also be collaborating with key partners to influence MPs in Westminster, so they are hearing about the treaty from every angle.

We know that our network has power, and that we can work together to create grassroots pressure from below on national government.

Ultimately, we can make the Fossil Fuel Treaty an idea they cannot ignore.

Sign the petition to party leaders at: globaljustice.org.uk/fft Izzie McIntosh is climate campaign manager at Global Justice Now.

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CLIMATE JUSTICE

The scramble for African energy can be stopped Millions of people across Africa have no access to electricity, despite decades of coal, oil and gas extraction. SEBLE SAMUEL explains how a Fossil Fuel Treaty can help change this.

Coal, oil and gas have been extracted on the We’re seeing French, Dutch, British, Italian African continent for decades. Yet despite this ownership. This kind of neo-colonial scramble massive history of fossil fuel extraction, there for African energy is such that 60% of the oil are still 600 million Africans who lack access to and gas production on the continent is run electricity today. In fact, sub-Saharan Africa is by companies that are not headquartered in home to 75% of the world’s population that is Africa. living without electricity, exemplifying the failure We've seen this intensify with Russia's war on of the fossil fuel industry to power the continent Ukraine. Europe scrambled to diversify its energy and bridge this massive energy access gap. supply away from Russia, which meant that If we look at a country like Nigeria, which Europe was eyeing the African continent as its is a major fossil fuel producer, it is home to 85 gas station to fulfil its short term energy supply million people that are living without access – even as the world is meant to be transitioning to electricity. It is now the away from fossil fuels. Instead, country with the largest these companies are locking Since Ukraine, energy access deficit in the and entrenching the African world, despite being the Europe has been continent into decades of continent’s major oil and gas fossil fuel infrastructure to fulfil eyeing the African Europe’s short-term energy producer. Nigeria’s fossil fuel industry is failing to meet the needs. continent as a fundamental needs of energy We know that fossil fuels gas station for its access and energy security. are driving climate collapse, In addition, Africa’s fossil fuel short-term energy which in turn is fuelling production is largely destined economic losses for the needs. for export to foreign markets. continent. Some 5% to 15% So even local production is of Africa’s GDP is being not being used to fuel the continent’s energy lost every year, in terms of per capita growth, needs. For example, more than 90% of the because of the climate crisis. This is leading current liquid natural gas (LNG) production on to increased government spending, reduced the continent is being shipped for export. In tax revenue and increased debt burdens for Mozambique, which is expanding its gas industry, many countries, on the continent that is least 70% of the population is without electricity, while responsible for the climate crisis.

80% of the gas blocks and production in the External financing, meanwhile, continues south of the country are destined for export. to entrench the continent in the fossil fuel It is complete hypocrisy that even in countries economy. The G20 has put four times more that massively lack energy access, fossil fuel public spending and finance into fossil fuels production is being exported abroad. than into renewable energy for Africa. Despite The sector is also dominated by foreign the continent’s enormous renewable energy ownership – companies like Shell, BP, Eni, Total. potential, only 2% of global renewable energy

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CLIMATE JUSTICE investments have been destined for Africa.

Continuing this perilous economic situation, over 70% of Africa’s oil and gas production is at risk of becoming stranded assets.

A MASSIVE SHIFT

Below: Climate justice movements from across Africa came together in protest at the first Africa Climate Summit, held in Nairobi, Kenya in September. © Brian Inganga/ Associated Press/ Alamy Stock Photo Right: Burning off gas from oil production in the Niger Delta, southern Nigeria. © Friedrich Stark/ Alamy Stock Photo

Nevertheless, we know that the kind of doomsday fossil fuel scenario that we currently see on the African continent is not inevitable. We can actually create a massive shift and work towards distributed renewable energy for all.

But to get there, we need international cooperation and that's why a proposal like the Fossil Fuel Treaty is really essential.

What we're pushing for is a shift that is already happening in some parts of the world – the end of the era of fossil fuels is coming. We saw in 2022 that it was the first year where growth in global electricity demand was met entirely by renewable energy. Alongside this we’re seeing a global decline in fossil fuel demand. Renewable

energy prices have been continuously falling, and the sector has been creating far more jobs than fossil fuels, helping to boost economies and increase energy access that can drive healthcare and education, and positive development outcomes.

But this shift will not happen fully, or rapidly enough, on its own. Africa is in fact home to the highest renewable energy potential on Earth – it has an almost 40% share of global renewables potential, including around 60% of solar. Yet despite this, most of Africa’s renewable energy potential is untapped. International cooperation is needed to change this and to ensure that the transition is grounded in equity and justice.

That’s where the Fossil Fuel Treaty comes in.

The Paris Agreement which now drives the UN climate talks makes no mention of coal, oil and gas. We need a Fossil Fuel Treaty to provide a complementary mechanism that addresses

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CLIMATE JUSTICE

the root cause of the climate crisis, the main driver of almost 90% of carbon emissions in the past decade: fossil fuels.

Importantly, the treaty also aims to ensure that the transition away from fossil fuels is fair and just. There needs to be finance and technology transfer from the global north to the global south. Debt cancellation, economic diversification and alternative development pathways must be embedded into the transition.

What’s more, there must be an equitable governance framework to ensure that the richest fossil fuel producers – like the UK, Norway, Canada, the US and Australia – phase out their production first and fastest. They must give technical and financial support to countries that are currently quite dependent on fossil fuels for their economies – countries

Konrad Skotnic ki/wschod/Míd ia NINJA

(CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED)

An End Fossil Fuels protes t at COP28 in

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like Angola, Iraq and Ecuador, whose A GROWING BLOCK OF SUPPORT economies are enmeshed with oil or We are building our campaign for a gas or coal today.

Fossil Fuel Treaty by targeting cities and The Fossil Fuel Treaty can really help sub-national governments. Cities are expedite this transition in a way that’s the home of the majority of humanity, putting global justice and equity and they're also the largest energy at the centre, consumers and the by grounding its biggest carbon reason for being Africa is home emitters on Earth. in international Cities are on the to the highest cooperation, frontline of the ensuring that renewable energy climate crisis, they’re there is equity in heatwaves potential on Earth. facing who phases out and flooding first, and giving and wildfires and financial support to those who are disruptions to their everyday life. most dependent and have not driven Mayors and councillors are adapting this crisis. We can see the benefits of and taking bold moves to protect boosting economies and alternative their communities – to end fossil fuel pathways that are not economic financing, to end fossil fuel extraction monopolies on fossil fuels, but instead if that happens in their jurisdictions, to diversified economies that look to a remove the social licence of the coal, distributed renewable energy model. oil and gas industry, to retrofit buildings,

Duba i.

and electrify their transportation.

Supporting a Fossil Fuel Treaty is part of that effort.

We’ve now reached an amazing landmark, which we celebrated at COP28, of 100 cities and sub-national governments calling for a Fossil Fuel Treaty, which was a really exciting milestone. We have cities from London to Kolkata, from Vancouver to Belém, from Lima to Paris, and from Sydney to the state of California, that are backing the call and putting pressure on their national governments to do the same, to build momentum for the public campaign and also to phase out fossil fuels from their cities.

This groundswell of support will ultimately put pressure on governments to form a growing bloc of countries that can make the Fossil Fuel Treaty a reality, and bring the just transition to a renewable-powered future that our continent and the world urgently need.

Seble Samuel is head of Africa campaigns and advocacy at the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. This is an edited version of her talk to our webinar in January: globaljustice.org.uk/fft-webinar.

Our activist network in 2023 Last year saw Global Justice Now local groups and supporters as active as ever campaigning around the country for a better world. Why not get active in your local area in 2024?

Find your local group via globaljustice.org.uk/groups or email activism@globaljustice.org.uk for ideas and support.

Cambridge

Edinburgh Glossop

Stirling

Reading

Nottingham

Could you be on our members council?

Every three years, Global Justice Now members elect 12 people to serve as our council. While staff run the organisation day-to-day and our Annual General Meeting is the ultimate decision-making body, our council is responsible for governing the organisation on behalf of members. That means overseeing our strategy, finances and general organisational priorities.

Nominations are now open for this year’s election, and close on 2 April. If you’re a member, full info is included with Ninety-Nine. and is also at globaljustice.org.uk/elections-2024.

Global Justice Now depends on ordinary members with different backgrounds and experience taking on this role, so if you’re interested, feel free to get in touch with steven.thomson@globaljustice.org.uk

ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Building the future in the present As the US faces up to a possible new Trump presidency, DOROTHY GUERRERO considers a project of solidarity economics and Black liberation in Jackson, Mississippi It is rare and very inspiring to see a movement that is practicing radical politics and undertaking a thriving alternative solidarity economics on a city-level scale, which is challenging the current economic system. More so when it is in a country at the very heart of capitalism itself, the United States of America. That is why it was a privilege to visit Cooperation Jackson when it hosted an international meeting of activists and academics in September.

Cooperation Jackson is probably the most radical political cooperative project in the world today. It is setting up a Blackled, solidarity-based new municipalism in Jackson, Mississippi, one of the poorest metropolitan cities in the poorest state in the US. Its roots, values and vision are deeply connected with the struggle for democratic rights and dignity, economic justice and self-determination, particularly for Black communities in the Deep South, and racialised workers in the US. At the same time, it has a very internationalist perspective of solidarity and unity with all struggles for self-determination, workers rights, climate justice and just transition.

Jackson is the capital of Mississippi, with a population that is 82% Black or African American, while 15% are white. The BlackWhite homeownership gap is wider today (30%) than in 1968 when the Fair Housing Act – which prohibited discrimination when selling, renting, or financing a home – was initially passed. The city is suffering from impoverishment and struggling to overcome decades of economic divestment, deindustrialisation, and suburban flight fostered by

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structural racism and major shifts in the US and global economy.

These economic and demographic shifts have left chronic unemployment and underemployment, poorly performing schools, and an antiquated and decaying infrastructure. In 2022, Jackson hit the headlines when more than 180,000 people, along with hospitals, fire stations and schools, were left without safe drinking water when the largest water treatment plant in the city failed. At the time of writing, Jackson’s water is still unsafe to drink, something hard to believe in the richest country in the world.

A RADICAL HISTORY Generations of social movements in the US have seen the eastern Black Belt portions of Mississippi as vehicles of Black selfdetermination, empowerment and emancipatory politics for oppressed peoples and exploited classes.

Below: Kali Akuno, co-founder and executive director of Cooperation Jackson.

Right (top): Visiting the Center for Community Production; (bottom) the education and training centre. © Dorothy Guerrero/Global Justice Now.

ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Historically, enslaved Black people in plantations organised rebellions in Mississippi and Louisiana. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Jackson was at the centre of the US civil rights movement. It was the home of activists like Medgar Evers, the first field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Fanny Lou Hammer, voting and women’s rights activist, community organiser, and a leader in the civil rights movement.

Jackson was also the site of some of the most nationally significant protests of the period, and where the politics of leading figures like Ella Baker, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were crystallised during the fight for equality in the United States.

BUILDING A SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

Trust, which owns over 30 properties on 20 acres of land in Jackson, and allows Cooperation Jackson was founded a network of worker cooperatives to by activists from various states in the operate free from the rental demands US who consciously chose to move of external landlords. This emerging to Jackson to live and organise there. network currently includes a Freedom For more than a decade it has been Farms coop, a organising with Green Team the goal of Cooperation Jackson Landscaping attaining selfcoop, a Waste determination is an experiment in Management for people of participatory and coop, a African descent and the radical, horizontal democracy. Construction Worker/Skilled democratic Labor coop, transformation and several more.

The Center for of the state of Mississippi. It is an Community Production has a 3D experiment in participatory and printing shop that produced masks horizontal democracy. which were distributed for free to At the heart of the project is the the communities at the height of Fannie Lou Hamer Community Land the Covid pandemic. They recently acquired a former grocery that they are now fundraising for to develop as Ida Wells Plaza.

The cooperatives are connected to a wider process of social and political transformation through people’s assemblies, which guide Cooperation Jackson’s work – for example, setting the objective to make Jackson as © Xavier Leoty/AFP autonomous and sovereign in food production as possible. The Kuwasi Balagoon Center for Economic Democracy and Development is the cooperative education and training centre which spreads the political understanding of their work. “It is these three components – the land trust, the co-ops, and the solidarity support institutions – that make up the core practice of what we do,” says cofounder Kali Akuno.

Ultimately, the aim is for Cooperation Jackson to be a catalyst for the democratisation of the economy and society overall. And with the US facing such an uncertain future, it is inspiring to see such an alternative in action.

Dorothy Guerrero is head of policy and advocacy at Global Justice Now.

2022 2024 Ninety-Nine 15

IN PICTURES

Women in Revolt!

An exhibition at Tate Britain explores the relationships between art and the women's movement in the UK. Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990 presents two decades of art as provocation, protest and progress. Taking the 1970 National Women's Liberation Conference as its starting point, it brings together women who made art about their lives and the inequalities that informed them, acknowledging that the personal is political.

Arranged chronologically, the exhibition addresses the social and political contexts that influenced the art women were making in the 1970s and 1980s. It focuses on artists who were organisers, agitators and community leaders. It includes women who worked independently and those who practised in collaboration. Together, they formed a movement defined only by its range of perspectives, many of which undermined and challenged each other. As a result, the artworks on display are as diverse as those who made them. They remind us there is no single experience of being a woman, an artist or an activist.

1

The exhibition showcases more than 100 artists, introducing a constellation of voices rather than a few individual stars. It recognises and celebrates a wide-ranging network of women who challenged the art world and society. By acknowledging the action these artists took and the relevance their art still holds, the exhibition hopes to give them the attention and credit they deserve.

Women in Revolt! Is at Tate Britain, London, until 7 April. It will then transfer to National Galleries Scotland: Modern, Edinburgh, 25 May 2024 to 26 January 2025 and then Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, from 7 March-1 June 2025.

2

1. No to Torture (After Delacroix 'Women of Algiers') 1982-83 Houria Niati © Houria Niati. All rights reserved. Courtesy of the artist.

2. The Carrot Piece, 1985 Lubaina Himid © Lubaina Himid, courtesy the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London

3. The Marxist Wife Still Does The Housework, 1978/2005 Alexis Hunter © The Estate of Alexis Hunter Courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery, London and Rome. All rights reserved, DACS 2023

16 Ninety-Nine 2021 2024

IN PICTURES

3

4. Untitled, 1976 Linder Purchased by Tate in 2007. © Linder

4 5

5. Solidarity With Sisters, 1981 Chila Kumari Singh Burman

6. Protest, 1974 See Red Women’s Workshop, 1974-1990

© Chila Kumari Burman. Photography

See Red Women’s Workshop

Varda Agarwal

6

2024 Ninety-Nine 17

CLIMATE JUSTICE

We are in a struggle between fossil capital and human life At a side event at COP28 in December, Colombian president GUSTAVO PETRO announced his country’s support for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

COP28/Ma hmoud Khaled (CC

Today, it is increasingly evident that countries heavily dependent on fossil fuel production must embark on a challenging yet intelligent and rational transition towards a way of life without oil and coal.

In my country, the simple fact that I am sitting at this table, requesting to sign a new global Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty that implies zero new exploitation, is paradoxical. There, in my own society, they would say, “How could the president of our country contemplate such economic suicide, given our dependence on oil and coal?”

BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED)

It is paradoxical that here at this table, alongside individuals on the frontlines whose populations may vanish due to the climate crisis, there is a country like the one I represent.

Because we also depend on oil and coal for our livelihood.

The Colombia n pres ident anno

unced his support in Dubai

coal, and gas. The most significant economic interests within capitalism that currently exist and actively resist change. They persist in a selfdestructive manner, prioritising the accumulation of further profits.

But this is not economic suicide. Being here means attempting to prevent a suicide. The precise term is 'omnicide' in Spanish. It means The owners of this capital are acting in a way the death of all living things, the interconnected that endangers life, driven by profit motives. extinction of everything that exists – an omnicide.

Today, we are not simply facing the immense It's a homicide of the life force of the planet. antagonistic class struggle that 19th-century So, this is not economic suicide. What we are socialists envisioned, but something more dire. advocating for here is to prevent the homicide of We are confronted with a struggle between fossil Planet Earth. And for that, undoubtedly, there is capital and human life, including the life of our no other way, no other path. The alternatives are planet. And we must choose a side. mere illusions.

And any person, anywhere in the world, would understand that the only stance to take is in WE MUST CHOOSE A SIDE favour of life. Therefore, as the President of the This is the sole means to safeguard something Republic of Colombia, even though our nation as exquisite as life and as profound as the still relies on oil and coal and we are striving intelligent embodiment of life within our species. to transition away from them, I have no doubt It entails discontinuing the consumption of oil, about the stance we must adopt. coal, and gas.

It may seem easy, but it highlights the formidable economic interests surrounding oil,

18 Ninety-Nine 2024

Gustavo Petro is the president of Colombia. This extract from his speech at COP28 was translated for the Fossil Fuel NonProliferation Initiative, fossilfueltreaty.org

REVIEWS

Reviews THE PALESTINE LABORATORY Antony Loewenstein Verso, 2023

THE WORLD FOR SALE Javier Blas & Jack Farchy Penguin, 2022

Anthony Loewenstein’s The Palestine Laboratory is a powerful exposé of the centrality of the arms industry in maintaining Israel’s economy.

Examining Israel’s defence policy over the last 75 years, Loewenstein argues that lack of accountability for Israel’s actions in 1948, which saw the forced expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland, emboldened successive Israeli governments to use Palestinians as test-subjects to sell their military technology globally.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in learning about Israel’s historic role in arming repressive regimes

Commodity traders, the giant corporations whose business it is to buy and sell huge quantities of natural ARGENTINA 1985 resources, like to think of themselves as Santiago Mitre, 2022 ‘non-political’. They go wherever there is profit to be made, seeking out grain, 2h 20m minerals, and oil with no care about This gripping courtroom drama follows the story behind each commodity. the true story of the prosecutors who Through their openness to dealing sought to bring the leaders of Argentiwith anyone, commodity traders na’s 1976-83 military dictatorship to jushave helped Cuba’s government tice. The ‘Trial of the Juntas’ is the only work around trade sanctions and time in history that a civilian court has bought oil from Kurdish separatists in brought large scale legal proceedings Iraq when no one else would. They’ve against former dictatorial rulers. also helped prop up apartheid South Moving, often humorous and Africa and been held liable for child superbly acted, this is an informative and forced labour. and entertaining depiction of one Is this apolitical? The World for Sale of the most significant trials in the tells the story of corporations using history of democracy and justice. their immense size and power to Over 800 witnesses were heard, and extract wealth from every corner of the film features some of the original, the world. It’s a story where small or heart-breaking testimony from the indebted countries are beholden trial, giving an insight into the scale to corporate power and fortunes and horror of the atrocities committed accumulate in the hands of a few. An essential and eye-opening read.

Tim Bierley

abroad, including apartheid South Africa, Pinochet’s Chile, and Rwanda. Ultimately, The Palestine Laboratory forces readers to interrogate how the global security market relies on the dehumanisation of people of colour – most notably Muslims and/or Arabs.

Meena Ghani

under the dictatorship.

The filmmakers have opted for a fairly uncomplicated portrayal of moral good triumphing over evil, which makes for an easy and inspiring watch. But the film could have done more to cover the complexities of Argentina’s political history, which would go some way to explaining the resurgence of far-right forces in Argentina today.

Daisy Pearson

All books reviewed in Ninety-Nine can be ordered at globaljustice.org.uk/books

© David Mirzoeff

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Fighting for climate justice Global Justice Now activist, Daisy, demanding big oil and gas companies pay up for their climate damages.

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