Think Global, June 2023

THINK GLOBAL

Act locally with Global Justice Now

Jean Blaylock

Inserts Trade

Time to stop living at the expense of others

James O’Nions Activism team

“Go to hell, Shell, and don’t you come back no more, no more, no more, no more” sang protesters as executives tried to start Shell’s AGM in May. It took some time for security to remove them, which involved physically carrying them out of the hall. Then more piped up, then more.

By the time the meeting had been going on an hour, the chair still hadn’t managed to finish his opening remarks. In all, Fossil Free London had managed to get around 80 people into the AGM. Outside, people gave powerful testimony to the human cost of Shell’s operations in a protest organised by Global Justice Now, Greenpeace, Tipping Point and others.

Days later in France, our sister organisation ATTAC France was part of the disruption of Total’s AGM which was tear gassed by French police who seem to have been given carte blanche to attack protesters by the Macron government of late. But it is important that these companies not be allowed to meet in peace. Despite their greenwash, they are pouring money into opening new oil and gas extraction around the world, in full knowledge of the death and destruction climate change is already wreaking.

Climate breakdown is affecting the whole planet and everything on it in tragic ways. But it is also fundamentally part of a global economy which extracts value and resources from the global south and leaves dire environmental, social and human rights consequences in its wake. The main beneficiaries of this exploitative structure are big corporations of course, but almost all of us in the global north live at the expense of others, simply because it is built into our economic system.

Think Global is Global Justice

Now’s activist newsletter, published three times a year, with monthly email supplements (Think Global Extra)

Edited by James O’Nions

Cover photo: Comedian Mark

The fossil fuel sector stands at the centre of this nexus of inequality and injustice, which is why we’ve been focusing on it recently, from demanding climate reparations to campaigning to end the sector’s new favourite tool, corporate courts. We’re also backing the call for the Scottish government to be an early supporter of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (page 8).

Thomas

performs at

Global

Justice Now’s tent at The Big One in April.

But as part of a global movement, particularly including allies in the global south, we’re campaigning on issues that are important in bringing about a wider shift, away from that extractive global economy, and living at the expense of others. In the face of climate breakdown, the need for this eco-social transformation is becoming more and more obvious.

News from Global Justice Now

In the media

It’s been a busy period for media. Nick Dearden wrote two op-eds for the Guardian, on the Pacific trade deal in April and Labour’s approach to international trade in February, and was featured in a New Humanitarian podcast. For the Energy Charter Treaty, we worked with Conservative MP Chris Skidmore on an op-ed for the Financial Times and with Caroline Lucas MP on one for Times Red Box. The ISDS walking tour of Leeds organised by Global Justice York led to a great article in Yorkshire Bylines.

Our campaign on the Finance Bill has been referenced in the New Internationalist and Byline Times. Nick also had an op-ed in CityAM on UK food shortages, and a number of articles published in the run-up to the Monopoly Capitalism conference. On pharma, we worked with Labour MP Virendra Sharma on a Times Red Box op-ed opposing stricter IP rules in the India trade deal, which would restrict the availability of TB drugs. Tim Bierley had a letter in the Financial Times criticising big pharma’s demands to increase NHS medicine prices.

On climate, our reactions to Shell and BP’s escalating profits were in the Independent, iNews and the Sun in February, and in the Telegraph, Evening Standard, Daily Express and the Guardian in May, and Dorothy Guerrero was interviewed by LBC. Our reasons for taking part in XR’s The Big One were quoted by EuroNews in March, and Dottie was interviewed on Al Jazeera. In reactive media, we were quoted by iNews on deportation flights, and in the Guardian on corruption at the World Bank.

Action checklist

Trade and climate

Council reportback

Our most recent council meeting took place at the end of April. At most council meetings we have an update from one of the management team, and this time James O’Nions reported on the work of the activism team. We heard about the well-attended conference in March and successful participation in ‘The Big One’ with XR. We also discussed the growing youth network and how this can best be supported within the structure of Global Justice Now. Beyond this, we discussed issues including fundraising and risks to the organisation, and planned the AGM. Next year we will be electing a new council – please do get in touch if you’re interested in standing. Nicola Ansell, chair.

Write to your MP about the Energy Charter Treaty, and try to arrange a meeting to explain the issue further.

Reach out to other local groups interested in climate change for possible joint activities.

Write to (or for) a local paper about the ECT.

Climate justice

Start thinking about how your group could be involved in the Make Polluters Pay day of action on 23 September.

Pharma

Decide whether you want to host a Pharmanomics book launch locally, or a film screening.

Our Saturday programme at The Big One in April.

Trade and climate

Energy Charter Treaty

Approaching the midpoint of the year, the Energy Charter Treaty campaign has all the pieces in place, but so far the goal is hovering just out of reach. At the start of the years things were moving so fast we thought quite possibly we would have won or lost by now. As it turns out, though, we have more time to shore up public awareness and parliamentary support.

The pace has slowed because the EU Council has not been able to reach a decision on the recommendation for a coordinated withdrawal. There is a pushback, led by Cyprus. Cyprus has what is basically an offshore economy, like Jersey, with many ‘letterbox’ company registrations. It is very invested in the ISDS system, including the ECT, because many companies have found it convenient to register in Cyprus and sue from there, so it wants to stay in the ECT.

We have heard some potentially hopeful signs from within the UK government, but they seem

to be waiting to see what happens with the EU decision, rather than making the constructive decision to leave on their own accord.

We need to keep up the pressure and not let the UK off the hook. More people are beginning to have heard of the ECT – it was really encouraging at The Big One climate mobilisation last month that increasing numbers of people knew at least something about it. But so many people still don’t, especially among the general public, and this is a system that thrives on secrecy. The more people who have heard of it, the harder it is for the government to defend it.

We also need to continue raising it with parliamentarians of all parties, so that the government continues to be asked about it at all opportunities and from all directions. We’re pushing for opposition parties and devolved governments to be more vocal about it. Meanwhile, we are also continuing to work with our allies in Europe to try and break the stalemate there.

Energy Charter Treaty dodgeball, as part of the People’s Picket of the trade department during The Big One.

Jonathan Salariya / Friends of the Earth

Updated materials

To help with continued campaigning, we’ve updated two existing materials. Our Five Fossil Fuel Firms leaflet has been tweaked to focus a bit more on the Energy Charter Treaty, and reflect our demand around the Pacific trade deal now that the UK has actually joined – that it formally agrees with other countries not to implement ISDS. The five firms have also now become four, since Uniper was forced to drop its case against the Netherlands as part of a financial bailout from the German government.

We have also turned the parliamentary briefing on the ECT, produced jointly with allies, into more of a general campaign briefing which can be used on stalls for people who want more information. Printed copies of both of these are included with this issue of Think Global. Contact activism@globaljustice.org.uk to order extra copies.

Summer activities

Hopefully these updated materials will be useful on stalls over the summer. Although the leaflet has a QR code on it for people to sign the petition, it is important to try and get people to do it ‘in the moment’, as they’re quite likely not to get around to it if they take the leaflet away. We have petition sheets to allow you to do this, as well as a large QR code on an A4 sheet to encourage people to do it on their phones there and then.

If you have any opportunity for a visual stunt, consider playing ‘ECT dodgeball’. We did this at ‘The Big One’ climate mobilisation and it worked well – it was fun and not too complicated. The main thing needed is some beachballs. Contact jean.blaylock@globaljustice.org.uk for more explanation. Photos could then help get coverage of your campaigning in a local paper.

Contacting and meeting your MP over this issue remains important, asking them to raise the issue with the energy minister. Another way to raise awareness locally, which can also help influence your MP, is to write a letter to your local paper or online media. Resources to help with both of these things can be found at globaljustice.org.uk/ECT-pack

Colombia solidarity

Over the last few years, Colombia has faced an onslaught of ISDS cases – it has twelve cases against it at present. Last year a new progressive government was elected, and civil society groups in Colombia are coming together to call on them to get rid of the country’s ISDS treaties. This was something that happened in a couple of Latin American countries a decade ago in the previous ‘pink tide’ of left-wing governments, and the groups hope to revive the idea.

At the start of the year we supported the Colombian groups in launching an international statement calling for this. This month, we are joining an international delegation that is visiting Colombia to help raise the profile of corporate courts.

Cleodie from the trade team is part of the delegation, which was due to meet with allies fighting the ISDS system and with communities engaged in the struggle against extractive projects like the Cerrejón coal mine. Encouragingly, as we went to press, the Colombian government had just responded to the delegation by announcing a review of all agreements containing ISDS. If you would be interested for Cleodie to speak to your group about this experience when she gets back, please email activism@ globaljustice.org.uk

Key resources

Four fossil fuel firms... Petition leaflet (NEW June 2023).

The Energy Charter Treaty Two-page briefing (NEW June 2023).

What’s wrong with the Pacific trade deal? Four-page briefing (NEW March 2023).

Corporate courts versus the climate Photo booklet (February 2022).

Climate injustice How corporate courts block climate action. Four-page briefing (March 2021).

Contact us to order these or view them at globaljustice.org.uk/resources

Pharmaceuticals

New campaign materials

After big pharma’s pandemic profiteering, a battle over the future of our medical system is now brewing. Big Pharma monopolies are demanding ever greater power, both to profiteer from future pandemics and to charge the NHS even more eye-watering sums of money for vital medicines.

Meanwhile, the industry continues to underinvest in the most dangerous pathogens, ignoring needs in the global south, and big pharma companies charge sky-high prices for drugs they very rarely invent.

But a new consensus is emerging that such levels of corporate power aren’t working. With a pandemic treaty under negotiation and an election set to take place next year, we are pushing the UK’s main parties to back a new system that would place more public control over medicines production, invest in health priorities and collaborate with countries in the global south to break global north pharma monopolies.

We are joining health workers, patients and international allies to demand this change, and we need you to help us expand this coalition and build a movement for change. This month, we’re sending you some new materials which we hope will be useful for explaining why systemic change is necessary – and signing up supporters to the campaign.

The brightly-coloured leaflet explains in short why we need a new way of making our medicines and what we need to do to build a better, more democratic system. Inside the leaflet, a map provides some clear examples of where big pharma is failing – and where countries in the global south are showing that another system is possible.

We’re also sending a four-page briefing, which goes into a bit more detail, explaining how big pharma profiteered from the pandemic, how it has failed the global south for decades, and how the UK can do more to build a new system.

Protesting the UK pharma lobby (ABPI) in April over attempts to hike the NHS drugs bill.

Pharmanomics

Nick Dearden • Verso, 3 October, £16.99

In Pharmanomics, Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden digs down into the way we produce our medicines and finds that Big Pharma is failing us, with catastrophic consequences. As the Covid pandemic made clear, Big Pharma is more interested in profit than health. But this was only the latest episode in a long history of financialising medicine. Since the 1990s, Big Pharma has gone out of its way to protect its property through the patent system. As a result, the business has focused not on researching new medicines but on building monopolies. In response, Dearden offers a pathway to a fairer, safer system for all.

Pre-order with 30% off for Global Justice Now members globaljustice.org.uk/pharma-book

Pharmanomics launches

We’re excited to announce that our director Nick Dearden will have a book on the pharma industry published by Verso on 3 October. Pharmanomics: How Big Pharma Destroys Global Health explores how the industry’s drive for profit created companies that are very bad at producing the effective new medicines we need.

We’d like to use the opportunity of the book’s publication to reach new people with our campaign messages. One way you can do this is to work with a local bookshop to put on an author event with Nick. The advantage of doing this for us is that the bookshop will also promote the event, and can handle sales of the book. If you’re interested, please email Guy on guy.taylor@globaljustice.org.uk. We’ll provide some template promotional materials as well as booking Nick, who will be available throughout October and part of November.

Short film screenings

Also in the autumn we’ll be releasing a series of short films about the pharma industry we have been working on. The films will feature people from around the world who have been affected by pharma greed, from a Liberian nurse who had no formal medication to treat people with Ebola, to a South African campaigner who

couldn’t afford HIV medication until people took to the streets to demand it. We also interviewed scientists in Brazil and South Africa who are working to build a new way of making medicines, based on sharing science.

As with the book, if you’re interested in hosting a film screening, please get in touch with Guy at guy.taylor@globaljustice.org.uk. The finished set of films will run for between 20 and 30 minutes. If you’d like to combine the film screening with a book launch, Nick can also come to speak, and again, we can help with promotional materials, and emails to local supporters.

Key resources

Lives not profits Fold-out leaflet (NEW June 2023).

Big pharma isn’t working Four-page briefing (NEW June 2023).

Ten reasons why we need a new pharma system Two-page A4 factsheet (2022).

Who wants to be a pharma billionaire? Game for use on stalls (2022).

Lives before profits Petition sheet (2023).

Order via activism@globaljustice.org.uk

Climate justice

Make Polluters Pay

In May the open-access academic journal One Earth published a paper making the case that the world’s biggest fossil fuel firms owe $209bn (£169bn) a year in climate reparations. The paper covers a wider group of corporations than our report on reparations owed by the ‘big five’ global north firms, and is a useful contribution to what is becoming a wider debate about making polluters pay for climate damage.

The Loss and Damage Fund, agreed at last year’s UN climate talks in Egypt, is important for being able to deliver the financial element of any climate reparations. There is a transitional committee which is mandated to make proposals on how the fund will be delivered to COP28 in December. In order to help influence this process, the Make Polluters Pay coalition, which we’re part of, will be running a day of action again in September, although this year with more emphasis on who should pay, now that the principle of ‘loss and damage’ has been won at the UNFCCC.

Make Polluters Pay action day

On Saturday 23 September, and in the week running up to it, the coalition is calling for decentralised actions and activities around the country, although the national organisations involved will also organise something centrally in London and Scotland (location tbc). These will also coincide with international actions.

We’re in the process of producing support materials, but local group activities for the day, which could include:

• A protest at an appropriate target.

• Public outreach with petitioning, maybe with a creative aspect.

• A public meeting or event.

You might want to think creatively and visually about how to communicate the central message that polluting corporations, who are most responsible for the climate crisis, should be made to pay reparations for the damage they have caused in global south countries.

If it’s useful for groups we can run a creative brainstorming Zoom call, like the one we ran before the Energy Charter Treaty day of action last year. This would give you an opportunity to share ideas and ask questions too. If you’re interested in this or for advice and support, email daisy.pearson@globaljustice.org.uk.

A treaty to end fossil fuels

In addition to making polluters pay, we also need to end the fossil fuel era completely. That’s why we’re adding our voice to the call for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.

This is a proposal by a network of campaign groups around the world for a new international agreement that would commit countries to end the extraction of oil, gas and coal in line with international commitments to keep global warming below the 1.5°C threshold. Already endorsed by Pacific island nations, Colombia and the European parliament, the treaty

In May we were part of a protest outside and inside the AGM of Shell, highlighting the billions they owe in climate reparations.

Daisy Pearson

attempts to fill a gap in the way that the climate emergency is being tackled internationally.

Current UN climate negotiations focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by each member state – but without specific reference to phasing out fossil fuels. Meanwhile the fossil fuel industry continues to extract oil, gas and coal. What is really needed is an international plan to end new fossil fuel exploration and phase out existing fossil fuels as quickly as possible as part of a global just transition. That’s what the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty would do.

In Scotland, we think there’s an opportunity for the Scottish government to be one of the early endorsers of the proposal and are launching a campaign for it to do so. We are also keen that activists and local groups lobby local councils to officially endorse the treaty as a means of raising awareness and putting additional pressure on the Scottish government. We’ve included a background briefing with this edition of Think Global. It’s can also be found at globaljustice.org.uk/resources

Find out more

On Thursday 6 July, 7.30-9pm, we’ll be holding an online webinar where you can hear more about the global campaign for a Fossil Fuel Treaty and what we can do in Scotland. And we’ll also be producing a pack of campaign resources and ideas for local activities. Look out for an email on both these things soon, or contact Jane on jane.herbstritt@globaljustice.org.uk for more details.

Key resources

Making polluters pay climate reparations

Two-page briefing (February 2023)

Make polluters pay A5 petition leaflet (updated January 2023).

Reparations and climate justice Eight-page briefing (September 2022).

See globaljustice.org.uk/resources and order from activism@globaljustice.org.uk

Debt justice

Stop Cowboy Lenders

Since the pandemic, increasing numbers of countries such as Zambia and Ghana are once again facing impossible choices between addressing poverty and environmental needs or paying off debts to foreign banks and governments. As interest rates rise around the world, the debt burden is only deepening. More than 50 countries are now in a debt crisis, with debt levels the worst they’ve been in decades.

In the face of the new debt crisis, banks and hedge funds are acting like cowboys – making millions in interest payments while lower income countries are left without enough money to pay for health and education, or deal with the climate crisis. Instead of cancelling some of the debt, they’re demanding it all –plus interest. A new campaign we’re running with Debt Justice, Cafod and others aims to tackle this

The UK is in a powerful position in this crisis. 90% of the loans given to the poorest countries are governed by UK law, meaning this country could force these banks to face reality and join in debt restructuring for countries in crisis. We’ve done something similar beforethe UK’s Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act in 2010 cracked down on vulture funds profiteering from global south debts.

We need people to write to and/or visit their MP asking them to back this new law. With an election coming up, the aim is to secure manifesto commitments. Labour MPs representing East Ham, Birmingham Hodge Hill, Leeds Central and Hampstead and Kilburn may be influential in the party’s manifesto process, so please contact Skye at Debt Justice, if you live in one of those constituencies: skye.golding@debtjustice.org.uk

Online resources

Email your MP action on our website: globaljustice.org.uk/debt-cowboys

Debt Justice activist briefing on the campaign: gju.st/cowboys

Local groups news

Global Justice Dundee, our newest group, have been getting stuck into the campaign against the Energy Charter Treaty. They’ve had a letter in the local paper, lobbied Chris Law MP (SNP, Dundee) and Wendy Chamberlain MP (Lib Dem, NE Fife) and are now turning their attentions to other MPs and MSPs in their area.

Global Justice South East London held their annual stall at the Nunhead Cemetery Open Day, petitioning on the big pharma raid on NHS funding, even meeting one of the NHS negotiators who is trying to fend off the grasping hands of Pfizer et al. They held a fascinating meeting with Julie Kosgei when she was in London for the Resisting Monopoly Capitalism conference in March.

Global Justice Bradford’s relentless picketing of the West Yorkshire Pensions Fund’s office is making advances. We know the pension fund investment panel held an online meeting with a new York public sector pension fund on divestment. There seems to be an increase in the number of picketers of late as well!

Global Justice York organised a very successful walking tour of the financial sector of Leeds targeting the legal firms embroiled in corporate courts. They attracted people from all over Yorkshire and had more than 30 people on the walk despite the rain.

Global Justice Sheffield took part in the Chesterfield May Day Gala on 1 May, carrying their banner in the march through Chesterfield town centre, and later holding a stall. They also had a public meeting in the annual Sheffield Festival of Debate, entitled Global Debt and Climate Justice: Growing the Movement, with a panel of three black women speakers, who all made valuable contributions, particularly regarding working in a coalition with others.

Global Justice Nottingham are focussed on a joint campaign with Nottingham Friends of the Earth on Corporate Justice Law and the Energy Charter Treaty.

Global Justice Macclesfield joined the local May Day march, were part of the Macclesfield mobilisation to The Big One in London, are supporting the campaign to Save Danes Moss (local peat bog) and met with David Rutley MP (Conservative, Macclesfield) to discuss the ECT. Next up is Macclesfield Green Fest on 11 June.

Global Justice Richmond and Kingston met with Kingston and Surbiton MP Ed Davey, leader of the Lib Dems, and had a productive conversation about the Energy Charter Treaty. We await the policy announcement!

Global Justice Herts and Beds focussed on the ECT and other trade deals for stalls at Green Party events and spring fairs.

Global Justice Reading screened a video of a recent debate How to Save the Planet: Degrowth vs Green Growth, featuring Jason Hickel and moderated by Kate Raworth, holding their own discussion afterwards. The group also ran a stall at the Beanpole Festival – a gardening event.

Top: Global Justice Sheffield at Chesterfield May Day. Above: Global Justice Dundee with Chris Law MP.

It’s been a busy few months for Global Justice Youth. Following our We Rise event in Manchester in January, Manchester Youth have involved lots of new people and have become more plugged into wider youth climate activism in Manchester. They put on a film screening on the Stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) campaign and organised around 30 youth activists to come to the April XR protests in London (The Big One) running workshops from the Global Justice Now tent space at the protest.

The Big One was also a great opportunity for youth network groups across the country to meet up. We had a social in the Global Justice Now office attended by around 80 people(!), with great music, poetry, arts and food.

Merseyside Youth have started a campaign to demand that the Liverpool LGBTQ pride march drops Barclays as a corporate sponsor, because of their funding of the fossil fuel industry. They have successfully organised a meeting with the board of Pride in Liverpool and look forward to next steps.

The network has also organised workshops on corporate courts and climate justice in various parts of the country, including in Essex, Leeds and Cardiff. Leeds Youth are now working with Student Rebellion, a group of students who are demanding their university cut all ties with the fossil fuel industry – we will support them with trainings and workshops and hopefully build our Global Justice Youth presence in Leeds.

In April we held a Scotland youth gathering (also attended by activists from Newcastle). Edinburgh Youth started work on a book club and a walking tour on the theme of colonialism and capitalism. Global Justice Stirling organised educational sessions on the Kurdish struggle and held a Ceilidh to raise funds for the Kurdish

Red Crescent. They put on a photography exhibition and speaker event about migrant justice and held a Collective Rave to raise funds for Collective Aid Calais. They organised and actively participated in regional Climate Strikes and People’s Assemblies. They’ve been making progress on their university fossil fuel divestment campaign and also supported UCU at the picket line, co-organised panel discussions on decolonising education and campaigned to reduce food prices on campus.

We’ve also led successful media trainings in both Scotland and London, which have already led to some people in the youth network doing great news interviews. Plus we’ve started working on a podcast project about trade and colonialism: we have had lots of interest from all over the country and over the summer youth network members will be starting research.

Andrea Domeniconi

Andrea Domeniconi

Youth network members at The Big One.

RESISTING MONOPOLY CAPITALISM

Our conference on 25 March brought together activists and campaigners around the theme of the growing concentration of corporate power. Covering tech, agriculture, pharma, and monopolies more generally, the conference proved popular with packed sessions on everything from how to take on Amazon, to how authoritarian political systems relate to corporate concentration.

We produced a report on monopoly capitalism for the conference, and have included a copy for groups with this issue of Think Global. You can also find it globaljustice.org.uk/resources or email activism@globaljustice.org.uk to get a copy in the post.

Materials for groups

The activism team is available to help produce group-specific signage and leaflets for any groups who want them. In recent times we’ve produced a large ‘feather’ flag for Global Justice Nottingham, as well as roller banners and replacement group banners. Remember we also have a leaflet (right) about who we are and how local groups work which you can add your own details to. Just email activism@globaljustice.org.uk

We fight for a world where people come before profit.