THINK GLOBALAct locally with Global Justice Now

February 2020

2 February 2020

Turn to hope this year

02 Welcome

03 News from Global Justice Now

04 Trade justice

05 Aid watch

05 Migrant justice

06 Groups and activism news

12 Current materials

Liz Murray Acting Head of Activism

Inserts Trade• Pharma Trade Secrets

briefing • Guide to organising a

local public meeting on US-UK trade deals

General• Leaflets for Together We

Are Powerful event • Envelope for recycling

printer cartridges

Contents

As we leave the previous year and decade behind, and face the new, it seems so hard to see the world we want. The multiple crises of climate and environmental breakdown, austerity and populist right wing politics could make us despair.

But, as I have written before, we shouldn’t despair, because the world we want is there. It’s in our imaginations and in our everyday actions. It’s in our local communities and among the good people we know. It’s in the solidarity of our connections with others around the world, and it’s there in the campaign victories we’ve won together in the past and the campaigns that we’ll fight and win in the coming year and decade.

This coming year it’s clear that the issues that we campaign on are more topical and important than ever. With the threat of a trade deal between the US and the UK looming very near, Boris Johnson’s government continuing the corporate takeover of aid, and the UN climate talks being held in Glasgow in November, we have much to focus on.

We know that change doesn’t always happen overnight because power is rarely relinquished easily by those who possess it. But we do know from past experience that when we campaign and work together we can win - even when the odds are against us.

And what better time than in the year of our 50th anniversary to remind ourselves of that. From the Pergau Dam victory, to beating the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, to kicking the EU-US trade deal TTIP into the long grass – we have had many important wins to celebrate.

Taking action is the antidote to despair. And you – our network of activists and local groups across the UK who take action together in your local communities – are the antidote to despair and the reason for hope.

So, let’s start 2020 as we mean to go on.

Let’s look despair in the eye, then turn to hope, to solidarity and to action.

February 2020 3

Media highlightsOur involvement in the Trump trade leaks led to a lot of media coverage during the election campaign, direct and indirect. Nick Dearden had a comment in the Daily Mirror, Heidi Chow debated big business in City AM, Nick was interviewed by LBC radio and VICE News, and our analysis was quoted in multiple articles. We also featured in a sub-genre of stories about whether the papers were leaked by the Russians (they weren’t), including featuring in a flowchart in the Guardian!

Separately our report into the pharma industry’s demands over a US-UK trade deal made the front page of the Daily Mirror, with Heidi Chow quoted inside.

During Trump’s visit for NATO Nick Dearden was quoted by Associated Press which was

reproduced widely. He was also interviewed twice by Newsweek, and our chlorinated chicken bloc featured on BBC London news.

Daniel Willis wrote for the Independent over Christmas on Boris Johnson’s hijacking of the aid budget, and was on BBC World Service radio about our open letter and protest at the UK-Africa Investment summit. Nick was quoted twice in the Guardian on the summit, among other coverage.

Oriana Lauria carried out a trial run of the Trump in Your Trolley materials in Brixton and it was covered in the Brixton Buzz blog using the template press release. Global Justice Manchester maestro Stephen Pennells wrote a comment article for Big Issue North on corporate courts – bravo!

News from Global Justice Now

Action checklist

Trade Organise a public meeting on the US-UK trade deal (guide enclosed)

Put Trump Selection packaging into your local supermarket, take photos and post to social media

Events Help publicise Together

we are powerful, our 50th anniversary event

4 February 2020

50th Anniversary As you’ll know by now, this year marks fifty years since the World Development Movement was first set up (and five years since we changed our name to Global Justice Now). We have a few special things planned for this year including Together we are powerful, a big celebration event at the end of March. We’ve got some great speakers lined up, including Shalmali Guttal from Focus on the Global South and Daniel Chavez from the Transnational Institute, both from organisations who we’ve worked with

over many years. See the events section for more details, and please do help spread the word.

And as Nick wrote in October’s Think Global, we also want to use our anniversary year as an opportunity to think more about our core values. So thank you to all of you who replied to our request to let us know what Global Justice Now means to you. We asked you to give us just three words that you feel describes us – and here’s a word cloud with the result (the most used words are the biggest)

February 2020 5

Capitalism is in crisis. But in the cracks, alternatives to a system based on corporate greed are growing.

The economic policies of the last decades have led to spiralling inequality, the worsening of climate breakdown and the takeover of more and more of our lives by corporations. In the face of the crisis this is creating, the rich are trying to shore up their system, and hard-right strongmen are seeking to divide us against each other.

But the demand for change is growing. Resistance to the rule of the 1% is making itself heard globally, through elections campaigns, direct action and street protest movements. Join Global Justice Now to hear from inspiring struggles around the world, learn from the alternatives they’re building and discuss how we build a world that works for everyone.

Speakers include:Shalmali Guttal executive director of Focus on the Global South (Thailand)Daniel Chavez public services researcher at the Transnational Institute (Uruguay)Caroline Lucas MP Green PartyAnn Pettifor economist and author of The Case for the Green New DealHsiao-Hung Pai award-winning migration journalist and authorFelicity Lawrence special correspondent at the Guardian and author of books on the food industryChristophe Aguiton ATTAC FranceNick Dearden, Dorothy Guerrero, Heidi Chow and other Global Justice Now speakersPlus many more to be announced.

Together we arePOWERFULReclaiming our world from corporate controlSaturday 28 March 2020, 10 am - 6pmRich Mix, Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA

6 February 2020

Trade justice Fighting back against the US-UK trade dealFormal negotiations for a US-UK trade deal will be starting any day now. We’re going to need a strong grassroots movement to counter the toxic deal and we need to start building it.

We want to encourage all local groups to hold a public meeting on the US-UK trade deal in the coming months. We’ve put together a briefing with everything you need to know to organise a successful local meeting, including ideas for speakers, publicity and follow up activities. We’ve also made a poster/leaflet which you can adapt to use locally which you can download at: gju.st/2t8GFFy If you want to talk more about this, please contact guy.taylor@globaljustice.org.uk

Trump In Your TrolleyHopefully many of you may have already been out to put ‘Trump selection’ chlorine chicken and baby food on supermarket shelves. If not, the Trump in your Trolley action kit lets you do this. It’s a creative way to raise awareness of the risks of a deal with Trump’s America:

• Fold the boxes into the ‘Trump Selection’ range of chlorine chicken and baby food with added pesticides

• Take the boxes to your local supermarket and leave them in a space on the shelves

• Take photos of the boxes and share them on social media using the hashtag #TrumpInYourTrolley and linking to www.trumpinyourtrolley.com

You can find more information at www.trumpinyourtrolley.com and order more action packs. There’s a sample press release that you could use to get local media coverage. You could also combine it with holding a stall – there’s a factsheet to go with it.

Do let us know how you get on – email oriana.lauria@globaljustice.org.uk or jean.blaylock@globaljustice.org.uk

Stopping corporate courtsThe year-long petition to stop corporate courts has come to a close across Europe. If you have any remaining hard copy signatures to the petition, please can you send them to the office by 15 February.

The Trump in your Trolley action pack contains Trump Selection branded chlorinated chicken and pesticide-filled baby food boxes to leave on the shelves of your local supermarket.

February 2020 7

Hostile environmentThe government’s hostile environment for migrants shows no sign of diminishing under new home secretary Priti Patel. More than 30,000 have signed our petition against it, and we are continuing to collect signatures both online and on the postcards.

We are also in the process of updating the list of MPs who have signed the MPs Not Border Guards pledge to reflect the election results – sadly it has gone down from 135 to 103! But there are plenty of new MPs to approach.

Patients Not Passports The introduction of upfront charging for migrants by the NHS in England is a crucial part of the UK government’s hostile environment, and it has already had devastating impacts, leading to people being refused treatment or deterring people from seeking treatment. The Patients Not Passports campaign has been set up by Migrants Organise, Docs Not Cops and Medact to support people around the country fighting these charges and taking action against these immigration checks in the NHS. We are backing the campaign. Check out the Patients Not Passports campaign toolkit at: patientsnotpassports.co.uk

There are a number of areas where groups are running the campaign around their local hospital, and it would be great to make links between these groups and our networks (where they don’t already exist). These include London, Bristol, Birmingham, Brighton, Hastings, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge, and Sheffield. Email activism@globaljustice.org.uk if you’re interested in being put in touch.

Migrant justiceDuring the election campaign, we published a new report to show how a trade deal with Trump would threaten higher drug prices for the NHS. We have since updated the report to include the revelations from the leaked government trade papers and re-released the report. We have enclosed a copy in this Think Global mailing. This report shows that contrary to government claims, the NHS is on the table for a trade deal with Trump.

We joined forces with Just Treatment last year to push for a compulsory license for a cystic fibrosis drug to enable patients in the UK to get access to this life saving drug. In the end, the high-profile campaign around compulsory licensing led to the company dropping the price. It is the right of every government to override a patent in the interests of public health, but corporate influence and pressure has meant that many governments do not use this tool. We are going to be working with STOPAIDS and Youth STOPAIDS in the coming months alongside two global HIV organisations to support the right of the government of Khazakstan to issue a compulsory license so its patients can access a vital HIV drug, made by British company ViiV. We will be sharing more details in the coming months and through emails.

Access to Medicines

8 February 2020

Is the Department for International Development (DfID) merger going ahead, or not? No-one, including Boris Johnson, seems quite sure, although according to the latest reports DfID may remain “independent” under the management of Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. This would be a merger by any other name and, as we wrote for IndyVoices in December, would take us back to the “bad old days” of tied aid with ODA more likely to be used as a sweetener for post-Brexit free trade deals.

We are taking a stand against this strategy and against the corporate takeover of aid which goes back at least a decade (arguably longer). Our activists were demonstrating outside the UK-Africa Investment Summit on 20 January to protest the government’s neo-colonial use of £15.5m of aid money to increase the UK and City of London’s “soft power” in Africa. You can read more about it in this blog bit.ly/2NUbi8L

As we wrote in Left Foot Forward, this financialised mode of development will not plug the so-called “finance gap” in African economies, nor will it make the world a fairer place. What we are really

seeing is the emergence of Empire 2.0, as the government encourages fossil

fuel corporations and financial institutions to extend their reach on the continent. This isn’t development as we know it, as decisions are being

made to serve British economic interests rather than communities in the global south.

If you want to get involved or support our work tackling

the financialisation of UK aid, get in touch with our campaign manager at daniel.willis@globaljustice.org.uk.

Aid Watch

Left: Global Justice Now activists demonstrated outside the UK-Africa Investment Summit last month

February 2020 9

As well as working on our core campaigns of trade, climate and aid, Global Justice Now in Scotland also works on some issues that are fully devolved to the Scottish parliament. As part of a diverse coalition of civil society organisations in Scotland, we’ve been calling for a Good Food Nation bill which could set a framework for food sovereignty. That call was successful, and later in the spring the bill will begin its journey through the Scottish parliament.

Our next task will be to ensure that the bill brings together all the things that are needed for a fair, healthy and sustainable food system: from making agriculture and fishing more sustainable, to curbing the power of the supermarkets and developing an ethical trade policy, to paying agricultural workers the living wage, and tackling obesity. In particular, we are calling for the right to food to be put at the heart of the bill and into Scots law.

Scottish workWith the next round of UN climate talks (COP26) being held in Glasgow from 9 - 19 November, all eyes will be on the UK (and Scotland). COP26 is an important meeting, being five years on from the Paris Agreement, and countries will be expected to review and increase their pledges in the light of updated climate science.

There will be a huge civil society gathering alongside the talks – with people coming from all over the world - with a People’s Summit and a mass mobilization of some sort being planned, as well as many fringe events. We hope to help as many of our activists and local group members who want to, to be a part of this. It’ll be a great opportunity to share skills and experiences, to forge stronger links with activists from the Global South and to build our movement here in the UK.

We hope to have more details available very soon.

Climate justice

Activists outside the Scottish Parliament. Campaigners in Scotland are continuing to push for a justice led approach to the climate crisis as they prepare for COP 26 in Glasgow this December.

10 February 2020

The local environmental offshoot of Global Justice Bournemouth, ‘Save Our Shores Bournemouth’, has been invited to the fifth annual ‘Toxic Expertise: Environmental Justice and the Global Petrochemical Industry’ workshop hosted by the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice in May. They have been invited to share their on-the-ground experience in fighting the oil industry.

Ahead of the UN climate talks (COP25) in Madrid in December, Global Justice Cambridge hosted an open meeting with Dorothy Guerrero on Global climate politics - exposing the limits of current solutions. She stressed the key role of corporate power and why trade deals are such obstacles to achieving climate justice. A longstanding Global Justice Now supporter and her musician friends also played carols in the city centre for Global Justice Cambridge’s annual fundraising for Global Justice Now’s campaigns - they raised £469, so huge thanks to them!

Global Justice Gloucestershire have been considering what initiatives they could take to counter climate change. Together with other organisations, they’ve lobbied their local government pension scheme about divesting funds from fossil fuel companies. This has had an encouraging response. The days of continuing pollution by corporate dinosaurs may be numbered. The future lies with renewable energy schemes. Following the relative failure of the recent COP25 climate talks in Madrid, and given that COP26 will take place in Glasgow later this year and be co-hosted by the UK government, the group hope to work with HQ and other kindred bodies to research what could be done to encourage our government to kickstart new initiatives on climate change for developing countries, and to implement effective green policies of its own

In October Global Justice Macclesfield held a public screening of the Stop ISDS short films. Those who came along fed back that

Groups and activism news

Global Justice Cambridge raised funds for our campaigns by carolling in the town centre.

February 2020 11

the films made the potential impacts of ISDS much easier to understand than when you read about them. And in November the group found quite a lot of interest when they talked to people about “No Toxic Trade Deal with Trump” outside their town centre

Tesco, collected signatures and gave out the campaign cards. They were a good alternative to the Tories canvassing round the corner from them!

EventsStop the toxic trade deal with TrumpThursday 13 February, 7pm LondonA public meeting to explain, analyse and resist the US-UK trade deal planned by Johnson and Trump. This will be one of many public meetings planned across the country. More details at globaljustice.org.uk/events

Freedom of Movement 2.0 Saturday 15 February, 1pm – 11pm London Organised by Global Justice Now’s youth network: Freedom of Movement 2.0 is a day long event for you young people: imagining a world without borders, where freedom of movement is a universal right. There will be workshops, panel discussions, poetry, live music and DJs from migrant-led activist groups, creative collectives and bands. More details at bit.ly/30NB6Zo

Universal basic income Tuesday 18 February, 7pm London One of a series of systemic alternatives events for young people organised by Our Future Now, our London-based youth activists. The main speaker will be Duncan McCann from the New Economics Foundation. More details at bit.ly/2sPy4Y2

Web of resistance: Building connections in a fractured world Saturday 22 February, 11am – 5pm. GlasgowIn an increasingly divided political landscape, how do we create connections between issues, between campaigns, and between people? Join activists from across Scotland for a day of workshops, discussion and network building. More details at globaljustice.org.uk/events

Together we are powerful Saturday 28 March, all day LondonCapitalism is in crisis. But in the cracks, alternatives to a system based on corporate greed are growing. Come along to Global Justice Now’s big 50th anniversary celebration event to hear from inspiring struggles around the world, learn from the alternatives they’re building and discuss how we build a world that works for everyone. More details at globaljustice.org.uk/events

Global Justice Now AGM and annual conference Saturday 6 June, all day EdinburghThis year our AGM and annual conference will be in Edinburgh. And we hope to have a ceilidh in the evening. More details to follow soon.

Current materials Our main campaignsTrade• ACTION CARD: No toxic trade deal with

Trump• BRIEFING: Trading with Trump• BRIEFING: The case against corporate courts• BRIEFING: Corporate court Qs and As• BRIEFING: ‘ISDS Files’ case studies x6• BRIEFING: ‘ISDS file’ on Lydian• BRIEFING: E-pocalypse Now (e-commerce)• BRIEFING: Giving away control• DISCUSSION PAPER: Ten alternatives to a

corporate trade agenda

Pharmaceuticals and corporate power• REPORT: The people’s prescription• BRIEFING: Taking public control of medicines• ACTIVIST PACK: Alternatives to the current

pharmaceutical system• REPORT: Pills and profits • BRIEFING: Ending corporate impunity• MP BRIEFING: Pill and profits• LEAFLET: Sick of corporate greed • ACTION CARD: Sick? • POSTERS: Shocking facts (x4, laminated)

Migration • POSTCARD: End the hostile environment• STICKERS: End the hostile environment• BADGES: Migrants welcome (Paddington)• ILLUSTRATED BOOKLET: Free movement

Aid• ACTION CARD: Pupils before profit• REPORT: The Conflict, Stability and Security

Fund

Climate justice• BRIEFING: Five reasons modern trade deals

are terrible for the climate• LEAFLET: Change the system, not the climate• LEAFLET: Repowering the future: Municipal

energy in practice• BRIEFING: Towards a just energy system• BOOKLET: Rays of hope - energy justice

Other workFood sovereignty• BRIEFING: Post-Brexit alternatives to the

Common Agricultural Policy• BOOKLET: On solid ground (agroecology)• REPORT: From the roots up (agroecology)• BRIEFING: Problems with corporate

controlled seeds• BRIEFING: From handouts to the super-rich to

a hand-up for small-scale farmers

General materials• ACTIVIST READER: Making another world

possible • BRIEFING: The Dangers of Trump• ‘HOW TO’ GUIDES: Guides to various aspects

of activism • SIGN-UP SHEET: Double-sided, Global Justice

Now branded• STICKERS and BADGES: People before profit/

Global Justice Now logo

Scotland-specific materials• BRIEFING: What’s a risk here in Scotland from

post-Brexit trade deals• BRIEFING: Scottish migration briefing• BRIEFING: Principles for a just trade system