what’s wrong? a billion people go to bed hungry richest 1% have 40% of wealth; poorest 50% have 1%...
TRANSCRIPT
What’s wrong?
• A billion people go to bed hungry• Richest 1% have 40% of wealth; poorest 50%
have 1% of wealth• Most of the world’s farmers are women, yet
just 1% of them own land• Poor people will be hit first and worst by
climate change• The rich lead crazy lifestyles
Are things getting better?
• 10,000 fewer children die daily than 20 years ago...• ...but most poverty reduction is in a single country• ...the top 1% got wealthier between 2007 and 2009• ...climate change is at an impasse• ... and change is SLOW
What then can we do?
•Consciousness•Co-ordination•Confrontation•Consolidation
Three campaigns
• Tax justice• Jubilee 2000• Climate Change Act
Developing countries lose 3x more to tax havens
International aid =$120 billion
Why tax justice?
98 of the FTSE 100 use tax havens
82 also work in developing countries.Almost 40% of all overseas subsidiaries are located there.Banks & extractive companies use tax havens the most.
SABMiller uses tax loopholes toshift over £100 million into tax havens each year.
Developing countries lose £20 millionin tax revenues
That’s enough to put an extra 250,000 children in school.
What we found…
“Wow. I don’t believe it.”
“Multinational brewer SABMiller will come under the close scrutiny of tax authorities in five African countries.”
PRESS
“I worked in corporate Britain and I know how companies use the complexity of the tax system to endlessly reduce their tax payments.”
I will "target tax evasion and off-shore tax havens. Everyone must pay their fair share."
"I very much hope, and I'm not going to write [Chancellor] George Osborne's budget, we can make progress on that in
the budget because we have got to make sure the tax system is fair and is seen to be fair,"
“Ed Miliband declares war on the UK's secretive offshore tax havens”
What’s interesting?
• Consciousness, confrontation or both?• Original research to create a demon• Work with partners in developing countries• Broad set of actors, but not (yet) a mass
campaign
What happened?
$90 billion of the world’s poorest countries’ unpayable debt was cancelled by 2000
... And more later....
What was interesting?
• Conviction that it wasn’t too difficult• Mass coalition and movement, on justice issue• The concept of Jubilee and the time limited
campaign
The Climate Change Act
What happened?
• Legally binding CO2 reduction targets to 2050 for the UK
• All political parties signed up to it• Independent Committee for Climate Change
produces rolling 5 year targets• Now on the 4th. Big fight, in the end accepted
by Cameron
What’s interesting?
• All party consensus• Got through by sheer weight of numbers of
back benchers• Methods often thought to be pointless
achieved something radical
“We find ourselves in one of those historical moments in which time seems to accelerate, things fall apart and everything is up for grabs.”
Paul Kingsnorth