33 minute read
THE US WANTS DRUG PRICES TO GO UP
US pharma lobbying for higher drug prices
During the general election campaign, Global Justice Now launched a new report, Pharma Trade Secrets, to expose the threat of higher drug prices through a US-UK trade deal. Our report revealed that the US pharmaceutical lobby are demanding greater ‘market access’ for their highpriced drugs from the deal, as well as longer periods of monopoly protection over the most advanced drugs, which would sustain high prices for longer.
There has been a serious lack of transparency over the government’s discussions with US negotiators, but these demands were confirmed in the leaked trade papers during the general election (see pages 8-10). Our report also revealed that these demands were discussed in a lobby meeting between the then-trade minister, George Hollingbery, and the senior director of US drug giant Eli Lilly in August 2018. This secret meeting and our report were featured on the front page of the Daily Mirror in November, giving our trade and pharmaceutical campaigns significant media attention.
Read the report at:
globaljustice.org.uk/pharma-secrets
900,000 against corporate courts
Over the past year, Global Justice Now has been campaigning with groups across Europe against corporate courts. Formally known as ISDS, these are a parallel legal system written into trade and investment deals that allow corporations to sue governments in secret.
Around Europe, groups have been dragging shadowy corporate court cases into the light: • Here in the UK we joined with activists in Armenia to campaign around UK-registered mining company Lydian. Communities in Armenia have been blockading construction of a gold mine, and Lydian have threatened an ISDS case against the government for failing to crack down on the protests. • In Spain, activists protested outside banking giant BBVA which has been using corporate courts to attack the Bolivian government for renationalising its pension system. • In Germany, campaigners targeted energy firm Vattenfall which has sued the government twice, once over the introduction of new environmental regulations on coal power stations, and once over the phase-out of nuclear power. • Protests were held in five countries against Chevron. When
Ecuadorian courts ordered Chevron to clean up pollution from oil drilling in the Amazon, Chevron counter-sued in a corporate court and won, subverting justice.
Across Europe, more than 900,000 people have signed petitions saying corporate courts are fundamentally unjust and should not exist. We’ve protested against corporate courts in TTIP, in CETA and now we’ll take the drive to end corporate courts on in our campaign against the US-UK trade deal.
Solidarity protest outside the Armenian embassy in London.
© Victor_Barro/Friends of the Earth International
Delegates inside COP25 in Madrid call for big polluters to pay for the impacts of climate change.
Over 25,000 representatives from 200 countries, including dozens of heads of state, gathered in Madrid in December for the COP25 climate summit. They were met by a 500,000-strong protest on the middle Saturday of the two week event.
Existing commitments under the Paris Agreement of 2015 are likely to shoot global average temperatures up by 3.3C by the end of this century compared to the Paris target of below 2C compared to pre-industrial levels. The current track, which will leave major coastal cities and whole nations underwater and collapsing food yields globally, was left largely unchanged in Madrid.
Chilean uprising against inequality
The summit was relocated to Madrid after the original host, Chile, cancelled the talks weeks before they were due to take place in Santiago due to civil unrest against President Sebastian Piñera (see below). This year COP26 will move to Glasgow from 9 to 19 November, and Global Justice Now will play a full part in the mobilisations.
Protests against inequality erupted in Chile in October and have continued for several months, despite being met with brutal repression by the government of Sebastian Piñera, claiming 29 lives and injuring thousands.
The protests started in response to a hike in subway fares, but quickly broadened to the rampant inequality caused by extreme neoliberal policies since the era of dictator Augusto Pinochet, under the slogan ’30 years, not only 30 pesos’. After Piñera declared a state of emergency and ordered the army to patrol the streets, more than a million people gathered in Baquedano Square in Santiago. Close to 10,000 neighbourhood assemblies are said to have been held across the country since October.
Solidarity protests have taken place in several cities around the UK. A delegation of Chileans in London visited the Foreign Office in January to demand the UK halts the export of crowd control weapons to the Chilean government.
NEWS SHORTS
Landmark ruling on climate refugees Governments cannot legally return people to countries where their lives might be threatened by the climate crisis, a landmark UN ruling has found. While it did not judge rising sea levels on the Pacific island of Kiribati to yet be lifethreatening, experts say “it has effectively put governments on notice”.
Iraqis demand US troop withdrawal Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis marched in Baghdad in January to demand the departure of US troops, after the US assassinated Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in the country. It followed months of anti-government protests over corruption and Iranian influence. “Our country is exposed to foreign interference from East and West,” said Thurgham al-Tamimi, who joined the protests.
Global protests over violence against women Demonstrations were held around the world on 25 November to mark the international day for the elimination of violence against women. Some 87,000 women and girls were murdered globally in 2017, the UN reports. Protests were organised in countries including Mexico, Italy, Argentina, France and Sudan.
Indigenous Peruvians block oil exploration in the Amazon
A court in Peru ruled in January that the government must exclude an indigenous area of the Amazon near the Brazilian border from oil exploration. The Regional Organisation of Indigenous Peoples of the East took the case against the state energy agency, Perupetro, which had planned to explore for oil in the Sierra del Divisor national park, home to indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation which were recognised by the government in 2018 and 2019.
“This ruling is historic because it is the first in favour of indigenous people in voluntary isolation against oil companies,” said Maritza Quispe, a lawyer for the Institute of Legal Defence, which advised on the case. Communities from the Peruvian Amazon and the Andes have won several cases against the government over oil and mining projects since the passage of a ‘prior consultation’ law in 2011, which gives them the rights over official decisions that could affect them.
Indians resist Modi’s attack on Muslim citizens
A protest in New Delhi against the citizenship law.
Since December, the Hindu nationalist Indian government’s plan to implement a new citizenship law and national citizenship register, which could leave many Muslims in India stateless, has been met by crowded streets of protesters across the country (see pages 16-17). Indians have mobilised against the idea of citizenship being granted or declined on religious grounds, which goes against India’s secular constitution. “India will cease to exist if we accept this,” said writer and activist Arundhati Roy.
© Sanjeev Yadav/Wikipedia
Loud and clear, crowds sang and chanted the words of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s famous Urdu protest poem, Hum Dekhenge (We Shall See): “We shall see/ Certainly we, too, shall see/ That day that has been promised to us/ When these high mountains/ Of tyranny and oppression/ Turn to fluff and evaporate”. These aren’t the first protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move toward an anti-Muslim India and they won’t be the last.
The Trump trade leaks: What you need to know
The leaked US-UK trade papers have confirmed many of our worst fears about a trade deal with Trump. JEAN BLAYLOCK on the key things they revealed.
I had mixed feelings on the day we received the leaked Trump trade papers in November, a few days before the Labour party released them to the world’s media. On the one hand, we had got our hands on the very documents we thought we wouldn’t see until it was too late, that we had taken the government to court to release. On the other, I knew I had to read 451 pages of civil servant-speak as quickly as possible.
The documents relate to six rounds of trade talks between the US and UK governments, starting in 2017 and running up to last summer. We had a pretty good idea what was likely to be going on in these talks, not only from our experience of past trade deals, but also because the US set out its negotiating objectives at the start of last year. But now we could see the minutes from the official discussions. So what do they reveal? Here are seven of the highlights.
CLIMATE CHANGE IS BANNED FROM THE TALKS
Let’s actually start with what’s not in the papers: climate. Or, to be precise, it’s in there only once. We are facing a climate emergency and our governments need to take urgent, systemic action to tackle it. And we know trade deals can make the climate crisis worse, block climate action and undermine a just transition. Yet when the UK raised the idea, in one of the earlier meetings, of making reference
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to climate change they were bluntly told by the US that it is off limits – that it is a “lightning rod issue”. Throughout all the subsequent meetings, climate change is never mentioned again.
THE NHS IS DEFINITELY ON THE TABLE
The US answer on climate change was a neat illustration that it is possible to take a topic off the table, and how to do so. The papers show that the UK failed to do the same over the NHS, despite Boris Johnson’s insistent statements that it isn’t up for discussion. UK officials very carefully avoid using the term NHS – it only appears a handful of times – but very clearly do not describe it as off limits, saying it “wouldn’t want to discuss particular health care entities at this time… this would be something to discuss further down the line”. What’s more, medicine prices are a recurring agenda item, plus the broad topic of services is a major focus.
THE US WANTS DRUG PRICES TO GO UP
A key thing being proposed in the discussions is the extension of monopolies for big pharmaceutical corporations, which could massively increase the cost of medicines for the NHS. There is also mention of another US concern: at present the NHS’s bulk purchasing power allows it to negotiate prices, while the
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Top: The leaked documents. Centre: Protesting with Keep Our NHS Public to keep the NHS off the table. Right: Chlorinated chickens in Trafalgar Square as Donald Trump visited for the NATO summit in December.
regulator, NICE, assesses whether medicines are effective enough to justify their price. Trump considers this to be ‘freeloading’ and has asked trade negotiators to do something about it. The papers show the two sides have effectively concluded all the preliminary negotiations they need in this area and say that they are ready to begin agreeing text for the final deal.
TRUMP WANTS ALL PUBLIC SERVICES INCLUDED BY DEFAULT
A sweeping opening up of services is a big focus of the talks. The US is insisting on an approach called ‘negative list’ where everything is on the table unless you specifically exclude it. Trade deals usually have a standard exemption for public services, but the existing level of privatisation and internal market within the NHS means that it doesn’t fall within the definition. It and many other public services would have to be specifically excluded – and we know that in the previous negotiations between the EU and the US over TTIP, the UK chose not to do this. Can we trust Boris Johnson to do differently this time?
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THE UK HAS BEEN GIVEN PR ADVICE ON CHLORINE CHICKEN
Trust also comes up on the iconic issue of chlorinated chicken and food standards. At the start of the year, the current environment minister, Theresa Villiers, said chlorine chicken would not be allowed in the trade deal. There’s a feeling of déjà vu however, because back in 2017 there was a spat between then environment minister, Michael Gove, and then trade minister, Liam Fox, when Gove equally emphatically said chlorine chicken would not be included. Yet several months after that seemingly clear statement, the leaked papers show that chlorine
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chicken was in fact being discussed in the talks, with the UK accepting the US’s offer of media advice to help shape the narrative on the subject.
CORPORATE COURTS ARE A US PRIORITY
Corporate courts, or ISDS, are also discussed at length. These allow corporations to sue governments in secret courts outside of the national legal system. The papers make it clear that they are likely to be included in a US-UK deal. The US is strongly opposed to even the mild reform of the system that the EU has been proposing, and they actually threaten that if the UK supports the EU on discussion of this in a UN forum, the trade deal might be off.
A LOT IS BEING KEPT SECRET
Many other issues also covered in the papers – digital trade, financial services, food labelling, telecommunications, and more. It demonstrates how far reaching trade deals are, and why it is so important for there to be proper transparency and oversight of negotiations. We should not have to rely on leaks to discover what is going on.
Overall, the Trump trade papers show very clearly that US-UK trade talks are following a corporate agenda – the agenda of big pharma, of agribusiness, of financial services giants, of Silicon Valley big tech platforms. The US is pushing the corporate agenda and, so far, the UK is dancing to their tune. We don’t all have to read all 451 pages of this story – but we can all play a part in exposing it.
Jean Blaylock is trade campaign and policy manager at Global Justice Now.
TRUMP IN YOUR TROLLEY
Just before Christmas the ‘Trump selection’ started to make its way into UK supermarkets as we launched our spoof campaign, Trump in Your Trolley.
Global Justice Now activists have been busy placing fake packs of chlorinated chicken and arsenic-filled baby food on supermarket shelves to get the message out about the threat to food standards of a US-UK trade deal.
Trump can’t wait to rip up our regulations so he can start sending his dodgy food to our shores to boost US corporate farming: it’s up to us to expose and oppose this toxic trade deal.
We’re asking you to take action in your local area and post pictures of your actions on social media using the hashtag #TrumpInYourTrolley. Learn more and order your pack at:
trumpinyourtrolley.com
Global Justice Now Supporters
To celebrate 50 years, we’re sharing our stories of being part of Global Justice Now. Here are some of our activists on why they got involved.
Jelly
I joined the youth group in London just as it was starting up. I’ve stayed part of the group because I made some really good friends and loved the organisation’s approach to activism. It’s been a real political education for me and it’s seen me get involved in issues from trade justice to big pharma. I’ve learned about movements around the world and taken part in many international solidarity actions. With Global Justice Now I really feel a strong sense of the movement we’re part of, it’s super important to get involved if you’re not already!
Arthur
I joined Global Justice Now when it was still the World Development Movement over 20 years ago. It’s important to continue supporting Global Justice Now because of the marvellous campaigning it does on important issues such as trade justice and climate change. I’ve been a local group activist for many years and I’m currently the organiser of Ayrshire Global Justice Now. Local groups play an important part in raising awareness at a community level. It’s been such a very positive experience, especially being able to link up with other Global Justice Now members in my area as we can support each other in organising local activities.
Hamza
I got involved in the Global Justice Now’s London youth network when a friend invited me to an event about migration in 2016. I felt inspired to educate myself and do something to change the racist and oppressive way in which society is structured. For me it’s important to support Global Justice Now because it tackles issues which other organisation shy away from because they think they are “too contentious”.
John
I’m with Global Justice Now because I’m conscious of the misery of refugees and deprived people here and especially overseas. I’m over 90: it is my generation that created runaway global warming. We can no longer turn our backs on the victims. We need to stand together in compassion. The old adage still rings true: “Think global: act local”.
Robin
Global Justice Now is an organisation ready to state that capitalism and colonialism are causing the climate crisis. The same system that we (in some ways) enjoy comes at a cost of climate disaster in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Australia right now. This is not our fault as individuals but collectively we can work to change the system. We who have benefited from global destruction and have the power to act, have a responsibility to join together and work for change. Instagram:@notadrill410
JOIN A GROUP
Find out more about our local groups at globaljustice.org.uk/groups and our youth network at globaljustice.org.uk/youth or get in touch with our activism team on 020 7820 4900
50 years of standing up for justice
As Global Justice Now (originally the World Development Movement) turns 50, we look back at some of the major moments from the last five decades.
By the 1960s, the success of independence movements in the West’s former colonies had raised the profile of poverty and development issues across the world. In the UK, thousands of people began to respond by organising and campaigning. World Development Action Groups began forming in 1967, and soon after came together in a national conference, launching the Action Groups Movement.
With the support of various aid agencies, churches and other groups, the World Development Movement was formalised in 1970 as an independent and outspoken organisation with the purpose of taking political action against the root causes of global poverty. For five decades we have been working with others to take on global economic structures and stand up to corporate power. In 2015, after a vote by our members, we relaunched as Global Justice Now.
Whenever you joined the movement, thank you for being with us.
1994: PERGAU DAM
The UK government planned to spend £234 million of aid on the Pergau Dam in Malaysia, which we believed was a sweetener for arms purchases from UK firms. Our landmark high court victory prevented aid money from being used as a political tool – and is still studied by law students!
1985: AID
Our ‘Fight World Poverty’ mass lobby in 1985 brought an extraordinary 15,000 people into parliament to lobby their MP over the aid budget, trade, food and debt issues. Four weeks later the government added £47 million to aid, rather than cutting it as had been threatened.
1971: SUGAR
Our first major campaign resulted in the UK retaining sugar imports, a vital source of foreign currency revenue for Commonwealth countries, when the UK joined the European Community.
1976-81: TEA
Our campaign for an International Tea Agreement and fair pay for tea pickers involved resolutions at Brooke Bond’s AGM, speaker tours by Indian and Kenyan tea workers, and the launch of ‘WDM tea’, a precursor to Fairtrade tea. Later we co-founded the Fairtrade Foundation.
1994-96: ARMS TRADE
In 1994 we began a campaign against UK support for the British arms industry. In 1996 we drove a tank through central London to shame Midland Bank (now HSBC), for financing arms sales to Indonesia and others. By 2000 the UK had banned subsidies for arms sales to over 50 countries.
2015: GLOBAL JUSTICE NOW
In 2015 we opened a new chapter in the struggle for social and economic justice with a new name – Global Justice Now. Our aim is to make an even more effective movement for a world where resources are in the hands of the many, not the few.
1998: CORPORATE POWER
The Multilateral Agreement on Investment threatened to give companies sweeping new powers to challenge national laws and invest without restrictions. We helped build a powerful global coalition against it. First France, then the UK, withdrew their support in October 1998 and the deal collapsed.
1995-2005 DEBT
After campaigning for a decade as part of the Jubilee Debt Campaign, we succeeded in getting the UK, IMF and World Bank to cancel billions ‘owed’ by countries in the global south. Countries like Zambia and Uganda were able to employ thousands more doctors, nurses and teachers as a result.
2009: COAL
The worst impacts of climate breakdown will be felt by those who did the least to cause it. When energy giant E.ON proposed the first new UK coal power station in decades at Kingsnorth in Kent, we joined other climate justice groups in staging massive protests against it. In 2009, E.ON pulled out.
2014-16: TTIP
Behind closed doors, the EU was drawing up a dangerous trade deal with the US called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). With others across the continent we collected a million signatures in less than three months. By 2016, the deal had been shelved.
2016-19: MIGRATION
Amid growing hostility to migrants, we have spoken out in solidarity, from projecting ‘Refugees Welcome’ on the cliffs of Dover to pressuring Daily Mail advertisers to stop funding hate. More than 100 MPs have signed our pledge to oppose the government’s ‘hostile environment’ for migrants.
2016-20: TRADE
The threat from post-Brexit trade deals has been dubbed ‘Empire 2.0’. In 2018 we confronted trade minister Liam Fox dressed as chlorinated chickens. Last year we won an amendment to give MPs a democratic say over trade deals – but it was dropped after the election. The campaign continues.
Opposing Empire 2.0 and the corporate takeover of aid
The government’s corporate approach to development, epitomised by the UK-Africa Investment Summit, must be opposed, writes DANIEL WILLIS.
Long-time supporters of Global Justice Now will need no reminder of the infamous Pergau Dam scandal. In 1993, it emerged that the Thatcher government had given £234 million in UK aid to Malaysia to build the dam in order to secure the sale of British arms worth over a billion pounds to the Malaysian army. The World Development Movement (as we were then known) took the government to a judicial review in 1994, which concluded that the foreign secretary, Douglas Hurd, had acted unlawfully.
When Labour came to power in 1997 they set about making sure this kind of ‘aid for arms’ scandal could not be repeated. They established the separate Department for International Development (DfID), removed control of the aid budget from the Foreign Office, and outlawed so-called ‘tied aid’ (aid which is contingent on purchases by the recipient from the donor country). It is still one of the biggest achievements of global poverty campaigners in the UK.
BACK TO THE ‘BAD OLD DAYS’
Fast forward over 20 years and we are almost seeing this story play out in reverse. At the time of writing, the government is yet to confirm rumours of whether it will re-merge DfID into the Foreign Office, or maintain it as an independent department under the direction of foreign secretary Dominic Raab (a merger by any other name). But even if the merger doesn’t go ahead, the reality is that DfID has been losing control of the aid budget for a number of years.
In 2015 the government committed to spending 30% of aid through other departments (including the Foreign Office, Department for international Trade and Ministry of Defence). Two cross-government funds have been established: the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, which supports a variety of dubious military and security projects around the world, and the Prosperity Fund, which is designed to “facilitate free trade” with middle-income countries. Together, this strategy is effectively returning us to the ‘bad old days’ of tied aid. The more that departments outside DfID get control of the aid budget, the more likely that it will be used as a tool to benefit British businesses, rather than fight global poverty.
This trend has particularly accelerated since the 2016 EU referendum. The opportunities provided by Brexit to establish new trading relationships will allow the government to pursue its ‘Global Britain’ agenda with a free hand. They argue that investing in the private sector and financial markets will ensure the “mutual prosperity” of recipient countries and the post-Brexit UK.
But what this really means is that aid spending decisions are increasingly being made in the interests of what works for the private sector and British corporations, rather than on the best way to tackle poverty in the world’s most marginalised We are seeing the beginnings of a new ‘scramble for Africa’ with British banks and businesses at the helm. Boris Johnson speaking at the aid-funded UK-Africa Investment Summit in January. © DFID/Graham Carlow
countries. DfID has not been innocent in this, and for a number of years we have seen aid money increasingly being given to big consultancy firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mott Macdonald and the Adam Smith Institute. This corporate takeover of the UK aid budget is set to deepen under Boris Johnson's government.
EMPIRE 2.0 AND THE UK-AFRICA SUMMIT
The epitome of this project was the government’s UK-Africa Investment Summit on 20 January 2020. Hosted by the prime minister in the glitzy Intercontinental Hotel in Greenwich (fittingly, in the shadow of Canary Wharf), the event had a £15.5 million budget, paid for from DfID’s coffers – in other words, aid money.
The government claimed this was a fantastic opportunity to challenge ‘aid dependency’ and establish new trading relationships in partnership with African governments and communities. But in reality only a limited number of countries were invited and African civil society was excluded altogether. And while Boris Johnson claimed to be taking action on climate change at the summit, we know that fossil fuel corporations including BP, Shell, Tallow Oil and Savannah Petroleum were there to make deals. In fact, more than 90% of £2 billion of commercial energy deals announced on the day were for oil and gas projects. These deals are clearly not in the interests of communities in the global south who will bear the worst effects of climate change.
This summit will not be the end, and we may even see similar aidfunded events after Brexit. It is part of a concerted strategy to hijack development funds to help fill the coffers of British businesses and to extend the UK’s power in the global south. It is no wonder civil servants are reportedly referring to the Global Britain plan as ‘Empire 2.0’. That is why we were outside the summit in January to protest. We are seeing the beginnings of a new ‘scramble for Africa’ with British banks and businesses at the helm. There will be more scandals if we don’t act now.
Find out more at:
globaljustice.org.uk/aid
Daniel Willis is campaign and policy manager on aid and climate at Global Justice Now.
India stands up to Modi
An anti-Muslim citizenship law has sparked mass protests across India since it was introduced in December. Photos by ZAHRA AMIRUDDIN and SYED AHMED SAFI, words by RADHIKA PATEL.
On 11 December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing government signalled another controversial move toward Hindu nationalism in India. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) aims to fast-track Indian citizenship to those fleeing persecution from three neighbouring countries – but not if they’re Muslim. The planned roll-out of a National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country to crack down on 'illegal' migrants would also risk Muslims, who are not protected under the CAA, being deported or detained. In a country of 200 million Muslims, this is a dangerous move toward the ‘Hindu India’ of Modi’s dreams.
Months of mass protests, many led by students, workers and women, have erupted in response. Many believe the government is deliberately sowing division along religious lines and the CAA is opposed to India’s secular constitution. Protesters were met with violence at the hands of the police and far-right activists – some have been killed, many arrested and detained. Images of beaten and bloodied students from universities in New Delhi went viral and helped the protests snowball.
The Shaheen Bagh peaceful sit-in, led by majority-Muslim women in New Delhi, garnered further support after brutal police attacks on students in local Jamia Millia Islamia University. Many weeks later it continues. 25 million workers joined the All India General Strike on 8 January to oppose Modi’s ‘anti-people’, ‘anti-worker’ policies, adding messages of solidarity to students and teachers at university campuses across India opposing the CAA and NRC.
Despite the backlash, Modi’s government has shown no signs yet of retreating. But chants of ‘azaadi’ (freedom) continue on India’s streets.
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Zahra Amiruddin Posters urge the resignation of home affairs minister Amit Shah, who is in charge of implementing the NRC and CAA.
2. Banner
Syed Ahmed Safi Anti-CAA slogans written on traditional Assamese cloth. Assam, with a large Muslim population, was the first state to test the NRC. When 1.9 million people were identified as 'illegal' immigrants, detention camps were built.
3. Gateway of India
Zahra Amiruddin Thousands gathered at midnight at The Gateway of India, Mumbai, on 5 January to protest against a brutal attack on students by Hindu nationalist activists. The ‘Occupy Gateway’ protest lasted for three days before the police forcibly shut it down. The resilience was palpable in the form of poetry, songs, speeches, and most of all hope, and perseverance.
4. Your saffron is blood stained
Zahra Amiruddin A young activist refers to ‘saffron’, the colour associated with the current ruling government.
5. Two Lines
Syed Ahmed Safi Young protestors standing face to face with New Delhi police.
A public danger supported by Britain
JEAN-FRANÇOIS MOMBIA ATUKU on community resistance to a Canadian palm oil company backed by British development funds in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On 5 November 2018, my organisation, RIAORDC, filed a complaint with DEG, the private sector branch of the German government’s development bank, on behalf of nine communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The complaint was against the activities of Plantations et Huileries du Congo SA, a palm oil plantation company owned by the Canadian company Feronia Inc.
Feronia operates around 25,000 hectares of palm oil plantations in the DRC, including in Lokutu in Tshopo province, Boteka in Equateur province, and Yaligimba in Mongala province. Its international funders include the British, French, German, Dutch, Belgian and other development banks. Approximately 40% of Feronia’s shares belong to CDC, the British government’s private development bank, which received £1.8 billion in UK aid between 2015 and 2018.
The communities affected by Feronia’s operations claim the land occupied by its Lokutu plantation was stolen from them by the Belgian colonial authorities in the early 1900s. It was handed to Lord Leverhulme, of the British company Lever Brothers, which later became Unilever. Unilever sold the plantations to Feronia in 2009, and the communities say that Feronia has since been illegally occupying their land. In their complaint, they demand reparations for lost economic opportunities from the use of their ancestral land since 1911, and call for the land to be returned to them.
It is extraordinary that more than 10 years after Feronia began to collect Western development funds, there is little evidence of visible development on the ground. It is a paradox of development funds without development. Last September, five of the community leaders who filed the complaint were arbitrarily arrested, following a complaint by Feronia, and have spent five months in prison without a single hearing. It followed the murder in July of Joel Imbangola, a member of RIAO-RDC, by a Feronia security guard (Feronia claims he was on annual leave).
Today, we are calling on the British government to intervene to stop its development bank, CDC, from defending Feronia’s actions tooth and nail. We are calling instead for guarantees of our and the communities’ safety, for the immediate release of those arrested, and for CDC to stop opposing the mediation process allowed under the DEG’s complaint mechanism, which is the last ray of hope for us. Ultimately, the British government must stop funding Feronia and support a process of restitution for the communities affected by this long-standing injustice. Jean-François Mombia Atuku is director of RIAO-RDC.
ON FIRE: THE BURNING CASE FOR A GREEN NEW DEAL Naomi Klein Allen Lane, 2019
This collection of essays written between 2016 and 2019 is filled with stories that don’t easily leave your mind. These are the words of someone who has moved past warning of future climate apocalypse to producing dispatches from the climate emergency as it hits across the globe today. The predominant feeling you get is no longer one of possible catastrophe – you realise our world is on fire right now.
But the book isn’t just about catastrophe. It’s about renewal and about recognising we are one of the most important generations who have ever lived. Why? Because we have the chance to end not only climate breakdown, but unequal societies and continuing colonialism – because we have no other choice. The urgency of the emergency means that we can’t put off muchneeded change, the time is now. The message? It’s time to focus and push our governments for a Green New Deal.
Cameron Joshi THE KINGMAKER
Lauren Greenfield Dogwoof, 2019 (1hr 41 mins) “Perception is real, and the truth is not”. Imelda Marcos’s words in this film about her ego, corruption, unapologetic excesses and greed, say it all. Despite seven convictions for graft, the Philippines’ ‘Iron Butterfly’ is still scot-free and living her delusion of being “the mother of the nation”.
This is, of course, the very same nation that she and her husband, Ferdinand Marcos, condemned to poverty for two decades as they stole an estimated $10 billion. Imelda hands out money to beggars, hospital patients, and supporters of her son’s election campaign, while lamenting that she cannot touch her assets in a mere 170 banks.
Lauren Greenfield solidly captures Imelda’s belief in her own lies, which are countered by survivors’ accounts of their ordeal as political prisoners. This film makes us remember why we fought the dictatorship, and helps us understand the present, where the horrors are repeating as her family scheme their way to power again.
Dorothy Guerrero HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT: HOW IMMIGRANTS BECAME SCAPEGOATS
Maya Goodfellow Verso, 2019 This book's title is derived from the set of Tory policies intended to turn teachers, doctors and landlords into border guards. The author, Maya Goodfellow, interweaves interviews, political analysis, and personal stories to demonstrate how the hostile environment is the crystallisation of over 100 years of anti-migrant sentiment in the UK.
One of the book’s central arguments is that we must not reduce migrants to their economic value, as Blair's Labour did, nor pander to the right and support controls on immigration (think back to Labour’s infamous mug). Though the majority of the book paints a grim picture of racism and xenophobia in Britain, Goodfellow's accounts of migrant solidarity action against the hostile environment gives us hope for the future. With human rights for migrants as a cornerstone we can successfully build a fairer system which puts people before profit and where we have freedom of movement for all.
Rosanna Wiseman
Together we are POWERFUL Reclaiming our world from corporate control Shalmali Guttal Focus on the Global South, India Daniel Chavez Transnational Institute, Uruguay Ann Pettifor economist, Green New Deal campaign Hsiao-Hung Pai and Felicity Lawrence journalists Christophe Aguiton ATTAC France Caroline Lucas MP Green Party Nick Dearden, Dorothy Guerrero, Heidi Chow and other Global Justice Now speakers Plus more speakers to be announced, films, workshops and stalls.
Global Justice Now 50th anniversary conference Saturday 28 March, 10am-6pm Rich Mix, Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA
