Ninety-Nine magazine - June 2021 (issue 20) by Global Justice Now

Challenging the power of the

Issue 20 - June 2021

Vaccine Inequality How long can big pharma hold out?

Also in this issue The Covid-19 economic crisis How corporate courts block climate action Plans for COP26

ISSUE 20: June 2021 03 Campaign news 06 Global news 08 How the People’s Vaccine went global 10 Pandemic inequalities 13 Global Justice Now supporters 14 Corporate courts and the climate 16 Chile's social explosion 18 Vaccine nationalism 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: Placard at our protest outside AstraZeneca’s Cambridge HQ on the day of their AGM in May. Credit: Jess Hurd/Global Justice Now Printed on 100% recycled paper. Get Ninety-Nine delivered to your door three times a year when you become a member of Global Justice Now. Go to globaljustice.org.uk/join

@GlobalJusticeUK Global Justice Now Global Justice Now

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Big pharma never loses. This time they might Heidi Chow Senior campaigns manager The support of the Biden administration for the proposal to suspend patents on Covid-19 vaccines is a major milestone in the global campaign for a people’s vaccine (see opposite). It’s not a campaign victory yet but it is a game-changing moment. Biden’s move will help unlock stalled talks and has already led to other countries declaring their support. But just as significant, it also represents a massive blow to corporate power. US trade policy has long been used by big pharma as a vehicle to dictate trade rules that shore up monopoly control and defend excessive profits. “The pharmaceutical industry in the United States has never lost a political struggle. Never lost!” said Bernie Sanders in reaction to the US announcement, but it looks as if, in this case, the mobilisation of global people power has moved the unmoveable. We must take a moment to celebrate these milestones as small victories to help us endure the long haul. We’ve been challenging the power of the pharmaceutical industry for several years and all our work before the pandemic has given us the platform, expertise and networks to continue to fight against a system where corporations can hold the world to ransom over life-saving medicines. I believe this is a fight we Not since the AIDS can win. Not since the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis over crisis has the world twenty years ago has the mobilised in such world mobilised in outrage at the racist allocation outrage at the racist of life-saving treatment. allocation of lifePharmaceutical companies get to decide who lives and saving treatments. who dies from Covid-19 and by selling publicly-funded vaccines to the highest bidders, they are effectively valuing the lives of black and brown people in the global south as lesser. Rich governments like the UK are complicit in this system by not taking the action that is required. The longer vaccine apartheid continues, and as new variants continue to emerge, the clearer it will become that no one is safe until everyone is safe. Finally, having worked here for over 13 years, this is my last month in the organisation as I have been appointed as the new executive director of Jubilee Debt Campaign. I’m not going far and will continue to cheer you all on as well as work alongside you in the fight for global justice.

CAMPAIGN NEWS

US backs patent waiver on vaccines The global movement for vaccine equity celebrated a breakthrough in May when the Biden administration announced its support for a suspension of patents on Covid-19 vaccines as an “emergency measure” to tackle the pandemic. Vaccine factories around the world have been lying idle because big pharma refuses to share the blueprints. Biden’s move raises the prospect of all available capacity being put to work to rapidly increase vaccine production. As a leading member of the global People’s Vaccine Alliance, Global Justice Now has been at the forefront of efforts to get rich countries to back the patent waiver, which was first proposed by the governments of India and South Africa at the World Trade Organisation in October. More than a hundred countries have since backed the proposal, as well as a growing range of prominent voices from the Pope to Prince Harry, more than 200 former world leaders and Nobel Laureates and over 2 million people who have signed

petitions globally (see pages 8-9). The prime minister, Boris Johnson, made headlines for the opposite reason in April when he was reported to have thanked “greed” and “capitalism” for the UK’s vaccine rollout – despite the large quantities of public funding behind all the main vaccines (not to mention the role of the NHS in delivering them). The hoarding of vaccines by the rich world has led to what many are calling global ‘vaccine apartheid’. Out of more than 700 million vaccine doses delivered globally by the end of April, just 0.2% were to people in lowincome countries, compared to 87% in richer countries. In May, as devastating second waves continued to rage in India and Brazil, UK health secretary Matt Hancock called Global Justice Now’s protests in favour of suspending patents “absurd” in a television interview. But the pressure has continued to build. As NinetyNine goes to press, we await the

outcome of the UK-hosted G7 summit, which offers an opportunity for wealthy countries to back President Biden’s announcement. But with the pharmaceutical industry continuing to wheel out all the excuses it can muster to maintain corporate monopolies, it remains urgent to pressurise the UK government to change course. Join the call for a suspension of patents at: globaljustice.org.uk/patents Above: G7 trade ministers protest in London. Below: US groups at Moderna HQ in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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CAMPAIGN NEWS

Corporate courts threaten climate action After the welcome news that the Biden administration has put the US-UK trade deal on hold, Global Justice Now’s trade campaign is focusing on the impact of ‘corporate courts’ on climate action. Formally known as ISDS, corporate courts are written into trade rules to enable transnational corporations to sue countries outside of the national legal system when governments introduce policies which harm their profits. As governments around the world begin to take long-needed action to tackle the climate crisis, we are seeing more and more corporate court cases arising. With the UK preparing to host the COP26 climate summit, we’re demanding it

drops corporate courts from new trade deals and exits existing corporate court deals (see pages 14-15). In April thousands of Global Justice Now supporters wrote to the trade secretary, Liz Truss, to demand the removal of corporate courts from the new UK-Canada trade deal. Nearly three-quarters of mining companies globally are headquartered in Canada, and Canadian mining and energy companies are active in corporate courts. While the UKCanada deal has already been signed and it contains corporate courts, those clauses are currently suspended until they’ve been reviewed. While the government hopes that review can be a bit of a formality, we are aiming to change that. Email the trade secretary at: globaljustice.org.uk/canada-deal Perf

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CDC Group, to support gas power generation overseas. These projects are still incompatible with the UK’s commitments under the Paris Agreement and attempts to limit global warming to 1.5oC. We’ve been exploring ways to challenge this: in May, we co-ordinated responses to an International Development Committee inquiry on climate finance. If the government doesn’t listen, we will consider challenging the policy in the courts. On the positive side, Global Justice Now was one of several organisations named as co-winners of a Sheila McKechnie Foundation award for our success on this campaign. Thank you

Stop funding fossil fuels overseas!

After agreeing to stop using public funds to finance fossil fuel projects overseas last year, the UK government held a consultation in February to decide when and how to do so. Thousands of Global Justice Now supporters used our online action form to respond, and several of our local groups even collaborated on their own response. The results were positive: the government agreed in March to immediately dump its dirty development policies. However, there are several exceptions which will allow some public money, including that spent by the UK’s development bank

Freepost RRBA-HAEG-YU HJ Global Justice Now 66 Offley Road London SW9 0LS

Fossil funding freeze finalised

Prime Minister:

Fossil fuel action card.indd

04/11/2020 11:43:08

again for all of your support. Find out the latest on the campaign at: globaljustice.org.uk/climate

CAMPAIGN NEWS

Aid

Debt campaign targets the banks Global Justice Now and allies launched a new phase of our Covid-19 debt justice campaign in March targeting the big banks demanding huge debt payments from countries in the global south. Covid-19 threatens to push up to 150 million more people into extreme poverty around the world, yet so far many large lenders have failed to take part in international debt relief efforts. African countries are spending three times more on debt repayments to banks and speculators than it would cost to vaccinate the entire continent against Covid-19. Thousands of you have already emailed the CEOs of BlackRock, HSBC, JP Morgan and UBS calling on them to cancel the debt owed to them by global south governments. We held a national webinar for members on debt in May and a few days later we protested outside the HSBC AGM. We’ve seen some progress in political circles: the UN secretary-general has called for private creditors to offer debt relief, and even the UK government has recognised that more needs to be done (albeit on a voluntary basis). At the time of writing, there is hope that more progress will be made at the G7 meetings in June. Email the banks at: globaljustice.org.uk/banks-debt

The campaign was launched with a guerrilla projection in Canary Wharf in March.

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GLOBAL NEWS MOVEMENT NEWS

Colombians defy violent crackdown to demand justice

A Colombian flag reading 'No to the tax reform' flies over a march during the national strike.

Weeks of protests have taken place across Colombia against the policies of President Iván Duque and the country’s deep-rooted inequalities. A national strike was declared in late April in opposition to proposed tax increases to fuel, pensions and public services, which were later withdrawn. But the protests have morphed into a more general rejection of the Duque administration. “We decided to

participate because we are fed up with inequality in this country,” health worker Daniela Sánchez told the BBC. “The pandemic exposed the big differences between the rich and the poor in Colombia.” Demonstrators have been met with intense repression and state violence, which has been condemned by the UN and EU. At least 40 people have been killed and thousands injured.

In contrast to much of the continent, which saw a “pink tide” of centre-left governments take power for much of the past two decades, Colombia has been a bastion of neoliberalism and ally to the US. Activists are also protesting the country’s long history of social inequality and discrimination against indigenous and AfroColombian communities.

Ecuador city votes to ban mining Residents of Cuenca, Ecuador’s third largest city, voted to ban mining projects within five nearby river basins in a referendum in February. More than 4,000 bodies of water make up the delicate Páramo ecosystem, which form a reservoir in the Andes. The referendum was granted after campaigning by a group of fourteen 6 Ninety-Nine 2021

grassroots organisations in the region. Yet some 43 concessions have been granted to corporations from Canada, Australia, Peru and Chile for mining a variety of metals in recent years. More than 80% of the electorate voted in favour of the ban, which is legally binding under the 2008 constitution. It means that new

president and former banker Guillermo Lasso, who narrowly won a run-off vote in April, will have to implement the ban. Indigenous candidate Yaku Perez Guartambel, who finished third in the election, had spoken out against the mining and extractivism more generally.

NEWS SHORTS

GLOBAL MOVEMENT GLOBAL NEWS

Spain agrees phase- out of fossil fuel exploration

Bolivia asks WTO to waive patent on Johnson & Johnson vaccine

The Spanish parliament has adopted a ban on new fossil fuel exploration and production licences from 2042, with license holders required to submit a reconversion plan five years before the license expires. It contrasts with the UK's refusal to phase out North Sea oil and gas production earlier this year.

The Bolivian government has asked the WTO to waive the patent on Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, after agreeing an option for 15 million doses with a Canadian vaccine maker which says it has capacity to produce them. Biolyse Pharma announced it is able to produce 20 million doses of the vaccine if it receives legal permission and technological know-how from the US pharma giant, which earlier said it was not interested when approached by the

Citizens assembly to write Chile’s new constitution

company. Co-operation from Johnson & Johnson would speed up production and avoid the need for a new clinical trial. The waiver would allow Bolivia to accelerate its vaccination efforts which have so far reached just 10% of its population. “We have the equipment and facilities and the engineering and the staff,” Biolyse president Brigitte Kiecken said. “We could have done this quite rapidly. But it’s been brick wall after brick wall.”

Asian Development Bank commits to ending coal funding

Independents picked up the most votes in elections to a 155-strong citizens’ assembly to write Chile’s new constitution in May. It will replace one introduced under dictator Augusto Pinochet. The process was won after a mass uprising over inequality and elitism in 2019 (see pages 16-17). Cumbria coal mine on hold after backlash

The UK’s first underground coal mine for thirty years will be subject to a public inquiry after a massive public outcry. Cumbria county council approved the planned mine near Whitehaven last year but it was belatedly put on hold by central government after criticism from community groups, NGOs and public figures.

A protest outside the ADB’s annual meeting in Manila in 2018.

Activists across Asia celebrated a commitment from the Asian Development Bank to stop financing coal projects when it published its draft energy policy at its annual meeting in May. The Philippines-based bank said there had been “profound changes in the energy landscape” since its policy was last updated in 2009 and that it “no longer adequately aligned with the global consensus on climate change”. “This is a big victory for communities

and movements who resisted for decades ADB’s funding of dirty energy including coal projects – projects that displace people, destroy livelihoods and fuel the climate crisis,” said Lidy Nacpil, coordinator of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development. But she warned that the campaign would continue as the policy allowed continued funding for gas projects, did not set a timescale for the shift and did not commit to a phase-out of existing fossil fuel projects within a just transition. 2021 Ninety-Nine 7

PHARMA

How the People’s Vaccine campaign went global Since the early days of the pandemic, Global Justice Now has been calling for Covid-19 vaccines to be shared globally according to need, not in the interests of big pharma companies. Here’s how the call for a People’s Vaccine has spread. March 2020

October 2020

As World Health Organization declares Covid-19 a global pandemic, health campaigners point out most vaccine research is publicly funded, call for vaccines to be global public good.

South Africa and India put forward proposal for ‘TRIPS waiver’ – suspension of intellectual property rights – on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments at World Trade Organisation. Rich countries block it.

May 2020 Global Justice Now convenes UK coalition to demand public funding leads to equitable global access. 20,000 sign petition to UK government. WHO launches Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) to share intellectual property on vaccines and treatments, with participation of 30 countries. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla calls it “nonsense”. UK fails to join. People’s Vaccine Alliance launches with public letter signed by more than 140 world leaders and experts, including presidents of South Africa, Pakistan, Senegal and Ghana. Global Justice Now a leading member.

June 2020 Global Justice Now and allies call on AstraZeneca to disclose terms of deal to develop Oxford University vaccine, including scope and length of 'cost price’ pledge. Company fails to respond.

September 2020 Covid-19 survivors from 37 countries write to pharma companies to demand vaccines and treatments are available to all and free from patents.

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December 2020 First People’s Vaccine global day of action sees thousands phone and email Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, as approved vaccines begin to be distributed in rich countries. Global media coverage for People’s Vaccine research that 9 out of 10 people in poorest countries will miss out on vaccines in 2021, while rich countries hoard enough doses for three times their populations.

Above (left to right): Banner drop on Westminster Bridge in March; Free the Vaccine protest outside Pfizer in the US; Global Justice Now in the media.

January 2021 Reports that South Africa is paying 2.5 times EU price for Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. government to back US position. Spanish prime minister indicates support for vaccine IP waiver.

People’s Vaccine online rally hears messages from Graça Machel (see page 18), Winnie Byanyima and Bernie Sanders. Second global day of action sees protests in South Africa, India, US and UK. #TRIPSwaiver trends on Twitter. WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus calls growing vaccine inequality “grotesque”.

UN AIDS chief Winnie Byanyima describes unequal distribution of vaccines as “global vaccine apartheid”.

February 2021 Campaigners in India and South Africa deliver letters to embassies of countries blocking TRIPS waiver at WTO. UN says it is “wildly unfair” that 130 countries have not received a single dose.

March 2021 Associated Press reports that vaccine factories on three continents are available to produce Covid-19 vaccines but not being used. Over 100 countries now support TRIPS waiver proposal but UK, US and EU still

April 2021 Global Justice Now leads condemnation of Boris Johnson’s comments attributing vaccine rollout to “greed” and “capitalism”.

German chancellor Angela Merkel indicates opposition to TRIPS waiver. WHO, WTO, IMF and World Bank call for rapid resolution to TRIPS waiver negotiations. People’s Vaccine finds that at present rate it will take 57 years to vaccinate everyone in low-income countries. G7 leaders face calls to back TRIPS waiver at Cornwall summit, as EU unveils counter-proposal.

UK government: Suspend the patents on Covid-19 vaccines

More than 170 former world leaders and Nobel laureates call on President Biden to support TRIPS waiver, as 2 million signature global petition delivered. Pope and Prince Harry among highprofile figures backing equitable vaccine access in messages to US charity concert. 400 MEPs and EU nations’ MPs call on European Commission to back TRIPS waiver.

May 2021 Biden administration announces support for patent suspension on Covid-19 vaccines. 400 academics, public figures and health professionals call on UK

Economist Intelligence Unit estimates that most poor countries won’t achieve mass vaccination until 2024.

June 2021

People’s Vaccine poll shows 74% of UK voters support sharing know-how with global producers, with similar levels of support across G7 countries.

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blocking at WTO.

People’s Vaccine protests take place at Pfizer and Moderna AGMs in US and AstraZeneca AGM in UK. Health secretary Matt Hancock calls Global Justice Now’s protest “absurd”.

TAKE ACTION Please sign the enclosed postcard asking the UK government to support the suspension of patents on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments. Or take action online at: globaljustice.org.uk/suspendpatents

2021 Ninety-Nine 9

INEQUALITY

Pandemic inequalities Unequal vaccine access is only the most visible way in which Covid-19 is deepening global inequalities, says JAYATI GHOSH. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, inequality had reached unspeakable proportions globally and within countries. What has happened since is something that was beyond anyone’s anticipation: a dramatic worsening of inequalities within and between countries. First consider the vaccine inequality. We know that the world has produced vaccines very rapidly. We’ve never had vaccines developed in less than three to six years, and these have been developed within a few months. It is state policy that provided a lot of the incentives, including very large subsidies to all the major vaccine companies. Nonetheless we see that once again the so-called public-private partnership has been one where the state puts in the finances, takes on all the risks, and the private sector gets away with all the profits – in this case super-profits extracted by monopoly power. This power comes from the fact that these major pharma companies own the intellectual property rights, meaning that they can determine who will produce, how much they will produce and what prices will be charged. As a result of this we have seen the most obscene kind of vaccine grab by the rich countries. It has really become a kind of competitive market jungle whereby states and people have to beg for vaccines from pharma companies who were able to develop these vaccines entirely because of public support. Obviously in a situation like this patent rights should be suspended. It’s very welcome that President Biden has agreed that the US will support a waiver, but the European Union is still blocking it. And this is just the first step. We still need to make sure

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these companies share their technology with other producers and license them. No one is saying they will not get a return: they will get a reasonable return, not these monopoly super-profits which they are now making out of death and disease. ic kr But we’re not seeing the r19 9 9/Fl © B ec ke states that have actually paid for these vaccines with taxpayers money push the companies into sharing the technology to enable more producers. As a result of which we are seeing new variants. In my own country in India we are seeing a flare-up that has led to a massive increase in death and destruction. I have lost many of my own friends, colleagues and others. Every family in India has lost someone, and this will continue because the pace of vaccination is so slow. There are countries in Africa where no one has been vaccinated. And across the world the proportion of vaccinated people is around 10% still.

SPENDING POWER This inequality of course adds to all the other inequalities because it prevents an economic recovery. People cannot go out and work, they are weakened by sickness, they are facing more lockdowns, they are facing other restrictions and as a result they are losing livelihoods, especially informal workers. That brings me to the second big inequality, the fiscal responses. We have

Above: A woman is vaccinated at Sector 30 district hospital in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. Right: The prime minister and G7 foreign ministers in London in May.

INEQUALITY

constraints and large debt problems. Many are seen advanced economies going for massive public paying more even today for debt servicing than intervention. In itself this is all to the good – it’s about they can on health even during the pandemic. But time they realised that the huge monetary policy they also face the fear of capital flight. We have fixes that they have been trying ever since the great seen very volatile flows of capital, financial crisis do not work beyond we saw massive outflows in March a certain point, and you really have Every family in 2020, followed by renewal or revival to have public spending. It’s also of inflows from about May, which to be welcomed that a lot of that India has lost in turn is very unstable. At the public spending has been directed someone, and slightest hint of fiscal expansion both towards more green kinds of investment and the caring economy, this will continue they tend to leave developing countries, threatening them with which was hugely neglected. because the pace large fiscal deficits, a major source However, while the developed credit rating downgrades. This countries are spending anywhere of vaccination is of has prevented most developing between 12% countries – even the ones that and 25% of GDP, so slow. don’t face balance of payments developing constraints or debt problems – from spending more. countries have spent on average As a result the US is currently estimated to have 4% to 6% of GDP. The poorest spent about $25,000 per capita since March 2020. In countries have spent only an developing countries the average is more like $100. additional 2% or 2.5% of GDP © Juliu s Cruickshank/ Wiki In the poorest countries, it has been $2 per capita because they cannot afford to med ia because they cannot afford to spend more. Yet we spend more. find that these huge spending plans in the advanced This is essentially for two G7 countries have made no attempt to ensure that reasons. Many of them face developing countries also get that fiscal space. major balance of payments

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INEQUALITY

They could do it – there are many INFORMAL INEQUALITIES ways. The issuance of Special Drawing The other aspect of inequality is the Rights (SDRs) [a type of global reserve fact that the pandemic has affected currency created by the IMF] which people in developing countries worse have been promised by the IMF are because most workers – 70% – are certainly welcome and very much informal. In some countries like India required. It’s less than is necessary, it’s it’s as high as 90% $650 billion or 500 or 95%. In the billion SDRs, which developed world Big pharma will be distributed it’s more like 20%, according companies are so their workers to quota, so making monopoly are already much developing more protected countries will get super-profits out of by automatic much less, but at death and disease. stabilisers. least they will get In the developing something. world it’s not just But the rich countries are not going that governments don’t have money, to use their quotas. They should it’s also that most workers don’t have immediately offer to redistribute those any automatic forms of legal or social quotas for countries in need, without protection. So they are really being conditionality. (Putting it into an IMF devastated by both the disease and fund that will distribute it according the containment measures, which to conditionality – we know where have been very harsh on all those that goes, and we know what impact who seek informal work and have that has.) G7 countries which are livelihoods like self-employment. not going to use their additional SDR For all of these inequalities there quotas should immediately make them are measures that can be taken, but available, first of all to Covax to enable the political will is required. G7 the purchase of enough vaccines for countries that began by global distribution. And secondly to a global social protection fund that will enable all countries to provide the minimum social protection that is taken for granted in advanced countries. They also must immediately begin by cancelling all of the debts that developing countries owe them, because these are unpayable, they are unnecessary. Not a debt ‘relief’ that pushes the can down the road, but a cancellation of all the official bilateral and multilateral debt. This can be done very easily, because of the fact that they’re getting all of this free SDR money that they’re not going to use.

Many low-income countries are spending more on debt payments than health, even during the pandemic.

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saying, “we’re all in this together”, “no one is safe until we are all safe” – they clearly don’t mean that, they clearly think they can get away with it. The bad news is they can’t. The more they think they can go it alone, protect their own populations etc, the more this disease will come back and bite them, and the less the global economy will recover either. So this is one of the weird cases where imperialism is cutting off its own legs, if you like. And it’s imperative, if we are going to have any kind of Asia-Europe solidarity, for the people of Europe to be more aware of this and to push their governments to behave in a way that genuinely shows that solidarity. Jayati Ghosh is professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. This is an edited version of a talk given to the Asia-Europe People’s Forum in May 2021, see aepf.info.

Global Justice Now Supporters

COP26 is coming to Glasgow The UN climate conference COP26 is coming to Glasgow from 1-12 November and Global Justice Now is playing a big role in the public mobilisations for climate justice. As part of the COP26 civil society coalition we are helping bring people together locally across the UK during the summer and (pandemic permitting) we will be organising a mass mobilisation in Glasgow on the middle weekend of the twoweek conference.

Local coalition building this summer

From June onwards local hub assemblies will be organised across the UK, from the Highlands and Islands to Cornwall, to build and strengthen a climate justice network across the country. The assemblies will bring together local communities and groups to form local hubs, get the word out, build connections, take action locally and start preparing for mass mobilisations in November. If you're interested in organising or joining a local assembly, get in touch with Guy Taylor via activism@globaljustice.org.uk

The big one:

5&6 November

Plans are just starting to form for two days of mass action on

At the time of writing it remains to be seen the exact form that the COP will take, with governments and civil society from the global south demanding a face-to-face summit, which is threatened by unequal global access to Covid-19 vaccines. But whether we are mobilising in Glasgow itself, or in regional centres, put 5 and 6 November in your diary and prepare to get involved in whatever way you can.

5 and 6 November, the middle weekend of the COP itself. The geographical focus for this will most likely be Glasgow, but there will very likely also be mobilisations planned in London and other regional centres.

who need affordable, friendly accommodation.

We’ll be giving updates, as we know more, in our monthly activist newsletter, Think Global, so if you don’t already get it why not sign up at: globaljustice.org.uk/think-global

For more details on being a host or to book accommodation, see: www.humanhotel.com/cop26

Homestay Network

The COP26 Homestay Network is an environmentally-friendly and affordable grassroots accommodation project for the COP. It matches hosts across the central belt of Scotland with activists, NGO staff, scientists and any others coming to COP26 from all over the world

Those in and around Glasgow list their sofa or spare room and will then be matched with a guest who needs a place to stay in November.

From the Ground Up

As part of the run-up to COP26 we took part in the second From the Ground Up, an online global conference for the climate justice movement, in April. If you missed it, you can watch the opening rally, ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’, and other sessions via cop26coalition.org/globalgathering

CLIMATE

Don’t let fossil fuel companies block climate action When the world’s governments meet in Glasgow in November to discuss the climate crisis, the threat of legal action from big polluters in ‘corporate courts’ will lurk in the shadows, writes JEAN BLAYLOCK. In the year of the last major UN climate summit, in Paris in 2015, the Netherlands seemed to be heading in the wrong direction. Despite the lofty goals of the global summit, the Dutch government had just allowed energy company RWE to open a new coal-fired power station in the country. Climate activist group Urgenda had resorted to taking the government to court over its failure to set more ambitious carbon emission targets, winning an initial ruling. It seemed to sum up all the frustrations of climate campaigning over recent decades. The need for action to tackle the climate emergency had never been clearer, but governments were dragging their feet and the fossil fuel industry was taking advantage. The following year, a further new coal-fired plant was opened by another company, Uniper. But the pressure from climate activists did not let up. There were many demonstrations and protests in the Netherlands in those years, and the Urgenda court ruling was confirmed by the supreme court in 2019. At the end of that year, a law was passed by the Dutch parliament to phase out the use of coal altogether, requiring the shutdown of coal power stations.

ENTER CORPORATE COURTS So people power won, right? Unfortunately, the fossil fuel companies are not only immensely rich and powerful, they also have a privileged legal system they can turn to: corporate courts, formally known as investorstate dispute settlement or ISDS.

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These are rules written into trade and investment deals that allow corporations to sue governments outside of the national legal system for huge amounts. They use tribunals that only look at the investor’s interests, and don’t have to balance them against the public interest or the needs of the planet.

We are seeing an ominous turn in the use of corporate courts to challenge climate action directly. Uniper started threatening a corporate court case while the coal phase-out law was still being debated. This bullying put in jeopardy for a while whether the law would actually be passed, but in the end the parliament did the right thing. Now both Uniper and RWE are suing the Dutch government in the hopes of getting a massive payout. These companies profited first from the government’s inaction. Now they’re trying their luck to see if they can profit twice over through corporate court cases. RWE wants €1.4bn (£1.2bn), while Uniper has not yet said exactly how much it is after. On the face of it they shouldn’t get a penny. Both companies were well aware of both the scientific case and the public pressure for climate action at the time that they built their power stations. They knew

Campaigners in The Hague celebrate the Dutch supreme court's ruling that the government must cut emissions faster, December 2019.

CLIMATE they were taking a risk – not only financially but with the future of the planet. And in reality both plants are uncompetitive and expected to make a loss anyway. Notoriously, when laws were passed against the slave trade in Britain, it was slaveowners who were compensated, not the people who had been enslaved. Today fossil fuel companies are effectively asking for something similar – reparations for climate action, when instead, as polluters, they should be paying to help fix the problems they have caused. And it is corporate courts that tip the scales in their favour.

SENDING A WARNING The implications are wider and more dangerous than just the cost for the public purse in the Netherlands. Corporate courts have long been used to oppose environmental protections, but the last few years have seen an ominous turn in the use of them to challenge climate action directly. Ascent Resources, a UK fossil fuel company, is about to sue Slovenia for requiring an environmental impact assessment on fracking plans. In Canada, a fossil fuel company calling Lone Pine is suing the government over the introduction of a fracking moratorium in Quebec. And Westmoreland, a mining company, is

also suing Canada over the phase-out of coal-fired power stations in Alberta. Corporate court cases can often be secretive and hard to find out about, but Uniper and RWE have been public and vocal in their threats. So much so that it would seem the target is not just the Netherlands, but to send a warning to any other country that might be considering passing similar laws. Especially to developing countries, for whom the amounts at stake are a far higher proportion of their budgets. That’s why, as the UN climate conference reconvenes in Glasgow this November for COP26, we need to turn our attention to the legal threats lurking in the shadows. Corporate courts will make climate action harder, slower and more expensive at a point when we are already running out of time. In some cases they may deter climate action altogether. If we want Glasgow to mark a turning point, we have to raise the temperature on corporate courts. Jean Blaylock is campaign and policy manager on trade at Global Justice Now.

TAKE ACTION Tell the UK government not to let corporate courts block climate action ahead of COP26: globaljustice.org.uk/climate-courts

2021 Ninety-Nine 15

IN PICTURES

Bullets against stones In May Chile began the process of rewriting its Pinochetera constitution, the latest product of the ‘social explosion’ that began in October 2019. Photographer NICOLE KRAMM documented the protests – at great personal cost. Chile’s so-called ‘30 peso revolution’ had its origins in fare rises on the Santiago public transport system in late 2019. Thousands of school students decided to evade fares as a form of protest. As the days went by, workers joined the mass evasion, which ultimately sparked protests and riots against inequality and elitism throughout the country. The government declared a state of emergency, and a brutal military-led crackdown followed. Photographer Nicole Kramm was shot in the eye while documenting the protests, ultimately losing her sight in one eye. She is among more than a hundred people targeted by the military in this way. One of the concessions forced from President Sebastián Piñera was to replace the country’s constitution, which dates back to the era of dictator Augusto Pinochet. 1 Elections to a citizens' assembly to write the constitution were held in May 2021, with Piñera’s party crucially failing to secure enough seats to veto the constitution’s contents, which will be subject to a referendum. Kramm remains cautious about the process, recently issuing a call not to leave the streets: “We will continue the struggle because we don’t want all the suffering that we have lived through during the current Social Explosion to be in vain. The people want the grassroots involved in a real, participatory democracy; we need a constitution that is equitable, feminist and plurinational. “After the elections, there is nothing to celebrate, because we haven’t won anything yet. When a profound social change is made to the system, we will finally be able to raise our voices to celebrate, because no democracy can dawn without first ending so much impunity." "Jail for the human rights violators and freedom for political prisoners. Let’s keep on jumping all the turnstiles.” See the full set of photos at: nicolekramm.com/balascontrapiedras

16 Ninety-Nine 2021

IN PICTURES 1. Protesters retreat for protection after police repression in La Alameda, the main avenue of Santiago. 2. “If the people burn, you will burn with us”. Young people demonstrate against the government of Sebastian Piñera in the surroundings of Plaza de la Dignidad. 3. “Evade, don't pay, another way to fight!” shouted dozens of students in protest against the sharp increase in the price of public transport. National police were brought in to protect the turnstiles. 4. Anti-government protesters raise the official picture of billionaire president Sebastián Piñera crossed out with the word “resignation”.

5. ‘Plaza de la Dignidad’, formerly Plaza Italia, became the focal point of demonstrations in Santiago. In the first few weeks it was estimated that 1,200 people had been injured and 140 people had received serious eye trauma following attacks by the forces of law and order.

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2020 Ninety-Nine 17

COVID-19

Vaccine nationalism is a moral catastrophe GRAÇA MACHEL’s message to the People’s Vaccine rally in March. Today, we mark a year since we as a global family have been confronted with the Covid-19 pandemic.

concern, it is an issue of social justice and a matter of our collective survival.

Human lives are equal in value no matter the geographic lottery of birthplace. Everyone, I Together, humanity has shared in repeat – everyone! Every single human being no the collective trauma of managing an unfathomable magnitude of sickness and death matter where they live in the world – needs and in our midst. Together, in every Loebell corner of the globe, courageous © World Econo mic Forum/Bened ikt von frontline healthcare workers have given blood, sweat and tears to manage the onslaught of this virus. Together, we have navigated the shifts to a virtual world and the disruption of livelihoods and ways of living that has brought about, as well as new demands of home life previously unimagined. Together, we have applied the best of our medical and scientific minds, as well as all facets of our public health infrastructure to produce lifesaving vaccines at unprecedented speed and scale. Top-notch experts and brave ordinary citizens alike are standing shoulder to shoulder in this fight as clinical trials are running from townships in South Africa and communities in Brazil to laboratories in Belgium and India. You see, we are all in the battlefield together. Yet! We are beginning to see dangerous, evil cracks surface in our unity and the divides of socio-economic inequalities becoming even more stark. Hundreds of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, while the number of undernourished people could increase by up to 132 million by the end of the year. Almost 10 million children may never return to school. No one has been left unscathed. It is for this very reason that the vaccine is a human right for all. Vaccine equity is not just a public health

18 Ninety-Nine 2021

deserves access to life-saving vaccines. Vaccine nationalism is a moral catastrophe. History will judge us harshly should we not marshall every resource at our disposal and stretch the bounds of our imaginations to make sure we get vaccines in the arms of those who need it from Maputo to Mexico City to Mumbai. A moral catastrophe should not be allowed to happen. We must act with collective responsibility and solidarity as a human family to ensure each one of us is able to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. Graça Machel is an international advocate for women’s and children’s rights; former freedom fighter and first Education Minister of Mozambique. Watch the People’s Vaccine rally at globaljustice.org.uk/pv-rally

REVIEWS

Reviews NEW PANDEMICS, OLD POLITICS Alex de Waal Polity Books, 2021

READ THE WORLD Pushpinder Khaneka Lulu.com, 2020 If you’re reading this, you’re probably a fan of book reviews – Read the World has over 150, and is a perfect antidote to the Covid staycation blues. Written by journalist (and Global Justice Now member, no less) Pushpinder Khaneka, it started out as a feature on the Guardian website, and has been revised and updated for this second edition book. For each of fifty-plus countries of the global south, Khaneka suggests two fiction and one non-fiction reads which together “go beyond being merely set on location” to “capture a nation’s spirit and reveal something of its soul”. Almost as rewarding for considering what you’d have picked for countries you know as it is for countries you don’t, Read the World can be a gateway to your literary and historical adventures for years to come. Jonathan Stevenson Books featured in Ninety-Nine are now available to buy via globaljustice.org.uk/books

Taking in the Covid-19 pandemic, 19th-century cholera outbreaks, the Great Influenza pandemic of 1918 and the surprisingly upbeat story of how sufferers and activists responded to the HIV-AIDS crisis, Alex De Waal’s important new book helps to situate Covid-19 within the broader arc of humanity’s efforts to control infectious diseases. Foregrounding the socio-economic contexts that facilitate disease spread, the book is particularly informative on how western imperialism enabled the spread of cholera in India and HIV-AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

contagion theory of cholera transmission was “a humbug got up for the restriction of our commerce.” It’s a detail that highlights his central thesis – that although viruses are subject to dramatic change, the political responses to pandemic disease are often depressingly familiar.

In the chapter on cholera, De Waal recounts how in 1831 a correspondent for the medical journal The Lancet wrote that the (at the time disputed)

Alex Doherty Hear Alex interview Alex de Waal on the Politics, Theory, Other podcast via globaljustice.org.uk/pto

LEFT POPULISM IN EUROPE Marina Prentoulis Pluto Press, 2021 Left populism is a concept often associated with Latin America, where the late 1990s ‘pink tide’ brought to power governments determined to challenge neoliberalism in the name of ‘the people’. The term is often seen as less relevant to European politics, but former UK spokesperson for Syriza Marina Prentoulis encourages us to rethink this. By exploring the wave of radical politics in the wake of Europe’s financial crash – specifically the experiences of Greece, Spain and Britain – Prentoulis compares the strengths and failings of Syriza, Podemos and Labour under Corbyn, particularly examining the role populism played.

Ultimately, none of the movements have transformed Europe in the way they intended, but they have shifted the dial. To shift it further, Prentoulis urges us to reconsider how we engage in politics in a fundamental way, embracing a form of populism which avoids identification with the nation state and instead looks down to the municipal level and up to the international level. Nick Dearden

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“ for continuing to fight Now supporters are er Global Justice rch. Ma me lco We Half a century lat s the Refugee , pictured here at a more just world

I am leaving Global Justice Now a gift in my will because the work they do is of the greatest importance. It is a long, hard battle we are embarked on – not just for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren.

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