Campaign news

© Jess Hurd

Rich countries hold out on vaccine access as pharma profits rise

Even after an estimated 20 million excess deaths around the world during the pandemic, a handful of rich countries have continued their grim mission to block the suspension of intellectual property on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments (the ‘TRIPS waiver’), with the UK at the forefront.

In March, after the world marked two years since the WHO declared a global pandemic, Global Justice Now’s ‘Decolonise Vaccines’ speaker tour came to eight UK towns and cities. It was brilliant to see so many supporters, old and new, in attendance. South African human rights lawyer Fatima Hassan joined us for the first leg, then Kenyan health activist Maurine Murenga, galvanising us with stories of their campaigns that confronted political and corporate interests head on.

Just a couple of days after our speaker tour started, a leaked text on the TRIPS waiver emerged from the World Trade Organization, with some reporting a compromise between South Africa, India, the US and the EU. But it soon became clear that rich nations had conceded very little. To help create the space for India and South Africa to resist the ‘deal’, the global People’s Vaccine Alliance sprang into action. In the UK, we worked with partners to coordinate a letter from MPs and Lords condemning the text, and held a roundtable in parliament where Fatima Hassan let rip on its many flaws. As Ninety-Nine goes to press, we await news of the latest WTO talks.

In April, Pfizer and Moderna both announced enormous 2021 profits, with Pfizer doubling its annual revenue from the previous year. We joined global protests on the day that both held their AGM. It followed positive news in February, when the WHO’s mRNA vaccine hub in South Africa announced that it has successfully reverse engineered the Moderna vaccine, and hopes to begin production later in the year. The WHO later announced 13 partner countries to share the findings with, increasing the prospect that low- and middleincome countries will be able to rely on making their own vaccines, rather than being beholden to big pharma companies, in the near future.

Watch the speaker tour at:

globaljustice.org.uk/decolonisevaccines

As Pfizer held its AGM online in April, we went to the company's UK headquarters to demand an end to pandemic profiteering.

© Jess Hurd

Corporate courts kept out of UK-Canada trade deal

We had some good news in March in our campaign on corporate courts and climate. Last year, thousands of Global Justice Now supporters took action to call for corporate courts to be dropped from the UK-Canada trade deal. When the government finally published its plans, buried in the trade jargon was a single sentence that says corporate courts will not be there. This is an amazing turnaround from a year ago and it shows what we can achieve when we come together to take action.

The latest IPCC report from UN climate experts confirms why this matters for the climate. It warns of “regulatory chill” and highlights how fossil fuel corporations are using these secret tribunals to “block” the phase out of fossil fuels. The report highlights the Energy Charter Treaty, a giant corporate court deal between 49 countries that many of the fossil fuel companies are using. Several governments have expressed reservations about the treaty, but reform talks are stalled and there is the possibility of the EU withdrawing.

Our day of action on 21 May focused on corporate courts and the ECT. Up and down the country, groups took action, from demonstrations outside specialist law firms, to a protest at a power station owned by Uniper which is suing the Dutch government over phasing out coal power. It was part of a month of action around Europe calling on governments to scrap the treaty, ahead of a crunch decision point in June.

Find out more at:

globaljustice.org.uk/ect

Above: We joined a protest at the AngloAmerican AGM in April over its Cerrejón corporate court case against Colombia.

Zambia: Cancel the debt

Zambia is one of a number of countries in the global south facing an economic crisis following the pandemic. Negotiations are underway over how to restructure the country’s debt, roughly half of which is owed to private banks and financial corporations in the UK. Global Justice Now has been campaigning in solidarity with Zambian civil society to demand that the banks cancel the debt (see page 18).

Blackrock, the world’s biggest asset manager which controls roughly $10 trillion in wealth, stands to make 110% profit from Zambian debt if it is paid off in full. Thousands of Global Justice Now supporters have written to Blackrock CEO Larry Fink to demand debt cancellation, and we helped organise a day of action against Blackrock in London and Edinburgh in April. Together we have also made a campaign video highlighting how Zambia’s debt crisis is leading to austerity and holding back climate action.

Get involved at: globaljustice.org.uk/debt

© Callum Bennetts/Maverick Press Agency

Above: Campaigners outside Blackrock in Edinburgh.

UK aid set to be further hijacked

In April, we handed in a petition with over 25,000 signatures calling on the government to stop using aid to support the private sector and British businesses, and instead focus on tackling inequality and climate change. Foreign secretary Liz Truss’s new international development strategy will result in even more development funding being spent promoting British companies around the world.

In response to the strategy, we published research into the government’s Prosperity Fund showing why this approach to aid spending doesn’t reduce poverty and often results in aid being spent on useless or even damaging projects, such as healthcare privatisation and corporate trade conferences.

This highlights why any progressive government cannot simply return the aid budget to 0.7%, but will also have to radically rethink how UK aid can be a force for good in the world.

Read the report: globaljustice.org.uk/prosperity-fund

The campaign was launched with a guerrilla projection in Canary Wharf in March.Left: Finance campaigner Daniel Willis hands in the petition.