Global Justice Now Impact Report 2021 by Global Justice Now

Impact Report 2021

The issues are seriously global, justice is essential on so many levels. And no time like the present! Seana

I am happy and really proud to be a supporter of Global Justice Now – must be getting on for 30 years! Anita

It’s incredibly important at this point in human history to uphold the truth and act in solidarity with others who wish to do the same.

I think your work on the trade deals that the UK government wants us to have post-Brexit is really important. Please keep up the pressure on the government.

Cooper

Together we are powerful Global Justice Now provides information crucial to a full understanding of political and economic drivers of injustice in the world, most of which is ignored by mainstream media. Chas

Together we can be heard, carry on speaking truth to power. Alan

Only through ordinary people doing extraordinary things can change be achieved. The more ordinary people get organised, the more extraordinary change for the good of many can be achieved. Diana

Contents A message from our director

Some highlights of 2021

Our campaigns in the press

Pushing back against vaccine apartheid

Resisting corporate courts for people and planet 10 Campaigning for climate justice

Together against the corporate hijacking of aid 14 Exposing the colonial debt trap

Mobilising for change

Our impact in Scotland

Thank you for your support during 2021

A message from our director It’s a rare thing for a campaign we’re working on to be endorsed by the president of the United States of America. That Joe Biden came out in support of the TRIPS waiver for Covid-19 vaccines last May is testament to the amazing campaigning of our allies in the USA and throughout the world. But that such a thing could happen at all is also a sign of the times.

What’s true for medicines is also true for our food, our communications systems, and our environment. We have proved beyond doubt that this big business dominated global economy is unable to deal with the existential crises we face, let alone to do so equitably. Last November, at the climate summit in Glasgow, it was impossible for world leaders to ignore the demand of movements around the world for wholesale economic change to deal with the climate emergency. Again, they didn’t do what we wanted, but it was clear both from speeches on the conference floor, and the commentary in the mainstream media, that we have changed the debate, fundamentally and permanently.

We are engaged in an epoch-defining battle for justice. While there is no certainty what will happen next, there is hope. Reading through this annual review convinces me, once again, that hope is based in movements like ours. It’s the only way positive change has ever been brought about. Thank you for being part of this.

Nick Dearden Director of Global Justice Now

Our global economy, built on governments having to accede to the demands of the market, is breaking down. While our people’s vaccine campaign has not succeeded yet, it has exposed the extreme inequality inherent in this economic model and built a powerful movement for change. This has also provided space where governments of the global south can start doing things differently, now.

The mRNA hub in South Africa – built on the principle of freely sharing medical research outside the grip of the monopolistic Big Pharma industry – is a small but powerful example of how radically things are changing.

Some highlights of 2021 During COP26 we got wide media coverage of our undercover investigation which discovered industry insiders expect that the more ambitious climate policy is, the more corporate court cases there will be, and that the amounts at stake could be over $9 trillion. © Jess Hurd

We joined local activists at the G7 to send a strong message about debt cancellation and vaccine access.

In October we joined nearly 250 organisations globally in the “No Climate Justice without Debt Justice!” campaign. This included a joint public statement, Twitterstorm and numerous online events to highlight how debt crises are holding back climate action.

Backed by scientists, political leaders, and even the Pope, the campaign for a people’s vaccine celebrated success after success throughout the year. The majority of world leaders are now in support of waiving the patents on Covid-19 vaccines and the UK government is one of only a handful still in opposition. But the growing awareness and mounting public pressure is paving the way for a better global health system. More than a year of concerted effort resulted in an exciting victory in Scotland in December, when Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced her support for the people’s vaccine campaign, and waiving the patents on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.

With the UK’s hosting of COP26 we made sure the economic and structural changes needed to avert climate chaos were firmly on the agenda. We were go-to experts on climate for media interviews, public panels and online events. Globally, we addressed numerous AGMs and major international climate fora organised by key social movements and networks throughout the year. Together we celebrated a success when it was announced that corporate courts wouldn’t be included in the UK-Australia trade deal, this was great motivation to keep resisting corporate courts at every turn.

Global Justice Reading group campaigning against corporate courts

Our campaigns in the press Gaining media coverage is a key way we are raising awareness about our campaigns, changing opinions, mobilising the public and pressuring decision makers. 2021 was a huge year for exposing the injustice we are fighting with around 1,500 media mentions. Our campaigners’ voices made it into most national newspapers, TV, radio and many international outlets – the US, China, Germany, India, and South Africa just to name a few.

Clockwise from left: Dorothy Guerrero on Scotland Tonight highlighting that the fight against climate change is a fight for system change; Daniel Willis quoted on BBC News accusing MPs of having “blood on their hands” over cuts to overseas aid; Daniel Willis calling for debt cancellation in the Guardian

Clockwise from left: Liz Murray calling for Scotland’s first minister to urge the UK Government to end its indefensible protection of big pharma monopolies; Jean Blaylock calling out big business in the Independent; Heidi Chow on Channel 4 News discussing corporate vaccine monopolies; Sky News featuring our research on corporate courts; director Nick Dearden with an opinion piece on trade deals in the Guardian; Nick Dearden with ally Fatima Hassan arguing against vaccine inequality in the Times.

Pushing back against vaccine apartheid While those of us in the UK have been offered third and even fourth vaccine doses, across the whole of Africa only 9% were double jabbed by the end of 2021. This is vaccine apartheid, but there was nothing inevitable about this inequality. The supplies of Covid-19 vaccines are not limited because the world lacks the ability to produce enough, but because big pharmaceutical companies and a handful of governments have blocked the demands of global south countries to produce their own. The UK is one of a handful of governments blocking a proposal to suspend intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and tests, an initiative that would mean more vaccines being made, more control for countries in the global south, and cheaper prices for everyone. Their determination to maintain monopolies has created an artificial scarcity and cost lives. Last year we piled the pressure on our government and big pharma to change direction. 8

Even with the challenges of lockdowns and social distancing, our activists were at the heart of this fight in 2021. In March, our online global rally with the People’s Vaccine Alliance heard speakers from across the world, including politicians, doctors, patients, and campaigners. And when the big pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca had its shareholder meeting we made our presence known in person, demanding the company share its vaccine, with protests organised by our youth network outside its labs and offices. Together with local activists at the G7 summit in Cornwall we put pressure on governments to back the waiver

proposal and challenged Boris Johnson on his claim he would “vaccinate the world”, handing in our petition, organising a projection addressed at world leaders, and coordinating a flash mob. By October, we could again take to the streets in force and our day of shame, including a funeral procession to Westminster, exposed how the UK government blocking the waiver costs lives every day. Each of these actions achieved widespread media coverage, ensuring our message was heard loud and clear. Our struggle for a people’s vaccine became a mainstream political demand in 2021, reaching every corner of the press.

One of my personal highlights – Tim Bierley I was proud of our response to the emergence of the Omicron variant, where we worked to expose racist travel bans and helped shape the public debate by pointing out how vaccine inequality makes new variants more likely. We also revealed how Moderna’s and Pfizer’s shares had rocketed, showing just how perverse the incentives of the big pharma business model really are.

2022 and beyond The momentum of 2021 has continued into 2022. We have kept the heat on the UK government for failing to back the patent waiver, including by coordinating a letter signed by 300 scientists and public health experts, calling the government’s inaction “reckless”. Our March speaker tour brought human rights campaigners Fatima Hassan from South Africa and Maurine Murenga from Kenya, to speak to new activists. Together we increased awareness about vaccine inequality. In the year to come, we will keep up the fight for equal access to Covid-19 vaccines by campaigning in support of the WHO hubs which are aiming to bypass big pharma monopolies, first to bring mRNA technology to South Africa, and then to share it with the world. We will also keep the pressure on big pharma companies and the economic models that sustain their monopoly profits, to demand a more democratic, healthier pharma industry. 9

Resisting corporate courts for people and planet Trade has always been and always will be part of our society. But the current trade system is far from just or sustainable. During 2021 we focused particularly on the ways in which trade rules fuel the climate crisis and damage climate justice. Backed by our activists and supporters, we highlighted how the corporate courts system that is part of many modern trade and investment deals is being used by fossil fuel companies to block desperately needed climate action. We had real breakthrough moments in the media with Sky News covering our research showing that five fossil fuel companies are suing governments for more than $18 billion in corporate courts over climate policies. During COP26, findings from our investigation showed that industry insiders expect a steep rise in corporate court cases with more governments introducing more ambitious climate policies and that the amounts at stake could be over $9 trillion. 10

Our message was loud and clear on our day of action, with projections onto a power station owned by energy company Uniper. We followed this with a ‘corporate courts circus’ outside London based law firms representing energy companies Uniper, RWE and Ascent Resources, which are all using corporate courts to sue over climate action. Local groups held actions up and down the country and we ended the day with a webinar with international speakers sharing their experiences. We also took our campaign to COP26 where we held a webinar on corporate courts and climate as part of the People’s Summit, with speakers from South Africa, Indonesia and Canada. By the time we did an interim petition hand-in just before Christmas, more

than 45,000 people had backed our demands for the UK government to exclude corporate courts from the UK-Australia trade deal, the UK- Canada trade deal, exit the Energy Charter Treaty and not to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. Our persistence and hard work throughout the year paid off. Together we forced the government to back down on including corporate courts in the UK-Australia deal, and celebrated a further win in March this year when corporate courts were dropped from the UK-Canada deal too. This really shows what we can achieve when we come together and take action, feed into government consultations, sign petitions, reach out to our communities or join protests demanding change.

One of my personal highlights – Jean Blaylock Seeing our campaign messages on corporate courts and climate go viral after they made the headlines on Sky News – and how many people immediately grasped how outrageous these secret tribunals are.

2022 and beyond This year we want to build upon the momentum we have achieved around the risks corporate courts pose for climate justice. During the first half of 2022 the focus is on the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), a giant corporate court deal between 49 countries. It is increasingly being used by fossil fuel companies, including Uniper and RWE which are suing the Netherlands over coal phase-out. As campaigning pressure has raised the profile of this issue, more and more European governments are talking openly about possibly leaving the ECT and a crunch point is approaching in June. With our allies in Europe, we have been planning a day of action in the run-up to this decision point. We’ll also continue to mobilise against the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which the UK hopes to join by the end of 2022. 11

Campaigning for climate justice Radical action is needed immediately and throughout this decade to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. So, together with our supporters and allies, Global Justice Now brings attention to how dealing with the structural root causes of climate chaos means changing the rules of the global economic system. With the COP26 climate conference taking place in Glasgow we had a particular responsibility to focus on climate change throughout 2021. We took the opportunity to make our voices heard, and highlight the systemic changes we need to tackle the climate emergency effectively. We were a key organiser in the COP26 Coalition (a civil society coalition formed to respond to COP26) and greatly contributed to the mobilisations for the conference. We also played a big part in consolidating and strengthening the UK and global climate justice movement through the coalition’s online and in-person political and public education work, networking and solidarity building work. 12

Oliver Kornblihtt/Mídia NINJA CC: BY-NC-2.0

That work built a strong foundation for long-term movement building and activism for climate justice and system change in the UK. The COP26 Coalition organised a People’s Forum on Climate Justice, with multiple events alongside the official conference. We worked with allies to run a number of sessions.

adaptation, and does not equate to historic responsibility for climate change. This was picked up by the media and ensured there was increased understanding that climate finance needs to be grant-based and proportional to historic emissions.

Ahead of COP26 we published a new briefing on climate finance, showing the inadequacy of the UK’s and other rich countries’ climate finance contributions thus far, which fall far short of what was agreed a decade ago and much further short of a fair and just response. We showed the majority of climate finance is currently loan-based, unreliable, not sufficient to ensure climate mitigation and

After a public consultation, the government confirmed at the end of March 2021 that it would stop funding fossil fuel projects overseas. This came after thousands of Global Justice Now supporters had responded to the consultation. At COP26, other major economies also agreed to end public fossil fuel finance in the global south.

One of my personal highlights – Dorothy Guerrero As one of the official spokespeople of the COP26 Coalition I regularly had the chance to make the climate justice case in the media. I did 50 interviews (including daily updates on TV and radio shows) during the two-week negotiations alone, ensuring our campaigns were part of the conversation.

2022 and beyond As climate chaos increases year on year, we continue to draw attention to the deep, structural changes we need to our global economic system. This year we are continuing to expose any loopholes that allow overseas fossil fuels funding to continue. We suspect that the UK may finance further fossil fuel projects this year via British International Investment and we will expose this to the media if they do. The government is now reviewing the success of its policy and we are working with allies to hold them to account, while also working with several MPs to ask for information via parliamentary questions. The UK’s presidency of COP continues, so we’re reminding decision makers of their responsibility to people and planet. We also continue to work as part of the COP26 Coalition, now named the Climate Justice Coalition, campaigning together for climate justice and building on the successes of the coalition. 13

Together against the corporate hijacking of aid

British aid has faced vast cuts in the last few years, and in 2021 Global Justice Now and our supporters campaigned together against such a drastic reduction to the budget. These cuts are not economically necessary to the UK, in fact they will make almost no difference to UK public finances. But they could lead to more extreme poverty in the global south.

need them most, and investment in environmentally destructive plans such as palm oil plantations.

Unfortunately, the government is intent on diverting what’s left of the aid budget to promoting private sector interests. Our research shows that among the projects funded with British aid are private hospitals and schools that will not benefit the marginalised communities that

Thanks to your support, we have been able to engage closely with the UK development bank CDC Group which has responded to concerns raised about individual investees and now says it will not invest in private healthcare if it undermines public services.

But we’re not taking this lying down. In 2021 nearly 25,000 supporters backed our campaign opposing the use of UK aid to promote British business interests, and wrote in their thousands to their MPs in opposition to the cuts. They also raised public awareness of the cuts to UK aid by holding public meetings, organising stalls and distributing leaflets that we produced on the subject.

Our report on how aid money funds private healthcare has been quoted by MPs in speeches around privatisation and the cuts to UK aid, and was submitted to parliamentary enquiries. In March Navendu Mishra MP quoted our research in a speech about the privatisation of public services to the House of Commons on World Water Day. In December we coordinated a joint letter with other concerned NGOs to the foreign secretary Liz Truss opposing the rebrand of the UK development bank to British International Investment. This letter was covered in the press more than once.

2022 and beyond

One of my personal highlights – Daniel Willis

Together with supporters and activists, we will keep making the positive case for aid as a way to redistribute economic and political power in the world.

We published a report into how aid money funds private healthcare, resulting in two pieces of coverage in the Times. Questions about these investments were put to the foreign secretary and we used the findings for joint advocacy and movement building with our international allies.

This year, we will continue to expose how the UK has been using aid to support British business interests and how damaging this can be around the world. We will issue a new report ahead of the publication of the UK’s new international development strategy, which is expected to promote UK expertise and commercial partnerships rather than genuinely help those in need. We will also hand in the petition that we started gathering your signatures for in 2021, calling for aid to be used to tackle inequality and poverty, and not to line the pockets of the private sector.

Exposing the colonial debt trap The international debt system has been described as a colonial debt trap or ‘debtor’s prison’, a system that massively favours rich countries and big banks who take advantage of the lack of regulation. Together with activists and supporters Global Justice Now is making sure that the profiteers playing the international debt system for their own unjust advantage are scrutinised and challenged. And we’re raising the alarm about how letting the broken debt system continue unchecked is exacerbating the crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Debt payments are also preventing countries from investing in climate adaptation, 16

meaning that worse emergencies loom on the horizon as climate chaos increases. Throughout 2021, along with our allies in the UK debt coalition, we campaigned for big banks to take responsibility for the harm their loans are causing. Thousands of you wrote to the CEOs of HSBC, Blackrock, UBS and JP Morgan calling for debt cancellation for the global south. We projected our call for debt cancellation onto the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, so that big banks couldn’t ignore our demands or claim ignorance. In May we demonstrated outside HSBC’s AGM, getting coverage in the Guardian and Reuters, and we increased public awareness further with an electronic billboard van spreading our campaign message around London.

Local activists helped to build public awareness of the need for debt cancellation through stalls and local group talks, and attending protests and rallies. In September activists and campaigners in Scotland organised a walking tour of big banks refusing to cancel Zambia’s debt, targeting Blackrock, JP Morgan and Aberdeen Standard Investments. We held a protest at the G7 calling for debt cancellation, and with allies we wrote to the chancellor arguing that the G7 should compel private creditors to cancel debt. At COP26, we held webinars and hybrid events on debt cancellation, climate justice and reparations, and published briefings to increase public and media understanding of the issue.

One of my personal highlights – Daniel Willis My highlight was our action at HSBC’s AGM in May, calling on the bank to cancel global south debt. Alongside Jubilee Debt Campaign, CAFOD and Christian Aid, we organised a protest outside the AGM, and sent shareholders inside to put questions directly to the board.

2022 and beyond This year we are focusing on calling for debt cancellation for Zambia, supporting demands being made by Zambian civil society. As big banks and speculators continued collecting large repayments from Zambia throughout the pandemic, it became the first African country to announce it can’t make the debt repayments that big banks are refusing to delay or renegotiate, and is now in negotiations to restructure that debt. The UK government is playing a key part in the negotiations, so we have launched a new petition calling on the chancellor and foreign secretary to support debt cancellation for Zambia. We also held a day of action in solidarity with Zambian campaigners, targeting Blackrock’s offices in London and Edinburgh, while thousands of supporters have also been writing to Blackrock’s CEO in support of these demands. 17

Mobilising for change Despite the many difficulties caused by Covid, Global Justice Now activists around the UK managed to make their voices heard throughout the year, culminating in a major mobilisation around the UN climate talks. We started the year very much still online, with everything from a national youth network event to various regular local group meetings and talks taking place with the help of the now-ubiquitous Zoom platform. However, things changed in May when we organised simultaneous protests at the headquarters of AstraZeneca in Cambridge and another major site in Macclesfield to coincide with the company’s AGM. Our youth network took the lead on these lively events, but were joined by groups from our regular network and other local activists. 18

Throughout the year, but especially during the summer, local groups ran public stalls on our campaigns for vaccine equality, and against corporate courts, and valiantly explained the inequities of global economic structures to the general public, generating hundreds of petition signatures in the process. As usual, local groups also pressed their MPs on the whole range of our campaigning priorities, though these meetings now tend to take place over video calls rather than in person. In September our day of action on corporate courts and climate change was taken up not just in our own network, but saw the wider climate movement start to get involved. Mini-protests and campaign stalls proliferated around the country. We also helped our existing youth network groups to run stalls at university freshers’ fairs, as well as working to establish the network in some new places. And Global Justice Stirling, which is part of the youth network and based mainly at the university, ran a climate festival in Stirling as part of the run-up to COP26.

Our groups involved themselves in the local hubs of the COP26 Coalition which organised protests for climate justice around the country during COP26 itself. In places such as Nottingham the Global Justice Now group was central to establishing the hub in the first place. Local group members were also among those making the journey up to Glasgow itself. This was especially true of the youth network, whose members spent around four days in the city, joining multiple protests, and organising their own on climate colonialism which was covered in the local press, at which MP Nadia Whittome spoke. As well as taking part in the People’s Assembly, Global Justice Now activism staff organised our own activist hub in Glasgow from which we were able to coordinate our efforts, hold discussions and welcome some of our international allies.

2022 and beyond We’ve now recruited a full-time youth network organiser to ensure we can keep involving new generations in our activism well into the future. We Rise, our youth network gathering, returned to taking place in real life, drawing around 120 participants to the London venue from as far away as Scotland.

Our impact in Scotland

Our campaign work in Scotland in 2021 focused mainly on equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines and debt cancellation for countries in the global south. Throughout 2021, the UK government shamefully continued to block the proposal for a waiver on patents for 20

Covid-19 vaccines and treatments made by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization, becoming more and more isolated globally in its position on this. Our aim in Scotland was to encourage the Scottish government to publicly come out in support of the waiver – isolating the UK government further.

And a year of concerted campaigning led to success! Building on the groundwork we had done with members of the Scottish parliament at the end of 2020, along with partners Oxfam Scotland and Christian Aid Scotland, during 2021 we succeeded in getting almost half of all MSPs to sign a parliamentary motion supporting

the waiver on patents and this then led to a debate in parliament. We also generated more media coverage, including national tv and radio, on this issue than we have on any of our campaigns for many years. And Global Justice Now supporters were active locally, writing to and meeting their MSPs, ensuring that our message was heard loud and clear. At the end of the year, all the hard work paid off when we were delighted to hear Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon state in parliament that she supported our campaign and the call for a waiver on patents for Covid-19 vaccines and that she would personally write to Prime Minister Boris Johnson about it.

Alongside this, we also focused campaigning efforts on calling on the big banks to cancel the debt of countries in the global south. In Scotland, we particularly highlighted Zambia, as one of the Scottish government’s international development partner countries struggling with an enormous debt burden. We also focused on some of the private lenders with a presence in Scotland that were refusing to cancel debt. With local activists, including a number originally from Zambia, we held protests outside the offices of financial corporations Abrdn, HSBC and UBS. We raised the issue directly with the Scottish government international development minister and Blackrock took a PR hit

One of my personal highlights – Jane Herbstritt I joined with local supporters, many with Zambian connections, to protest outside Edinburgh’s banks, calling for Zambia’s debt to be cancelled. It was great to be taking action in real life again, and great to hear the rendition of Zambia’s national anthem standing outside HSBC, Abrdn plc and UBS, placards in hand, giving leaflets to passers-by.

from us when we projected ‘Cancel the debt’ onto their building one evening. And of course, with the COP26 UN climate talks in Glasgow in November, we made sure our activists from across the UK were well supported and received a warm welcome when they came to join the huge march as well as events in the People’s Summit.

2022 and beyond We will be encouraging the first minister to continue making public the Scottish government’s support for our campaign and the waiver on patents of Covid-19 vaccines and treatments – and to do that jointly with the first minister of Wales in order to increase the pressure on the prime minister. We’ll continue to target Blackrock for its refusal to cancel Zambia’s debt and are planning creative protests with local activists and partners Jubilee Scotland to draw attention to this. 21

Thank you

for your support during 2021 Members and supporters are the foundation of Global Justice Now, giving us the freedom to speak out against injustice and build a movement to change the global economic system. Together we can help create a world where people are placed before profit. With the financial backing of our members, likeminded trusts and faith groups, we can resist major injustices in our world. We can raise awareness of, mobilise and take action for global justice and propose alternative ways of organising the economy.

In 2021 74% of our funding came from individuals, through one-off and regular donations, and legacies. Last year, supporters with regular gifts together gave £595,000. Regular gifts, one-off donations and gifts left in wills give us

the stability to be able to plan long-term campaigns. They also enable us to respond to what’s happening in the world and to direct our work where there is the greatest potential for change. 24% of our funding came from likeminded trusts, foundations and faith-based groups enabling us to increase our campaigning capacity and helping to amplify our voice. Thank you for your continued trust and support throughout 2021.

Sandra Wild Fundraising and supporter engagement

Leave the future to a voice you can trust Gifts in wills form a significant part of our income, helping to fund our vital campaigns. By leaving a gift in your will to Global Justice Now, you can be sure you’ll make a difference long into the future, helping to fight for what you believe in. If you would like to find out more about leaving a gift in your will, please visit globaljustice.org.uk/leave-gift-your-will or email Eleanor.Williams@globaljustice.org.uk

How we spent our income in 2021 Most of our income in 2021 (71%) went directly to our campaigns. Some (27%) was invested in communicating our campaigns to supporters and the public, and some into fundraising, to ensure we can continue to challenge injustice. 2% went towards the governance of Global Justice Now ensuring democratic oversight of the organisation.

71%

39%

Campaigns

Expenditure £1,537,759

27%

Fundraising and communications

25%

Regular giving donations from individual supporters

Grants (unrestricted)

Other donations from individual supporters

Income £1,523,688

20%

Governance

These amounts have not yet been audited

Grants (restricted)

3% 2% Faith based

organisations

Other incomes

10%

Legacies

Thank you for being part of the movement for change To find out more or ask a question, get in touch at: Global Justice Now, 66 Offley Road, London SW9 0LS 020 7820 4900 • offleyroad@globaljustice.org.uk www.globaljustice.org.uk • Global Justice Now •

@GlobalJusticeUK @globaljusticenow

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