Ninety Nine magazine - issue 2 by Global Justice Now

Challenging the power of the 1%

P O ST

P I TT

Issue 02 - May 2015

Free trade fightback! An unprecedented corporate power grab is sparking resistance around the world.

Also in this issue igerian farmers lose land N in aid-backed project Greece and austerity Oaxaca street art hits London

ISSUE 02: May 2015 03 Global news 06 Campaign news 08 Greece rejects austerity 10 Turning the tide on TTIP 12 Bad BITs: Global trade in context 16 Street art: From the walls of Oaxaca 18 Electricity privatisation in Nigeria 18 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 • www.globaljustice.org.uk Editor: Kevin Smith Design: Neo Cover image: ©Angula Berria / www.angulaberria.info Printed on paper made from 100% post-consumer waste. Get Ninety-Nine delivered to your door three times a year when you become a member of Global Justice Now. Go to www.globaljustice.org.uk/join

2 Ninety-Nine 2015

Beyond the ballot boxes By the time you read this editorial, we will know the outcome of the general election. We will know how many were motivated to vote and for whom. More worryingly, we will know the number of people that decided not to vote. Whatever the outcome of the general election one thing is certain: even accounting for the significant surge in membership of the Green Party, the Scottish National Party and the UK Independence Party, fewer people are joining political parties. Of course, just because membership of UK political parties is less than 1%, this does not mean that people are not interested in politics. 36% of people in the UK claim to be interested in politics “a great deal” or “quite a lot”, and this figure is rising. Rather than join a political party, there is evidence that people are more interested in taking action on particular issues. We have seen this in our own campaigns. From the thousands who supported Jubilee 2000, to the groundswell of opposition to TTIP right now. The relaunch of Global Justice Now has been a powerful opportunity to refresh and strengthen our identity and the issues on which we campaign. Poverty and inequality, whether in the global south or north, are systemic problems. They may be starkest in sub-Saharan Africa but are present here in the wealthy UK too. This is why we need to make the links between global and local struggles more explicit. There’s been an incredible response to this shift from our supporters. Membership is

growing and new groups are forming. Our relaunch conference in February was fit to bursting with almost one thousand participants and we’re going to recreate that energy in our AGM in Glasgow in June (see p.15). Despite the buzz, there is no reason to be complacent. Below the surface of this incredible energy, there are many groups of people who are absent from our activities. Those under 30, working class and people from black and ethnic minority groups are significantly under-represented. These are also the groups least likely to participate in political parties. Challenging neoliberalism and the power of corporations in order to create a world for the many and not the few can only be possible with a mass movement united in demanding change. If we do not build our base and engage a broad section of society in our campaigns, we also risk misunderstanding the problems and identifying inadequate or false solutions. Global Justice Now has an exciting future ahead, building on a proud legacy of engagement and change. Engaging those who are missing from our organisation will not be easy. We will have to consider the way we campaign, who our allies are and the issues on which we take action. But it is a priority for us.

Polly Jones Head of policy and campaigns Global Justice Now

GLOBAL NEWS

Nigerian farmers lose land in New Alliance-backed project Small-scale farmers in Nigeria’s north eastern state of Taraba are facing a battle with big business over their land. The Gassol community has farmed local fields and fish ponds for generations and is now facing eviction to make way for US company Dominion Farms to establish a 30,000 hectare rice plantation. It’s just one of the latest in a swathe of land grabs across the continent as governments back large corporations to access resources in the name of progress. Yet small-scale farmers, Africa’s main food producers, are losing out. The Dominion Farms project is part of the G8’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition through which the UK government is channeling £600m of aid money. Launched in 2012, the New Alliance draws on G8 aid to push for pro-corporate policy reforms across 10 African states to attract the world’s biggest agribusinesses. Like other African states, Nigeria is now changing its laws on land, seed and trade that effectively hand control of local food systems to corporate giants, including Unilever, Syngenta and Dominion. The New Alliance claims it will bring economic growth and increased food production to African countries. Yet the impact of Dominion Farms on the Gassol community is the latest case to show that while corporations access more resources, farmers and poor communities are being hit hard.

The community has been offered no compensation or resettlement plan. A report published by Global Justice Now and allies in Nigeria and North America showed that the local people were not even consulted about Dominion Farms’ arrival, although the company has already started to occupy the lands. The report showed how, instead of supporting food security in Nigeria, aid money is going to projects which result in the local community being forced off the land that thousands of families depend on for their food needs and livelihoods. The international development secretary Justine Greening has faced questions by MPs about the UK’s involvement in the New Alliance as well as its complicity in this land grab. Over 5,700 people have also called on Dominion’s CEO Calvin Burgess to withdraw from Taraba State. With Gassol’s farmers already losing access to land and other resources, the community has pledged to fight back. “We were ready for peaceful demonstrations, dialogue and even to cry out to the whole world just to hear our voices,” says local farmer Mallam Ismaila Gebi. “But if this does not work out then we can mobilise against Dominion Farms for our land, the land of our forefathers, with our families and remain there until they answer us.”

Members of the Gassol community whose livelihoods are threatened by Dominion Farms.

GLOBAL NEWS

Carbon credit dam implicated in Guatemalan murders

2009 memorial of the Chixoy Dam massacre

The construction of a mega-dam in Guatemala has been linked to the murder of six indigenous people, two of them children, according to the Guardian. Backed by the World Bank and European development banks, the Santa Rita Hydroelectric Plant will also produce carbon allowances which can be traded on the EU’s environmentally disastrous carbon markets. Indigenous communities in the area claim they have not been consulted, that they will be displaced in their thousands and that most of the energy from the dam will be exported out of Guatemala. Worse still were recent killings carried out by the son of a local landowner who opened fire on a Mayan community ceremony. He claims it was self defence. Two children were also killed by an allegedly drunken company worker

looking to intimidate local opposition. Guatemala has an appalling history of human rights abuses, especially against the large indigenous population. Most citizens lived under near-genocidal state repression during the 1970s and ‘80s. Even at the height of the terror, the World Bank happily backed hydro-electric dams. On 12 February 1982, about almost 70 people were murdered to make way for the infamous Chixoy Dam, the first of four massacres in which more than 400 women and children were killed. Santa Rita is only one case of serious repression being meted out to clear the path for so-called ‘green development’. The UN body that monitors such carbon offset projects claims it can only look at emissions reductions, not human rights abuses.

US policy on Cuba defeated Since 1960, the USA has enforced a blockade on Cuba. Goods could not be imported from the US, including food and medicines. Cubans could not use US financial services or banks. US citizens were banned from travelling to Cuba. In December, 2014 Raul Castro and Barack Obama announced that after more than half a century

the diplomatic freeze was finally over and joint talks would lead to normalising the relationship. This is the result of the support from other Latin American states which want Cuba to be included in their international dealings with the US. US firms are also keen to participate in new business opportunities in Cuba. And of course, resistance

within Cuba and solidarity from around the world, including in the UK, has played a significant part in bringing about this rapprochement. The extreme political bias of US foreign policy was still very much evident however in March 2015 when it ordered sanctions against Venezuela and declared it a national threat.

GLOBAL NEWS

NEWS SHORTS Fracking protests erupt across Algeria Since the start of 2015, Algerians have been protesting in tens of thousands across the country in response to the regime’s announcement of plans to drill the first shale gas well in In Salah, an oasis town in the heart of the Sahara desert. The frequency and intensity of the protests have taken the authorities by surprise and have raised questions over the plans of companies like Total and Shell to frack in the region.

Loans to impoverished countries treble

Water privatisation cancelled in Jakarta On 24 March, the Central Jakarta District Court cancelled privatised water contracts with two companies (Suez and Aetra) after 18 years of failed services. Water supply service in Jakarta, the most populous city in Southeast Asia, was privatised in 1998 under the military dictatorship of Suharto. Since then, private companies have increased profits without investing in improving water services. Water prices have grown fourfold – 2.7 times higher than in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, where water is provided by a publically-owned company. The courts found that the companies responsible for water supply had been negligent in fulfilling the human right to water for residents of Indonesia’s capital city.

Jakarta now joins many other cities that have been returning water services into public control including Paris, Berlin, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Accra, Dar es Salaam and Kuala Lumpur. These re-municipalisations have occurred because privatisation has failed. As a result of privatisation, investment levels and service quality fell, while water rates rose to unsustainable levels. This victory for residents, unions and water justice activists will be an important boost in the growing trend of cities overturning failed privatisations and putting services back into public ownership and control.

Figures from the Jubilee Debt Campaign show that loans to the most impoverished countries have trebled since the global financial crisis began in 2008. The World Bank is the largest individual lender. ‘Aid’ given as loans has increased, while low interest rates in Europe and the US have fuelled speculation on global south debt. The IMF is already bailing out reckless lenders to Ghana, where debts have shot up.

World Water Day 2015 protest in Jakarta.

Germany coal action Activists in Germany have decided they can’t wait for the Paris climate talks in December 2015 to take action and so instead are building up to a mass occupation of a huge open-cast lignite mine near Cologne on August 15. Lignite coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, and the protesters are hoping more than a thousand people will join in the immobilisation of enormous multi-story diggers that operate at the site.

Mali leads the way on agroecology More than 300 delegates from around the world representing peasants, family farmers, fisher folk and pastoralists, gathered in the Nyéléni Center in Sélingué, Mali from 24 to 27 February. This was the same venue as the first International Food Sovereignty Forum in 2007, where the resounding cry had been ‘Africa can feed itself’ and where the concept of ‘food sovereignty’ had been clearly outlined in the Declaration of Nyéléni. Now, eight years later, the same small-scale producers and consumers came together to develop a “common understanding of agroecology as a key element in the construction of food sovereignty and to develop joint strategies to promote agroecology and defend it from co-optation”. The declaration emphasises that this agricultural system is the only solution for transforming and repairing our food system and that the best way of achieving this is through collective self-organisation to build up local food systems and challenge corporate control.

CAMPAIGN NEWS

Demanding seed freedom

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Matt Bramall/Global

In March, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation brought together multinational seed companies and donor organisations for a secret meeting in London to discuss the privatisation of Africa’s seeds. After calls from our allies in South Africa and Ghana, we decided to organise a spontaneous protest. An animated crowd handed out heritage seeds and chanted slogans outside the Gates Foundation offices to express solidarity with the struggle against corporate seeds in Africa. To illustrate our message, we smashed a papier-mâché ‘corporate cage’ representing the commercial control of seeds, freeing thousands of seeds over the steps of the entrance. A lively Twitter storm was organised to coincide with the protest under the #freetheseeds hashtag. Our friends in Seattle, the Community Alliance for Global Justice, held a sister demonstration outside the Gates Foundation HQ to make for some truly global resistance.

CAMPAIGN NEWS

TTIP resistance exploding across Scotland position to TTIP is Acros s Scotland, op ve ily. Local groups ha growing almost da ds, an wl Lo the to hland s formed from the Hig thing s in between. In April and many places land ot gear when the ‘Sc really moved up a Local tion wa s launched. Against TTIP’ coali l and ions, environmenta activists, trades un and rity te us tions, anti-a local food organisa many d an e campaigners, pro- independenc fighting common cause in others have found ion al. Political opposit the mega trade de lise rea ns cia Scot tish politi is also growing as tion isla leg e ten progres siv that TTIP could threa ll we tish parliament, as pa ssed by the Scot lnerable tish government vu as leaving the Scot tional al action by transna to the threat of leg the the speakers at companies. One of ce tional Party conferen recent Scot tish Na ism’s represent Thatcher said that “TTIP would ultimate triumph.”

IP Riding the #noTT train to Brussels © Jes s Hurd/Glob

al Justice Now

r informed stronger and bette Working towards a elsewhere TTIP in the UK and movement against in early al Justice Now. So is a key aim of Glob ees, War ed up with 38 Degr February we team s trip ison for an ambitiou on Want and NW Un r 60 fo ed nn originally pla to Brussels. We had s so wa th us, but demand people to travel wi le ub d up taking over do strong that we ende otest with us to learn, pr that number along and lobby. linked up with fellow Once in Brussels, we continent campaigns on the organisations and for two a packed agenda and embarked on tour of included a walking days. The first day to rporate d Co lle orations with campaigners trave ssels’ lobbying corp Bru Global Justice Now rld Wo ) and an EU -wide rticipate in the 14th Observatory (CEO e rop Eu Tunis in March to pa tac 70,00 0 nel with Stop TTIP, At ). With an estimated (and all female) pa Social Forum (WSF re the n, ing demonstratio Austria and CEO. people at the open t minars se , ps ho rks wo of ng we held the firs y arra The following morni wa s also a diz zying ns s of the negotiatio protest at the door and as semblies. to a sse s ma wa en F d s at the WS es, and then move elv ms the One of our activitie ends of mocracy. -organised with Fri hop on energy de fanta stic protest co organising a works atable ia, infl Ind their gigantic ther speakers from Earth Europe and the Here we drew toge re plo to ex rmany and the UK Trojan Horse. the Philippines, Ge cracy mo de y s the EU parliament erg en of a ide final port of call wa e Th and promote the rity ncrete how achieved secu it is expres sed in co itself. Having some and examine how d te ing, ibu ild ntr bu get into the uggles. We also co arance for us all to cle experiments and str n ng mi co eting with UK Gree as sembly on the up a constructive me ld he we to a climate justice r more osals fo de advisor, then a lped to shape prop MEPs and their tra COP in Paris and he nt Ps. Despite me ME ve ur mo with UK Labo messages the fractious meeting what activities and e ult of ng ra res counter, the y, we made a huge tensions in that en the should adopt. La stl from g to bear fruit. tions with activists on Labour is startin re su es pr of valuable connec ost our dule, the Eurostar d north that will bo an exhausting sche ite sp De the global south an ections tice, food s buzzing with conn g work on trade jus back to London wa future campaignin st d. ain he ag ns being hatc broader struggle being made and pla sovereignty and the corporate power.

m World Social Foru nis takes place in Tu

2015 Ninety-Nine 7

AUSTERITY

The economy is a gun

“The economy is a gun, and politics is to know when to pull the trigger.” This quote, I am afraid, is not from Aristotle, but from The Godfather Part III by Francis Ford Coppola. It’s very descriptive of what has happened to Greece. The economy is a gun, it can kill; and that is exactly what it did in Greece. Our treasured western institutions did not protect the country, but on the contrary they used the debt crisis in such a way as to further empower banks and corporations, to give them a better shooting chance. Since 2009, Greece has lost one quarter of its (already modest) GDP and public debt has risen to 185% from 120%. Remember 120% was ‘unviable’ and the reason for the bailout loan. 1,200,000 people lost their jobs, unemployment rose to 27% (60% among young people), 30% of businesses closed down, salaries were reduced by 40%, pensions were reduced by 50%, there was an increase in poverty of 100%, the number of households without electricity rose by 250%, 250,000 young people left the country, while at the same time… … the wealthy became 56% richer. The fairy tale is that lazy Greeks took ‘solidarity’ bail out loans from the European Central Bank (ECB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and EU, failed to make it work, and now want to steal European taxpayers’ money.

8 Ninety-Nine 2015

The truth is that an overwhelming 92% of these bailout loans were used to pay back European banks, as Jubilee Debt Campaign has shown. In return, the Troika (the IMF, EU Commission, and ECB) has insisted that privatisation is needed in order to reduce public debt. The previous government’s privatisation program 2013-2016 (which included the sell-off of all valuable assets of the Greek state), had an estimated income of €9.5 billion. Yet servicing the public debt in 2014 alone amounts to €31 billion (another €24 billion for 2015). From 2013 until 2030, Greece needs €340 billion just to service its debt. A group of highly skilled experts actually designed this program as a solution! Somebody pulled the trigger on Greek society. And what did Greek society do? In my view, a lot. 500,000 people protested, overthrew two governments, organised general strikes, and totally changed the political party landscape. But also there was self-organisation: of social clinics and pharmacies, solidarity networks that provided food to unemployed families, and grassroots media groups. In the January elections, after a lot of patience and fear, after broken promises by the ruling elite that the poison given to the Greek people will soon bear fruit, Greece voted for Syriza. The first actions by the Syriza government have shown that they are willing to confront European institutions.

MARIA KANELLOPOULOU co-ordinated the successful campaign against the water privatisation that was being inflicted on Greece as part of the Troika’s austerity measures. She spoke at our Take Back Our World conference in February, and this is an excerpt of what she told activists about the new government in Greece.

AUSTERITY

Greeks, regardless who they voted for, feel they can breathe again. 80% of the population opposes austerity but nobody is naïve about the very difficult road ahead. In this time of uncertainty, we are deeply moved by the overwhelming interest and solidarity from citizens around the world which is so necessary in destroying the mechanisms of propaganda. However, Greece is just an example. The promise of a ‘nice life’ is broken for all. We, the European people, have an ethical obligation based on the millions of deaths in the wars that were fought in this continent, as well as on behalf of our friends in the global south, to protect human life, nature and whatever is truly valuable and truly scarce. We must aim for the stars. We have the historical duty to act together to reinstall democracy in this crazy continent.

www.savegreekwater.org

Maria Kanellopou lou speaking at Take

Back Our World

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TRADE

Turning the tide on TTIP In little over a year, TTIP has gone from being an obscure acronym to a political hot potato. GUY TAYLOR explains how pressure is building against the controversial trade deal. On the so-called investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) provision, which sets up a type of ‘corporate court’ that allows foreign business to secretly sue governments for damaging their profits, the committee said: “We have yet to be convinced of the need for ISDS provisions in TTIP.” The environmental audit committee agreed with the business committee, and also said there must be stringent safeguards to ensure that TTIP wouldn’t simply descend into a ‘race to the bottom’. Meanwhile the Scottish parliament’s European committee told the Scottish government to take a stronger position on TTIP, in particular by opposing ‘corporate courts’, preventing a regulatory race to the bottom, and protecting Scottish public services. No TTIP protest in Brussels

We are winning the argument against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). NoTTIP groups are springing up right across the country, with several recently started in Scotland, not to mention a vibrant new network called Students Against TTIP. We’re not just winning in debates and public meetings, but in the mainstream media and even in parliament. Thanks to the NoTTIP campaign, three parliamentary committees recently raised serious concerns about TTIP. Parliament’s business committee slammed the British government’s use of figures saying they must stop using growth figures which are essentially made up.

TRADE

Most recently the Dutch parliament has passed a motion saying essentially TTIP should not contain the ISDS mechanism. Unfortunately it’s not going to be enough to simply win the argument. Negotiations are pretty much divorced from the democratic process, so a lot is going to depend on the ratification votes, which will most likely take place in 2017. In the meantime, members of the European Parliament will vote at the end of May to give their opinion on TTIP. At the least, we hope the European parliament will spell out its opposition to the ‘corporate court’ procedure, which has been rejected by a massive 97% of the European public according to an official consultation which garnered nearly 150,000 responses. We can see cracks developing on the pro-TTIP side, partly as a result of large numbers of people writing to their MEPs to express their concerns. The Labour Party and their allies in Europe are taking a stand, if a little wobbly and inconclusive, against the corporate court system which is demanded by corporations. This system allows secretive tribunals to take crucial decisions against governments, curtailing their ability to legislate in defence of workers’ rights, environmental protection, food safety or public health. It is just such a mechanism which last month saw Canada, under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), successfully sued for daring to halt the building of a quarry on environmental grounds. Even one of the arbitrators called it “a remarkable step backwards in environmental protection”. Then there’s the NHS. TTIP’s proponents have invested a lot of time and energy in reassuring people that the NHS will not be affected by the deal. A lot of words could be saved by listing the NHS as exempt, a measure the British government refuses to take.

NOT JUST ABOUT ISDS AND THE NHS But even without the corporate courts and with an exemption for the NHS, TTIP is entirely unacceptable. Just look at the regulatory co-operation council which the EU commission proposes. This would give big business a permanent role in overseeing regulation and ensuring that regulators view their work through the looking glass of TTIP. It’s a recipe for increased corporate control. The campaign against TTIP at times stands accused of being anti-American, at other times of being anti-trade. It is neither. This spring, we took members of the newly created Students Against TTIP to the next TTIP negotiating round in New York, to meet American campaigners and hear first-hand from those representatives on Capitol Hill who are trying to stop President Obama getting the ‘fast-track’ authority he needs to negotiate the deal. Later in the year we will produce an ‘alternative TTIP’, proving that trade is not necessarily a bad thing, but as Robert Reich, former secretary of labour under Bill Clinton and previously a big supporter of NAFTA, says, the current trade agreements being negotiated are “not trade agreements but global corporate agreements”. At the time of going to press, our European citizen’s petition against TTIP had attracted 1.6 million signatures from across the continent. By autumn, we want to reach 2 million. If you, or anyone you know, hasn’t signed up yet, please go to our website and get plugged into the campaign.

Stopping TTIP – what you can do Sign up to the new monthly updates that Global Justice Now send out on the latest TTIP developments, go to www.globaljustice.org.uk/ ttipnews Students can get involved with Students Against TTIP by emailing students.against. ttip@gmail.com Make sure you’ve signed the European Citizens’ Initiative. It’s easiest online by going to www.globaljustice.org. uk/ttip Make your town or county a TTIP-free zone. Get your council to pass a motion against TTIP. Use the briefing and model motion available from guy.taylor@ globaljustice.org.uk Order the briefings, postcards and the third issue of the #noTTIP Times. Contact us on 020 7820 4900

Guy Taylor is a trade campaigner at Global Justice Now.

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TRADE

HERE COME THE BAD BITS:

Why TTIP isn’t the only trade deal to oppose

The corporate drive for free trade is once more facing critical public scrutiny. ALEX SCRIVENER argues that in the rush to oppose TTIP we mustn’t lose sight of the broader context in which the deal is being negotiated.

12 Ninety-Nine 2015

TRADE

Europe has finally woken up. Public opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has put trade agreements back on the political agenda. At least as citizens of the world’s most powerful trade bloc, we can fight TTIP in the knowledge that our politicians have the power to stop it. In numerous African, Asian and Latin American countries, dozens of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) are being negotiated with a much less equal playing field, and less opportunity for the public to stop the corporate power grab. Sold on the premise that they incentivise much-needed investment into poorer countries, BITs actually give foreign (often western) investors huge new powers over the economies of those countries, forcing liberalisation onto them in the process. They allow richer countries to bypass the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which,

despite a serious lack of democratic accountability, still requires the consent of member states. This allows southern countries to club together to defeat proposals. That’s why talks at the WTO have been effectively stalled since the late 1990s. By negotiating separate deals with individual countries, rich countries have managed to get some of what they want by picking off countries one by one. So, since the 1990s, deals such as the UK-Colombia BIT, or the myriad EU Economic Partnership Agreements with African countries, have been multiplying at a dizzying rate.

THOUSANDS OF BITS Back in 1991, there were just 400 BITs in force worldwide, now there are over 2,500. And unlike the EU negotiations over TTIP, southern countries struggle to negotiate any wiggle room for themselves within

the one-size-fits-all prescription of blanket liberalisation. Take the infamous investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system that allows companies to take countries to arbitration for making legitimate policy decisions that happen to reduce corporate profits. So far, much of the debate around these ‘corporate courts’ has concentrated on the possible consequences here in the EU if TTIP is concluded. But these corporate courts are already allowing corporations to hound less powerful countries for taking action to protect their people. Argentina is one of the most targeted counties, being sued at least 16 times under the US-Argentina Bilateral Investment Treaty. Most of these cases involve energy companies trying to claim ‘compensation’ as a result of Argentina’s decision to freeze electricity and water prices during the financial collapse of 2001-2. >

TPP protest by the North Texas Light Brigade

2015 Ninety-Nine 13

TRADE

14 Ninety-Nine 2015

The TPP is a key reason that Democrats have refused to support President Obama’s ‘fast track’ trade negotiating authority. © Simo n Wai/Flickr

The US has not been sued once under the same treaty. Ecuador has a similar treaty with the US and has been sued 20 times under it. Bilateral treaties have also been used by the company Veolia to try and sue Egypt for introducing a minimum wage (France-Egypt BIT) and by Philip Morris to stop Uruguay introducing health warning on cigarette packaging (UruguaySwitzerland BIT). It’s true that multilateral treaties can also include this ‘corporate court’ system – for example, the Energy Charter Treaty or the North American Free Trade Area between Canada, Mexico and the US. But bilateral treaties make up the vast majority of ISDS cases. ISDS isn’t the only problem. These deals often involve southern countries recognising harsher intellectual property regimes designed to help big pharmaceutical corporations. They also tend to impose greater market liberalisation, affording access to multinational corporations but yielding few benefits in return. In theory, both sides have equal rights, so a Tanzanian company will have the same right to access the EU market as the EU multinational does to access the Tanzanian market. But how many Tanzanian investors are there in the UK? Things are also hotting up on the multilateral front too. Negotiations on the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) have been steadily progressing without any public scrutiny. TiSA could be even more damaging than TTIP for public services in the 23 countries (including the EU as one country) that are taking part. It is likely to make it all but impossible for countries to bring privatised services back under public control. And then there’s TTIP’s Asian cousin, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which poses many of the same threats that TTIP does to Europe.

PUSHING BACK There is a fightback underway. Ecuador is currently conducting the world’s first ‘trade audit’, examining the impact of bilateral trade agreements on its sovereignty, people and environment, with a view to cancelling agreements that have been detrimental. South Africa is reviewing some trade agreements, as is Indonesia. Brazil and India still refuse to sign up to ISDS clauses in their trade deals. Beating TTIP will give a huge boost to these international campaigns, but we also need to be prepared to offer solidarity to other countries. Currently, the UK is one of the world’s most prolific users of BITs, with 104 deals in force globally. The UK government is currently negotiating a handful of BITs, including one with Ethiopia which could give UK corporations more power over Ethiopia’s agricultural sector. Fifteen years ago, protests against the WTO talks were central to the socalled anti-globalisation movement. Those talks were correctly seen as a corporate power grab. The corporations are back again. It’s time for us to join up globally again and take to the streets to defeat them. Alex Scrivener is Global Justice Now’s policy officer. © The Centre for Inte

rnational Environ me

nta l Law

s n as a secret cou rt rule Protes t in Wa shingto government of the vs ny pa com on a mining El Salvador

In March 2014, the legis lative build ing in Taiwan was occu pied in protest aga inst a free trade agreement with China.

Dangerous deals to look out for: 1. Multilateral deals are conducted between many countries like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and, of particular concern, the Trade in Service Agreement (TiSA), a ‘super privatisation deal’ being negotiated by 22 countries and the EU. 2. T he EU now has competency for negotiating our trade agreements, and there are a number of EU free trade deals in the pipeline. Notably the deal with Burma/Myanmar is pushing forward, helping the EU get its hands on a host of natural resources, and the EU-India deal, which has been stalled for several years. 3. In addition to the EU deals, the UK has its own bilateral deals with individual countries, ensuring greater ‘investor protection’. These deals get virtually no parliamentary scrutiny, contain ‘corporate courts’ and are currently being negotiated with Angola, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone. 4. Don’t forget the WTO, where there’s a major argument taking place over the ability of countries to control their food system. The US and EU are desperately trying to prevent India subsidising its food programme, but India is standing firm.

OUR DEMOCRATIC ROOTS

ots were formed out of the gra ssro a democratic organisation. We be to ud pro n bee ays true alw ain nt to us to rem Global Justice Now has and it has always been importa across the country in the 196 0s up ng spru t tha ups Gro ion Act

e, the to these roots. h. The more members we hav we’ve seen since our relaunc ers mb me new in st boo to build the ded We’re excited by ut the change nee cy. It’s clear that to bring abo tima legi our r ate gre the and oss the UK. stronger our democracy and diverse movement right acr need a democratic, informed we ld, wor al equ mbers also have and Me er. just re pow a mo rage when confronting leve r ate gre us s give and e voic y will Every member strengthens our nge our name and this year the r’s AGM, members voted to cha yea last At do. we t wha r ove the ultimate say strategy. thank you for your continued decide our new organisational be members, and we’d like to ady alre will e Nin etyNin of e Most of you reading this issu a member, then join today at: involvement. If you’re not yet www.globaljustice.org.uk/join

or call 020 7820 490 0

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e Now? One member tells us he Why did you join Global Justic read about unfair 15 years ago after an article I “I became a member about about it. Global Justice angry, I had to do something global trade deals left me so along to my local group issue, so I joined up and went Now was campaigning on the ion with other people. empowering about taking act meeting. There is something very ns don’t, and becoming y issues that other organisatio Global Justice Now tackles trick g about stuff.” sitting on the sofa complainin a member is way bet ter than ice Now Veronica Pasteur, Global Just

member.

AGM and activist conference field Centre, Saturday 13 June 2015, The Ren 260 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 4JP

AGM (11am-approx 12.30pm) against Shifting Ground: the fightback the world corporate power in Scotland and (1.30pm-6.30pm)

’s highest decision -making The AGM is Global Justice Now nd and vote and groups body and any member can atte on their behalf. can also send delegates to vote lic activist conference. Following the AGM will be a pub discussion and mobilisation This will be an exciting day of mbers and other activists for both Global Justice Now me Ground will feature: in Gla sgow and beyond. Shit fing

Henshaw, A keynote contribution from Ken • in Nigeria, ion Act a campaigner from Social n atio in Nigeria. focusing on electricity privatis ding on the work A TTIP organising assembly, buil • an anti-TTIP already being done to develop coalition in Scotland. ignt • A workshop on food sovere

y and land reform

for progressive A session exploring the opening • rendum, and what politics in Scotland after the refe UK. we can learn for the rest of the firm • More sessions yet to be con

nts and registration see For more information on the eve (AGM) globaljustice.org. globaljustice.org.uk/agm-2015 und), or phone us on uk/shifting-ground (Shifting Gro s and accommodation 020 7820 490 0. For travel subsidie ljustice.org.uk queries, contact activism@globa

A blow dealt by ballot box

All images courtesy of Lapiztola

16 Ninety-Nine 2015

FROM THE WALLS OF OAXACA ELLEN GORDON chats to ROSARIO MARTÍNEZ LLAGUNO and ROBERTO VEGA JIMÉNEZ of Lapiztola about their inspiring work.

Lapiztola are an internationally renowned political street art collective from Oaxaca, Mexico. They started making work during the state’s violent response to widespread strikes and civil unrest. Following a crowdfunding campaign from Global Justice Now supporters, in February two members of the collective came to London to put on an exhibition.

that art is going to be the change, only that it is part of a movement. These expressions and the protests and everything all go together.

Alas y raíces (wings and roots) is written in very small writing on the piece with the bird. What is this referring to?

How do you think people respond to your works?

Rosario: The Mexican writer Octavio Paz says that to achieve freedom, to have wings, one must first find one’s roots. Practically it means not to lie to yourself so that you can fly, so that you can be free. Not in the literal sense of travelling, but in the more internal and personal sense. It’s talking about identity and the desire for freedom.

Rosario: There are people who feel touched, who want to protest against the government, and there are people who feel uncomfortable. What role do you think your art We feel that both of these are a and art in general has in Mexico response. If you feel uncomfortable, at the moment? there is something behind that. If you feel you can identify with it, Roberto: We began working in the it can be a form of inspiration, to fight throes of a social conflict. In Mexico for your rights. There are things you the TV is heavily censored, so you can understand and some things have to find ways to communicate perhaps not because the works are and express yourself. I’m not saying James Rodríguez is a photojournalist based in Guatemala. quite symbolic. Go to www.mimundo.org to see more of his work.

Ellen Gordon is a student and journalist in London. She tweets from @ellencgordon Thank you to Rich Mix and Diversity Art Forum for their assistance in putting on the exhibition.

2015 Ninety-Nine 17

ENERGY JUSTICE

Power to the people, not the private sector The failure of the UK’s privatised electricity system – expensive, uncompetitive and slow to adopt renewable technologies – is being repeated across the global south with the help of UK aid money. KEN HENSHAW explains how it has had disastrous effects in Nigeria. Nigerians have been blackmailed into believing that there was no solution to the electricity challenges without privatisation. Politicians have sold off electricity infrastructure to their friends for ridiculously small amounts of money, spent huge amounts of public funds in a questionable fashion and laid off thousands of workers. And yet still more Nigerians than ever live without electricity. The privatisation of energy in Nigeria has been a spectacular failure. We’ve been fed on promises of stable electricity for over a decade, but the majority of Nigerians have to depend on themselves to provide their own power. Millions of homes generate their own electricity with battery inverters and gasoline generators, with public power supply being seen as a back-up at best. The new privatisation investors are only concerned with how much money they can recoup in as short a time as possible. Actually providing electricity does not feature on their list of priorities. That’s why they have drastically increased the price of electricity and introduced fixed charges – regardless of whether they provide electricity or not. Even if the privatisation process did ultimately lead to better power supply, the truth is that with the recent frightening increases in the cost of electricity, the vast majority of Nigerians won’t benefit from better supply as they can’t afford it – 67% of the people in Nigeria live on less than $1.25 a day. So you have to ask the question, who is benefiting from the privatisation of energy, as it certainly isn’t the people of Nigeria. Nigeria has enough financial, human and natural resources that it shouldn’t need aid. The country remains relatively poor however, because of the combination of western companies extracting those resources without benefiting the vast majority of Nigerians, and because successive leaderships have failed to harness the vast 18 Ninety-Nine 2015

potentials of the country. This is especially true when it comes to the provision of energy. Vast sums of money have been spent by successive governments, but improvements haven’t materialised. And that’s exactly what is happening still under privatisation – the power sector is simply mired in a new kind of corruption. The best use of UK aid money in the power sector would be to strengthen the oversight of institutions to ensure that government expenditure in the power sector actually goes towards tangible targets and deliverables. Currently, such institutions are either weak or non-existent. Ken Henshaw is senior programs manager at Social Action, an organisation based in Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta. Find out more about Global Justice Now’s energy justice campaign www.globaljustice.org.uk/campaigns/climate-and-energy

protes t of the execution Ken Henshaw speaking at the anniversary 9. i of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogon

REVIEWS

Reviews ARTWASH: BIG OIL AND THE ARTS MEL EVANS

NO GUTS, NO HEART, NO GLORY COMMONWEALTH THEATRE

Pluto Press, 2015

2014/15

Since the Gulf of Mexico spill in 2010, a vibrant and creative campaign across London has been putting pressure on Tate and other galleries to drop their BP sponsorship. Liberate Tate have spilled oil in the galleries, created alternative audio guides and spectacularly installed a 16 metre, 1.5 tonne wind turbine blade inside the museum. Other groups have taken the issue to other London institutions, and it has become an increasingly prominent bugbear for the cultural sector. But while the subject has hit the front pages, from the FT to art magazines, the arguments are often fudged and misrepresented. Didn’t the Medici and historical despots sponsor beautiful art? Isn’t all money dirty? Don’t we all use oil? With clarity and force, this book cuts through the sticky misdirection and pseudo-debate and equips the reader with the key facts and arguments. Along the way, it offers an interwoven history of sponsorship, policy and activism in museums. This includes an inspiring, exciting and moving insider’s portrait of cutting edge activist-art history: from the 1960s New York Guerrilla Art Action Group, the first to spill ‘blood’ in museums in protest against the Vietnam War, to the formation of Liberate Tate in 2010 when Tate Modern invited activist-artists to run

’No Guts, No Heart, No Glory’ by Bradford’s Commonwealth Theatre is a must-see live performance bursting at the seams with originality, female power and political challenge. This site-specific performance event won a Fringe First Award at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival and set the Southbank Centre’s ‘Women of the World’ festival alight in March. Based on interviews with Muslim female boxers, and written by Aisha Zia, the piece was devised in collaboration with five 1623 year old Muslim women (who also perform) and former national champion Ambreen Sadiq. Set in a boxing gym, these impressive, fierce young women punch their way through their own stories. These stories explore getting older, carrying the weight of expectation on your shoulders, feeling different, and feeling injustice all around you. The company state that they want the piece “to speak to young people, to make them feel braver, to live how they want to live” but ‘No Guts, No Heart, No Glory’ isn’t just about being young, it’s a call-out to us all, to step into the ring and take on the world and by sheer strength making that other world possible. Autumn 2015 UK tour dates TBA see www.commonwealththeatre.co.uk

Liberate Tate, Human Cost, Tate Britain, 2011.

a workshop titled Disobedience Makes History, but gave them one rule: don’t criticise our sponsors.Artwash’s central argument, plainly set out with facts and figures, is that sponsorship doesn’t help the arts (it turns out Tate’s annual ‘gift’ from BP would barely cover a single room exhibition), but co-opts them for big oil. Sponsorship creates what corporates call ‘a social licence to operate’: the air of public acceptability that makes possible the rest of big oil’s work in the extraction, movement and sale of oil, greasing public perception and the legal and financial special arrangements which often accompany it. Artwash is a smart, readable and inspiring intervention – required reading for anyone who cares about art, public culture and the fate of our planet.

Lucy Ellinson

Gavin Grindon Actors, L-R Nayab Din, Freyaa Ali, Seherish Mahmood, Saira Tabasum, Mariam Rashid

MAKING ANOTHER WORLD POSSIBLE the climate negotiations in Can

A Via Cam pesina protestor at

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