Groups and activism news

Global Justice Ayrshire’s Arthur West wrote for the Morning Star on trade justice issues and the Scottish council elections. The group has also resumed their monthly street stall.

Global Justice Nottingham were among the groups who joined demonstrations around the country against the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill on 15 January, and the Really Annoying Demo that we supported on College Green as the House of Lords voted on the bill on 17 January. The group were central involved in the Nottingham COP26 Coalition, and have a public meeting on vaccines planned for mid-March, in conjunction with Global Justice Leicester.

Global Justice Shropshire were pleased to be out on the streets again in the autumn (see right) and a few of them made it up to Glasgow for the COP protests. They organised a screening of the film Immuto (Change), and when the North Shropshire by-election happened they found a chance for discussion about food and farming standards in trade deals!

Ursula in Global Justice Cambridge once again organised a fundraising carol singing event and raised a fantastic £220, while the group as a whole has been working as part of the new Cambridge Environmental Alliance which is the new name for the COP26 Coalition in the city. They also report having had a really good discussion on the back of a talk Tim Bierley gave on our vaccines campaign.

Global Justice Reading hosted a meeting with Nick speaking on “After COP26 – the way forward” drawing an in-person audience of 30+. In January they followed it up with a talk on “Transforming Economics to serve People and Planet”.

Members of Global Justice Bexhill and Hastings have sent letters to their local MPs regarding the COP outcomes and vaccine

Global Justice Shropshire out in Shrewsbury.

apartheid, building on a long-standing relationship with one of their Conservative representatives who has taken a critical stance on the prime minister of late.

Meanwhile Global Justice South East London have written to their MPs about the rebranding of CDC, have speaker meetings lined up with Tim, and with Heidi Chow (now of Jubilee Debt Campaign).

Berwick-upon-Tweed

Global Justice Now activists from Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders, who meet together regularly online, would like to organise some stalls in Berwick, where the local MP is Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary. If you live within travelling distance and would like to get involved, email Jane in our Scottish office: thorn.house@globaljustice.org.uk

As mentioned elsewhere, the youth network had a strong mobilisation for COP26, taking part in the big demos and organising one themselves against Climate Colonialism, along with the Free West Papua campaign. The mobilisation also allowed activists from different groups to meet and have more of a sense of a national network.

Our groups in Brighton, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Stirling are working hard with student groups UAEM and Students for Global Health to deliver the Decolonise Vaccines speaker tour events (see page 9). One of the speakers from the tour will also be joining us for We Rise on 2 April, our youth network national gathering, which will be an exciting day of creative and political workshops and music, making the most of being able to meet in person again.

The national youth network coordination meetings have become central to the way the network runs. They are now happening

...media contined from page 3

When Matt Hancock’s was appointed a UN special envoy, Nick Dearden’s reaction comparing the appointment to 19th century colonialism featured in major UK outlets, including the BBC, ITV, and the Sunday Times.

We placed blame for the emergence of the Omicron variant squarely on rich countries who perpetuated vaccine inequality, with reactive comments and op-eds in the Times, Novara, Open Democracy, Tribune, and a letter in the Financial Times. Our story highlighting big pharma’s profiteering from the variant announcement appeared in Mail Online and major American left outlets, including Democracy Now and Jacobin. on a regular date and time - the first Wednesday (6pm) and third Thursday (7pm) of each month. Recently we’ve taken time in these meetings to look at improving accessibility in the network. On 17 February we’ll also be joined by Jean Blaylock from our corporate courts campaign and start in earnest organising for the day of action in late May (see pages 4-5).

There is now also an activist-led women and non-binary group which meets regularly but doesn’t have a set meeting date. Email activism@globaljustice.org.uk with your phone number if you would like to be involved in that.

Youth network placard making during COP26

We hailed Nicola Sturgeon’s support for the TRIPS waiver with a clean sweep of Scottish print and online outlets and saw out the year by revealing that rich countries had received more vaccines in the six weeks up to Christmas than African nations received all year, with Nick interviewed by Sky News and the Independent.

In January, we coordinated a letter from 300 leading scientists (see page 8) and when Pfizer announced its annual revenue, we accused the company of “pandemic profiteering” in the Associated Press, the Times, and the Guardian, where Nick also wrote a comment piece on why we should never have trusted big pharma with the global vaccine rollout.