Global Justice Manchester

Events

Why pandemics need global justice (rather than simply charity)

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Of course wealth disparities have multiple causes, but one of the causes in the current pandemic clearly is vaccine nationalism.

It’s accepted that a (the?) primary responsibility of governments is to protect their populations, but rich countries in the global North have used their high credit standing to enable them not only to domestic largesse but also in panic buying of not yet produced vaccines. They have hedged their bets with vast over-ordering, depriving others of the chance to get materials from producers. Canada is said to have bought five times as much vaccine as it needs; meanwhile the Mirror reports the UK having ordered 407m doses– for a population of 68m.

One.org suggested in February more equity should be achieved by radical sharing and called for it at the G7 meeting.

This didn’t happen and the subsequent shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia reflects European “business as usual” attitudes; production difficulties meant AZ hadn’t been able to fulfil its contract with the EU and Italy leapt in to retain stock due for export.

Vaccine Apartheid

In South Africa many remember the deaths of millions of AIDS suffers in the 90s whilst drug companies sat on ARV patents and incompetent governments failed to intervene. Seeing a repeating situation and with the consciousness of Black Lives Matter the term #VaccineApartheid has been coined. This is painfully obvious there with even the Oxford AstraZeneca treatment costing twice the UK price.

Whilst AZ have pledged to hold prices to “at cost” for low income countries, the Serum Institute of India which has produced under license was not so regulated.

Added to this posturing for domestic audiences there have been daily stories about squabbles and bickering over the efficacy of different treatments.

Vaccine Diplomacy – Vaccine War

The provision of Vaccines has been identified as a new form of diplomacy and spreading soft power. This is seen positively by former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and was recently exemplified on Radio 4’s Westminster Hour (Sun. 28 March ).

Russia and China are seen as stealing a march on the West with sacrificial donations in key locations (e.g. the Balkans and Ethiopia) where they may hope to reestablish influence lost in recent years. It’s possible some of the stop-go confusion about vaccine efficacy and safety has been fermented to further geopolitical influence.

Things seem to be hotting up. Six months ago Microsoft reported Russian and North Korean hacking of “health care organisations”. Reuters also reported North Korean attacks on AstraZeneca. More recently the agency reported Chinese state hackers attacking the IT systems of the Serum Institute of India and another company, assertions denied by the Chinese government.

A Vaccine Peace Treaty?

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO who in January called vaccine inequality “a catastrophic moral failure” on 30 March called for a international health treaty to promote pandemic preparedness. Johnson, Merkel and Macron support this. But the text does not fundamentally challenge the current structures and modus operandi.

These structures and praxes are clearly not meeting the need to protect the global population as quickly or as equitably as could be achieved.

The result of this is the nullification of many years of economic and development progress along with social liberation. As usual those communities and individuals without the dollars to cushion them are pushed to the back of the queue or invited to accrue future obligations and mindsets.

Of course charity is welcome when it saves lives. But in the current situation it seems people facing pandemics need a deal that takes account of their situation and needs, rather than simply relying on the charity of others which may or may not be delivered.

We are currently seeing the unreliability of external help, be it indirectly through UK research, directly through Overseas Development Aid or from cash-strapped NGOs.

Even the World Economic Forum is waking up to the inadequacies of the system and overtly and sympathetically referring to the demands of People’s Vaccine Alliance!

A new approach is needed:

Solidarity and Global Justice

To find out what this might entail come to the webinar on 14th. Apr.- visit tinyurl.com/peoplesvaccine

See Winnie Byanyima’s call for a people’s vaccine

Big Brother and post-Brexit trade deals

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“Big Brother is watching you 68/366” by Skley is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

We’ve been campaigning hard to stop the US-UK trade deal, but it is not the only threat to post-Brexit sovereignty, as the Government rushes to smuggle a whole raft of dangerous deals under the radar while the country is distracted by coronavirus lockdowns and the EU negotiations.

“big brother” by Vince_Lamb is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The recent deal with Japan is a prime example – it lacks many of the privacy protections that we are used to. The Government calls this ‘improving data flows’, but what it really means is that your private details can be traded on the open market.

And Parliament has little control over the process. The Trade Bill is stuck in a ping-pong match between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as the latter attempts to introduce an element of democracy into a Bill that essentially gives Government Ministers the power to do whatever they want with no effective oversight.

The Japan deal itself has little immediate effect, as the trade in data with Japan is currently minimal. But it is the thin end of a very thick wedge, as it sets precedents for the much bigger deals which the Government is edging towards with the US and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Selling our birthright

“Baby getting injection” by vaccinesstockphotos is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

A major focus of UK-US post-Brexit trade negotiations will be the NHS patient database. It is probably the biggest, and most complete, collection of personal medical records in the world – an extremely valuable resource which can be used to improve healthcare provision. It can also be a source of massive profit for private companies – and a threat to the privacy of individual patients.

Google is already working with US healthcare companies to find profitable ways of exploiting such data, and they have already grabbed 1.6m patient records from the NHS, through an illegal collaboration with the Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust.

Would you want a website to know your ethnic background?

“Heathrow Border Control” by Ungry Young Man is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Another danger posed by unregulated data flows their use by racist and other discriminatory algorithms. Recently, the Home Office was discovered to be using such an algorithm for ‘streamlining’ visa applications. Not only did the algorithm discriminate against applications from citizens of certain countries, it also used its own decisions as data for rating countries, thus creating a feedback loop of ever strengthening prejudice.

Both sides of the Atlantic have seen a growth in supposedly ‘predictive’ policing, based on machine learning. In the US, campaigners have been attacking the use of facial-recognition technology which ‘predicts’ the criminality of suspects, based on their appearance.

Insurance companies and credit agencies are also investing heavily in this kind of technology.

‘The public-private partnership from hell’

“Cory Doctorow” by Ian Muttoo is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

The business model of internet giants Facebook and Google is based on harvesting personal information about us to use for commercial purposes.  These companies want to be able to move that information freely about the globe, passing it from company to company in search of profit. Much of this data will inevitably end up in the countries with the loosest legal regulation on its use

Cory Doctorow describes the current regime of data governance in the US as ‘the public-private partnership from hell, as corporations collect data for commercial purposes and share it with government agencies under the Homelands Security Act. It is a model that is no doubt being eyed by repressive governments everywhere.

The ‘internet of things’ and perpetual surveillance

Increasingly, everyday things are controlled by computers connected to the internet: electric meters; cars; fridges; computer games; TVs; stereo speakers; watches… You name it, it will

“Big Brother 2009 Italy” by _mixer_ is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

soon become part of the internet of things. And it will all be capable of collecting data and sending it to a central database. To be used… for what? Some of the potential uses may have great benefits for humankind. Others may just enable vast profits to be made. Some may be sinister, encroaching on our freedom or perpetuating injustice.

Who is to decide what will be permitted? Secretive corporate courts, held under the auspices of trade treaties outside democratic control? The next few years will decide this question.

John

Day of Action on US Trade Deal

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The pandemic preoccupying and dominating the public’s consciousness, many more fundamental issues are in danger of being overlooked. So Global Justice Now, along with Trade Unions, War on Want, Traidcraft and others called for a national Day of Action on Saturday 24th. October, looking for images to use in publicity and for a photo petition as well as to raise awareness in the general population.

The threatened trade deal has numerous strands, all of which threaten our institutions, our standards and our democracy. They are even more dangerous to people in the Global South. If the UK’s acceptance is rolled out as a benchmark of what is required to trade with the dominant economic powers. In Manchester, we united with allies and made several outings to protest the deal. We also invited people to send in and post photos of themselves, their dogs, homes and associates with the message “Stop the US Trade Deal”.

Thursday (22nd. Oct.) saw us in Chorlton, exploiting the wide pavement outside Oxfam on Wilbraham Road and using a simple quiz-display to stimulate engagement with questions on US standards in food hygiene (how many rat hairs are allowed in 25g of cinnamon), permitted insecticide residues allowed on apples, toxic ingredients banned in cosmetics, and the expected cost of the 50 most expensive medicines used in primary care. This proved an excellent way of engaging people. Unusually we didn’t have cards to sign but the excellent flyer GJN had produced gives a link to an e-action and we had a QR code for those who wanted to find out more with their mobile phones. Footfall was disappointing, but with a higher than usual percentage engaging.

Next day we focused on the threat to democratic authorities taking action to stop climate change and joined with War on Want, Fridays for the Future, and Greater Manchester Campaign Against Climate Change’s normal vigil outside the Central Library.

Even the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst joined the protest, reminding Boris Johnson of his commitment on climate change, “We must act now, right now … extinction is forever, so our action must be immediate,” with the suffragist slogan slogan “Deeds Not Words”.

And on Saturday itself we combined with War on Want and Keep Our NHS Public activists to stage a photo-op outside the MRI complex on Hathersage Road.

This brought honks of support from passing traffic and was streamed live by a KONP supporting media student.

Pia Feig (a GJN member and NHS activist spoke about the threat to our health service, not simply in being directly “taken over”, but of the threat of “standstill and ratchet clauses” being included in the deal, progressively biting off chunks of our service.

She also drew attention to the looting of the NHS patient records database. This is probably the most complete patient health database in the world and is an extremely valuable resource for medical research. Its sale to trans-national corporations is one of the least noticed ways in which the the Government is privatising the NHS. It is yet another example of how publicly funded research and knowledge production is expropriated by trans-national capital for profit, rather than being used for the benefit of patients. Big Pharma will look for lucrative opportunities to develop expensive medicines for minor complaints, rather than tackling public health priorities. Meanwhile, US insurance companies will want to use the data to identify and discriminate against the most vulnerable by refusing insurance to them.

Stephen Pennells picked up on the indirect threats to health, reprising the threat to nutrition through US food standards before going on to talk about employment, climate change, government secrecy and the worrying record of Biden, as Obama’s deputy supporting TTIP. This means that whoever is elected President, the campaign will have to further intensify. Both govenments, freed from the deadline of the US election will want something to spin as an economic opportunity in the aftermath of the pandemic’s effect on business, jobs and profits.

These actions reinforced alliances and spread our message. We learnt that we need to develop our media skills. Our speeches were unscripted and reasonable in terms of the “Just a Minute” criteria of speaking without “hesitation, repetition or deviation”. However a quarter of an hour is too long for modern attention spans and it would have benefitted from interactive questioning or reflective prompts.

So we are planning to work on this with a couple of our new recruits, one of whom is a new media student at Salford Uni. If you would like to be involved, don’t be shy!

Shadowing what’s gone?

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The Coalition for Global Prosperity describes itself as “a non-partisan, not-for-profit organisation” which was launched a couple of years ago by David Cameron and Penny Mourdant (when at DfID) and “..brings together political, military, business and faith leaders who believe that an effective development budget, alongside an active diplomatic and defence strategy, keeps Britain at the forefront of saving lives, alleviating poverty and bringing freedom, security and prosperity to those who need it most.”

Its homepage shows a military helicopter offloading UKAid- well logo-ed up and several similar pictures (helpfully provided by HMG?) are evident elsewhere on their website.

The “our supporters” page boasts several dozen pics. of former PMs, Lords (spiritual and temporal), MPs, a few Aid NGO staff and an Assistant Chief of the General Staff who sneaked in in “civvies”. How many MPs were there for the photo-op for their constituency website, or were there out of personal commitment one can’t tell.

This might cause unease, as does the twitter feed if one worries about possible propaganda focussing on Aid as the answer with a video of Bill Gates.

“However, I was educated to “listen to the other side” and it can’t be denied many people in need are only alive now because of aid delivered by the Forces and paid for by wealthy people and institutions in the Global North (even if their poverty is in no small part due to said bodies).”

The Coalition for Global Poverty says it “.. brings together a wide coalition of aid supporters, with backgrounds from across the military, faith, business and political communities. We organise public and private events to explore the UK’s role as a global leader.” As such it publishes contributions and gives a platform to a range of (self-selecting) stakeholders, including MPs from various parties and business speakers with different views. Thus, it would appear, they gave the stage to Labour’s shadow International Development Secretary and I received an invitation (presumably because the Labour Party had an algorithm clocking my clicks) to what was billed as “a (Zoom) conversation with Preet Gill” – shadowing a department that has disappeared!

After a few minutes spent advertising the Coalition and Labour’s Campaign for International Development (who are keen to send out speakers to Constituency Labour Parties) Preet Gill spoke without interruption from her conservatory (whilst her children amused themselves behind her in the sitting room).

She repeated the usual adulation of DfID and was repeatedly adamant about the need for scrutiny of how the Overseas Aid budget is spent and wanted a new committee to do that, but if that were not possible as opposition parties don’t have the resources of government, proposed frequent parliamentary questions to harry ministers.

She also referred to debt cancellation, and the needs of countries in the Global South to be helped to recover post pandemic; but not to the proposal to set up permanent structures to adjudicate on irresponsible lending and allow for the structured “bankruptcy” of countries.

Although questions had been asked for and we had previously submitted 5, a couple of which we posted again in the Q&A, those selected seemed to come from insider colleagues and institutions and the session had been configured so we did not have a Chat facility to communicate laterally, find out who was there and spread ideas.

One had the feeling that things were being managed to avoid any nastiness – perhaps they were wary of zoom-bombing attacks. Or perhaps they simply don’t grasp that anyone interested in international poverty eradication might want to seriously interact with divergent ideas.

This outlook is evident in their blogs; diverse, but not divergent. Many seemed to be about “us” and “Britain as a force for good” (their strapline). I didn’t read them all, but the word “justice” doesn’t appear in the given introductory paragraphs. Not once. You might think that says something if you support an organisation like Jubilee Debt Campaign or Global Justice Now.

Preet Gill appeared to be someone to support – and lead to further and more radical steps. She seemed to me to be stuck with denigration of the Tories, while at the same time swallowing a “prosperity” mindset.

Going on about the Great British Public supporting Aid and being generous is all very well, but it doesn’t bring structural change unless political action is taken.

A luta continua

– Stephen Pennells

The pictures come from https://www.coalitionforglobalprosperity.com

Online Public Meeting Tuesday 19th May @ 6.30pm

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We are organising an on online webinar to explore the effects of COVID-19 on global poverty, with a particular emphasis on international debt. Speakers will include:

Eva Wilkinson (Jubilee Debt Campaign) will talk about the pre-existing Debt Crisis, how the emergency has been exacerbated, the initial NGO challenge to G20 and International Financial Institutions’ responses, and future threats relating to debt.

Dotty Guerrero (Global Justice Now) will examine broader economic issues threatening a sustainable future that are often overlooked by our media.

Greater Manchester has links with communities around the world and a long history of challenging economic injustice; what can we do in Manchester and wherever we are now?

The pandemic is hitting the poorest hardest and threatens to increase inequalities. As the initial shock of the pandemic passes fundamental decisions are being taken which have long-term implications with scant regard for justice and democratic accountability.

As secret trade talks get underway again what sort of economy is proposed for the UK, and how will it hit people here and in the Global South?

If you want to attend, email us

globaljusticenow@fastmail.com

and we’ll send you a link to the meeting

An Introduction to Climate Justice- An interesting evening locked in

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Global Justice Now is making the best of the lockdown to educate activists in issues that otherwise might be dealt with by speakers or briefings. This is being achieved by Zoom “webinars” under the umbrella “Coronavirus, capitalism and inequality” which are free.

They started a couple of weeks ago with speakers (including one calling in from lock-down in India) in lieu of the 50th. anniversary conference and it attracted a couple of hundred. This meant it was impracticable to do much more than be talked at by the virtual “panel”- though we could submit questions to the coordinating chair and post comments or direct messages to other members of the audience through the typed “chat” facility.

On Weds. 15th Apr. they took it in a different direction with a session as an introduction to Climate Justice. I signed up, expecting something akin to my former experience and instead found that I was the oldest person there (perhaps by 25-30 years!), and that the majority of the 15 or so participants (at least one calling from abroad) were BAME and female.

In fact it turned out that although Sam Lund-Harket was participating, it wasn’t his show and the event was put on by the London Global Justice Youth Network facilitated by the Youth Activism team.

They used a wider range of facilities than previously, repeatedly directing people to move to organised virtual “breakout rooms” to discuss topics, and undertake activities including watching video together. The facilitators could electronically bring people back so there was less time lost moving chairs than would be the case in an incarnate event, and they were also able to share screens so at one stage we were asked to write onto a Venn Diagram.

It was an interesting event- not just because of the technical wizardry and brisk pace, but also because of the ability to bring different activities to play.

However technical problems, as so often, have to be born with. Although you can record, chat, pass notes et al, you and all participants are at the mercy of bandwidth congestion, technical breakdown, people forgetting to mute themselves, poor audibility and feedback, and different levels of confidence and competence with the software. I don’t regard myself as dim, though neither am I a “techie”, when asked to write on the Venn diagram I couldn’t find the tools and my machine ground ever slower. So I gave up at one point, logged out and back in and it picked up again. By the end it wasn’t worth trying to communicate.

More interesting questions hit me: why are we leaving “Climate Justice” to the Youth Network – especially with the COP, deferred perhaps, but ever more urgent.

Secondly, why was there nothing said about networking with other campaigning bodies (beyond a brief mention of XR)? Perhaps all the participants (who identified themselves as “activists”) weren’t involved in the “I Count” campaign and working with others to achieve the tightening of the Climate Act 2008.

Thirdly and relatedly, there was no mention of the work of other NGOs who have a strong record of campaigning in this area and putting bodies at lobbies and cards in MPs pigeon holes. I’m thinking particularly of Cafod, Christian Aid, Tearfund and Islamic Relief. Is this a reflection on the secularism of many young people, and the aging of many people of faith?

And fourthly, although lots of the conventional “wisdoms of the woke” relating to capitalism and colonialism were rehearsed (now we know where those stickers came from!), we didn’t move on to consider the real threat from the trade deals being hatched up on the quiet and out of view as you read this…. but that’s something for another week!

Next Thursday at 13.00 BST they are running another webinar in the series: ”Women on the front line of the crisis”. As a bloke of a certain age I’ve signed up for enlightenment – why not join us? To pre-book, so you get sent the link and can join, visit https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/events/webinar-women-front-line-crisis

Stephen

“Faces of Protest Climate Strike” by barbarakoester is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

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