• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Global Justice Manchester

  • Home
  • Diary: events and actions
  • Blog
  • Photos

Global Warming

September Programme

08/09/2021 by GJM

If you want to join us in any of these actions, please email us at globaljusticemanchester@fastmail.fm

Wednesday 15th September we will be delivering public letters to Banks in Spinningfields, calling for the cancellation of debts owed by countries hit by the covid pandemic. Some of the poorest countries have been worst hit, and debts have mounted as the global economy has been on hold. These countries will need all the resources they can muster to tackle the climate crisis.

Email globaljusticemanchester@fastmail.fm if you want to campaign on debt cancellation

Saturday 18th September we will be taking part in the Day of Action: Corporate Courts vs. the Climate. In the morning, there will be brief photo opportunities outside several corporate law firms, and a stall in St. Anne’s Square. There might also be pickets at Shell petrol stations. We are demanding that the UK withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty, remove corporate courts from the current Canada deal, and abandon moves to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

At 5.30pm Global Justice Now are holding a webinar Corporate courts – communities fight back . Speakers from Bolivia, Italy, and Argentina will relate how people across the Globe are resisting the ISDS corporate court system, to defend their environment and communities.

Find out more about our campaign against corporate courts from globaljusticemanchester@fastmail.fm

Friday 24th September from 12.00-14.00, we will be supporting the youth strikers in St Peter’s Square, as they rally to save the planet.

Sunday 3rd October we will be joining the Climate Justice bloc at the Conservative Party Conference demo.

Email globaljusticemanchester@fastmail.fm to find out more, or join in

Filed Under: Actions, climate crisis, Events Tagged With: #StopISDS, Climate Change, Climate Strike, Corporate Courts, Corporate Power, Covid Debt, Drop the Debt, Global Heating, Global Justice Manchester, Global Warming, Greater Manchester, International Trade, ISDS, Justice, Manchester, Poverty, Trade, Trade Democracy

The secretive tribunals which enforce corporate rule

15/01/2021 by GJM

“Demanding Justice At Chevron’s Shareholder Meeting 2011” by Rainforest Action Network is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

As coronavirus takes lives, devastates families and destroys businesses, some are planning to reap profits from the disaster. No, I’m not referring to the usual suspects, supermarkets, internet giants and delivery companies, but to secretive cabals of corporate lawyers, who form the arbitrations system for international trade disputes. These corporate courts are heavily biased in favour of transnational capitalist corporations and against the rights of ordinary people and the sustainability of the natural environment.

And they have immense power. Currently, Pakistan faces the confiscation of its assets abroad, including hotels and aircraft owned by the state airline, because of a totally unrelated dispute over a copper mine. Meanwhile, another mining company is planning to sue Tanzania. What is going on?

Poisoning the Rainforest

“File:Texaco in Ecuador.jpg” by Julien Gomba is licensed under CC BY 2.0

For over 20 years, from 1972 to 1993, the US oil company Texaco spilled 30bn gallons of crude oil and other waste into the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. Ordered by the Ecuadorian courts to clear up the mess, parent company Chevron simply took their case to an ISDS tribunal, which agreed with them that they had no liability. The environment suffered a double whammy, while rainforest was poisoned, the extracted oil was burned to produce more greenhouse gasses. Meanwhile, people in the affected area are forced to live with Chevrons filthy legacy of oil polluted water.

Act now to demand real justice in international trade

What are corporate courts?

‘Corporate courts’ are a tribunals run by corporate lawyers for the benefit of giant trans-national corporations (TNCs) and rich investors. They allow foreign companies to sue national governments and overrule domestic laws and regulations that reduce their profitability. They are used by the powerful TNCs to prevent regulations protecting consumers, workers, livestock or the environment.

“Fast food strike and protest for a $15/hour minimum wage at a McDonalds restaurant” by Fibonacci Blue is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Nick Dearden of Global Justice Now has pointed out:

Putting cigarettes in plain packaging, banning dangerous chemicals, raising the minimum wage, stopping toxic power plants being built – anything that might affect big business’s bottom line can lead to a claim being lodged.

The Brexit deal that the UK has recently signed with the EU does not include a corporate court clause, but many of the deals which are being currently signed do contain them, and corporate lobbyists are pressing the Government to make corporate courts part of any trade deal which the Government now signs.

“Oil pollution” by Verokark is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Fracking Canada

Time and time again, corporate courts find against local communities and environmental interests in favour of corporate profits. In 2011, in response to public pressure, the Provincial Government of Quebec severely restricted fracking and other hydrocarbon extraction activities in its territory. A company called Lone Pine, which had been given exploration permits, objected. Lone Pine is actually based in Canada, but because it is formally registered in the US, it was able to use the ISDS system to demand compensation.

Act now to demand real justice in international trade

Key features of corporate courts (ISDS, ICS)

“3D Judges Gavel” by ccPixs.com is licensed under CC BY 2.0
  • They usually meet in secret;
  • Only foreign companies can lodge claims, typically against national governments;
  • Ordinary citizens, domestic companies, trade unions, watchdogs and even national governments are barred from taking action through these courts;
  • There are not usually presided over by qualified judges, the cases are heard by corporate lawyers;
  • Court officials are paid by the hour, giving them a vested interest in awarding claims in order to attract more work;
  • They operate independently of national judicial systems;
  • There is usually no right of appeal.

Act now to demand real justice in international trade

France’s environmental law

But polluting companies don’t only use ISDS to demand compensation. They can also use it to directly influence government policy.

In 2017 environmental activist Nicolas Hulot became France’s Environment Minister. In July, he brought forward the draft of an ambitious law which would have ended fossil fuel extraction on all French territory by 2040. Some projects would have ended as soon as 2021 and only a few would remain by 2030.

“NICOLAS HULOT” by marsupilami92 is licensed under CC BY 2.0

In August 2017, the French Council of State received notice from lawyers representing the Canadian oil and gas company Vermilion, threatening to take action through the ISDS system if their investments were threatened. Vermilion is responsible for 75% of French oil production.

By September, Hulot’s law had been effectively neutered. The draft now allowed for the renewal of oil exploitation permits until 2040. Existing projects would continue unhindered for the next 20 years. The final version of the law even allowed exploitation permits to be renewed after the 2040 deadline.

A year later, Hulot resigned his post, citing the excessive influence of corporate lobbyists on environmental policy making.

Origin

The ISDS system of corporate courts first came to prominence as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. It has a deeply unpleasant history. In one of its first cases, the US company Ethyl sued the Canadian Government to allow the use of a known human neurotoxin in its product. Despite the ingredient being banned in its home country, the USA, Ethyl was able to bully the Canadians into allowing them to use the neurotoxin.

The Australian tobacco scandal

Marlboro Mascot Parody by John Oliver (Jeff the diseased lung)

In 2011, the tobacco giant Altria Group, owners of Philip Morris International, took the Australian Government to court in an attempt to prevent the introduction of ‘plain packaging’ laws. Although the Australian High Court kicked out their claim, Alteria pursued it through the corporate court set up by a trade treaty that Australia had made with Hong Kong. Again they lost, but this time on a technicality. Alteria had attempted to use a shell company to pursue its claim. However, the company was not registered at the time that the laws were introduced.

The legal costs, paid by the Australian taxpayer, amounted to Aus$50 million. This was enough of a victory for the tobacco companies. Using the threat of such court cases, they have bullied poorer countries such as Uruguay and Togo into backing down on anti-tobacco legislation.

Watch comedian John Oliver explain how Big Tobacco uses corporate courts to bully small countries

TTIP, CETA and ICS

When all else fails, change the name…

“Rolling Rebellion Sparks in Seattle to Defend Internet & Stop the TPP” by Backbone Campaign is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The courts go under several names, most notably ISDS (Investor-State Dispute Settlement), or ICS (Investment Court System).

The Stop-TTIP and Stop-CETA movements won some concessions on corporate courts. The Investment Court System (ICS) which is incorporated into the CETA treaty does, at least, require that cases are heard by real judges, rather than corporate lawyers. However, the judges will still be paid by the hour, creating a perverse incentive to find in favour of the corporate litigant.

According to the Deutscher Richterbund, Germany’s largest association of judges and public prosecutors:

“Neither the proposed procedure for the appointment of judges of the ICS nor their position meet the international requirements for the independence of courts.”

“Judge Johnny, star of the Corporate People’s Court” by DonkeyHotey is licensed under CC BY 2.0

ISDS, in its modified form of Investor Court System (ICS):

  • Rewards judges for finding in favour of corporations
  • Promotes legal creativity through vague provisions such as protection for the ‘legitimate expectations’ of corporate investors
  • Has no limits on the amount of compensation that can be paid to investors
  • Causes regulatory chill, by making it risky for governments to to legislate for environmental, public health or workplace protection

The corporate lobby think they can hoodwink ordinary people by changing the name of the system. We think they’re wrong.

Drilling in the Adriatic

When UK based Rockhopper Exploration began sinking test drills in the Adriatic, citizens of Italy’s idyllic Abruzzo region were horrified. For a region with a heavy investment in tourism, the prospect of a new oil industry just offshore was an immediate threat to jobs and businesses, to say nothing of the long term environmental destruction.

“Roseto degli Abruzzi Abruzzo 2014” by Fraintesa.it is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

In increasingly large numbers, tens of thousands protested on the streets demanding government action and in 2017 the Italian Government responded, refusing Rockhopper a license to drill and placing a moratorium on all future operations off the Italian coast.

Rockhopper is claiming up to US$350m compensation through the ISDS procedure. This is 7x what they have invested in exploration.

Act now to demand real justice in international trade

Uniper v the Netherlands

“Coal Fired Power Station” by UniversityBlogSpot is licensed under CC BY 2.0

German based company Uniper is threatening the Dutch government following its decision to ban coal-based power generation by 2030. This would force Uniper to close its new coal-fired plant, which it hopes to keep running until 2056. It seems that the company is claiming that a transition to biomass is not viable.

The action would use the controversial Energy Charter Treaty which has triggered more ISDS claims than any other trade agreement.

 

Where we stand today

The UK has been identified as one of the major centres of activity for carpetbagging corporate lawyers seeking to exploit international trade deals to promote the agenda of the TNCs.

  • Corporate courts are increasingly being used to resist the switch away from climate changing hydrocarbons, as big oil corporations attempt to protect their profits.
  • Paper companies, which allow tTNCs to pretend they are operating in a country even when they are not, are still being used to gain access to the corporate court system. South Korea alone has signed 99 separate trade agreements which allow this practice.
  • The system is still being used to bully poorer countries, some of whom struggle to fund even the costs of litigation.

Act now to demand real justice in international trade

Filed Under: climate crisis Tagged With: #jeffwecan, #StopISDS, Abruzzo, Altria, Altria Group, Australia, Brexit, British Parliament, Canada, CETA, Chlorinated Chicken, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Emergency, Corporate court, Corporate Courts, Corporate Power, Corporate sovereignty, Deansgage, Democracy, Dirty oil, ECT, Energy Charter Treaty, Environmental protection, Ethyl, Extinction Rebellion, Fossil fuels, France, Global Heating, Global Warming, globalisation, Human rights, hydrocarbons, ICS, International Trade, Investor Court System, Investor-State Dispute Settlement, ISDS, Italy, Jeff the diseased lung, John Oliver, Justice, Manchester, Marlborough, Multilateral Investment Court, NAFTA, NAFTA2, Nederlands, Netherlands, Nicholas Hulot, North American Free Trade Agreement, Parliament, Parliamentary oversight, Parliamentary scrutiny, Parliamentary sovereignty, Philip Morris, post-Brexit, rainforest, Rights for People, Rockhopper, Rockhopper Exploration, Rules for Corporations, StopICS, tobacco, Togo, trade agreements, trade and environment, trade deal, Trade Democracy, Trade justice, Transparency, TTIP, UK-US, UK-US trade, UK-US trade deal, Uniper, Uruguay, US-UK, US-UK trade, US-UK trade deal, USA, USMCA, XR

Day of Action on US Trade Deal

03/11/2020 by GJM

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!

Filed Under: Actions, climate crisis, Events Tagged With: #StopTheUSTradeDeal, 2020, Biden, business, capital, capitalism, Central Library, Chlorinated Chicken, Chorlton, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Climate Change, Climate Emergency, data, Deeds Not Words, Emmeline Pankhurst, food standards, Fridays For The Future, Global Heating, Global Justice Manchester, Global Warming, Government Secrecy, Greater Manchester Campaign Against Climate Change, Hatheresage Road, insurance companies, International Trade, Keep our NHS public, KONP, Manchester, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, medical insurance, medical research, MNC, MRI, Multi-National Corporations, MUNFT, NHS, NHS data, No Secret Trade Deals, Obama, Pankhurst, Presidential Election, privatisation, profit, St. Peter's Square, statue, Stop The US Trade Deal, Sufferagist, TNC, Trade Democracy, Trans-National Corporations, Trump, TTIP, unemployment, US Election, vigil, War on Want, Wilbraham Road

“A World for the many, not the few”: Kate Osamor at the Global Development Institute

08/11/2018 by GJM

Members of Global Justice Manchester and the Jubilee Debt Campaign turned out to hear Kate Osamor, shadow development secretary, speak at the University of Manchester Global Development Institute on Friday.

Kate stated that “aggressive change” is necessary since inequality is a defining feature of the world situation, and malnutrition is increasingly widespread. In addition, violence to women, unequal pay and climate change are issues that have their greatest impact on the poorest people. She pointed to an international system of tax avoidance, facilitated by local elites.

Introducing Labour’s Green Paper on international development, she called for a challenge to the fundamental economic causes of poverty, rather than the symptoms, outlining five necessary measures

KateOsamorMU

  1. The advance of feminism.
  2. A fairer global economy, including:
    1. an attack on tax avoidance;
    2. more debt relief;
    3. fairer trade;
    4. national wealth to remain in situ.
  3. A Global movement for public services and an end to PFIs.
  4. A drive for World Peace including restrictions on the international arms trade, increased help for migrants and an ethical foreign policy.
  5. Measures to mitigate climate change in recognition that it is a major driver of poverty and that we have only 12 years left in which to act including:
    1. an end to subsidies for fossil fuels;
    2. investment in renewable energy;
    3. new measures of wealth and wellbeing to replace GDP growth.

Kate spoke of alternative models of prosperity, based on the key recognition that inequality is holding back progress. It is a problem that industry is not currently rooted in local communities. We need to build worldwide progressive movements which will demand an increased say for civil society. We must also recognise that aid alone is not enough; donor countries must not take more than they give.

MembersMUOf course, this agenda faces many obstacles, some of which were raised in the questions that followed, but it came as a breath of fresh air in comparison to current government policy.

Afterwards, activists handed out ‘Drop the Debt’ and ‘Sick? Scratch Cards’ to people leaving the event.  These were well received and we had some interesting discussions,

Join the fight for affordable medicines

 

Filed Under: Actions Tagged With: alternative, Avoidance, Big Pharma, Climate Change, community, DfID, Dodging, Drop the Debt, economic, Economy, Elites, Energy, Fair Trade, Feminism, few, For the many, Fossil Fuel, GDP, Global, Global Warming, growth, Hydrocarbon, hydrocarbons, industry, Inequality, International Development, investment, Kate Osamor, many, model, National Wealth, not the few, Overseas Aid, PFI, Poverty, PPP, prosperity, Public Services, Renewable, Subsidies, success, Tax, wealth, wellbeing, World

Primary Sidebar

Contact

Follow us on Twitter

Find us on Facebook

Watch videos

Alternative Manchester Based Media

The Meteor

Salford Star

Greater Manchester Trade Action Blog

Manchester Friends of the Earth

Manchester Climate Monthly

Write to your MP

Blackley and Broughton:
Graham Stringer (Labour)

Manchester Central:
Lucy Powell (Labour/Co-operative)

Manchester, Gorton:
Afzal Khan (Labour)

Manchester, Withington:
Jeff Smith (Labour)

Salford and Eccles:
Rebecca Long-Bailey (Labour)

Stretford and Urmston:
Kate Green (Labour)

Footer


We’re part of Global Justice Now, a democratic membership organisation which campaigns against inequality and injustice in the global economy. We want to see a world where ordinary people control the resources they need to live a decent life, rather than corporations and the super rich calling the shots.


Join Global Justice Now | Get involved | Get in touch