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International Trade

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

Big Brother and post-Brexit trade deals

20/12/2020 by GJM

“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

Filed Under: Events, Migration Tagged With: adequacy, Big Brother, Big Data, Corporate Courts, credit, data flows, free trade agreement, immigration, insurance, International Trade, NHS, privacy, protection, racism, surveillance, treaties

Global Justice Manchester at Stockport Fair Trade Fair

28/11/2019 by GJM

P1030289_web

We had our stall out again this month, campaigning to alert people to the dangers of a post-Brexit trade deal with the US and enjoying the sounds of a steel band and a community choir.

P1030302_web
Manchester Community Choir performing at Stockport Fair Trade Fair

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Fair Trade, Fairtrade, Global, Global Justice Manchester, International Trade, Manchester, Manchester Community Choir, Poverty, Trade, Trade Democracy, Trade Transparency

Two more members receive letters from their MPs about the Trade Bill Amendment

11/04/2018 by GJM

Afzal01upload800px-Official_portrait_of_Kate_Green_crop_2

I wrote to my MP, Kate Green (Lab, Stretford & Urmston) expressing concern about the Trade Bill going through Parliament; namely the lack of accountability to Parliament in this Bill and any future trade deals following Brexit. So-called ‘Henry VIII’ powers would be used by government ministers to rush through trade agreements and alterations to EU laws without parliamentary debate and scrutiny.

Ms Green assured me that she herself was a sponsor of an amendment (NC3) aimed to ensure this did not happen.

She goes as far as to say that MPs should have access to the negotiating texts of international trade agreements as they are formulated. And that all documents relating to trade negotiations should be listed on the parliamentary website, as they are in other European parliaments.

I find this very encouraging, and am certain that my MP is strong advocate of the very position taken on these matters by GMTAN.

Brian Hepworth

 

Afzal Khan (Labour, Gorton) however, despite having been lobbied in Parliament and given us a photos at the Trade Bill Takedown had to be chivied to reply to a request to co-sponsor the amendment.

He responded:

“…This is something that we have been pressing on the Government since the bill received its second reading in parliament on the 9th of January.

I am pleased that New Clause 3 has been tabled now prior to Report Stage of the Bill and replicated many of the amendments that and my Labour colleagues tabled at the committee stage. If it is one of the amendments selected at Report Stage by the Speaker then I will be supporting it.

I was disappointed that the Government’s Trade Bill did not include such measures when it was introduced to the House of Commons, and that is why I opposed it at Second Reading. I was further disappointed that at Committee Stage the Government voted down Opposition amendments that would have precisely ensured proper oversight by Parliament. As a front bench spokesperson I am unable to sign Early Day Motions. However, I will continue to press for proper transparency and scrutiny of trade deals both in the Trade Bill and when the Government sets out its policy on future trade deals thereafter. …”

Stephen Pennells, GJ Manc.

If you have been in contact with your MP, on this or any other Global Justice Now campaign, please let us know so that we can publish their response.

Picture of Kate Green: Jeff Smith by Chris McAndrew CC-BY-3.0

Picture of Afzal Khan: Stephen Pennells, Global Justice Manchester CC-BY-4.0

Filed Under: Actions Tagged With: Afzal Khan, Democracy, Greater Manchester, House of Commons, International Trade, Kate Green, Manchester, Members of Parliament, MPs, Parliament, Trade Bill, Trade Democracy, Trade Transparency, WC3 amendment

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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)

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