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On Friday 1^st December 2017, World Aids Day, we set up a ‘Free Sick-Health Lottery’ in Reading. If people took a card they had a one in three chance of ‘winning the medicines they needed’!

While people were looking at the cards, we took the opportunity to explain that millions of people are denied access to vital medicine because of the extortionate prices set by the pharmaceutical companies: Almost two billion people world wide lack access to essential medicines. About 10 million people die every year because they can’t afford medicines.

STOP AIDS and Global Justice Now  have written a new report, Pills and Profits: How drug companies make a killing out of public research . It is backed by over 20 health and patient organisations. It calls for attaching strings to taxpayer funding, greater transparency in drug pricing, and for a radical overhaul in the way the research and development of new medicines are funded.

Wednesday 1st November

The pharmaceutical industry is hugely profitable, yet millions do not have access to medicine because the prices drug companies charge are so high.

Sibongile Tshabalala, national chair of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa, gave us a moving and inspiring talk. She said she thought she was going to die in 1996 when the Western pharmaceutical companies and governments aggressively blocked access to low-cost AIDs drugs for the countries of Africa and the global south. At that time, ten million people died unnecessarily, including her husband and many of her friends. However a group formed the TAC. They took the pharmaceutical companies to court and managed to get them to provide the drugs at reasonable prices. She said,

‘We fought for access to HIV drugs in South Africa, and now we’re fighting for access to essential breast cancer drugs, just as people here in the UK are, because the NHS can’t afford the rip off prices the companies are charging. We have a common struggle against the greed of Big Pharma.”

James O’Nions, campaigner with Global Justice Now, said,

“The extortionate prices charged by pharmaceutical corporations, even when drugs have been developed using taxpayers’ money, is a symptom of a broken system. It’s time to draw a line in the sand and demand drug development for people not profit”

Wednesday 25^th October 2017

As part of Reading’s International Festival, The Director of Global Justice Now, Nick Dearden, inspired a packed audience of over 70 people ,with his talk, ‘Putting People Before Profit – Building a New Global Economy’.

After the talk, the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Reading, Councillor Rose Williams said, “I’m proud of Reading being an international town. Nick’s talk tonight made me feel hopeful for the future, especially after all the bad news that we hear every day. I believe most people have a good heart. That helps us to look ahead.”

Nick Dearden later commented, “Reading is an extraordinarily internationalist town – the international festival is testament to how strongly the town cares about the rest of the world. This spirit is going to be vital in coming years, because we need real change in this country to create a more equal and harmonious Britain. We can’t do this by pulling up the drawbridge and pretending the rest of the world doesn’t exist. This country made so much of its wealth from the rest of the world, our governments helped fashion the global economy, and now it’s vital that we help to undo some of this damage. We can start by adopting a welcoming attitude to migrants, by creating a fairer and more democratic form of trade, by regulating and controlling big corporations – including making them pay their fair share of tax. We will only build a fairer Britain if we also help create a fairer world.”

Nick with Mayor Councillor Rose Williams and local activist Mariana

Sam Fowles gave us an excellent talk on Wednesday about ‘The Great Repeal Bill’ that has been in the news this week. He explained to us how this bill will make it possible for the government to use ‘Henry VIII’ powers to make or break laws without going through the House of Commons; it will give them broader powers, exercised with less accountability, than any peacetime administration within living memory. If you would like to write to your MP to express your concern, you can find their contact details at ‘Find my MP’ on your computer. Even if you send a short note it will get noticed if a number of us send something! Also, It is quite easy to get a letter published in the Reading Chronicle if you give it a local angle. If you are more ambitious, try the national press! We need to show journalists and politicians that people are concerned about this topic and that there is need to take it seriously.

For more information look at Sam Fowles’s articles in the Guardian or on the ‘Another Europe is Possible’ website.

7.30pm Wednesday 6^th September

RISC, 35 – 39 London Street, Reading RG1 4PS

More info Jackie Oversby: 07745310794 / jackieoversby@gmail.com www.globaljustice.org.uk/reading

‘Corporates – Saints or Sinners’, our last meeting, provided a startling insight into why corporates behave the way they do. We started by playing an updated version of Corporate Monopoly. Then I gave a talk based on the book, ‘The Corporation. The Pathological pursuit of Profit and Power’ by Joel Bakan. I thoroughly recommend the book. It is a relatively easy read. You can also watch the film of it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOafbpaVw90

You can borrow the new Corporate Monopoly game from Jackie. Also, last year’s version of Corporate Monopoly is still available on the website at:  globaljustice.org.uk/infographics/corporatemonopoly .  It is well worth looking at if you haven’t seen it before.