How we took on corporate power in 2023

How we took on corporate power in 2023

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By: Global Justice Now
Date: 27 December 2023
Campaigns: General

Challenging corporate power has always been central to our work at Global Justice Now. And it certainly was during 2023.

In the face of ever-increasing global inequality and a deepening climate crisis, corporations continue to make record breaking profits. Fossil fuel companies, big banks, tech giants or big pharma – excessive corporate profiteering at the cost of people and the environment is systemic across our broken economy. And so, we came together to create change. 

Thanks to our incredible network of activists and supporters we took to the streets, made our voices heard in the media and launched petitions to pressure decision makers and expose corporate greed.

It was a truly inspiring year with many breakthrough moments. We wanted to share some of these with you to say thank you, so here’s our 2023 roundup.

We stood up to big fossil fuel companies

The climate crisis is happening now, and fossil fuels are the number one cause. Yet every year the fossil fuel industry makes billions of dollars in profits, while billions of people in the global south bear the brunt of climate chaos.

As big oil continued to announce vast profits we pushed back, demanding climate reparations and mobilising against the corporate court system which allows these corporations to obstruct climate action.

We joined the Big One, the largest climate protest the UK has ever seen, bringing together over 200 organisations for climate action. As well as joining the picket lines, we hosted 14 packed events, on everything from raising awareness of the impact of corporate courts on climate action to youth resistance workshops.

Energy Charter Treaty Dodgeball as part of the People’s Picket of the trade department during the Big One. Photo: Jonathan Salariya, Friends of the Earth

We stood in solidarity with people in Africa living on the front line of fossil fuel extraction. On the day of Shell’s AGM in London activists gave powerful testimonies of the human cost of Shell’s operations across the continent and demanded compensation payments by big polluting companies which have helped to create and profited from the climate crisis so much.

Many of our supporters donated to our crowd funder to back Ecuadorian activists campaigning for a referendum vote to ban all new oil drilling in the Yasuní national park in the Amazon. The success of this referendum was a huge victory for the courageous frontline communities and an important win against big oil for all of us.

Ahead of this year’s UN climate talks (COP28) we joined the Make Polluters Pay day of action, demonstrating outside banks and petrol stations to demand big fossil fuel corporations pay for the climate damage they have caused. Our activists had hundreds of conversations with members of the public, collected petition signatures and handed out information materials, showing decision makers what matters to their constituents.

Make Polluters Pay day of action: Global Justice Now Nottingham staging a die in outside of Santander Bank, one of three major funders of fossil fuels. Photo: Global Justice Nottingham 

Our push to tackle the root causes of the climate crisis didn’t stop there. Thanks to our tireless campaigning for the UK to exit the Energy Charter Treaty, the government was forced to finally move on this dangerous deal that lets fossil fuel companies sue governments over climate action. In September the government announced a review of the UK’s membership if modernisation proposals were not agreed by the end of November. The deadline has now passed and we’re keeping up the pressure. Over 120,000 people have signed our joint petition which we handed into 10 Downing Street.

Handing in our joint petition at 10 Downing Street with War on Want and Friends of the Earth. Photo: James O’Nions

We called out excessive corporate power 

Extreme corporate power is particularly problematic when big corporations are allowed to control access to basic needs, including medicines, food or data. After the disaster of pandemic inequality and big pharma’s profiteering even during a time of global health crisis, battles have been raging around the world for who controls medicines. Big pharma is trying to keep its monopoly power, but campaigners, scientists and global south leaders are fighting back to build something better. We continued to be part of that fight.

Our director Nick Dearden published Pharmanomics: How Big Pharma Destroys Global Health. On the back of the book launch Nick travelled up and down the country holding talks, giving an eye-opening account of how giant pharmaceutical companies have produced a global system of medical apartheid and sharing inspiring lessons from the front line in the fight for access to medicines.

Nick Dearden, author of Pharmanomics

Global Justice Now’s director Nick Dearden with Pharmanomics. Photo: Oriana Lauria

In light of the NHS 75th anniversary we published an investigation showing that big pharma companies have extracted £12 billion in excess profits from the NHS through sales on just 10 drugs in the last decade. Each of these drugs had received support from the public or charities for research and development.

We built a coalition against big pharma’s demands to replace the NHS pricing scheme VPAS with a deal that would cost the NHS an extra £2.5bn a year and held a protest outside the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s annual meeting. Sadly, despite our efforts a new deal was put in place at the end of the year doubling the cap on sales growth of branded drugs.

On Black Friday we joined the Make Amazon Pay coalition taking part in nationwide protests at Amazon’s offices across the UK to help expose the tech giant’s relentless expansion built on exploiting workers, producing masses of waste and emissions and predatory pricing and monopoly tolls for other sellers on its platform,  squeezing competition.

Our campaigners Daisy and Cleodie on Black Friday at the protest in London. 

We came together to learn, inspire and collaborate to fight for economic justice

We held Resisting Monopoly Capitalism a conference bringing together international activists, supporters, and expert speakers to dissect how a handful of corporate giants control vital sectors like pharmaceuticals, food, energy, and technology. Together we explored ways to confront this extreme corporate dominance as a global movement.

A shot from our closing plenary of Resisting Monopoly Capitalism, with Nick Shaxson, João Paulo Rodrigues and Alena Ivanova. Photo: Andrea Domeniconi

Local activism and movement building are crucial for the success of our campaigns, and supporting young activists is an important part of what we do. Our youth network came together at We Rise in Manchester to understand and challenge the deep-seated global inequalities stemming from colonialism, capitalism, and corporate power. Young activists explored how to collectively shape a more just world through protests, writing and art. A second two-day youth gathering was held in Sussex during the summer upskilling young activists on event organising, campaigning and creative actions.

We Rise in Manchester with Farzana Faruk Jhumu, Bangladeshi Youth climate justice activist (on screen) and Nick Dearden, director at Global Justice Now. Photo: js_visuals 

Thanks to our supporters and activists we had an incredible year. Although the challenges we are taking on can seem overwhelming, seeing so many people not accepting the status quo and coming together to demand a better way gives us hope, and strength to continue the fight.

A huge thank you for everything you’ve done this year to drive our campaigns forward.

A final request

Campaigning for structural changes takes a huge amount of time and resources. Our campaigns are powered by passionate individuals like you and the more regular support we have, the greater our reach and impact.

So if you are able to, and you’re not already, please join Global Justice Now as a member today!

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