2015 was a big year for us – and we’re not stopping in 2016
Date: 23 December 2015
Thanks to you, 2015 has been quite a year. I can’t believe it’s only 12 months since we changed from World Development Movement into Global Justice Now. During that year we’ve had some spectacular successes. Here are my personal highlights, but you can find a great description of the year below.
We changed our name
In January we became Global Justice Now, launching ourselves with a fantastic event called by Take Back Our World, one of the biggest, most diverse events we’ve held in recent years, as well as a set of illustrations exposing the big business lies that permeates our society.
We got 3 million Europeans to oppose TTIP
TTIP has become one of the dirtiest acronyms in Europe. We’ve worked with a vibrant international network to get over 3 million people signing the record-breaking Stop TTIP petition. We helped set up Students Against TTIP, Artists Against TTIP, and we pushed debates in dozens of councils set to become TTIP-free zones.
We exposed the corporate interests behind British aid
We worked with grassroots groups in Ghana, Tanzania and Nigeria to expose the corporations profiting from British aid spending. We showed that the so-called New Alliance for Food Security is all about promoting industrial agriculture, to the point that even the British government now seems embarrassed about it. We also worked with trade unions to show how British aid is helping privatises education in Africa.
We had the last word at Paris
Despite the failure of world leaders to agree a just deal which would halt climate change, we join thousands of activists in Paris to have the last word – to break through the self-congratulation and launch a movement for building the sort of energy democracy we need to stop climate change in a fair way.
What’s next
In 2016, we need to prioritise nurturing our movement to keep building on these successes. We want to halt TTIP negotiations and prevent CETA – the EU-Canada deal – from being ratified. We want to support local examples of energy democracy and food sovereignty. We want to create a truly just vision of British foreign policy, and get political parties signed up to it. We want to change the public story being told about migration and austerity. And we want to begin working towards legal binding standards to control the power of global corporations.
We can only do this with you. I really hope the story of our year will make you feel proud. And I hope you continue to be a part of Global Justice Now in 2016. Together, we can really change things.
