Building power: activism in Global Justice Now
Date: 16 January 2015
We live in an intolerable world. No decent human being can defend the injustices and inequalities that mark our world, where a global elite enjoy luxuries beyond imagination whilst billions of people are deprived of the conditions needed for a dignified life. Whilst such a state of affairs can easily provoke despair and cynicism, what it demands is a response. The question is: what kind of response?
A question of power
The riches of the few derive from their power. Their control over resources provides them with the power to organise and control economic life, and to enrich themselves accordingly. It also bestows enormous political power, as well as influence over global media and cultural industries which shape perceptions and attitudes. But we, the majority of the world’s people, have power too. There are, after all, many more of us than them, and the wealth of the elite is generated by the labour, creativity and culture of the many. But for us to make our power into an effective reality we need to organise ourselves so we can act together in movements for a different world.
Where does Global Justice Now fit in?
Especially in the West, today’s movements are generally not comprised of single organisations, such as mass parties, but rather networks comprised of a multiplicity of groups and organisations. The alterglobalisation movement of the early 2000s, which famously closed down the World Trade Organisation meeting in Seattle and proved a powerful thorn in the side of the corporate-led globalisation agenda, was a prime example of this tendency, with hundreds of organisations working together through a variety of forums.
Global Justice Now is one part in this tapestry of the world’s progressive social movements. But what does our part represent, and, as we relaunch our organisation, where are hoping to take things from here?
1.A democratic, activist-led organisation
Fundamental to Global Justice Now is our internal democracy, through which our groups and activists play a key role in determining our political direction. This reflects our commitment to doing politics in a way which promotes active participation rather than passive acceptance, and is a reason why many of our activists have made long-term commitments to our work.
2.Multi-faceted, effective campaigning
Our groups and activists bring our campaigns to life and are crucial to their success. In our successful campaign on food speculation, for example, Global Justice Now activists took to the streets in a series of stunts to highlight the role of Barclays in betting on hunger. At the same time, they brought pressure to bear on politicians through lobbying, using their in-depth knowledge of the details of the bill. Likewise, in the TTIP campaign Global Justice Now activists have organised NoTTIP demonstrations and walking tours in cities such as Glasgow, Leeds and Bristol, written over a hundred letters to local press, and used a wide variety of avenues to promote the European petition against TTIP which now has over a million signatures.
In their campaigning, our activists often work with other groups and organisations. This is something we are looking to take forward in our next phase: we aim to develop and strengthen links with allies – locally, nationally and internationally – in order to promote a more coordinated, cohesive movement for change.
3.Strengthening alternative narratives
Our groups and activists do more than just fight campaigns on specific policy issues. They also help to keep alive and advance an alternative narrative to the prevailing wisdom that only a competitive, market-driven, individualistic society is possible or desirable – Margaret Thatcher’s ‘There is No Alternative’. Our groups organise events, discussions, reading groups, film-showings and stalls in towns and cities to engage people with a different way of thinking about the world, highlighting the examples of cooperative and democratic living that proliferate across the globe and the power of collective action to bring about change. As such, our network serves as a source of broad political education, both for the members of that network and for members of the public more generally.
4.Bridging struggles: from the UK to the global
Our activists recognise that, for all the specificities of local and national circumstances, problems faced by people in the UK are linked with those across the world, including in the global south and, consequently, so are the struggles fought by people in these different societies. On the politics of food, for example, Global Justice Now activists have brought an international dimension to the growing food sovereignty movement in the UK, highlighting the resistance of farmers in Ghana to new seed laws that threaten increased corporate control of their food system. Likewise, our new campaign on energy privatisation offers a way to connect fuel poverty in the UK with problems with energy access overseas, as well the implications of a corporate energy system for climate change. And the campaign against TTIP is, of course, precisely about the international dimension of issues that affect us in the UK.
To be more effectively connected to struggles in the UK, however, our network recognises the need to bring a wider range of people into our activism, including those less privileged by virtue of their age, class or ethnicity. We have started working on this in a variety of ways, including outreach and education programmes, but regard it as a crucial terrain in the coming months and years.
Get involved!
This is an exciting time for activism in Global Justice Now. Building on our strengths, whilst recognising the challenges that lie ahead, we are confident we can make our activism more dynamic and powerful. If you’re not already involved but would like to be, see here or contact us at [email protected].
