Webinar series: Coronavirus, capitalism and global inequality
In this series of webinars we explore and discuss the changes we need to bring about to make sure that the management of this global crisis and its aftermath won’t just take us back to the status quo, but to a more equal society.
To know about future webinars, keep an eye on our events page or sign up to our email list.
Webinar 5: Can we ensure the climate has a future after the corona-crisis?
In this episode we explore what a post-lockdown world might look like and how it will affect the climate. Our panel on international campaigners discusses why we need to treat the climate crisis as urgently as the Covid-19 pandemic, why challenging the free market ideology and committing to universal public healthcare is essential, and what actions we can take to win a brighter, greener future.
Guy Taylor, activism manager at Global Justice Now is joined by Nnimmo Bassey, a leading environmental activist and author in Nigeria, Alice Picard, activist and board member of ATTAC France and Danni Paffard, head of organising at Green New Deal UK, and part of the Build Back Better campaign.
Webinar 4: Why the US-UK trade deal will make us more vulnerable to crisis
In this webinar we discuss how trade rules underpin the corporate structure of the global economy, what the Trump administration’s trade agenda is, and how the pandemic could lead to a new wave of corporate court (ISDS) cases – and what to do to change this.
With:
- Sharon Treat, senior attorney at the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy in the US, and previously a state legislator in Maine.
- Cecilia Olivet, co-ordinator of the trade and investment programme at the Transnational Institute, and a member of the 2013-15 Ecuadorian government commission to audit the country’s bilateral investment treaties.
- Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now and a leading UK trade campaigner.
- Chaired by Jean Blaylock, trade campaigner at Global Justice Now
Webinar 3: Fighting for global access to Covid-19 vaccines and treatments
For decades, campaigners around the world have been fighting for access to essential medicines. Drugs produced by the profit-hungry pharmaceutical industry have for too long been priced so high that millions die every year from treatable conditions. With numerous researchers across the world racing to find effective Covid19 vaccines and treatments, campaigners are ramping up efforts to ensure that access for all is pushed to the top of the political agenda.
With:
- Umunyana Rugege, Section 27 South Africa
- Heidi Chow, campaigner at Global Justice Now
- Pedro Villardi of ABI AIDS, Brazil
Webinar 2: Women on the front line of the crisis
Although coronavirus affects the health of both men and women, it is women who are feeling the heaviest burden of its many impacts on work, childcare and the economic situation around the world.
In this webinar, we talk to two women from the global south who have been campaigning for many years to challenge the power structures that result in inequality for women and marginalized people. Jean Enriquez and Mercia Andrews will compare their experiences of the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic in urban Philippines and in rural South Africa.
With
- Jean Enriquez, National Coordinator, World March of Women, Philippines
- Mercia Andrews, Rural Women’s Assembly South Africa
- Dorothy Guerrero, Head of campaigns and policy at Global Justice Now
This webinar is also available as a podcast
Webinar 1: Business as usual isn’t good enough
Why neoliberalism won’t help the global south out of this crisis.
With:
- Dotty Guerrero, head of policy at Global Justice Now
- Myriam Vander Stichele, The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations / SOMO (live from the Netherlands)
- Gyekye Tanoh, head of Political Economy Unit at Third World Network-Africa
- Tim Jones, head of policy, Jubilee Debt Campaign
This episode is also available as a podcast
Online public meeting: Coronavirus, capitalism and inequality
As governments pour public money into finding a vaccine for Covid-19, we could see Big Pharma doing what it often does, and privatising the results. As in other areas, the free market is holding back our ability to guarantee public health. Meanwhile the World Bank is issuing ‘pandemic bonds’, allowing investors to profiteer from providing the emergency funds countries in the global south might need to cope with the virus. Yet the very scale of the public health and economic crisis that Covid-19 has created means we also have an opportunity – to not simply return to business as usual, but to demand that out of this disruption comes a world shaped more around collective solidarity than the pursuit of profit by the few.
With:
- James O’Nions, head of activism at Global Justice Now (facilitator)
- Heidi Chow, senior pharmaceuticals campaigner, Global Justice Now
- Shalmali Guttal, executive director, Focus on the Global South (live from Thailand)
- Nick Dearden, director, Global Justice Now
