Hi John,
Boris Johnson’s demise is a moment of relief for many of us. But his pro-big business agenda is still in place, and could even deepen under a new leader. As the Conservative Party begins to select the next prime minister, we need to step up our work. Will you join Global Justice Now today?
The big calls for our world
Three years ago we warned what the election of Boris Johnson’s government would mean for the global issues we care about. We warned about his deregulatory trade deals, his hostile approach to migrants and his contempt for democratic standards. And we were right to be concerned.
Yesterday, as the prime minister finally announced his intention to step down amid a storm of controversy and anger from his own backbenchers, it was a moment of relief for many of us. Aside from his difficult relationship with the truth, Johnson’s government has been a disaster on many of our issues.
Boris Johnson likes to say he got the big calls right. But on the biggest calls for our world, he was consistently wrong.
On the most important issue of the pandemic, the international supply of Covid-19 vaccines, Johnson’s government was one of the last holdouts preventing a waiver of the pharmaceutical industry’s monopolies. After all, he told his MPs “greed” had given us the vaccines. We now know that at least 600,000 additional people have died around the world because vaccines have not been distributed fairly.
As the financial shock of the pandemic around the world turns into a global cost of living crisis, the prime minister has spent many months focusing on his own survival rather than the important questions – from the growing food crisis in many Africa countries to unbearable debt burdens across the global south. Most brutally of all, Johnson has tried to deport refugees seeking safety here to Rwanda, causing immense pain and suffering simply in order to bolster his failing political credibility.
On climate change, probably the biggest issue of all, despite holding off some of the worst climate denying forces in his party, he has failed to meet the UK’s climate targets and presided over a COP26 summit that left the 1.5 degrees global warming target on life support.
As Conservative MPs and members now spend the coming weeks choosing the new prime minister, we need to set the tone for the political challenges they will face. We need to make sure the next prime minister is unable to get away with such policies. To do that, we need you with us.
Can you join Global Justice Now as a member today?
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Britain’s role in the world
Resisting the pro-big business agenda that Johnson leaves behind might seem like a tall order. And it’s not going to happen overnight. But we have some reasons for hope.
The global political context is changing. It’s now clear, even to many western policy makers, that the ‘market knows best’ dogma has failed. The momentum behind neoliberalism has ground to a halt, and western governments have accepted the need for economic intervention, regulation and spending. They’ve seen it was necessary in the pandemic, and we know that it will be even more necessary to tackling climate change.
But there are big problems. First, while recognising the limits of the market for themselves, they continue to push pro-market logic on the global south, just as they do on the poorest in our own country. What’s more, they have done nothing to limit the power or wealth of the multinational corporations and the super-rich who have been the real beneficiaries of the pandemic.
This concentration of wealth and power is no basis for a healthy, sustainable recovery from the pandemic. We need to take radical action to create a more equal and just economy, and to challenge the power and control of big business. This big change will only happen if we build a stronger movement. Change is happening – but it’s not fast enough and not ambitious enough. Only people power can take us to the next level. That’s why we need you.
In the year ahead, we will work tirelessly to challenge and change those policies which are fuelling inequality, poverty and climate change. That means campaigning here for the next British prime minister to play a very different role in the world.
In particular, we will challenge those trade deals which threaten climate action, particularly the Energy Charter Treaty. We will fight attempts to deregulate the City of London, which risks more global speculation and crisis. We will work to expose the pharmaceutical monopolies keeping medicines out of the hands of those who need them most. We will challenge the demonisation of migrants, and demand safe, legal routes for those fleeing war, poverty, persecution and dispossession. And we will campaign for climate reparations, holding those corporations responsible for the climate crisis to account for the catastrophic damage they have wrought.
For this huge agenda, we need you. We are only as strong as our movement. That’s why we need you to join us. Boris Johnson might be on his way out. But his big business agenda is not – unless we get active.
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Thank you,
Nick Dearden
Director, Global Justice Now
PS. For those who can make it, I look forward to seeing you in Sheffield tomorrow for our national gathering.
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