Trasnational Capital vs People's Resistance [Capital Trasnacional vs Resistencia del Pueblo]

7/29/2019 Trasnational Capital vs People's Resistance [Capital Trasnacional vs Resistencia del Pueblo]

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Towards a Systemic Response toTransnationalized Capital

Gonzalo Berron & Brid Brennan

This special edit ion of ALAIs Lat in Amer icain Movement magazine examines in great de-ta i l how transnat ional capi ta l funct ions: thesectors it operates in, the globalised logic i tfo l l ows, t he st ruct ure of i t s promiscuous rela-t ions with publ ic author i t ies at a l l levels, themagnitude of i ts abuses and its social, eco-nomic and environmental i r responsibi l i ty . In

the fo l lowing pages, the scope of i ts powerand the chal lenge we, the people, have be-for e us emer ge very clearl y.

Confront ing Transnationals Confronting Capitalism

The task of confronting Transnational Corpo-rations (TNCs) is none other than that of con-fr ont ing t he contemporary expression of capi-ta l ism, just as Marx descr ibed i t in the 19th

century. The di f ference l ies in i ts g lobal d i-mension and the capaci ty i t has t oday to m ovefr om one country t o another w i t h great speedand agil i ty. The increasing depersonalisationof i ts management and ownership makes ital l the more dangerous, as it is increasinglyrare to find a human face to hold responsible ethically, morally or legally for the decisionstaken about capi ta l . In these circumstances,the possibi l i ty of corporat ions adopt ing de-cisions that disregard human values and are

guided only by rat i onal calculat ions and prof-its also becomes greater.

Furthermore, the phenomenon of hyper-con-centrat ion of capi ta l is now emerging in thecontext of t he cr isis, which has even st rength-ened this tendency. The degree of concen-trat ion has been adjusted to one of the con-temporary dimensions of the market: to be aglobal player requires having the logist ical-economic capaci t ies in order t o compete .

These are acquired alm ost exclusively t hroughmergers, takeovers and capi ta l accumulat iontaken to the extreme. Final ly, the cr is is hasexposed the f inancial nature of capi ta l andthe dependency of a l l product ive act iv i t ieson market speculat ion. This, in turn, contr ib-utes to the depersonalisation and cynicism ofinvestors decisions. As Walden Bello stated,

the d isconnect between t he real and the f i -nancial economy is not accidental that thef i nancial economy exploded precisely t o makeup for t he st agnat ion owing to overproduct i onof t he real economy 1.

The Architecture of Impunit y: theConst ruct ion of Corporate Capture

In the pages t hat f o l low, authors descr ibe t heest abl ishment of t he so-cal led archi tect ure

of impunity a term popularised in the anal-ysis of t he Enlazando Alt ernat ivasnetwork onTNCs2 which refers to the multiple policiesand inst rument s of t he internat ional t rade andinvestment regime that legi t imise the modusoperandi of TNCs. This archi tect ure of i mpu-nit y is indeed t he globalised expression of

1 Bello, W. (2009), The Global Collapse: a Non-ort hodox View. Monthly Review magazine art ic lebased on an essay by the author released by the Brit-ish Broadcasting Corporat ion (BBC) on Feb. 6, 2009.ht t p : / / mrz ine.month ly rev iew.org/ 2009/ be l lo200209.h t m l

2 The term arch i tec ture o f impuni ty re fers tothe analysis of the Bi-regional Europe-Latin Americaand t he Caribbean Enlazando Al t ernat ivasne tworkon t he prot ect ion of TNCs int erest s and priv i legesthrough internat ional and bi lateral t rade and invest-ment agreement s and the p ol ic ies of t he WTO, IMFand WB. See The Eur opean Union and Tr ansnat ionalCorporations. Trading Corporate Prots for Peo-ples Right sww w.enlazandoal ternat ivas.org/ spip.php?article522
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2009/bello200209.htmlhttp://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2009/bello200209.htmlhttp://www.enlazandoalternativas.org/spip.php?article522http://www.enlazandoalternativas.org/spip.php?article522http://www.enlazandoalternativas.org/spip.php?article522http://www.enlazandoalternativas.org/spip.php?article522http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2009/bello200209.htmlhttp://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2009/bello200209.html


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the struggle between classes over control ofthe State apparatus described by Marx. It isnecessary to understand, however, that thestruggle for State power the State being anent i ty that generates norms and laws and is

able to enforce them is reproduced in anin f in i te number of spheres. What is more, inan increasingly g lobal ised wor ld, inst i tut ionsare also t ransnat ional and therefore, the Na-t ion St ate i t self is under strong pressure, sim i-lar to what was exper ienced by states andprovinces in the era of format ion of the mod-ern Nat ion State. The struggle to control theState, which is no longer staged only at thenat ional level , requires an internat ional pro-test movement capable of responding to th is

challenge. We are talking here about a socialresponse t o bui ld counter-power, which i den-t i f ies t he di f f erent levels of resist ance and canbr ing them together in greater coordinat ion.In t his way, resist ing Barri ck Gold in Argentina 3means resisting the ICSID, the IFIs that fundTNC operations as well as the investment andtrade agreements established since the 1990sthat guarantee their interests. Resistance,as in the case of Barrick Gold, needs to becoord inated a t t he in ternat ional l evel . Ot heremblemat ic cases of popular protest and re-sistance to TNCs at national and internationallevels are: Bhopal-Union Carbid e (India), Shelland Chevron in t he Niger Delt a and Brit ish Pe-t ro leum in t he Gulf of Mexico. 4

I f or ganisat ions do not engage in resist ance onmult ip le levels, their ef for ts are condemnedt o f a i lure. A speci f ic campaign t o resist a par-t icular TNC in one country wi l l be more suc-cessful i f coordinat ed wit h others at t he glob-al level so as to prevent the TNC from moving

to o ther p laces where i t w i l l t ry to app ly thesame strategy. Whi le th is is the main mot i -vat ion for coordinat ing ef for ts at the globallevel , t here are many more.

Transnational capital acts astutely and eff i-c ient ly at the level of internat ional inst i tu-t ions to strengthen the institut ional armourt hat protects i ts r ight s and pr iv i leges as aninvest or. I t seeks t o expand these r ights byincreasing the areas of the economy being lib-

eralised f rom st ate r egulat ion and by syst emat -ically blocking any attempt to advance regula-t ion at t he internat ional level . The obst ruct iontactics used by TNCs range from acting on UNmechanisms that protect human rights to the

creati on of mechanisms of self -regulationand auto-control or more accurately nocontr ol , namely voluntary codes t hat serve aset hical guidelines but do not impose any bind-ing obli gations. This allow s TNCs t o excusetheir crimes and to face the public and theglobal society as for instance using the OECDGuidelines, Global Compact and other volun-tary codes. Finally, what often happens at thenat ional level (where capi ta l co-governs wi t hdemocratically elected governments) also oc-

curs in int ernati onal inst it ut ions. This phenom-enon is what social organisations and move-ments now refer to as corporate capture inorder to draw at t ent ion to how t he UN and i tsvarious bodies have come t o accept t he polit i-cal orient ati on and policy proposals of t he cor-porati ons as t heir ow n. 5

Building peoples power t o confrontcorporate power

The choice between r esist ing the concret e andspecif ic abuses of one transnational corpora-t ion or another, on the one hand, and bui ld-ing systemic resistance to transnational capi-ta l , on the other, is , in fact , a fa lse di lemma.Choosing between one or the other wi l l only

3 Famatina Says NO to Barrick Gold see http://ww w.miningwat ch.ca/ argent ina-famat ina-says-no-barr ick-gold

4 Internat ional campaign for Just ice Bhopal ath t t p : / / b ho pa l. n et / ; Shell and Chevron in Niger Delt ah t tp : / / www.e rac t i on.o rg/ ; BP Gulf of Mexico h t t p : / /lou isianajus t i ce inst i t u te .b logspot .com/ 2012/ 04/ tw o-years-on-anger-and-frustrat ion-on.html

5 The Reclaim the UN from Corporate Capture!declarat ion is an ini t iat ive of Friends of t he Eart h In-t ernat ional , La Via Campesina, Jubi lee South Ameri -cas, The Transnat ional Inst i t ute, Third World Net-work, Corporate Europe Observatory, World March ofWomen, Polaris Inst i t ut e, The Council of Canadians,and Peace and Justic e in Lat in Amer ica/ SERPAJALh t tp : / / www. foe i.o rg/ en/ get - i nvol ved / take-act i on /end-un-corporate-capture?set_language=en
http://www.miningwatch.ca/argentina-famatina-says-no-barrick-goldhttp://www.miningwatch.ca/argentina-famatina-says-no-barrick-goldhttp://www.miningwatch.ca/argentina-famatina-says-no-barrick-goldhttp://bhopal.net/http://www.eraction.org/http://louisianajusticeinstitute.blogspot.com/2012/04/two-years-on-anger-and-frustration-on.htmlhttp://louisianajusticeinstitute.blogspot.com/2012/04/two-years-on-anger-and-frustration-on.htmlhttp://louisianajusticeinstitute.blogspot.com/2012/04/two-years-on-anger-and-frustration-on.htmlhttp://www.foei.org/en/get-involved/take-action/end-un-corporate-capture?set_language=enhttp://www.foei.org/en/get-involved/take-action/end-un-corporate-capture?set_language=enhttp://www.foei.org/en/get-involved/take-action/end-un-corporate-capture?set_language=enhttp://www.foei.org/en/get-involved/take-action/end-un-corporate-capture?set_language=enhttp://louisianajusticeinstitute.blogspot.com/2012/04/two-years-on-anger-and-frustration-on.htmlhttp://louisianajusticeinstitute.blogspot.com/2012/04/two-years-on-anger-and-frustration-on.htmlhttp://louisianajusticeinstitute.blogspot.com/2012/04/two-years-on-anger-and-frustration-on.htmlhttp://www.eraction.org/http://bhopal.net/http://www.miningwatch.ca/argentina-famatina-says-no-barrick-goldhttp://www.miningwatch.ca/argentina-famatina-says-no-barrick-goldhttp://www.miningwatch.ca/argentina-famatina-says-no-barrick-gold


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lead t o fa i lure and end up st rengthen-ing the globalised and corporate capi-ta l is t system that is being constant lyre-conf igured. Whi le the former hasl imi ts , the la t te r tends to be d is tant

f rom the concrete problems and im-pacts of TNCs and, as a result, losesthe human dimension of the solut ionst hat people and communit ies urgent lyneed. There fore , t he st ruc tura l op t ionthat needs to be bui l t by the peopleis that of coordinating resistance andlocal campaigns, strengthening inter-nat ional sol idar i ty and coordinat ingact ions to oppose t he power of t rans-nat ional capi ta l in the global arena.

The verdict f rom the Permanent Peo-ples Tribunal (PPT) Madrid sessionemphasizes the peoples crucial rolein bui l d ing such counter-power 6.

The challenge is gigantic, as is thethreat we face. In th is internat ionalbatt lef ie ld, movements and organiza-t ions have accumulated a lot of expe-r ience and won m any victor ies. However, t hetask of creating a counter hegemonic visionthat includes not only explanat ions to un-mask transnational capital, but also paths andtact ics for concrete resistance remains to bedone. Over the last 40 years, many at temptshave been made in the mult i lateral system toelaborate proposals on establishing controlson transnat ional corporat ions and defending

The International Call to Action towards BuildingTogether a Global Campaign to Dismantle CorporatePower is organized around 3 pillars:

1. Synergies and solidarity between existing national,regional and international struggles.

2. A Peoples Treaty for the Dismantling of Corpo-rate Power and the operations of TNCs to builda global consensus and counter-power, advance thestruggle against the economic and political powerof TNCs and build peoples alternatives.

3. Expose the TNCs architecture of impunity andgenerate binding obligations for TNC operationsand the international instruments to enforce them.

A campaign with specific objectives and plan of actionwill be implemented over the next 4-5 years. For moreinformation, contact: Brid Brennan, [email protected] and Karen Lang ([email protected])

6 The European Union and Transnational Corpora-t ions in Lat i n America: Pol ic ies, Inst rum ent s and

Actors Complicit in Violations of the Peoples Rights.December 2010. Printed by the Transnational Insti-

tute (TNI) and the Bi-regional Europe Latin Americaand t he Caribbean Enlazando Al t ernat ivasnetwork .The verd ic t concluded that work o f t he movementst hat have put t hei r t est imony before t his Tribunalhighl ight s the br oad guidel ines for respect ing andguaranteeing t he r ights they defend. We are not re-fer r ing here t o the concept , described as voluntary,of a sel f -regulated m arket based on a code of goodpractices, which denes corporations social andenvironment al responsibi l i t y, but rather t o a manda-tory legal f r amework in the contex t o f in ternat iona llaw. This must be one of the rst steps on the pathto c reat ing a d i f ferent wor ld order (p .5) .

human r ights. Unt i l now, t hese have al l fa i led,not only due t o t he obvious size of t he enemy,but a lso in terms of the correlat ion of forces.

Global civi l society has not had the sameex-per ience in generat ing major mobi l izat ionsaround corporate power as i t d id in the f ightagainst neol iberal ism and i ts mi l i tary d imen-sions. Thus, we now need to reclaim this ex-per ience and channel ef f or t s t o bui ld counter-power t hat w i l l pu t an end to t he t ransnat ionalcapi ta l s syst em of impunit y and dominat ion.

Organizing, over t he next t hree or f our years, aglobal process that succeeds in giving visibilityt o resist ance and buildi ng a convergence of val-ues, ideas, concrete proposals and strategiesfor dismantl ing corporate power and imposingbinding obligations on TNCs at the global levelis undoubtedly t he t ask at hand.

Gonzalo Berr onhas a PhD in Polit icalScience; TNI Associate Fellow

Brid Brennanis Program meCoordinator, Economic Justice, Corporate

Power & Alternatives, TransnationalInst i t ute (TNI)


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Curbing the Corporations:Who? How? When?

Susan George

Capital i sm is in trouble. Not enough trouble,certa in ly, but st i l l having to deal w i t h far m orecomplex problems than a decade or two ago.Dont cheeor weepyet. A hungry, corneredanimal is more dangerous t han a well -fed, fr eeone and at every moment , capit al is wonderingwhere it s next m eal is coming from.

Since neoliberalism became the dominant

economic model in the early 1980s and theInternational Monetary Fund IMF imposedst ructural adj ust ment programmes, f i rst in in-debted Southern countries, now in Europe; agreat many, but not al l , public services havebeen privat ised. Thats not enough. The cor-porati ons want al l t he public services t hat canbecome a source of profit but wil l be happyto leave the loss-makers to the public sector.The new frontiers for corporate takeover arehealthcare (through insurance or for-profit

hospit als), schools (wit h a voucher syst em) andprisons (with a guaranteed occupation rate)

Most natural resources have already becomecommodit ies, but not a l l : much of the earth sland and water long remained out of bounds forcorporate control. But since 2008 when worldfood pr ices went through the roof , t he contexthas changed. Now landgrabs are snat ching tensof mi l l ions of hectares f rom their t radi t ionalt i l lers and putt ing them to corporate use, for

export . Water is seen as t he perfect capit al istproductit is indispensable, there is no substi-t ute for i t and t he market for i t can only growas the world population increases.

Capital ism is nothing if not imaginative and

myriad new markets have been created out oft hin air, especial ly t hose f or innumerable f inan-cial product s, part icularly derivatives. Tradingon derivatives markets is approximately US$2.100 bil l ion a day. Money it self is t he worl dsmost traded commodity and currency transac-tions amount to US $4.000 billion a day ( i .e . 4t r i l l ion). Both t hese market s have increased by25% since 2008 w hen t he f inancial crisis broke.

Newly invented categories of services such as ecosystem protect ion and rest orat ion areanot her new f ront ier. Business hopes and fore-sees that the Rio + 20 conference wil l legit i-mise the market as the solut ion for a l l ourenvironmental i l ls and it sees carbon tradingas only t he beginning. As far as capit alism isconcerned, everything on earthanimal, veg-et able, m ineral, solid, l iquid or gaseous, m ate-rial or immaterialcan be given a price, bought

and sold.

The regulation dilemma

As t he t ransnati onal corporat e syst em spreadsinto ever-expanding terr i tory, the di lemma ofregul at ion is posed mor e sharp ly. Any syst emrequires ru les and in t he r icher countr ies, in-dustrial corporations are reasonably well reg-ulatedthis is one reason they move to poorerones. It s easier, for example, t o get away

with a major o i l spi l l in Niger ia than just of fthe coast of the Southern United States.

Financial corporations have been more skilfulthan heavy industries in wiping out oversight.The f inancial industry spent over $5 bi l l ion onlobbying over the decade of the 1990s to getrid of al l the New Deal banking regulations oft he 1930s. The consequent lack of rest rict ionswas the prime cause of the ensuing disaster.We are sti l l l iving with the results of the mess

created and t here is probably worse to come.

Susan Geor ge, author, is President of theBoard of the Transnat ional Inst i t ute. Her

latest book is: Whose Crisis? Whose Future?(Poli t y Pre ss). h t t p : / / w w w . t n i. o r g/ t n i bo ok /

whose-crisis-whose-future
http://www.tni.org/tnibook/whose-crisis-whose-futurehttp://www.tni.org/tnibook/whose-crisis-whose-futurehttp://www.tni.org/tnibook/whose-crisis-whose-futurehttp://www.tni.org/tnibook/whose-crisis-whose-future


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The corporate system is dangerous becausei t i s so inter l i nked and so concentrat ed. Ina br i l l iant paper, three mathemat ic ians spe-cial ising in complex systems theory havemapped the corporate universe. 1 Start ing

from an OECD data base of 43.000 TNCs, theytrace al l the complex f inancial interconnec-t ions betw een them and show t hat 80% of t hevalue of t hose 43.000 TNCs is in t he hands of amere 737 of them . I t gets worse. Through in-ter- and intra- investment and part ic ipat ion ineach ot her s af f air s, j ust 147 TNCs hold 40% oft he value of a l l t he TNCs in t he wor ld. And thecrowning f inding of the paper is that the top50 among these hugely interconnected TNCswith the single exception of Walmartare all

giant f inancial corporations (45) or insurancecompanies (4).

This is what t he aut hors call t he knife-edgemodel : i f t he economy is going well, t he sys-t em appears robust . But an accident in any oneof t hese t op f i f t y TNCs could quickly become ashatt ering crisis for everyone and would maket he fal l of Lehman Brot hers look tr i vial. This ist he t rut h we must keep repeat ing: w e are l iv-ing on a knife-edge.

The industrial TNCs may be bad, they mayplague the l ives of this or that community andavoid their t axes everywhere but t he worst andmost threatening among them are the hugebanks and hedge funds. They have the powerto destroy even their sister corporations andeach ot her and reduce the w orld t o chaos.

Coalitions and alliances

So who can do what to get these beasts undercontrol , i f , indeed, i t is possible at al l? Letst ake f i rst t he case of a community f aced wit hthe destructionsocial and/or ecologicalcaused by a specif ic comp any in a specif ic loca-t ion. This is l ikely t o be t he sit uation faced bymany reader s of ALAI. Company A poll ut es t helocal r iver and t he inhabitant s are gett ing sick;

Company B discrim inat es and harasses women ;Company C refuses t o im prove w ages and wor k-ing conditions and is trying to bust the unioneveryone knows t hese st ories of which only t hedet ails change.

The ideal way to act would be legalto havebinding international laws that could be usedagainst thembut we dont have the means fort hat yet . So second-best t o take on the TNCs isfirst t o ensure one has a solid coalit ion of int er-ests on the ground locally and second to iden-t i fy and l ink with similar groups in the placewhere the company is headquartered, almostinvariably in the Nort h. I f t he case against t hecompany is made with suff iciently powerful

and persuasive research (of which many exam-ples have been provided in the Peoples Tribu-nals) and if t he Nort hern headquarters supportgroups are kept informed and asked for spe-cif i c inputs, one can make l i f e very uncomfort -able for t he corporat ion f rom a publ ic re lat ionsview point . Possibl e alli ances may exist wh ereyou might not look. Don t forget , for example,the local churches capacity to l ink South toNort h and vice-versa. Nat ional or int ernationalboycotts can sometimes work, but they needlong and careful preparation to be successful.

However necessary and sat isfying vict ories maybe in such cases, ever yone can agree t hat t heydon t l imi t the power of the system i tsel f ; fort hat, we must seek solut ions elsewhere. Whatabout CSR, t he f amou s Corp orat e Social Respon-sibi l i ty movement, invented by businessmen,which claims that corporations can self-policeand self -regulat e? I don t d eny that some CEOsare model cit izens and some corporations re-al ly do t ry t o do their best for t heir people and

their communit ies wherever they are, but wewould be foolish to count on CSR t o rect if y al lcorporate abuse.

I once remarked in a talk that a Good Corpo-rate Cit izen was one that paid its taxes, al l i tst axes, everywhere. A lawyer next t o me on thepanel gave me a horr if i ed look and explained asi f to an id iot-chi ld t hat h is j ob was to help hiscorpor at e client s avoid as much t axati on as pos-sible. We are st i l l f ar away fr om closing down

1 Vital i S, Glattfelder JB, Battiston S (2011) TheNetwork of Global Corporate Control. PLoS ONE6(10): e25995. doi : 10.1371/ j ournal .pone.0025995


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Transnational

Corporations

Alejandro

Teitelbaum

tax havens or from imposing country-by-country tax-report ing laws t hat could el iminat e transfer pri cing, butit s possible that austerity programmes in Europe mayconcent rat e the m inds of Northern government s simpl ybecause t hey now need all t he income t hey can get, j ust

lik e governm ent s in t he Sout h. Together, it is also pos-sible w e can get our government s t o act t ogether : t heymust force the corporations to pay their fair share intoeach national treasury in each jurisdict ion where theyare active. Everyone but t he company shareholders andt op execut ives is losing from t he present syst em. Andt here is no need to reinvent t he wheel: t he Tax Just iceNetwork is international and has already done all theresearch and spade-wor k. 2

No one admires the specific campaignsagainst extrac-

t ive indust ries, for indigenous peoples r ights, t he rightt o food and water, et c. more t han I do. St i l l , m ost im -portant in my view, because it goes to the heart of ourbrutal and unstable system, is the necessity to createworl dwi de all iances t o get f inance under control . Weneed fi nancial t ransact ion t axes (also known as RobinHood t axes) t o t ame speculation and use t he proceedst o repair t he ecological and social damage already donet o communit ies and t he eart h. We need to tax compa-nies country by count ry and close down t he t ax havenswhich also prevent government s fr om collect ing at l east$250 bil l ion a year in t axes. We need to cancel ent irelyt he public debt of count ries, part icularly in Sub-SaharanAfri ca st ill under IMF aust eri t y program mes. Overhaul-ing t he Worl d Trade Organisat ion rul es woul d be anot herexcellent init iat ive, as would dismantl ing most parts ofthe new regional or individual Free Trade Agreementswhich are al l WTO Plus and give even m ore advantag-es t o corpor at ions. Som e successes, for inst ance againstpharmaceutical companies, show this can be done.

However, i n a global ised wor ld, i t can t be done wit h-out al l i ances. No single inter est group today, no mat -

t er how determ ined, can win by i t sel f . This meansthat we must learn to work t ogether, o f t en wi t h peop lewe don t know and t h is can t be done over t he in ter -net . Debat e and discussion are necessary for peopl e toreal ise that at bot t om, t rade unionist s, f armers, ecolo-gist s, women, st udents, academics, ret i red people andso on have the same needs and share the same inter-est s. One needn t agree on everyt hing t o do some-t hing t oget her. In fact , i t s t he only way to win.

2 www. tax jus t i ce .net

T ransnational corpo-rat ions const i tutethe fundamenta lcore of the capital ist sys-tem in i ts current phase.They are involved in pro-duction and services, inpract ical ly a l l areas ofhuman activity and alsoin f inancial speculat ion.They even int ervene in i l -l i c i t ac t iv i t ies and in thegrey area bet ween legal i -t y and i l legal i ty. They playa leading role in t he deci-sions of pow er and cont rolmass media, which al l owst hem to d ic ta te to humanbeings what their behav-

iour, ideas, aspirationsand habit s should be.

Corporate act ivit y is domi-nated by one fundamentalobject ive: to obtain maxi-mum pro f i t in min imumtime. In order to achievethis goal, transnationalcorporations, especial lythe most powerful ones,


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wil l resort to any means, wi th the compl ic i tyof a major i ty of the nat ional and internat ion-al pol i t ical e l i te, not to ment ion the servicesof a good port ion of the inte l lectual e l i te andhigh-profi le indi viduals fr om so-called civi l so-

ciet y . And when needed, t hey can also enjoythe support of the major powers visible and/or clandestine armed forces that is, the army, special services, et c.

The act iv i t y of t ransnat ional corporat i ons con-tr ibutes to void ing representat ive democracyof a l l content and is a cr i t ical factor in thepol i t ical , economic, socia l , ecological and cul-t ural cr isis current ly af f ect ing humanit y.

Many insist on call ing the current dominantsocioeconomic syst em neoliber al globalisa-t ion , as i f i t were a temporary and curab lei l lness af f l ic t ing capi t a l ism. However, neol ib-eral g lobal izat ion is none ot her t han the realcurrent capi ta l is t syst em.

According to a recent st udy, t he bulk of w or ldeconomic power l ies in the hands of 737 ma-

j or cor por at ion s, t he m aj or i t y of t hem be-ing banks and f inancial groups that, throughdi f ferent networks and l inkages, control theasset s of 80% of t he maj or t ransnat ional cor-porations. Of those assets, 40 percent arecontrol l ed by only 147 corporat ions.

So there is not, on the one hand, a capital ismthat is a i l ing f rom neol iberal g lobal isat ion,characterized by periodic crises (which nowt ake place one af t er anot her, pract ical ly wi t h-out pause for recovery), war monger ing, rac-ism, neo-fascist outbreaks and environmentaldegradat ion, and, on the ot her hand, anot her

possible capi ta l ism that is st able and ef f i -c ient , operates f lu id ly and is f ree of cr ises,mi l i t ar ism and ot her calamit ies.

With the emergence of monopol ist ic capi ta l-ism, which was consolidated in the secondhalf of t he 20t h century wi t h the so-cal led sci-ent i f ic and technical revolut ion (electronics,comput ing, etc) , t ransnat ional corporat ionsbecame the basic p i l l ars of t he wor l d econom-ic- f inancial system and subst i tuted the mar-

ket as t he met hod for organizing internat ionalt rade. This d id not m ean, however, t he end ofcompet i t ion between the major o l igopol ies,which t ends t o be f ierce and merci l ess.

So when w e hear references t o t he market andt hat t he economy must be al lowed t o oper-a te f ree o f market fo rces, i t i s impor tant tounderstand that the way the economy (andsociety in general) functions has to remainsubject to the strategy def ined by t ransna-t ional monopol ist ic capi ta l , whose object iveis to appropr iate the f ru i ts of labour, savingsand human society s t r adi t i onal and scient i f icknowl edge thr ough all possibl e means.

Up unt i l the second hal f of the 20th century,t he indust r ia l and commerc ia l ac t iv i ty o f t hemaj or t ransnat ional corporat ions was perhapstheir dominant but not exclusive feature. Al-ready a division of roles began to appear be-t ween a core that adopted st rategic decisionsand only had th is funct ion, separate f rom in-dustr ia l and commercial act iv i ty, which wasent rusted t o subsidiar ies or out sourcing f i rm s.This division of roles is now a dominant fea-t ure of t he global ized economy.

Another f eature of maj or t r ansnat ional capi t a lis that i t can operate s imultaneously or suc-cessively in the real economy and in f inancialspeculat ion, product ion, t rade and in servic-es. Moreover, for d i f f erent reasons, t he maj ortransnat ional corporat ions that const i tute i tsmain st r uc ture t end to change t he i r te r r i t o r iallocat ions and nam es.

Financial capital s current hegemony is theresul t of a prof ound change in t he wor l d econ-

omy that began in the 1970s, a ided by thederegulat ion of the f inancial system and thefr ee c irculat ion of capi t a l . This is t he momentt hat marks the end o f t he wel fare st a te , char -acterized by mass production and mass con-sumption driven by an increase in real wagesas wel l as t he generalizat ion of social securit yand other social benef i t s.

The decl ine of the welfare state model wasdue to several factors, among which two


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stand out: the post-war reconstruct ion ef-for ts, which had served as a motor for eco-nomic expansion, came to an end and massconsumption tended to stagnate or d iminish,as did corporate prof i t s. The oi l shock at

t he beginning of t he 1970s also had an impact .In order to g ive a new boost to the capi ta l is teconomy and to revert the t rend of decreas-ing prof i t margins, t here was a need to incor-porate new t echnology (robot ics, e lectr onics,comput i ng) into indust ry and services and t h isrequired major capi ta l investment.

Someone had t o pay t he bi l l . An age of auster -i ty and sacr i f ice (wage freezes, deter iorat ionof working condit ions and increased unem-

ployment ) w as t hus heralded in and accompa-nied the industr ia l reconversion. Meanwhi le,the technological revolut ion in the most de-veloped count r ies drove growt h in t he servic-es sector and led t o t he displacement of partof t radi t ional industry to per ipheral nat ions,where salaries were and are much lower.

Essential goods needed for survival (food,heal th care, medic ine, housing, etc.) re-mained beyond the reach of the large major i t yof t he poorest segment of t he wor ld s popula-t ion: the three bi l l ion human beings who l ivewi t h less t han 2.5 doll ars per day. The id ea ofpubl ic services (heal th care, educat ion, etc. ,for a l l ) and an i r revocable r ight to essent ia lgoods required in order to l ive wi th a mini-mum of d igni ty was replaced by the af f i rma-t ion that every th ing must be sub jec t to thelaws of t he market. The comparat ive advan-t ages of St ates became the comparat ive ad-vant ages of t ransnat ional corporat ions wit hdiverse t err i t or ia l locat ions.

In these circumstances, t he so-cal led neol ib-eral g lobal izat ion began to t ake shape; t herewas a shift from a system of national econo-mies t o one economy dominat ed by four maj orworld centres: t he United St ates, Europe andJapan and a group in i t ia l ly const i t ut ed by the four Asian t igers : Sout h Korea, Taiwan, HongKong and Singapore. Recently, this panoramahas changed due to the emergence of neweconomic powers, four in part icular: China,

India, Russia (that is recovering from its spli tf r om real socia l ism ) and Brazi l . This group iscalled BRIC. I t became the BRICS with theinclusion of Sout h Afr ica.

Of these four centers, three stand out due totheir concentrat ion of f inancial capi ta l andbecause the major i ty of t ransnat ional corpo-rat ions are based there. In order of impor-t ance, t hey are: t he United St ates, China andEurope. However, t his order coul d change in afew years, wi th China overtaking the UnitedSt at es and t he BRICS mo ving ahead of Europ e.

Low economic growth rates prevailed, espe-cially in the United States and Europe, as a

relat ively narrow market ( the v ir tual f reezingof real wages and the deterioration in socialbenefit s) imposed l im it s on production and thephenomenon emerged of vast quantit ies of idl ecapital ( including petro-dollars) that was notproductively invested. For the owners of thiscapital ( individuals, banks, f inancial institu-t ions), however, i t was inconceivable to leavei t ly ing around wit hout having i t bear f ru i t .

This is how the role of f inance at the serviceof t he economy, i nter vening in t he product ionand consumpt ion process (wi t h credi t , loans,etc.) , was overtaken by financial capitalsnew role: to generate profit wit hout part ici-pat ing in t he product ive process.

This was brought about in basically two ways.One consist s of i nst it ut ional investor s, p ensionfund managers, insurance companies, collec-t ive invest ment bodies and mut ual funds buy-ing shares in industr ial, t rade and service com -panies. The investment funds col lect money

from pension funds, corporations, insurancecompanies, indiv iduals, etc. and use them tobuy industrial, commercial and service busi-nesses. They keep them i f t hey are prof i t ableor for strategic reasons; or i f they are def i -c ient or not very pro f i tab le , t hey sani t izethem, laying of f staf f and then sel l ing themfor a signi f icant pr of i t . These f i nancial groupsthen intervene in the companies pol icy deci-sions wit h t he goal of having t heir invest mentproduce the high revenues they expect, im-


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posing short term strategies.

The other way the role of speculat ive f inan-cial capital increases is when f inancial groups( invest ment funds, et c.) invest in speculat ion

(for example, the so-cal led f inancial der iva-t ives) and industrial, trade and service sectorbusinesses do the same with a part of theirprof i ts , instead of re- invest ing i t in produc-t ion .

As a result , the pract ice of generating prof itby creating fi nancial products or buying ex-isting ones and using them for speculativeoperations has become widespread.

In add i t ion to the t rad i t iona l f inanc ia l p rod-ucts (stocks and bonds), many others havebeen created. Among them are der ivat ivefinancial products, which are shares whosevalue depends or der ives f r om an under ly-ing share, t hat are placed in f inancial market sfor speculative purposes. The underlying as-sets can be a good (raw materials and food:oi l , copper, corn, soya bean, etc. ) , a f inancialasset (a currency) or even a basket of f inan-cial assets. As a result, the prices of raw ma-terials and food staples no longer depend onsupply and demand, but rat her on the t radingof speculat ive papers and as such, f ood pri cescan (and do) incr ease heedlessly, at t he popu-lat ions expense and t o speculators benef i t .

For example, when the product ion of agro-fuels is announced, speculators ant ic ipat et hat the pr ice o f agr icu l tu ra l p roducts ( t rad i -t ional ly dest ined for food) wi l l i ncrease. Then,the f inancial paper (der ivat ive product) thatrepresents them gets quoted at much higher

prices, which has repercussions on the realprice consumers pay for this food.

Invest ment in f inancial products involves var i -ous levels of r i sk. In t he hope of coveri ng theserisks, a complex series of f inancial productshave been invented, wh ich fur t her in f la te t hebubble and draw i t even far ther away fromt he real economy, making i t possible t o t a lk oft he emergence of an int ernat ional speculat iveeconomy. This is how the accumulation of a

signi f icant amount of capi ta l in the hands ofa few has accelerat ed, at t he expense mainlyof w orker s, t he ret ired and smal l-scale savers.

In the case of the part ic ipat ion of f inancial

capital (pension funds, insurance companies,investment funds, banks, etc.) in industr iesand services, the high return that the ownersof this capital demand and obtain is based onthe deter iorat ion of the working condi t ions inthese industries and services. It is well knownthat when a company announces layoffs, i tsshares increase in value.

These are the w ays in w hich t ransnat ional cap-i t a l has maint ained and cont inues t o maint ain

high prof i t levels and an accelerated rhythmof accumulat i on and concentr at ion, in spi t e ofslow economic growt h and t he exist ence of arest r ic ted m arket .

Despi t e the dominant r o le that f inancial capi-t a l current l y p lays, t here is no doubt t hat pro-duct ive capi ta l is the permanent basis of thecapi ta l is t economy, wi thout which f inancialcapi ta l (hegemonic or not ) could not exist .

For th is reason, major t ransnat ional capi ta lnot only p lays the main ro le in the f inancialsystem, but a lso carr ies out product ive ac-t iv i t ies in d iverse areas: f rom the extract ionof raw mater ia ls to the provis ion of a l l typesof services (banking, insurance, health, edu-cat ion, communicat ions, informat ion, pen-sion funds, etc.) including the product ion ofa wide var iety of goods ( imm ediate consumergoods such as food; durable goods such ascars, etc.) and in a l l types of research, par-t icular ly in advanced technology: e lectronic,

engineer ing, genet ic, etc. Areas in which thesame rule that inspires al l of i ts act iv i t ies isapp l ied : max imum pro f i t in min imum t ime a tt he expense of t he wel l -being of t he immensemaj or i ty o f humani ty. (Translat ion TNI)

Alejandro Teitelbaumis a lawyer, graduatedin inter nat ional economic relat ions and theauthor of La armadura del capi tal ismo. Elpoder de l as sociedades t ransnacionales en

el mundo cont emporneo (Icaria Edi t orial ,Barcelon a, January 2010).


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The rights of transnational corporations areprotected by a global legal system based ontrade and investment rules that are impera-t ive, coercive sanctions, f ines, diplomaticand mil it ary pressure and execut ive in nat ure.Their obligat ions, on t he other hand, f al l undernational l egal syst ems that have been subj ect-ed to the neoliberal logic, a manifestly fragileinternational human rights law and Corporate

Social Responsibi lit y, whi ch is volunt ary, unilat -eral and cannot be legally enforced.

The polit ical, economic and legal power attransnational corporations disposal al lowsthem to act wi th a high degree of impunity,while normative control over them is highlyimbalanced, as their r ights are protected bya new Lex Mercatoria made up of a series ofmult i lateral , regional and bi lateral t rade andinvestment contracts, agreements, treaties

and norms and the decisions of t he arbit rat iontribunals and the World Trade OrganizationsDispute Settlement System. Moreover, institu-t ions from the economic-f inancial arena suchas the World Trade Organization (WTO), theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF), the WorldBank, t he Inter American Development Bankare all at t he service of t ransnational capit al.

However, their obligations come under na-t ional legis lat ions subject to neol iberal pol i -cies such as deregulation, privatization, anda reduct ion of t he St ates ro le in publ ic pol icyand the strengthening of the mi l i tary and so-cial control apparatus. Legislation is buil t adhoc t o defend t ransnat ionals int erest s.

Furthermore, international human rights lawand international labor law have an obviousweakness when it comes to the protection ofthe rights of social majorit ies. In the contextof the legal reali t ies mentioned here, Corpo-rat e Social Responsibil it y and i t s codes of con-

duct have emerged as soft- law formulas forcontaining the power of t ransnational corpora-t ions. Their apparent goodness and norma-t ive neutr al i t y, essenti al ly underst ood as be-ing complementary to the fu l f i lment of legalnorms, mask their true purpose: to replacet he hallmarks of nat ional syst ems - that is, i m-perativeness, coerciveness and judicial control- with voluntarism, one-sidedness, and in the

best of cases, specialised audits that fall be-yond the j udicial syst ems rules of operat ion.

Transnational companies have become ex-tremely powerful economic agents that d i-rec t ly or ind i rec t ly cond i t ion the dra f t ing o fstate and internat ional regulat ions, throughformal and informal agreements on a globalscale and speci f ic conf l ic t - resolut ion mecha-nisms arbitration tr ibunals that operateoutside of the cr i ter ia and foundat ions of the

internat ional judic ia l system. Moreover, thelegi t imat ing cr i ter ia, based more on powerthan democracy, guarantee them ful l legalsecur i ty. I t is not universal law that is beingnur tured, but ra ther g loba l law that is morepr ivate than publ ic. The r ights of capi ta l takeprecedence over t he peoples r ights.

Social movements, the Permanent PeoplesTribunal, experts and social activists have pro-posed concrete alt ernati ves t o control t ransna-t ional corporations practi ces. The approval ofa binding code, t he creation of an internat ionalt r ibunal t hat j udges t ransnational f ir ms and thecreation of an information centre focussing onthem are some of the key ideas on which civi lsociety alternatives are being built . (Transla-t ion TNI).

Juan Hernandez Zubizar reta is a Professorat t he Pais Vasco University and a mem ber of

Hegoa.

Lex Mercatoria:

New Global Corporate Law

Juan Hernandez Zubizarreta


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The Green Economy and Corporations

Lyda Fernanda Forero

Lucia Ortiz

The term green economy has become in-creasingly popul ar and is presented as the solu-t ion the world needs to stop the destructionof t he planet and promot e sust ainable devel-opment . However, w hen we analyse what i tmeans t o governments and mult i lat eral inst it u-t ions, i t is c lear t hat i t is not a solut ion for t hemult iple environment al, energy and food crisesthe world is facing. Instead, i t is a neoliberalpolicy proposal t hat is in l ine wit h the econom-ic int erest s of t he few and that seeks t o resolvethe f inancial crisis. As such, i t wil l benefit thesame actors who caused it structurally.

This concept has largely been devel oped in viewof t he upcoming United Nations Conference onSustainable Development, to be held in June2012. This Conference is known as Rio+20, tocommem orate 20 years since t he f i rst one washeld, also in Rio de Janeir o, i n 1992.

Documents from the United Nations Environ-ment Program (UNEP) 1 as well as a documentdraf ted by member states in preparat ion forRio+20 (draf t of t he The Fut ure We Wantdeclarat ion) 2, r ecognize the exist ence of mul-t iple crises but do not present any considera-t ions regarding their structural causes. On the

1 PNUMA, 2011. Hacia una economa verde: Guapara el desarrol lo sostenibl e y la erradicacin de lapobr eza - Snt esis para los encargados de la for mul a-

c in de pol t icas. ww w.unep.org/ greeneconomy2 ht t p : / / cupuladospovos.org.br / wp-content /uploads/ 2012/ 05/ O-fut uro-que-queremos_22-maio-2012.pdf

contrary, they are focused on the creat ion ofnew concepts and mechanisms that make itpossible to maintain and reproduce the eco-nomic model and the power structures thatsustain i t . In the present text , we wi l l usequotes f rom the two documents (we re fer tothem as GE - Green Economy and FW - TheFuture We Want) to expose the l inks betweent he concept of green economy and corpo-rat e power.

Whi le green economy mechanisms may ap-pear t o be more of t he same or an a t t empt t opaint t he capi ta l ist syst em green, t hey in factimpl y a great deal more. They propose adj ust -ments to nat ional pol ic ies, especial ly in de-veloping nat ions, which have not h istor ical lybeen responsible f or t he problem.

In order t o have these changes adopt ed, greeneconomy proponents enjoy the support of in-

t ernat ional f inancial i nst i t ut i ons ( IFIs) and pr i -vate capi t a l , as noted in FW: We encourageal l countr ies t o design and implem ent pol ic iesrelated to a green economy in the context ofsust ainable development and povert y eradica-t ion. We support the creat ion of a capaci tydevelopment scheme involving UN agencies,mult i lateral and bi lateral donors and the pr i -vate sector t o provide country speci f ic advice,in accordance w it h nat i onal c i rcumst ances andpriorit ies, and to assist developing nations in

accessing available fund s and t echnologies.

The UNEP considers an adj ust ment t o t hest ruct ure t o be necessary, which m eans re-locat ing capi ta l and pr ior i t iz ing natural capi-ta l over physical , f inancial or human capi ta l- t hat is, t o include every th ing green andsocial in t he mar ket . This proposal is based ont he idea t hat only the market is capable of re-solv ing the pr oblems humanit y and t he planetare facing. According to th is argument, i t is

Lucia Ortizis t he Internat ional Coordinatorof the Economic Justice Programme

Resisting Neoliberal ism, Friends of the EarthInternat ional . Lyda Fernanda, an economist ,

works wi t h t he Economic Just ice andAl ternat ives Programme of t he Transnat ional

Ins t i tu te .
http://cupuladospovos.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/O-futuro-que-queremos_22-maio-2012.pdfhttp://cupuladospovos.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/O-futuro-que-queremos_22-maio-2012.pdfhttp://cupuladospovos.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/O-futuro-que-queremos_22-maio-2012.pdfhttp://cupuladospovos.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/O-futuro-que-queremos_22-maio-2012.pdfhttp://cupuladospovos.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/O-futuro-que-queremos_22-maio-2012.pdfhttp://cupuladospovos.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/O-futuro-que-queremos_22-maio-2012.pdf


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the inef f ic ient inclusion of d i f ferent aspectsof l i fe and natural processes in the markett hat has led t o the current cr isis: We recog-nize that () an at t ract ive environment forinvestment is essential for sustainable devel-

opment , including sust ained economic growt hand the eradicat ion of hunger and poverty.

I f we hand the di f ferent natural processes,territories and social relations even all lifefunctions themselves over to the privatesector, t hen the invisib le hand of t he mar-ket wi l l be responsible for guarant eeing t he

wel l being of humankind. However, i t is pre-cisely t h is invisib le hand t hat has generatedthe current cr is is, inequal i ty and the concen-

The Concrete Expression of the

Corporate Capture of the UN

The preamble of the Charter of the UN starts withthe words We the peoples of the United Nations.Today, however, corporate interests are increasing-ly prioritised over peoples interests in some UNprocesses and institutions. As the positions of keyUN member states are captured by major corporateinterests, businesses have gained enormous influ-ence over UN decisions. Business has been grant-ed the status of a major group under Agenda 21,despite the fact that it should not be treated as partof civil society because of its essentially differentnature. Likewise, as corporations hold far greaterresources to influence negotiations than civil soci-ety, they often outnumber civil society delegations.Corporate lobbying within UN negotiations has

managed to block effective solutions for problemsrelated to climate change, food production, the vio-lation of human rights, water supply, health issues,poverty and deforestation. The enormous influ-ence of corporate lobbyists and the related powerimbalances in some negotiation spaces such asthe UNFCCC undermines democracy and all toofrequently results in the postponement, weakeningor blocking of urgently needed progress in interna-tional social and environmental justice issues.

Lobbying for market-based systems for air, bio-diversity, water, land or other common goods assolutions to the current environmental crisis, illus-trates the promotion of false solutions. Such solu-tions serve business interests to profit from crisesthat affect millions of people without tackling thecore of the problem, while further concentratingthe control of corporations over land, resources,and peoples lives.

Many UN agencies, including UNICEF, UNDP,WHO and UNESCO, have engaged in partner-ships with major transnational companies (TNCs).UNEP has established partnerships with Exxon-Mobil, Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Shell, allof which are involved in human rights violationsand the destruction of biodiversity. Other exam-

ples include: Coca Cola and UNDP on water re-source protection, and BASF and Coca Cola withUN-HABITAT on sustainable urbanisation. Suchpartnerships not only damage the credibility of theUN, they also undermine its ability and willing-ness to respond to and regulate the business sectorwhere it is involved in social, environmental andhuman rights violations. Moreover, the UN GlobalCompact promotes responsible corporate citizen-ship without obliging companies to adhere to in-ternationally accepted standards. It allows notable

human rights violators to participate and gives thefalse impression that the UN and TNCs share thesame goals. Thus it allows for bluewash andmerely helps businesses to boost their image andprofits, instead of promoting binding obligationsthat would contribute to changing companies per-formance.

In the lead up to the Rio+20 Earth Summit, theUN is partnering with the International Cham-ber of Commerce (ICC) and the World Business

Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)in Business Action for Sustainable Development.The Zero Draft declaration for Rio+20 reinforcesthe role of business as a promoter of the so-calledgreen economy, but completely fails to address therole of business in creating the financial, climate,food and other crises.1

1 From the declaration Reclaim the UN from

corporate capture!, in: http://www.foei.org/en/get-

involved/take-action/end-un-corporate-capture


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t rat i on of w eal th i n t he hands of a f ew. Trans-national corporations (TNCs), driven by theirintr insic search for economic growth and ac-cumulat ion, are the ones who are promot ingthis in i t iat ive. As a resul t , f inancial corpora-

t ions, or 1% of the planet, go f rom being thecause to the solution of the crisis.The FW has adopted t his vision of t he f inan-cia l izat ion and commodif icat ion of nature,even though it uses ambiguous language withsome nuances, such as insisting on povert y re-duction to avoid rejection from civi l society.Despit e t his, f ar fr om advancing t oward chang-es in social relations, the guidelines it pre-sents aim t o generate t he condit ions needed t o

broaden and guarantee transnational corpora-t ions act ions and their cont rol over nature.

We invit e business and industry t o consultwi th re levant stakeholders in a t ransparentmanner t o t ake a green economy approach toachieving result s includ ing greening t heir sup-ply chains in achieving the goals of their sus-ta inabi l i ty strategies.

The UN Confer ence on Sust ainable Devel-opment has become a space for t rade ne-got iat ions that wi l l resul t in profound pol icychanges, the loss of the peoples r ights andsovereignty and the corrosion of pr incip les(such as common, but d i f ferent iated responsi-b i l i t ies) t hat have already been agreed upon.At the same t ime, though, i t could become aspace for d ispute, where the people demandt hat t he St ate uphold i t s responsibi l i t y to pro-t ect t he interests of t he people and not t hoseof t he t ransnat ionals.

The green economy wi l l not only be an op-portuni ty for investment, business and newmarket s. I t is also about impl ement ing cont rolover resources, in creat ing natural capi t a lt hrough t he invent i on of an account ing syst emfor natures services by companies3, whose

3 We recognize t he import ance of t he corporatesust ainabi l i ty r eport s and we invi t e publ ic and pri -vate companies, where appropriate, inc luding majorst ate owned ent erprises, t o i n t egrat e t he sust a in- ability information in their periodic reports, based

human or environmental r ights v io lat ions aredel iberat ely ignored.There are some elements that re inforce thepolicies promoted since Rio 92 and Rio+10.

This is the case, for example, of the pr ivat i -zat ion of publ ic services, promoted throughPublic Private Partnerships (PPP), which havebeen used by c om panie s such as Aguas de Bar-celona or Union Fenosa to appropr iat e natur alresources.

[Greening] m ay focus on improving inst i t u-t ional arrangements, ent i t lement and al loca-t ion systems; expanding the use of paymentsfor ecosystem services; reducing input subsi-

d ies; and improving wat er charging and f inan-cial arrangement s (GE).

We recogn ize t hat the ac t ive par t ic ipa t iono f the pr ivate sector can cont r ibute to theachievement of sustainable development, in-cluding through the important tool of public-

pr ivat e par tnersh ips . We encourage exist ingand new partnerships, in part icular publ ic-pr i -vate partnerships, to mobi l ize s igni f icant f i -nancing f r om t he pr ivate sector, complem ent-ing publ ic f inancing (FW).

Even though the prof i t s mult inat ional corpora-t ions have obtained from the pr ivat izat ion ofpublic services are very high, and despite theharm they have caused to mi l l ions of peopleby denying access to basic services and theuniversal human r ight to water, not to men-t ion charging rates that are too high to pay, greening proposes broadening t h is t ype ofall iances and c oncessions.

The defence of t he inter nat ional t rade syst emas a fundamental part of the green economyrepresents a fa i lure t o recognize i ts ro le in t hegenerat ion of the economic and environmen-tal crisis. Greenhouse gas emissions from thetransportat ion of merchandise makes inter-nat ional t rade one of the main causes of theclimate crisis. Transnational corporations are

on the exper ience o f t he in ternat iona l f rameworksfor t he e laborat ion o f repor ts .


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behind t he signing of t rade agreement s, whichenable them t o buy and sel l t heir product s ata lower pr ice, of fer guarantees for their in-vestment and generate supra-national legalf rameworks that exempt them f rom respect -

ing human or labour r ights or environmentalstandards.

At the same t ime, new markets are createdor act iv i ty on those trading f ic t i t ious goodsis intensi f ied, thereby strengthening the f i -nancial izat ion of nature. In terms of carbonmarket s: We acknowledge that a mix of reg-ulatory measures, voluntary approaches andmarket-based mechanisms can promote inclu-sive green economy (FW).

The inst rument s based on t he market , such ast radable permit s, are adequate t ools t o resolvethe economic invisibi l i ty of nature (.). TheKyoto Protocol, for example, al lows countriesto negotiate credit to reduce their emissions.In tot al, in 2009, 8. 7 bi l l ion t ons of carbon werenegotiated for the amount of $144 bil l ion.I t i s clear tha t the green economy main-tains some aspects of the Kyoto protocol thatare re lated t o the carbon market. There is noconsiderat ion about t he need to r educe green-house gas emissions, assume binding commit-ments or respect the pr incip le of commonbut d i f f erent iated responsibi l i t ies. On t hecontrary, i t a ims to reproduce the scheme ofthe carbon market and to ex tend i t to a l l o fnatures processes, wi th the creat ion of the environmental services concept .

As we have ment ioned ear l ier , the idea thatmerely assigning a price to something can

guarantee i ts environmental conservat ionis erroneous and l imited to a concept of theworld based on the market. Addi t ional ly, i ti s impor tant to take in to account tha t onceagain, those who benef i t f rom this perspec-t ive are the t ransnat ional corporat ions, ashas been the case of the Clean DevelopmentMechanisms and pilot projects from the REDD(Reducing Emissions from Deforestation andForest Degradat ion) pr ogram.

Energy hungry TNCs and theirextractive industries

The t exts do not address fundament al quest ionssuch as t he need t o change t he energy matr ix,

which is based on the use of fossil fuels. Whilet hey recognize the need t o promote al terna-t ive energies , t hey do not explain which onesand include electricity and the biomass is thisbroad group, fai l ing to recognize the environ-ment and social problems they generate.

According t o a st udy pr epared by t he ETC Group The 10 main energy f ir ms on the planet con-centrate 25% of the global energy market ().And they do not only seek to create a cleaner

or greener image. They believe that futureearnings wi l l depend on t he diversif i cation andcontrol of supplies wit h a biosynthet ic base fort he product ion of energy. Compani es such asRoyal Dutch Shell , Exxon Mobil Corporat ion andChevron, which are known for t he extract ion offossil fuels, have investments in agrofuels, andare among t hose t hat contr ol biom ass.

Emphasizing even further the extractive in-dust ries energy-int ensive rel ationship, t he FW

draft tr ies to present the nonexistent sustain-abi l i ty of the m ining sector:

We note that mining indust ries are import antt o al l countri es wit h mineral r esources, in par-t icular developing count ries. We also note t hat,when managed, regulated and taxed prop-erly, mining offers the opportunity to catalyzebroad-based economic development, reducepoverty and assist countries in meeting inter-nationally agreed development goals, includingt he MDGs. Rejection of false solutionsPeople re j ect t he fa lse solut ions of t he greeneconomy, promot e real solut ions and demandf rom t he i r governments a commit ment t o theinterests of the people and not those of theTNCs.

Changing the energy matrix implies making


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Take the example of cl imate change. Europe-an public opini on support s ambi t ious measuresto curb greenhouse gas emissions, but over-al l reduct ion targets have remained low, notleast because of lobbying by BusinessEurope

and other industry groups. Indeed, EU cl imatepolicy is based on a market , al l owi ng corpora-t ions to trade emissions rights. This approachhas fai led to reduce emissions, but has per-versely created heft y windfal l pr of i t s for largeenergy users. Instead of insist ing on cutt ingemissions at source, the Commission has em-braced f lawed solut ions promoted by indus-try lobby groups, such as agrofuels, nuclearenergy and cost ly carbon-capt ure and st orage.

The EU is promoting this market-based ap-proach at the UN summit on sustainable de-velopment (Rio+20). I t wants to use marketsto pro tec t b iod ivers i ty and o ther natura lresources, regardless of the obvious fai l ings.Working closely with business lobbies, theCommission is promoting this as part of whatis mi sleadingly ref err ed t o as t he Green Econ-omy . The under ly ing agenda is t hat b iodiver-sity trading wil l give EU-based corporationsand investors access to resources and newmarkets in the South.

The dangers of this neoliberal agenda areclear. The corporate capture of EU policiesplayed a central ro le in sparking the devast at-ing economic crisis which is haunting Europe.The f inancial cr isis t hat erupt ed in 2008, t r ig-gering a deep economic crisis, was the resultof an unsustainable bubble economy causedby the deregulat ion of f inancial markets, in i -t ia l ly in the US. In Europe th is led to a dr ivet o create a s ingle European market f or f inan-

cial services, heavily steered by the f inancialsect or. The Comm ission s advisory group s onf inancial regulat ion were dominat ed by lobby-ist s, ef fect ively a l lowing the f inancial indust ryt o draw up i t s own rules.

The EUs neoliberal agenda has unleashedmarket forces which now also t hreaten t o dis-mant le the welfare state and other progres-sive achievements to an extent never seenbefore. When the public debt crisis caused

by the bailouts of banks threatened the sur-vival of t he euro, t he EUs response was to im -pose harsh austerity condit ions and sweepingpr ivat isat ion programmes in return for loans.This has caused a social disast er i n Greece and

Portugal. A similarly dogmatic austerity pushis now hi t t ing many other EU member st ates,as a resul t of t he economic governance r u lesthat were rushed through in record t ime lastyear. To add insult t o inj ury, t he new EU Trea-ty is to make budget def ic i t ru les i r reversib leand fur ther t ighten the screws, introducinga 0.5% long-term budget def ic i t cap that wi l lcause further massive cuts in public budgets,deepening the cr is is and fur ther destroyingt he wel fare sta t e .

Industry lobby groups such as the EuropeanRoundtable of Industrial ists have seen theirlongstanding wish implemented. More powerto the EU to force governments to introduceneoliberal reforms. The Commissions use ofi ts new economic governance powers wi l l re-shape societ ies in exact ly t he way t hat t heselobby groups have demanded. While big busi-ness lobbi es are cheer ing, t he EU is al ienat ingi t se l f f rom t he c i t izens.

There are signs t hat t he public are not preparedto accept these imposit ions. New cit izensmovements have emerged, such as the Indig-nados and Occupy, that demand real democ-racy inst ead of de fact o government by marketforces. Trade unions and other citizens groupsare stepping up their actions to defend social

j ust ice . Wi t h ALTER-EU, t he re s now a vi bran tpan-European civil societ y coalit ion pushing forstrong transparency and ethics rules to helpcurb corporate inf luence. It is from these andother progressive forces and pan-Europeanalliances between them that the pressure fora different Europe wil l come.

Olivier Hoedemanis the r esearch andcampaign coordinator at Corporat e EuropeObservatory (CEO), a Brussels-based group

working t o expose and chal lenge the inf luenceof corporations in EU policy making.


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La Via Campesina1, t ogether w i t h many o thersocial movement s around t he wor l d, has longstruggled against the impunity and cr imesagainst humanity and the environment oftransnational corporations (TNCs). TNCs areone of t he implem enter s of t he capi ta l ist sys-t em t hat exp loi ts peop le and nat ure . Wi th t he

mult ip le g lobal cr ises hi t t ing capi t a l ism and i t sinstruments, we can see that TNCs and capi-t a l ism i t sel f have been severely delegi t im izedand have begun t o lose t heir hol d and power.

At t he upcoming Eart h Summ it or Rio+20, how -ever, w e see that wi t h the proposed greeneconomy , t he Fut ure We Want d iscussesnot t he fu ture t hat t he peop le or nature wantor need, but rat her, t he fut ure t hat TNCs andcapi ta l is ts want and need in order to save

themselves f rom their cr is is and prof i t f romthe remaining natural resources that have sofar remained f ree f rom t he i r cont ro l .

This proposed fram ewor k is based on t he ideat hat un l imi ted growth can cont inue. There isno recogni t ion t hat nat ure does not exist sim-p ly to be exp lo i ted and that the pat tern o foverconsumption that neol iberal ism has pro-moted cannot go on as usual. Simply labelingsomet hing green does not make i t good for t heplanet and the people.

In Indonesia, w e are already f eeling t he nega-t ive impacts of t he proposed green econo-my. A corporat ion has been violent ly displac-ing farmers in t he name of conservat ion. Thisis one of our cur rent st ruggles and we see thisas a f ight for our future, a future that holds adi f ferent path to development that is based

on the wel lbeing of a l l , that guarantees foodfor a l l , that protects and guarantees that thecomm ons and natur al resources are put t o uset o provide a good l i fe f or everyone and not t omeet t he needs for accumulat ion of a few.

Green Economy: The Rebranding ofCapitalism

Green economy simply put is the grabbing ofal l remaining natural resources on the planet,

commodify ing t hem, and making a prof i t f romit al l . Science has long confir med t he fact t hatin order to save the planet, people need tochange the way they consume and produce.The capital ist system of overproduction andoverconsumption fueled by fossil fuels can nolonger continue. However, through the pro-posed green economy, capitalism has found away to r ebrand i t sel f as green and create arole for i t self i n the post -fossil f uel worl d. Theirproposed solution though is not to address the

root causes of t he crisis of overexploit ati on andlimit less growth on a planet that has reachedits l imits, but rather to devise ways to cheatnature, continue business as usual and all thewhi le , make prof i t f rom i t .

Concretely, the post-fossil fuel world they pro-pose is not to change the system of overpro-duction and overconsumption, but rather, justto change the fuel they use. In the proposed green economy, biomass (forests, soils, plant s

Fight for Our Future:

The Time for

Food Sovereignty is Now!Henry Saragih

1 La Via Campesina is an int ernat ional movement ofpeasants, small- and medium-sized producers, land-less, r ural wom en, indigenous people, r ural youthand agricul t ural wor kers. I t is an autonomous, pl ural -i st and mul t i cu l tura l m ovement , independent o f anypolitical, economic, or other type of afliation. Bornin 1993, La Via Campesina now gather s about 150organisat ions in 70 countr ies in Asia, Afr ica, Europe ,and the Americas.


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and micr o-organisms) wil l be used as raw mat e-rials and will also replace fossil fuel in order tocontinue m anufacturi ng the same pr oducts suchas plasti cs, chem icals and a whole arr ay of prod-ucts. This so-called bio-economy wil l emp loy t he

use of geo-engineering and new and hazardoust echnologies t o furt her exploit nature.

The second aspect of t he green economyproposal is the protection of ecosystems andbiodiversity. This protection though is a per-verse kind of conservation. Their logic is thatin order to appreciate nature more, peopleshould pay for i t , or as they say, to protect ,t hey need t o enclose. This t ranslates l i t eral lyinto the putt ing of a pr ice tag on everything

in nature and t hen charging a premium on i t suse. But this goes beyond the material goodsthat have t rad i t iona l ly been exp lo i ted f romnature such as wood; i t even puts a price onthe funct ions of nature. In essence, i t is thepr iva t iza t ion , commodi f ica t ion and fur therexploi tat ion of nature. There are other as-pects of this such as the labeling of the func-t ions of nature as environmental services andthe i n t roduct ion o f t he concept o f b iod iversi tyo f fse ts , wh ich wi l l a l low the r ich to o f fse t t he l oss of biod iver sit y. As long as you conservesomew here, you can dest roy somew here else.

The Indonesia Case: What the GreenEconomy Future Holds for All of Us

In Indonesia, w e are already suf f er ing t he im-pact of t he green economy perversion oft he concept of conservat ion.

In Jambi, a resource rich province of the is-land of Sumatra, small farmers such as Sar-wadi Sukim an, a mem ber of t he Serik at Pet aniIndonesia (SPI- Indonesian Peasant Union), amember of La Via Campesina, witnessed inthe ear ly e ight ies the devastat ion of the for-est s. A wood comp any called Asialog, granteda concession by the Indonesian government,d isplaced t he local people and logged t he for-est s int o exhaust ion. At t he end of t he 25-yearconcession, t he pr ivate company lef t , leavingt he area complet ely devast ated.

Five years af ter the land was lef t for dead,peasants reclaimed t he barren land and cul t i -vated i t back to l i f e. The 101, 635 hectares ofbarren land t hat spanned t he province of Jam-bi and South Sumatra, was occupied by 1,500

fami l ies, t i l l i ng the land, growing a diverse setof crops such as vegetables, r ice and rubber,and bui ld ing their homes and communit ies.

In 2007, however, a consort ium of local and in-t ernat ional conservat ion organizat ions formeda corporation called REKI (PT Restorasi Eko-sistem Indonesia or Rest orat ion of IndonesiasEcosystem), and secured a 100-year conces-sion f r om t he government of Indonesia, i n or-der to restore the said area. The consort ium

of NGOs is made up of Yayasan Burung Ind one-sia, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds(RSPB) and Bird Life Inter nat ional.

REKI, with their supposed noble aim of con-servat ion, then proceeded to k ick out thepeasants and al l t heir f ami l ies f rom t he land.The locals were int imidat ed, int errogat ed andarrested. Some were forced to s ign a let terst at ing t hat t hey agreed to leave the land andto never come back again. One of them wasdet ained for s ix mont hs.

The fol lowing year, in 2008, Prince Charlescame to the area and declared i t as a pr imeexample for his campaign to save rainforests.Die ter Hof f man, t he head o f the in t ernat iona lprogram of Bird Li fe Internat ional then an-nounced t hat t he forest could be placed in t heREDD program as it could absorb the annualcarbon emissions of the city of Manchester.This brought a lot of local and internat ionalmedia at t ent ion to t he area but there was no

ment ion of a l l the farmers being forc ib ly d is-placed by t he company.

Sarwadi, though, together with the other peas-ants, continued to hold their ground and resistREKI. But the corporation continued their as-sault, and have in some cases, beaten some ofthe peasants. And just last April 2012, REKI be-gan a national media campaign against SPI, de-claring us as terrorists because of the continua-t ion of our st ruggle and r esist ance against t hem.


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The struggle cont inues and we are t ry ing tobr ing the a t tent ion o f nat iona l and in terna-t ional media and al l ies t o t h is case in order t oget support against the v io lent d isplacementof smal l farmers and their fami l ies and sup-

por t f o r our r igh t t o the land.

For us in Indonesia, w here t he maj or i t y of t hepeople are landless, the struggle for land andgenuine agrarian reform is central. The gov-ernm ent of Indonesia has long promi sed t o im-plement agrar ian reform and in fact , accord-ing to the Indonesian const i tut ion, law No. 5of 1960, t he land belongs t o the t i l ler. But t h ishas not been implemented. Rural peasants, i fthey do have land, only have 0.3 hectare of

i t . Indonesia has become an import er of foodand an increasing number of people i n t he ru-ral areas suffer from hunger and many havebeen forced to migrate to other countr ies insearch of w ork. The import ance of land t o thesmall farmers cannot be emphasized enough.In cases, where SPI members have occupiedthe land, we see the landless people able tofeed themselves and the community, increasetheir income and have food sovereignty. Butnow wi th the threat o f the green economyand REDD, we see that land wil l not only bet aken away f rom peasants, i t wi l l a lso be usednot fo r food but fo r the carbon market andcarbon of f set t ing.

Fight for Our Future

For us, w e see the fut ure that t he greeneconomy holds for t he people and MotherEart h. I f w e do not r esist t his fut ure, TNCs andcap i ta l is ts w i l l cont ro l a l l o f na ture , fu r therdestroy i t and condemn us al l to a future toobleak t o imagine.

We cannot a l low th is. We must f ight for ourfuture a future that has another way of liv-ing, producing and co-exist ing with nature.The people and nature i t sel f hold t he real so-lut ions to the mult ip le cr ises of food, c l imate

and energy; i t is j ust a matt er of changing thesystem and reclaiming our sovereignty andpeasant syst ems of product ion.

We, in La Via Campesina, have always calledf or f ood soverei gnty. Since 1996, La Via Camp-esina has been developing and promoting foodsovereignty as an alternative to the dominantagricultural and food system under the capi-tal ist and neoliberal world. Food sovereigntywhich places at its centre sustainable peasant

agr icul ture wi l l not only feed the people wi thhealthy, locally produced food, but i t puts theaspirations and needs of those who produce,distr ibute and consume food at the heart ofthe food systems and policies rather than thedemands of market s and corporati ons. For f oodsovereignty to work, however, we need genu-ine agrarian reform , which changes t he syst emand structural relations with resources. Fur-t hermore, agroecology, or t he use of ecologicalprinciples to the production of food, is a sus-t ainable form of agricult ure. Numerous st udieshave shown i t to be m ore ef fect ive in not onlyfeeding people, but also ensuring their nutri-tion. Moreover, it has also been shown to beeffect ive in cool ing down t he planet.

I t i s not t oo late , i f w e come t ogether in th isst r ugg le, we can f ight fo r our fu t ure . The t imeis now for changing the system, changing theworld, and recla iming our future.

Henry Saragih is Chairm an of t he Indonesian

Peasant Union ( SPI) and General Coordin at orof La Via Campesina.


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Based in Africa, i t is easy to see the legacyof the t ransnat ional corporat ions appropr ia-t ion of the cont inent s mineral and naturalresources.

The richness of Afri cas endow ment s is not re-f lec ted in the wel fare o f the major i ty o f i tspopulat ion. Inst ead the cont inent suf f ers f r omt he resource curse leaving i t w i t h mass pov-erty, unemployment, hunger, def ic i ts in edu-cat ion and heal th, weak infrastructure, andblighted l ivel ihoods. Resource extraction hasseen the vast t ransfer of weal th abroad, en-r ichment of local e l i t es, devast at ing conf l ic t s,d is located communit ies, pol i t ical corrupt ionand repression, extreme forms of labour andchi ld exploi t at ion, and ecological dest ruct ion.

In the Niger del t a, o i l t ransnat ionals have ru-ined the land and the water, fomented mass

repression, co-operat ed w it h t yrannous lead-ers, and been impl icated in the execut ion ofpolit ical d issident s l ike Ken Saro-Wiwa.

The exploi tat ion of the rainforests and min-eral regions of t he Democrat i c Republ ic of t heCongo has been part of a process of massiveexploi t at ion s ince the start of Belgian colonialru le. Vast swat hes of t he forest are al l ocat edt o t imber corporat ions becoming sovereign inareas t hat t he st ate cannot r each. Gold t rans-

nat ionals have col laborated with war lords;war lords involved in the mining and distr ibu-t ion o f co l tan, a v i ta l ingred ient in mobi lephones, using slave l abour.

In Niger, regions l ike Arl i t have seen theirpopulat ions heal th and environment compro-

mised by uranium mining, and the t ransna-t ional m ining company Areva has monopol isedthe local water supply. The people now havet o purchase their wat er f rom Areva.

In South Africa mining companies created thesyst em of migrant labour which impover ishedthe countryside. Racial job reservat ion wasstandard and helped reinforce segregationand the introduct ion of far deeper apartheidmeasures. Today in abandoned gold mines,no-one is lef t to take responsibi l i ty for r is ingmine w ater w hich is acid ic, t oxic and radioac-t ive, and which is l ikely to enter the environ-ment on a scale much larger than previouslyforeseen.

The hold of t he t ransnat ionals on Afr icas re-sources cont inues, whether through conf l ic tdiamonds, wars over oi l , land grabs for agro-

fuels and other r esources, or t he set t ing up ofmines in protected nat ional parks of Namibiaand Tanzania.

What TNCs are doing in Africa, they are doingin the rest of the world: corporations are ap-plying the same strategies and tactics, causingt he same devast ating eff ects on nat ional econ-omies, people and the environment in LatinAmeri ca, Asia, Nort h Amer ica and Europe.

Corporate capture of bodies l ike the UnitedNations has served to prevent any kind ofglobal account abi l i t y and transform at ion. Themarket i tsel f rewards the worst exploi ters.Corporate self-regulation has never worked.

We cannot keep our eyes closed t o t his super-exploi t at ion. But how do we hold the t ransna-tionals accountable and curb their excessivepowers? We could emulate the Popular Tribu-nals set up t o j udge the behaviour of Europe-

David Figis an independent researcher onenvironm ent al issues based in Johannesburg,

Sout h Africa.

Transnational Corporations andthe Extractive Industries

David Fig


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based transnationals in Latin America. Wecould go fur t her in craf t ing new binding globalinst ruments t hat w i l l b r ing t hem to book. Inorder t o r ight t he imm ense wr ongs being done

by transnationals in Africa and around theworld, c iv i l society needs to come togetherurgent ly to debate and take act ion on th ismat ter .

Fossil fuels extraction is extremely destruc-t ive to the env i ronment and to the peop le .Whether crude oi l , natural gas, coal or b i tu-men, t heir ext ract ion m eans abuse of t he peo-p le and the env i ronment . Fur thermore, t he i ruse means at t acks on Mot her Eart h. Thus, t hefossil-driven civi l isation is a cannibal civi l isa-t ion that eats up people.

The direct at t acks on the people and the com-munit ies incubate resistance that manifest indifferent ways and continue to build up. Un-fortunately, peaceful resistance to destructiveextr action continues t o be met w it h repressionand crimi nalisati on.

We see from the example of Ken Saro-Wiwa,martyred leader of the Movement for the Sur-vival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), that resistancecan be conducted in a variety of ways. Massmovement building was t he path chosen by t heOgoni people and this continues to inspire oth-er peoples who have a clear obj ecti ve sit uation

t hat they wish to overturn.

For Ken Saro-Wiwa, cultural revival was an es-senti al t ool. He saw t he basic need t o f ight fort he digni ty of the people and respect f or t heircul tural m i l ieu wit h t ools including drama, po-etry and f ic t ion.

Cultural tools are indeed ready vehicles forspreading messages and communicating withwide and diverse audiences. The power of mu-

sic and poetry as well as other art forms toshape public opinion and cultural direction iswell known. For a people impacted by an av-erage of one oil spi l l per day and with toxic

wastes dumped into their environment, resist-ance is an inescapable rout e t o survival .

In the hist ory of repr ession of oi l f ield comm u-nit ies in Nigeria, the major offence of the peo-ple remains their consistent call for dialogueand repair of the harm visited on them. Theresponse t o t he peoples call f or dialogue wit hShell at Umuechem in 1990 led to t he dest ruc-t ion of a large swat ch of t he communit y as wellas the murder of several community people.In 1998 the call for dialogue by Ilaj e youths inOndo State of Nigeria received no attentionfrom Chevron unti l the youths occupied theParabe platform in a peaceful direct action.The response was a commando style attack ofthe unarmed youths by the mil i tary conveyedin Chevrons helicopters. In the attack on 28May 1998, two youths were shot dead, otherswere injured and both the l iving and the deadwere carted int o cust ody.

Women of t he Niger Delt a remain a form idable,

self less part of the resistance to the environ-ment al degradation and l ivel ihoods decimat ionby t he oi l companies in Nigeria. Their involve-ment in the struggle hinges on the historicalheroic stance of Nigerian women, grew in thewomens wing of MOSOP and reached newheights in t he I jaw wom en who occupied Chev-rons flowstations between 2002 and 2003 andwho i n 2011 occupied bridges at Edagberi/ Bet-terland (in Ahoada West, Rivers State, Nigeria)t o block access of Shell t o t heir f aci l i t ies.

The demands of the women have remainedlargely the same: r espect and dignit y for t hemand their communit y, cl ean water and basic in-

Resistance as Advocacy in the Oilfields of Nigeria

Nnimmo Bassey


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Canadas Modern Day Pizarros

Richard Girard & Jennifer Moore

frastructure, jobs for their husbands and sons.In utter desperation the women have beenforced to deploy what has been termed thenaked option stripping in protest, as the ul-t imat e display of disgust at an indust ry t hat ig-

nores the people and the environment and fo-cuses on nothing apart f rom p rofi t and power.Al though much of what the wor ld hears ofthe resistance in the oi l f ie lds of the NigerDelta has to do with the v io lent mi l i tancy of2005-2009, the t ruth is that there has beena consistent resistance through mobil isationsagainst gas f laring, for example, that has gal-vanised signatures f rom around the wor ld totackle the menace. Current ly thousands of

c i t izens f rom around the wor ld are s igningpet i t ions demanding that Shel l c leans up themess t hey have piled up in t he Niger Delt a.

Communit ies are also form ing t hemselves int onetworks, e l iminat ing inter-community con-f l ict s and monitori ng and reporting incidents int heir t erri t ories as a key means of environmen-tal defence. Litigations have also been used in

ef for t s to m ake the recalc i t r ant o i l companiesand collaborating State agents and agencies tolisten to reason. Such cases have been pursuedin court s both in Nigeria and in t he home coun-t r ies of t he t ransnational companies.

To t he people of t he Niger Del t a, t he environ-ment is their l i fe and resistance is a key ex-pr ession of advocacy.

Nnimmo Bassey is President of Frie nds of t heEarth Internat ional .

Looking to t he fut ure, we see increased Cana-dian mining investment throughout the Ameri-cas, somet hing t hat w il l be good for our mut ualprosperit y, said Canadas Prim e Minist er St e-phen Harper at t he 2012 Summ it of t he Ameri-cas t o an audience of government and businesselit es. Harpers role as indust ry cheerleader isno surprise given that 60% of the worlds pub-licly traded mining companies list on Canadianst ock exchan ges and some 500 Canadi an mi nin g

companies control half of the mineral explora-t ion in Latin America and t he Caribbean.

Canadian mining in the region became domi-nant fi rst as result of t he Washingt on Consensust hat f orced many countri es t o open t heir econ-

omies to resource explor