Multinational corporations

Copenhagen: The sound of silence

Yesterday afternoon the Guardian published a comment piece by WDM's policy officer Tim Jones and Nick Dearden from Jubilee Debt Campaign about what's going on in Copenhagen and the repression of activists outside who are demanding climate justice. A letter by a wider group of organisations including us was also published in the print newspaper today.

Copenhagen: the sound of silence

Denmark's reputation is being destroyed by police action outside the summit and the gagging of NGOs and poor nations inside
Nick Dearden and Tim Jones

The problem the Danish government faces gets bigger by the hour. Clearly the government is desperate for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen to be seen as a success, regardless of whether the deal done is capable of slowing down climate change in a just way. But it is faced with an ever-swelling army of critics who believe this issue is too important for a stitched-up compromise, negotiated late at night between corporate lobbyists and rich-country governments in conference hotel rooms.

Read the full article on the Guardian's Comment is Free

Letter: Protest curtailed in Copenhagen

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Copenhagen blog 11: Breakfast in Roskilde

David Johnstone, WDM south-west London group member, writes from Copenhagen

You can't walk far in Copenhagen without being reminded that the conference is in town. Virtually every billboard makes a claim of environmental virtue.

At Norreport Station, one of the city's main transport interchanges, advertisements for Danish wind energy company Vestas plastered all over the walls proclaim them the planet's saviours. The workers laid off when they closed their factory on the Isle of Wight earlier this year may be able to give a fuller picture.

Around every corner there's a climate-themed art work of dubious merit, a rock concert, or a film crew asking you for your 'message of hope' as a citizen of 'Hopenhagen'. As a campaigning veteran of 'Make Poverty History' and Live 8, I'm suspicious of any campaign involving rock stars and you often don't have to look far to spot a corporate logo. The message about the global injustice of climate change is not always so easy to find, though.

We received our clearest picture of what's happening at the Bella Centre, not in the newspapers or public squares of Copenhagen, but 30 km out of...

Caravan blog 3: Taking Brussels by storm!

We set off early from Lille, where we had been hosted by members of the Confederation Paysanne. We have had an incredibly warm welcome in all the places we’ve stayed, and Lille was no exception. Everyone from the caravan was put up by someone from the Confederation in their home, and we left early on Sunday morning well fed and well rested.

This was just as well, because from Lille we travelled to Brussels where we were being hosted by the Corporate Europe Observatory, an organisation campaigning against corporate lobbying and influence within EU policy. They had an action packed agenda ready for us, and we soon set of for an activist’s tour of Brussels...

Our first stop was the European Commission. The Commission is heavily influenced by corporate lobbyists who have been successful in pushing through aggressive trade agreements and flawed climate policies which favour high carbon industry, intensify the exploitation of natural resources and discriminate against developing countries. The EU’s climate policy is mainly based on carbon trading and other false solutions that benefit big business without tackling climate change.

We were joined there by...

Caravan Blog 2: Lille, France

We left Paris for Lille on Sunday morning, having been hosted by the Confederation Paysanne overnight. No sooner had we set off on the bus than Olivier, who has been one of the main organisers of the caravan, announced that we had an emergency on our hands...

One of the climate caravan participants, José Goyes, is part of a movement in Colombia called the Resguardo de Honduras Cauca. He lives in a fertile area in the south of the country, which is rich in vegetation, but also in mineral resources such as gold. This area has recently become the sight of a bitter struggle by the indigenous people whose livelihoods depend on this land, and the multinational corporations who are intent on exploiting it, apparently at any cost.

As I write, Canadian multinationals, and in particular a corporation called Cosigo Resources (Vancouver), are embarking on a programme of mass displacement of indigenous populations in south east Colombia. The Colombian government is supporting these multinationals; in the name of the Colombian government paramilitaries are persecuting and killing local indigenous people who oppose the forceful seizure of their land.

Many of the indigenous leaders, including José Goyes, have been threatened because they oppose the exploration of Cosigo...

Caravan blog 1: First stop - Paris

The Trade to Climate Caravan

Organised by Klimaforum (www.klimaforum09.org)

From the WTO meetings in Geneva to the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen, the Trade to Climate Caravan is taking the social and climate justice message through Europe, direct to the policy makers.

Activists from social and environmental struggles all over the world have come together to tell the politicians, the lobbyists and the multinationals that we demand system change, not climate change. The caravan has brought together campaigers and activists from throughout the global south; people who are suffering directly as a result of unjust and exploitative trade agreements, environmental devastation including destructive 'environmental' mega projects, and the socially reprehensible behaviour of governments as they resort to violence to evict people from their lands and pave the way or multinational corporations and agribusiness.

So, from Colombia to the Congo, the Phillippines to Mexico, Belarus to South Korea, and India to Peru, southern activists have come together in the run up to the UN Climate Summit to demand that the politicians and corporations stop polluting the poor for profit. This blog is devoted to sharing the messages and stories of those on the caravan as I...

Delegates to WTO ministerial conference welcomed by singing campaigners

The WTO ministerial conference officially opened this afternoon at 3pm (2pm UK time) and as delegates from around the world were entering into the open plenary session, they were welcomed by singing trade campaigners from the Our World is Not for Sale (OWINFS) network - a network of organisations, activists and social movements worldwide fighting the current model of corporate globalisation embodied in the global trading system. The World Development Movement is a member of OWINFS and WDM trade campaigner Heidi Chow was also part of the group of singing activists. Their song was based on the tune of jingle bells and started with "no new round, turn around, the world has had enough..."

OWINFS were keen to ensure that the delegates were aware of the global protest against the WTO and the Doha round.

You can receive live updates on twitter or though Heidi's blog and read more about the WTO

Blog: Gordon Brown and the recurring £800 million for climate change

Tim Jones

In Trinidad on Friday Gordon Brown got some headline coverage for his latest announcement of billions of dollars for developing countries to tackle climate change.

The prime minister became as expert as a derivatives trader in repackaging, reselling and reannouncing money when he was chancellor. Unfortunately the latest ‘news’ was no exception.

Mr Brown said rich countries should be creating a ‘Copenhagen launch fund’ worth $10 billion (£6 billion) to help developing countries adapt to climate change and develop in a low carbon way from 2010 to 2012. Let’s not get hung up on that amount as he wasn’t actually saying the UK would write a cheque.

What Gordon Brown did say was that “the UK Government would contribute £800 million in total over three years, which has already been budgeted for”. In fact it was budgeted for in the budget in 2007. The prime minister should know; he was chancellor at the time.

The same £800 million has been reannounced so many times since it’s enough to make you dizzy.

The money cannot go into a ‘Copenhagen launch fund’, because all of it has already been pledged to the World Bank. Some cheques have already been sent, and the final ones are due in April.

The use of the World Bank for climate...

Worldwide protest in the run up to WTO

Farmers, unions, fisherfolk and other civil society groups from around the world will be converging in Geneva for the WTO Ministerial at the end of the month. But ten years after Seattle, the struggle against the WTO has been globalised and Geneva will not be the only focus for WTO protest. Instead, activists around the world are organising protests and events in their own towns and cities to show the strength of global resistance.

WTO protest from 2005

The World Development Movement has a long track record on campaigning on the WTO and will be organising media stunts on Saturday 28 November – in solidarity with the major civil society demonstration in Geneva on the same day. Costumed campaigners from WDM groups will be staging tug of wars across the UK.

The tug of war media stunts between farmers and corporations represents the gross power imbalances at the WTO where corporate interests drive the agenda leaving the concerns and needs of developing countries out-weighed.

The London WDM groups have joined forces to stage a tug of war media stunt around Borough market (2:30pm, near Borough market...

World Trade Organisation

WDM has been campaigning on trade issues for almost three decades and monitoring negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) since its creation in 1995.

World Takeover Organisation by Polyp

Background

We have been an active part of the global community of campaigners that organise counter-summits and protests around WTO meetings. WDM also has a long track record of producing credible and incisive analysis of trade issues. We have attended the past four WTO Ministerial meetings:
Seattle (1999), Doha (2001), Cancun (2003), Hong Kong (2005).

We will be going again in November 2009 as world leaders push for a conclusion to the Doha round in the wake of the global economic crisis. Check here for updates.

WTO campaign successes

2004: Prevented the UK and EU from pushing through an agreement in the WTO which would have forced developing countries to allow western private companies to take over essential services such as water, banking and shops (GATS).

2004: Got the EU to drop its demands on developing countries in trade negotiations to open up their water services to private, western...

Copenhagen climate summit

This December 7-18 negotiations will take place in Copenhagen in an attempt to reach an international agreement to tackle climate change.

Copenhagen Climate Summit logo

The World Development Movement, along with social movements and governments from the global south, has been calling for the UK and the rest of the rich world to repay its ‘climate debt’ at Copenhagen – the money the rich world owes to the world’s poorest people for causing climate change.

The World Development Movement will be in Copenhagen for the duration of the summit keeping an eye on the negotiations and taking part in events outside the conference centre. We’ll be blogging on this website to keep you updated.

On the 5th December we’ll also be at The Wave in London and Glasgow where tens of thousands of people will demonstrate their support for a safe climate future for all.

Repaying our climate debt at Copenhagen

The UK has grown rich on the back of burning fossil fuels, which has driven us to the point of climate catastrophe. The global south should not have to pay the price of a crisis it didn’t create.

However, rather than...

People Before Profits

WDM campaigned on People Before Profits between 1998 and 2000, seeking to control the power of multinational companies with strong international regulation and individual action.

In the campaign against world poverty, WDM believes that we need to challenge today’s leading global economic players in order to put the rights and demands of the worlds poor before those of multinational companies.

The size and power of multinational companies is increasing rapidly:

Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations; only 49 are countries (based on a comparison of corporate sales and country GDPs).
The Top 200 corporations’ combined sales are bigger than the combined economies of all countries, minus the biggest 10.

These companies could potentially bring benefits, but governments are failing to get them under control. People across the world are speaking out against multinationals abusing their power in the pursuit of profits:

At the core of the People Before Profits campaign was the recognition that the increasing power of multinational companies is not accompanied by sufficient regulation. A realistic and considered look at the roles of both governments and international institutions in regulating...

GATS

Efforts by the World Development Movement... have got GATS exactly where the WTO does not want it to be: in the public domain

Nick Cohen, The Observer.

WDM worked on The General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) between 2000 and 2005.

Stop the GATS attack banner

Have you heard about the sale of the century? The world's services are up for grabs and the governments and corporations of rich countries are busy snapping up the best bargains from around the world. Following WDM's campaign, GATS moved from an obscure issue that no-one had heard of, to the political centre-stage.

From the moment we wake to the moment we sleep, we depend on services. We wouldn't get far without our water, health and education services, or our banks, telephone and transport systems. The service industry is huge - international trade in services is worth a staggering £1.5 million a minute.

A key role of governments should be both to ensure that people can get access to affordable basic services and to support the local economy. They do this through rules and regulations. For example, governments in many poor countries...

Unprecedented legal battle over RBS' unethical investments

Today, an unprecedented legal battle will take place in the High Court over the Treasury's failure to stop the publicly owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) investing in what campaigners describe as 'some of the most environmentally damaging and socially irresponsible projects and companies around.'

The case is being brought by three small climate and social justice campaigning groups: PLATFORM, People & Planet and the World Development Movement, which has led some commentators to bill it as a 'ground breaking, David and Goliath case'.

Today's oral hearing will determine whether their claim can proceed to a full substantive hearing, likely to take place early next year. The Treasury has hired one of its top barristers, James Eadie QC, to handle the case but the campaigners are optimistic that they will be successfu Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement said:

"This is a classic David and Goliath battle. But we believe we have a strong case. The Treasury's decision to allow RBS to continue to invest in companies that exacerbate climate change and are linked to human rights abuses is unlawful, immoral and undemocratic. Hopefully, this case will be a pivotal point in ending RBS' destructive lending habits that go against the interests of UK...

First appearances are deceiving at the WTO meeting

The WTO mini-ministerial in Delhi has now concluded. On first appearances, it looks as if the meeting has given a boost to the cause of free trade and a WTO deal break through. Afterall, Shri Anand Sharma, India's commerce and industry minister issued a final statement to say, "There was a unanimous affirmation on the need to conclude the Doha Round within 2010."

But affirming the desire to finalise the process is not the same as actually taking concrete steps to reach that goal. So there are no new commitments on the table, and key players like the US have refused to reveal their hand. Importantly, developing and developed countries are still split over what subjects should be on the negotiating table and which countries will be invited to talk around it.

Assessing the final statement from the meeting, the World Development Movement's trade officer Vicky Cann says, "Even once the dust has settled, it will be hard to see what has come out of this meeting. Ministers may be sending their officials back to Geneva to re-start talks, but these negotiations remain based on highly flawed papers which can only lead to an outcome which penalises the poor and rewards major corporations. The WTO will re-convene ministers in December in Geneva and we, along with millions...

The last chance to save the WTO – again!

Once again, this week, trade ministers from around the world are meeting, this time in Delhi, with the stated aim of kick-starting stalled World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks. And yet again, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors concealing countries’ true negotiating positions.

Part of the gathering of 50,000 Indian farmers who rallied in Delhi against the WTO

Why is India hosting this meeting? Does it really want to finalise a Doha deal, or is it hurt by accusations that it scuppered the July 2008 talks and so it just wants to be seen to be ‘talking the talk’? What position will the Obama administration take? Rhetorically, it talks about the need to sign a deal and for countries to avoid protectionism, but it is under huge pressure at home as unemployment grows and the recession continues.

Meanwhile, Pascal Lamy (the WTO’s director-general) continues to tighten the negotiating screws, stating that only 20 per cent of issues remain to be resolved. Proposals have been circulated to speed-up the process, to ‘bank’ what has already been agreed, and to move on to look at timetabling issues with the hope that this will unblock the remaining issues...

Ed, E.ON and everyone?

Today saw the launch of the 10:10 campaign; for individuals and businesses in the UK to reduce their emissions by 10 per cent in 2010. This is matched by a demand for Ed Miliband to commit the UK government to a target of cutting emissions by as close to 10 per cent as possible in the same year.

It would be excellent if UK emissions did fall by 10 per cent next year. As East Africa once again suffers from drought, and latest predictions that climate change is already killing 300,000 people every year, such a cut would be an acknowledgment that dangerous climate change is already with us. We must cut emissions by as much as possible as soon as possible.

The chances of UK emissions falling by 10 per cent looked more likely as we heard that E.ON, along with EDF, Centrica and Scottish and Southern Energy, are joining the campaign. E.ON by itself emits around 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, generating 10 per cent of the UK’s electricity and over 15 per cent of the UK’s emissions from electricity. Presumably E.ON will be shutting down its Kingsnorth coal power station in 2010, five years ahead of schedule, which would meet the 10:10 target and double it to 20 per cent in 2010.

Alas no. E.ON is launching “a nationwide drive to help homeowners and...

Climate Justice Now! network

The World Development Movement is part of the Climate Justice Now! network, which is a southern-led coalition of around 150 organisations and movements campaigning for a globally just and effective solution to the climate crisis.

CJN demo in Poznan. Credit: Ben Powless

Climate Justice Now! principles

Communities in the global south as well as low-income communities in the industrialised north have borne the toxic burden of this fossil fuel extraction, transportation and production. Now these communities are facing the worst impacts of climate change - from food shortages to the inundation of whole island nations.

Inside the global climate negotiations, rich industrialised countries have put unjustifiable pressure on southern governments to commit to emissions reductions. At the same time, they have refused to live up to their own legal and moral obligations to radically cut emissions and support developing countries' efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts.

Climate Justice Now! will work to expose the false solutions to the climate crisis promoted by these...

New director for the World Development Movement

The World Development Movement is delighted to announce the appointment of Deborah Doane as its new director, who started 1 June at the UK’s leading grassroots, anti-poverty campaigning organisation. The World Development Movement looks forward to an exciting new era led by Deborah's dynamism and a wealth of experience from over 15 years working on social and environmental issues.

Deborah Doane, said:

"The root causes of the current global economic and the climate crises are the issues that the World Development Movement works on. And by working at the cutting edge, we now have the greatest opportunity to tackle the root causes of global poverty and injustice – and realise a better future for the lives of poor people around the world.

“The World Development Movement has been one of the most effective organisations, working at the forefront of anti-poverty campaigning for nearly forty years, in partnership with campaigners from around the world. I’m delighted to be able to take the organisation forward and build on the excellent work of my predecessor, Benedict Southworth, who is moving on after nearly 5 years as director to become the primary carer of his children, undertake a Masters degree and consultancy work."

Deborah was...

G20 outcome 'a bitter pill for the world’s poor' says banned World Development Movement

The G20 outcome is ‘a bitter pill to swallow’ for the world’s poorest people says the World Development Movement, the anti-poverty group that was banned at last minute from attending the G20 summit. The campaigners are dismayed that the G20 leaders have missed an historic opportunity to launch a global recovery plan that will benefit poor people and tackle the climate crisis.

Julian Oram, head of policy at the World Development Movement said:

“For the world’s poorest people the outcome of the summit is a bitter pill to swallow, as they are being hit hardest by the economic and climate crises. What is needed from the G20 is a radical shake up of the global economy, what we got was world leaders desperately rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic. The commitments to stay on course to meet the Millennium Development Goals and to provide emergency funding for poor countries are welcome. But what was missing was a global green new deal that puts the interests of poor people and the environment at the heart of international trade and finance."

On the issue of free trade and a push for a deal at the WTO, Julian Oram, remarked:

"The G20 are absolutely right that trade is important to developing countries, but they...

What the World Development Movement wants from the G20

This briefing includes the World Development Movement's critique and recommendations to the G20 leaders on the following areas: trade v protectionism; refuelling the IMF; resurrecting the WTO Doha development round; the climate crisis and the Green New Deal.

This is not just a banking crisis.

The banks collapsed and were bailed out. The global economic system as a whole has broken down, and must be radically revised to ensure that it puts people and the planet first.

A consequence of the capitalist casino system of international finance and consumption is the climate crisis. The economic and climate crises are intrinsically linked and should have been addressed as such by the G20 leaders.

This meeting defined the future of the global economy more than any other in the last sixty years; and as such had profound implications for the world’s poor and efforts to tackle climate change. We want an economic system that is up to the challenges of the 21st century.

Dr Julian Oram, head of policy at the World Development Movement, said:

"The G20 must not prescribe more of the same toxic medicine that led to the current...

Gordon Brown under fire as impact of banking liberalisation revealed in developing world

Today, the World Development Movement warns that Gordon Brown's proposals at the G20 to salvage the global economy could be wrecked by contradictions between his tough talk on re-regulating the banking sector and the UK’s continued push for banking liberalisation in developing countries through European free trade deals.

The new report, 'Taking the credit’, reveals the extent of the negative consequences of the financial services liberalisation pushed on developing countries through EU free trade deals. These deals would lift restrictions on how multinational banks, like Barclays, HSBC, Santander operate in developing countries. The World Development Movement’s evidence shows such deals would mean that poor people and small businesses lose out on access to credit and other banking services.

Benedict Southworth, director of the World Development Movement said:

"On the one hand, Gordon Brown has developed a mantra of tough talk on the re-regulation of banks. On the other, together with other European leaders, he is aggressively pushing free trade deals which demand that developing countries follow a deregulated and liberalised banking model. That model has clearly and spectacularly failed here and has also failed poor people in the developing...

Campaigners from developing world demand ban on new UK coal power

Today, UK based anti poverty campaigners, the World Development Movement revealed that over 30 organisations from the developing world have written to Ed Miliband to demand that he bans new coal power, and scraps the controversial plan for a new coal power station at Kingsnorth in Kent.

Murray Benham, head of campaigns at the World Development Movement said:

“Those on the receiving end of the UK’s carbon emissions are appalled at the prospect of new coal power stations being built in the UK. Any international credibility the UK has for putting climate change targets into law will be shot to pieces by another decision in favour of a carbon emitting monster. The World Development Movement has calculated that a new power station at Kingsnorth would by itself create 30,000 climate refugees across the world. Campaigners from the developing world are clear that this is unjust, and Ed Miliband cannot allow it to happen.”

Ricardo Navarro, campaigner from El Salvador said:

“The UK building coal power stations is like eating a slap-up meal and handing the bill to the world’s poor.”

The letter to Ed Miliband, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has been signed by 34 influential organisations based in the...

Impacts of trade deals - How Europe's free trade deals have affected Mexico and South Africa

The European Union is currently negotiating a new wave of trade deals that will benefit European corporations at the expense of the world’s poorest people. These trade deals are unfair. They will reduce the ability of developing countries to use important policy tools to boost their own development and to support local industries. The evidence shows that these deals will not benefit the poor in these countries but will benefit a few multinational companies. The World Development Movement (WDM) is calling for these trade deals to be stopped. WDM analyses past trade deals in Mexico and South Africa to highlight the negative impact of such deals.

Inside global Europe - Explaining Europe's trade strategy

The European Union’s Global Europe trade strategy has been driven by the demands of corporate lobbyists in Brussels and is aimed at securing a number of regional trade deals designed to ratchet open markets in the developing world. The World Development Movement (WDM) believes that these agreements will legally ‘lock in’ a series of policies that will undermine the ability of these countries to provide basic needs, reduce poverty and develop. In this briefing WDM analyses how Europe’s trade deals could impact on the poor.

Corporate power versus the planet?

The world is slowly waking up to the reality of climate change, but agreeing effective action is still an enormous task. That task is being made harder by demands from big business that its interests remain central to any solutions that are proposed. This briefing explores the detrimental effect of corporate power on the fight against climate change.