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 multinationals was long overdue.