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Anti-globalisation activists
keep an eye on WEF

Tanmaya Kumar Nanda in New York

At the World Economic Forum, amidst protests and fears of a police crackdown, one protest group is going about its business with a quiet efficiency that almost rivals the WEF itself.

This is the Public Eye on Davos, a coalition of non-government organisations, and it has been organising international conferences for the past two years as a direct counterpoint to the WEF.

This year is no different, with the Public Eye holding a clutch of panel discussions in New York.

Participating in these discussions are representatives from several organisations from across the world. Issues at hand range from the role of transnational corporations and governments in the alleged destruction of resources to human rights violations, corruption, inequality and instability.

As Victoria Tauli-Corpez, director of the Tebtebba Foundation in the Philippines, puts it: "We will probably never see the day when countries can process their resources for the benefit of local communities if we keep allowing corporations to enter our countries and use indigenous resources. Instead, countries that are the richest in resources are the poorest in wealth."

Thelma Awori, a former assistant secretary general at the UN and the chairperson of AID Transparency, an NGO that works with AIDS patients in Africa, said Africa was moving "from state plunder to privatisation of plunder, trafficking of international resources and a coalition between criminal networks and corrupt governments."

"Africa has become a dumping ground for international corporations," she alleged.

"Automobile companies, pharmaceutical corporations, the tobacco industry and even seed companies are party to this. Even water is being privatised," Awori said.

The general mood as the discussion progressed was that corporations and governments work together and that the United Nations has been rendered redundant.

"Kofi Annan and the UN are both under the thumb of the US State Department," alleged Carol Chase, an independent ombudsperson for the UN.

"Annan should be removed because he is no longer aligned with the UN charter," she said.

Chaitanya Kaluva, an activist from Toronto, suggested an alternative body to the UN, which would be directly elected by the people and would have legislative powers.

However, Kenny Bruno, of Corpwatch US, disagreed. "Another world body (is) not the solution. Instead, we should strengthen local democratic institutions," he said.

Speaking on corporate power and global governance, Sathyu Sarangi, who works with the Bhopal Group for Information and Action in India, said the 1984 Bhopal disaster - in which a gas leak from a Union Carbide plant left over 8,000 people dead (exposure-related deaths were over 20,000) and over a 100,000 with related illnesses - had shown that it was "possible for trans-national corporations to commit crimes and get away with it. That's why corporations as well as individuals within corporations have to be made accountable. Also, what corporations do in terms of damage to lives, health and the planet should be recognised as a corporate crime. In Bhopal, the people responsible for the worst corporate crime are unpunished. Unless justice is done in Bhopal, it sends out a signal that you can do whatever you want in countries like India."

The opening panel also included Peter Madden, who is a ministerial adviser to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in Britain. As someone with a view from the inside, Madden said it was important to lay down a framework for accountability. "First, extend guidelines for corporate accountability across continents, use individual governments' power to demand corporate responsibility, focus on individuals when it comes to corruption, may be even call a convention on corruption, and lastly, make companies liable for the environment and make them pay if they don't," Madden advised.

A number of attendees spoke highly of India's role at the November 2001 World Trade Organisation ministerial conference in Doha, when it opposed the launch of a new round of talks.

SLIDE SHOW:
The Economic Talking Shop Reopens

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