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WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM: The Public Eye Is Watching
By Gustavo Capdevila
BERN, Jan 17 (IPS) - Civil society is in Davos, Switzerland once again to keep a watchful eye on
events at the World Economic Forum (WEF). The social and environmental
behaviour of 1,000 of the world’s most powerful companies will be scutinised at
this annual meeting of business leaders, presidents and prime ministers, and
free-market economics experts.
Pro Natura, the Swiss branch of Friends of the Earth, and The Berne
Declaration, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), will be awarding their
sarcastic prizes known as the Public Eye awards to transnational corporations
judged to have shown the greatest public irresponsibility in a ceremony on
Jan. 23.
The "winner", to be announced at a ceremony in the Alpine tourist resort of
Davos in southeast Switzerland, will be one of three companies that have
emerged as favourites: the French state nuclear company Areva, transnational
German chemical company Bayer CropScience, and the Philippine subsidiary
of U.S. fruit company Dole Foods.
The candidates for the disgraceful distinction are members of the WEF, which
will be holding its traditional annual meetings from Jan. 23 to 27.
Over the course of these meetings - which are sometimes joined by
internationally renowned personalities from the arts and entertainment world
- the WEF "courts world leaders and lobbies for generalised freedom in trade
and finance," Sonja Ribi of Pro Natura told IPS.
Public Eye takes it upon itself to shine a light on "the dark side of
globalisation," for the benefit of public opinion. Public Eye demands that
transnational corporations "at least show a minimum commitment to society
and the environment," said Oliver Classen, of The Berne Declaration.
The campaign demonstrates to the actors in the global economy that
destructive social and environmental effects of their business practices "not
only harm the direct victims of this damage, but also affect the reputations of
their companies," Classen told IPS.
Whether they are patenting vital medicines, unscrupulously exploiting natural
resources or trampling on workers’ rights, there is no limit to the insatiable
greed of the CEOs gathered in Davos, the Berne Declaration activist said.
Under the pretext of "improving the state of the world," the leaders of major
companies use this annual opportunity to establish contacts and exert their
influence over other members of the business community and government
representatives, Ribi said.
But the Public Eye turns the occasion to advantage in condemning the hugely
negative consequences of their obsession with profit margins, she said.
In parallel, the NGOs also demand humane labour conditions, company
responsibility for their final products, and environmentally sustainable
practices.
The three firms nominated for the prize have been singled out for poor social
and environmental behaviour. For example, Areva’s track record was
examined in Niger, where its subsidiary companies Somair and Cominak mine
uranium.
Mineworkers are given inadequate information about the health risks of
open-air storage of radioactive materials, said Pro Natura and The Berne
Declaration.
Furthermore, the mining company hospitals issue deliberately false
diagnoses for sick workers, and sign death certificates blaming AIDS when
workers die of cancer. These practices ensure that the employers evade
paying for their miners’ medical treatment, the NGOs said.
Areva has mined uranium in Niger - a former French colony - for 40 years.
Radioactivity levels in air, water and soil in the mining areas are above
internationally accepted safety levels, the Public Eye NGOs said.
Bayer CropScience - said to be the world market leader in insecticides -
has been nominated for the award for its attempts to impose jatropha
cultivation in India. Jatropha nut kernels have an oil content of 40 percent,
and so the plant is a good candidate for biodiesel production.
However, the two NGOs said that plans to expand jatropha farming in India
include using land currently used to grow food. Peasant farmers working
small plots of land would become dependent on the use of expensive
agrochemicals which are essential for jatropha cultivation if they switch to the
new biofuel crop, they said.
Another problem is that jatropha leaves and nuts are toxic. Well-known
Indian activist Vandana Shiva published a study on the effects of jatropha
cultivation in her country in November, and started a mass campaign to
discourage its expansion.
Pro Natura and The Berne Declaration say that in order to expand jatropha
cultivation, Bayer is using its contacts to lobby for support at the Secretariat
of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and at the U.N.
Environment Programme (UNEP).
A Public Eye document says: "In order to prevent greenwashing, the NGOs
[Pro Natura and The Berne Declaration] call on the United Nations to establish
criteria defining with whom they cooperate and under what conditions."
The third nominee is Dole Philippines Inc. - a subsidiary of the U.S. Dole
Food Company - which has pineapple plantations on 12,000 hectares of the
most fertile land in the Philippines, as well as a canning and packaging plant.
Since 1990 the company has downsized from 8,000 to 5,000 permanent
employees, while the number of temporary workers, a large proportion of
whom are women, has risen from zero to 12,000.
Their wages are four dollars a day - half of what the Philippine government
defines as the poverty line. In contrast, at Dole’s Hawaiian plantations,
workers are paid five dollars an hour.
Many small farmers have rented their land to Dole, which now employs them
as plantation workers. The peasant farmers can only fulfil the work
demanded of them with the help of their children, who drop out of school
and suffer health problems from overwork and from toxic chemicals - like
Endosulfan - used on the plantations.
The two NGOs also reported that Dole has been exerting pressure on the
Philippine workers’ unions.
Classen said that multinational companies, like the 1,000 members of the
World Economic Forum, must take their corporate social and environmental
responsibilities more seriously. Otherwise he warned, they will not only lose
credibility, but their investors, employees and customers as well.
(END/2008)
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