Global Campaign to Challenge the Power of Corporations Launched in Rio
Dozens of civil society organizations from around the world have gatheredtoday at the Peoples’ Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to launch a globalcampaign to confront the power of corporations and their crimes againsthumanity. In the face of the failed official Rio + 20 process, which hasbeen systematically co-opted and corrupted by transnational corporations,this campaign strives to unite hundreds of struggles, campaigns, networks,movements and organizations that are fighting the different waystransnational corporations are negatively impacting human rights and therights of nature in every corner of the planet.
The campaign denounces the corporate agenda of Rio + 20 to commodifynature. To put this campaign into action, there will be a rally at 6:00PM, June 19th, from the Peoples’ Summit toward Largo de Carioca toconfront the abuses of Brazilian energy and mining giant Vale.
The campaign has been initiated by several national and internationalsocial movements, including campaign networks resisting transnationalcorporations. Over 100 groups from peasant, labour, women’s, environmentaljustice and faith based movements from both the global South and theglobal North have joined the campaign. Nnimmo Bassey, the president ofFriends of the Earth International commented that “this kind of globalcampaign is long overdue, and is essential when fighting contemporarytransnational corporations who operate globally, moving from one countryto another using the same strategies to generate profit at any cost.”
According to the campaign call for mobilization, a primary focus of thiscampaign is to establish mechanisms of global solidarity and actionbetween civil society and social movements to stop violations bytransnational corporations and defend the rights of peoples, communities,and nature. Two of the main goals will be to develop binding obligationsand regulations for TNCs and to build the foundations for an internationalmechanism to judge the ecological and economic crimes of corporations andimpose sanctions. Brid Brennan from the Transnational Institute commentedthat “the process that we have launched here in Rio will set in motion abroad global debate on the illegitimacy corporate power, as well as tocreate the necessary tools and spur the mobilizations to challenge andultimately eliminate the impunity of TNCs.”
Henry Saraghi, General Coordinator of la Via Campesina said that “thiscampaign is especially important when we are witnessing the rebranding ofcapitalism through the design and implementation of the corporate greeneconomy at Rio + 20, which has been devised as a clever way to cheatnature and continue business as usual.” Campaign convenors stress that inorder to confront corporate power and the system that protects andbenefits TNCs, it is necessary to give a systematic response by unitingexperiences and struggles, to establish food and energy sovereignty,reclaim public services, protect common goods and to advance solidarityeconomies. The call to action for the campaign firmly announces that“community resistance against a transnational corporation could be evenmore victorious if we are able to unite them with the efforts of otherpeople in other countries, regions or continents.”
For more information and interviews please contact:
- Richard Girard, Polaris Institute – (+55 21) 7932 0512richard@polarisinstitute.org
- Tom Kucharz, Ecologistas en Acción – (+55 21) 8718 9847 –agroecologia@ecologistasenaccion.org
- Mary Lou Malig, La Via Campesina – (+55 21) 6951 0361,marylouisemalig@gmail.com
- Karen Lang, Transnational Institute – Telf. (+55 21) 8159 5373karen.lang.brazil@gmail.com