Archived press release

Corporate abuse fight heats up

19 May 2006

Campaigners plan to intensify their battle for stronger rules against corporate abuse when they take on the Government and a business analyst in a major debate next week.

The debate comes as the Liberal Democrats challenge the Government to reintroduce tougher laws to ensure British companies report on their social and environmental impacts. Meanwhile David Cameron's pledge to stand up to big business has been brought into question after Tory peers attempted to scrap legal requirements for UK directors to consider their wider impacts.

The event will be a public discussion on moves to win better protection for people and the environment in Britain and overseas. It will take place following CBI president John Sunderland's claim that campaigners are creating a false opposition between the pursuit of profit and wider objectives such as social justice, public services and the protection of the weak and vulnerable.

The discussion will be staged as Parliament debates the company law reform bill, the biggest shake-up of corporate law for 150 years. The bill, which started in the House of Lords, is expected to reach the Commons in early June.

Speaking at the event, Malcolm Wicks, Minister for Energy and Corporate Social Responsibility, will defend the Government's record, while economist Philippe Legrain will put arguments for business. The case for people and planet will be made by environmentalist Tony Juniper, Bangkok-based development researcher Dorothy Guerrero, from the organisation Focus on the Global South, and Joanna Blythman, author of The Shocking Power of Supermarkets.

The debate takes place next Thursday (25 May) from 7.30-9.00 pm in the Franklin Wilkins Building on the Waterloo campus of King's College, at 150 Stamford Street, London SE1. It has been organised by ActionAid, Friends of the Earth, War on Want and People and Planet. These groups are campaigning as part of the Trade Justice Movement and the Corporate Responsibility (CORE) coalition. This alliance represents more than nine million supporters who want new rules to stop UK firms profiting at the expense of the environment and poor communities.

Tony Juniper, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth, said:

"Business is a major force in the modern world and it has the potential to be a real force for good. But there is a debate to be had about how companies best serve the broader interests of society. Who should govern corporate power? What checks should be in place? Business cannot just be allowed to continue with business as usual. The planet and people are paying the price."

Ms Guerrero said:

"Our studies and the experience of people in grassroots organisations, in some of the world's poorest countries where we work, reveal multinational companies have abused communities and the environment. They have also prevented workers from exercising their right to form independent unions. If Tony Blair wants to convince the developing world that his government cares as much for vulnerable people as for business, he must ensure that British law protects them from corporate abuse."

"My investigation showed UK supermarket giants abuse their power by forcing down pay and conditions for producers and suppliers here and in the third world. Unless our government acts, many of the poor who provide food for millions of people in Britain will find ministers' promises to help make poverty history hard to swallow."

Notes

A poll carried out by ICM for CORE and the TJM found 90 per cent of voters felt that "the government should set out enforceable rules to ensure companies are `socially responsible' - for example to ensure companies do not damage the environment".

Over 100,000 supporters of CORE and the TJM have lobbied their MPs to support changes to the bill.

The debate will herald a series of meetings to be held across the country in June and July. Experts, activists and members of the public will discuss how to restrain corporate power and ensure multinational companies contribute to sustainable development, trade justice and making poverty history.

Joanna Blythman's new book, Bad Food Britain: How a Nation Ruined Its Appetite, is published by Fourth Estate.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust