Hannah Griffiths

The problems we and our planet face today didn't happen by themselves. They're the result of economic, social and political decisions made over the years. And whether these problems are environmental or social, they often have the same or overlapping causes and can be intricately connected.

This might be best illustrated by means of an example. The Ilisu dam was planned to be built on the River Tigris in the Kurdish region of southeast Turkey. This region has been torn apart by armed conflict between the Kurdish people and the Turkish military and by prolonged periods of emergency rule.

The dam was conceived in order to generate electricity for the Turkish cities of Istanbul and Ankara, but is seen by many as the next step in an ongoing process of "ethnic cleansing". Why? The Ilisu dam would flood Hasankeyf, an ancient centre of Kurdish culture as well as many surrounding towns and villages, and would make up to 78,000 people homeless. Turkey's record on resettling people who have lost their homes due to the creation of large dams is unsatisfactory, to say the least. Many people end up homeless, landless and forced to move to the slums of large towns and cities.

The construction consortium planning to build the Ilisu dam was being led by a UK company, Balfour Beatty. Because of some financial risks, Balfour Beatty had asked the UK government, through its Export Credits Guarantee Department, to provide an export credit guarantee of about $200 million. This would act as insurance for the company's involvement in the project - if Turkey was to default on its payment, Balfour Beatty would be paid by the UK government and the amount would be added to Turkey's bilateral debt burden to the UK.

The UK government was thus preparing to use public or taxpayers' money to subside a UK company to build a politically sensitive dam which would make tens of thousands of people homeless, destroy a cultural centre and cause environmental damage.

The Ilisu Dam Campaign, a strong alliance of environmentalists, human rights campaigners and trade unionists, succeeded in forcing Balfour Beatty and several other companies to withdraw from the project, which is now on indefinite hold. This example is an inspirational story of a people whose voice was finally heard in high places and a company that was forced to listen.

But this one project is just a drop in the ocean - the number of other destructive projects that could damage the environment, threaten people's human rights, and cause social unrest is overwhelming. For example, British American Tobacco continue to operate in Burma despite massive opposition because of the oppressive regime and human rights abuses. Barclays has funded deforestation of wildlife rich rainforests in Indonesia. BAE Systems continues to make money out of war and conflict selling military equipment all over the world, including to oppressive regimes and states in conflict. BP is pushing ahead with the Baku-Tiblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which will have little benefit for local people and will contribute to more global climate change.

Climate change is obviously one of the biggest problems we all face today. The extreme weather that climate change brings can cause devastation with people losing their homes and livelihoods. During the floods in the Indian State of Orissa in 1999, for example, over 10,000 people were washed away and agriculture was totally destroyed by salt water contaminating the land - people lost everything from their seeds to their homes. It's most often the world's poorest people that suffer and the world's richest that are largely to blame. For example, the UK with 1% of the world's population produces 2.3% of the world's carbon dioxide, while the US, following heavy pressure from companies such as Esso, has pulled out of the Kyoto protocol, the global agreement on climate change.

As the list of UK companies involved in destructive projects and practices grows, the UK government is handing these companies more and more rights to trade and better and easier access to markets through the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The WTO is the international body that deals with the rules of trade between nations. It is pushing forward with global free trade or trade liberalisation.The WTO and the trade system it promotes are intrinsically flawed, abusing the democratic process, threatening human rights and undermining environmental protection. The WTO's main beneficiaries are multinational companies. Some 70% of world trade involves multinational companies. This trade generates a huge amount of wealth for companies, and the old axiom, "wealth is power", rings true and holds strong. Power is moving away from national governments into the hands of big business.

This political and economic system has been called "corporate globalisation". It represents pretty much the opposite of sustainable development, and it is causing and fuelling increased wealth gaps between rich and poor, social unrest and environmental destruction. These things in turn can all contribute to the conditions that force people to take the dramatic and desperate step of leaving their countries, their homes and seeking refuge in other places.

Part of the problem with corporate globalisation is that it is a "one-size-fits-all" model. The flip side of this is that there is no single "solve-all" answer. Friends of the Earth's ideas for challenging corporate globalisation are based on the principles of democracy, equity, rights and standards, and we're tackling the issues on several fronts.

First, we are challenging the current neoliberal free trade approach. This means we're fighting for a halt to the current WTO renegotiations in the first instance, followed by a comprehensive review of the WTO and global free trade impacts. Ultimately, fundamental changes to global trade rules are needed to ensure a commitment to people and the environment takes priority over the profits of big business. World trade should be governed in a fair, democratic and transparent way to ensure that this happens.

Second, we are directly challenging the power of multinational companies and campaigning for them to be held accountable for their actions. Multinational companies have a multinational reach and so global agreements are needed to control their activities. We are campaigning for a global mechanism to control the activities of multinational companies and to put the environment and people's and communities' rights first.

Such an agreement would focus on the rights of people and communities and on the duties of companies and directors to uphold these rights and to operate to high standards. It would be enshrined into law and penalties for corporations not complying would be severe.

Of course, the creation of a global agreement wouldn't be a fix-all solution. We all know that global agreements are all very well and good if they're implemented. But in real, practical terms, they are easily undermined by irresponsible governments, and it can be very difficult to translate an agreement into concrete action.

However, Friends of the Earth still feel that it is important to establish the principles of international corporate accountability and to push for governments to uphold these principles. We know that it is possible to have enforceable global mechanisms - after all, this is what the WTO is - the issue is getting the right ones and creating the political will and public pressure to make it happen.

This is why we're also pushing for the UK government to introduce better controls on corporations at a national level. As part of the Corporate Responsibility (CORE) coalition, we're campaigning for parliament to pass new laws that would begin to introduce some controls over and responsibilities on British corporations.[1]

Finally, Friends of the Earth also strongly believes in the need to rejuvenate sustainable local economies and to support fair trade in order to balance and challenge the power and wealth of multinational companies. Local farmers markets, for example, can challenge the dominance of supermarkets and provide an alternative for consumers who prefer to support their local economies than to line the pockets of supermarket shareholders. Fair trade products ensure that farmers and producers aren't forced into a race to the bottom and receive a fair price for their products.

Hannah Griffiths is the Corporates Campaigner at Friends of the Earth (England & Wales), which was one of the co-founders of the Ilisu Dam Campaign. See www.corporates.org.uk for more information.

[1] The founding members of CORE are Amnesty International, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, New Economics Foundation and Traidcraft. The coalition is now supported by over 50 organisations, including non-governmental organisations, church groups and trade unions. For more information, see www.corporate-responsibility.org