Post on 17-Dec-2015
Transnational CorporationsThe spiders and their webs…
Amit Sengupta
PHM-India
Third People’s Health AssemblyCape Town, 6th July-11th July, 2012
Power of TNCs….
• Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations
• The top 200s’ combined sales are 18 times the size of the combined annual income of the poorest 1.2 billion people
• Sales of the Top 200 are equivalent of 28% of world economic activity, but only employ 0.8% of the world’s workforce
TNCs – global tentacles…
• They seek markets wherever they may be, whatever may be the cost
• They, today, locate operations in different parts of the world to benefit from reduced wages,
lower standards of work conditions, less stringent environment protection laws
• They are today able to bargain the best conditions for themselves – low wages, poor regulation – as they shift from place to place
• They are today a major cause of loss of livelihoods and loss of control over natural resources
Tobacco….
• Philip Morris targeted WHO as part of a massive and far-reaching campaign to subvert
tobacco control activities around the world
• Philip Morris sued the Uruguayan govt. for its regulation that requires tobacco companies to
cover 80 per cent of their cigarette packs with pictorial warning labels
• Phillip Morris is using provisions in the Australia-Hong Kong Biliateral Investment treaty (BIT) to demand compensation for Australia's Plain cigarette packaging anti-smoking legislation
Processed Food…..
• Nestle, World's largest and most “diversified food company” in the world, with around 2,50,000 employees worldwide, 500 factories in 100 countries and offering over 8,000 products
• In 2004, monitoring results from 69 countries showed up over 2,000 violations of the baby food marketing code, and Nestlé was responsible for more violations than any other company.
• It resort to double standards -- advertises the same product differently in countries of the North and the South.
• in India, Nestle uses a surrogate front organisation – the Nestle Nutrition Institute to sponsor conferences of doctors in “Emerging Trends in Pediatric Nutrition”.
Pharma …….
• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will pay $3 billion in fines and plead guilty to criminal charges that it unlawfully promoted its anti- depressant medicines Paxil and Wellbutrin and failed to report safety data about Avandia its diabetes drug
• GSK unlawfully marketed Paxil to treat depression in patients under 18 despite the fact that the drug was unapproved for pediatric use
• GSK paid millions of dollars to doctors to speak at and attend meetings which it sponsored
Can TNCs be controlled?
• ‘Social Responsibility’ approachPersuasion …..
• ‘Social Accountability’ approachIndependent accounting…
• ‘Economic threat’ approachProfits threatened with
boycotts….
• ‘Punitive’ approachSanctions, divestment….
Thalidomide
1960s…
Bhopal
1984……
And many more ….
And many more to follow?
With adequate profit, capital is very bold. A certain 10% will ensure its employment anywhere; 20% certain will produce eagerness; 50%, positive audacity; 100% will make it ready to trample on all human laws; 300%, and there is not a crime at which it will scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged……