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Multinationals Set WSSD Agenda

Amidst cries of "viva Johannesburg", "viva the WSSD" and "viva civil society," president Thabo Mbeki opened the Global Forum of the Civil Society at the WSSD. In a tired and trite crescendo of rhetoric, Mbeki stated the obvious while hiding the most damning implications of the macroeconomic policies of his and other governments. He said that many people are poor, lack access to water, sanitation, health and are daily victims of violence, while concluding that the poor have to challenge governments to deliver "strategies and practical programmes of action."

The WSSD is an opportunity for multinational corporations to rebrand themselves as "responsible." Through devices like the UN Global Compact and Type II partnership agreements, corporations set the agenda for policy initiatives. The concept of "sustainable development" has been developed as propaganda, with interlinked organizations like the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) promoting voluntary self-regulation on the part of corporations and ongoing neo-liberal policies of deregulation and privatization.


This ultimately leads to a co-opting of the UN as an organization subordinate to business, much like the WTO, World Bank, and IMF. The summit is expected to be a series of greenwash and bluewash initiatives, such as the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) program, the VirtualExhibit, or attempts to make the meetings 'carbon-neutral'. In contrast, Friends of the Earth International is pursuing a binding corporate accountability campaign, and Corpwatch has established the 'Green Oscars' at the summit to highlight the more egregious practitioners of green- and bluewash. Winners were announced on August 23.


More information is available with the Greenwash + 10 report, and at previous coverage of the WSSD [ August 25 | August 24 | August 23 | August 19 | August 1 | July 25 ].

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