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State of Corporate Power 2012

The economic, social and ecological crises humanity face are no accident, but a result of policies pursued by a small  corporate elite - best known as the Davos class - that has systematically hijacked political and economic policy throughout the world.

TNI, as part of its new Corporate Power project, is producing a series of infographics over 2012 that expose the reality of corporate power, and our need to fundamentally change direction. Please download and share these...

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The Davos Class

(This article  is adapted with minor editorial changes from Susan George’s recent book Whose Crisis, Whose Future?  (Polity Press and John Wiley & Sons, 2010)

‘“All for ourselves and nothing for other people” seems in every age of the world to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind,’i  wrote Adam Smith in 1776 in The Wealth of Nations, universally considered the first...

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RIO+20 and the greenwashing of the global economy

In less than six months, the UN summit in Rio de Janeiro will take place ( 20-22 June 2012), twenty years after the historic Earth Summit. That summit despite its shortcomings resulted in governments making commitments that later led to UN treaties on climate, biodiversity, etc. While expectations are low this time in terms of concrete outcomes emerging from Rio+20, there is no doubt it will be a crucial event for determining the level of ambition and the likely direction of inter-...

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Social and environmental impacts of sugarcane production in Brazil

This study is focused specifically on the merger of the Brazilian company Cosan with the Dutch oil company Shell, which resulted in the formation of Raízen. Some of the central elements in our analysis concern the economical, social and environmental effects caused by the spread of the agricultural model based on monoculture and large land ownership.

In addition to the supposed environmental benefits deriving from the replacement of fossil fuels, the official line...

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Social and environmental impacts of sugarcane production in Brazil

Maria Luisa Mendonça, researcher of the University of Sao Paulo will introduce her paper - "A monopoly in Ethanol Production in Brazil: The Cosan-Shell merger" in which she analyses the activities and impacts of the new Shell operation in Brazil. The production of biofules from sugarcane has a high cost - land rights, human rights and labour rights violations are inherent to this business model. Environmental impacts are high and so are the government subsidies the sugar cane...

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Austerity Forever

The EU’s response to the economic crisis is setting member states on course towards a model of permanent austerity, including widespread attacks on social rights. To prevent any resistance, the model being put forward by the EU aims at minimising or even totally getting rid of democratic interference. This is clear from an overview of the legislative initiatives which have been adopted since the eurocrisis began, or which are expected to be adopted imminently.

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Ben Hayes

Ben Hayes is a TNI fellow who has worked for the civil liberties organisation Statewatch since 1996, specialising in EU Justice and Home Affairs law, police cooperation, border controls, surveillance technologies and counter-terrorism policies.

Ben also works with the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR, Berlin), and has been retained as a consultant to a...

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Globalising Hunger

After several rounds of reforms, the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is once again facing a comprehensive overhaul. By 2013, the current CAP will come to an end, yet the debate over its future has already begun. The discussion over the €57 billion spent on the CAP today – amounting to more than 40 percent of the EU’s budget – takes place against the backdrop of a dramatic worsening of the global food crisis, associated with rising and more volatile food prices.1 For...

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The Dark Side of Investment Agreements

How many times have you heard politicians, economists, business men or journalists saying, if a country wants to develop, it just need three things: investment, investment and investment! This statement follows one of the basic premises of neoliberal economics: “Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is a pre-condition for development”. And the formula laid out was very simple:

To develop, you need growth > to grow, you need FDI > to attract FDI you need to protect investors >...

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EU Economic Governance: Which Ways Forward?

The European Parliament on Wednesday, 28 September, voted for the adoption of six legislative proposals on EU economic governance, popularly known as the 'Six Pack', effectively giving unprecedented power to the European Commission on member states' fiscal and budgetary affairs.  Initially proposed in September 2010, the adoption of the package has since been expedited under the pretext of the crisis. 

Austerity pact

The series of votes come...

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