[E-rundbrief] Info 401 - Kritik am Jurybericht Tribunal der Voelker Wien 5/06

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 401 - Matthias Reichl: Eindrücke vom "Hearing on 
Neo-liberal Policies and European Transnational Corporations in Latin 
America and the Caribbean - Permanent Peoples' Tribunal" in Wien; 
Susan George (Paris): Declaration of the Jury Permanent Peoples' 
Tribunal (Critical comment). Siehe Info 395.

Bad Ischl, 2.6.2006

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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Eindrücke vom "Permanent Peoples' Tribunal" in Wien.

Im "Info 395" habe ich (am 18.5.06) die "Declaration of the Jury 
Permanent Peoples' Tribunal" (im Rahmen des EU-LA-Alternativengipfels 
in Wien v. 10. - 12.5.06) gepostet. Zeitweise hatte ich dem "Hearing 
on Neo-liberal Policies and European Transnational Corporations in 
Latin America and the Caribbean" der eingeladenen Delegierten tief 
betroffen zugehört.

Ich halte daher Susan Georges untenstehenden Kommentar - erst heute 
von TNI-news (http://www.tni.org/archives/george/vienna.htm) 
veröffentlicht - für berechtigt und dringend notwendig.

In seiner Presseaussendung zum Tribunal hat Heinz Hödl, 
Geschäftsführer der "Koordinierungsstelle der Österr. 
Bischofskonferenz für Mission und Entwicklung" kritisiert, dass zum 
Tribunal nicht auch Vertreter der angeklagten dutzenden 
transnationalen Konzernen und Banken eingeladen wurden. Ich halte 
diese Kritik für unrealistisch, allein schon wegen deren 
zeitraubenden Propaganda- und Weißwaschauftritten. Es ging in dieser 
Phase des Tribunals primär darum, den Betroffenen genügend Raum zu 
geben, um die - exemplarischen - Fallbeispiele zu skizzieren. (Selbst 
dafür war die Zeit zu kurz.) Den Firmenvertretern soll in der 
nächsten Phase (im kommenden Jahr) Gelegenheit zur Erläuterung, 
Rechtfertigung und Selbstkritik ihres Handelns gegeben werden.

Weitere Informationen zum "Permanent Peoples' Tribunal": 
www.internazionaleleliobasso.it

Matthias Reichl
2.6.06

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Declaration of the Jury Permanent Peoples' Tribunal

Vienna, 12 May 2006

Susan George

Paris, 13 May 2006

I served as a member of the Jury of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal 
held in Vienna on the occasion of the European Union-Latin America 
Summit [11-12 May 2006]. Aware that I am quite unable to write with 
other people, I made the following contribution to the drafting group 
as an introduction. My intention was that, at the end of this 
"General Indictment", a section entitled "Specific Indictments" 
should follow. It would contain a paragraph concerning each of the 
various sectors on which we heard testimony--hydrocarbons, forestry 
and wood pulp, tourism, water, the agri-food chain, labour relations, 
the environment and so on--and would include the names of specific 
European corporations in specific locations.
Only brief parts of the introduction I supplied were retained in the 
final document, apparently because it was considered "too much like 
an NGO speech". The final text issued by the Tribunal surely has its 
own merits but I found it did not go nearly far enough in 
acknowledging the daily struggles of the immensely strong and 
dignified Latin American men and women who, during the twelve hours 
of hearings, described the conditions in which European Transnational 
Corporations force them to live and the struggles they are waging 
against tremendous odds. I do not claim that the following text does 
real justice to these amazing people or to their struggles either, 
but I hope it may still serve as a kind of complement to the official 
text of the Permanent Peoples Tribunal..

The members of the jury of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal, meeting 
to consider the impact of the presence of European Transnational 
Corporations [TNCs] in Latin America, thank the organisers of this 
important event, commend the thoroughness and high quality of the 
research and documentation presented in the course of the hearings 
and salute the commitment of the witnesses to achieving justice for 
their communities and their countries.

For two days we have heard testimony and case studies concerning 
several dozen TNCs and banks headquartered in Austria, Finland, 
France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and one 
non-EU country, Norway.

General Indictment

We have been convinced that European TNCs in Latin America are 
committing injustices, on a daily basis and of many kinds, in both 
the legal and the moral sense. As the witnesses and the copious 
documentation make clear, these corporations obey only the laws of 
profit, accumulation and shareholder value. We have been presented 
with overwhelming evidence of their manifold abuses of human, social, 
cultural and workers' rights; their irresponsible and sometimes 
irreversible actions towards the environment and their complete 
disregard for the welfare of local communities.

In the light of this evidence, the first question that comes to mind 
is, quite simply, "How can they be stopped? How can they be forced to 
change their behaviour?" Voluntary codes of conduct such as those 
proposed by the OECD or various business organisations are of little 
or no use. These companies whose activities have been described to us 
in detail reveal the fraudulent nature of corporate public relations 
campaigns around the notion of Corporate Social Responsibility. We 
fear that until peoples' movements can, through their own efforts, 
impose a different legal framework and unless governments are willing 
and able to enforce it, this systematic corporate abuse of rights 
will continue.

The jury can, however, help to publicise their harmful and predatory 
practices and thereby, we hope, contribute to the struggles of people 
throughout Latin America to reclaim their food, their water, their 
public services, their financial systems and the livelihoods and 
natural resources of their communities.

The witnesses and the case studies have highlighted, in particular, 
the complicity of European governments which aid and abet their own 
TNCs. Furthermore, international public institutions including the 
World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International 
Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation, which are supposed to 
serve the interests of all their member countries, are in reality 
paving the way for the exploitative activities of TNCs. Their 
constant intervention in the economies and the social systems of 
Latin American countries impose privatisation and deregulation, while 
encouraging the outright theft of financial and ecological resources 
which should be used for the good of all citizens.

The consequences are grave. Inequalities between the Northern and 
Southern hemispheres and within individual countries are on the rise. 
One industry after another is taken over by foreign corporations with 
no regard for peoples' needs. Food sovereignty is rendered impossible 
as companies take over more and more land and resources for export 
production. Environmental damage is commonplace, serious and 
sometimes permanent. Unemployment increases as corporations undertake 
massive lay-offs in order to cut costs and create so-called 
"shareholder value". Indigenous peoples are robbed, decimated and 
their cultures as well as their livelihoods destroyed. Women bear a 
particularly onerous burden and pay a particularly heavy price. When 
people justifiably protest, they are treated as criminals, arrested 
and imprisoned. We have learned of several cases of arson and murder 
perpetrated by corporate-hired thugs. Sometimes courageous Latin 
American media expose the abuses of TNCs. Others are too fearful or 
too complicit to do so and allow the companies to continue, with 
impunity and without broader publicity to cause untold damage. Local 
government is frequently corrupt, often manipulated and in any case 
powerless to counteract the corporations which are far more 
influential at the national level than are local officials.

Instead of acting in the tradition of the Enlightenment, instead of 
learning the lessons from centuries of colonialism, official Europe 
has sided entirely with the TNCs. In the negotiations held under the 
auspices of the WTO, notably those on the General Agreement on Trade 
in Services [GATS], the EU has taken the lead in demanding further 
liberalisation and opening of service sectors such as energy, water, 
financial and legal services, distribution and so on. It is also the 
lead governmental entity demanding freedom of investment, calling for 
the right to 100 percent ownership. It is pushing hard for 
substantial tariff reduction protecting Latin American industries 
which are, on the whole, weaker than the mature industries of Europe; 
so that European TNCs can more easily penetrate Latin American 
markets. If successful, these efforts will result in even greater 
unemployment and ecological destruction.

The structural adjustment policies of the Bretton Woods Institutions 
[the World Bank and the IMF] have for decades caused untold harm to 
people and nature. Their implicit or explicit cooperation with the 
TNCs cannot be denied.

For all these reasons, we demand that European governments take 
responsibility for their corporations and cease their support for 
their predatory activities in Latin America. Enforceable law 
protecting people and the environment should be their goal. This, we 
are well aware, will not occur spontaneously. European social 
movements must join with their Latin American counterparts, putting 
pressure on their own governments. We hope that together, in a spirit 
of comradeship, Latin Americans and Europeans can bring about a 
profound change in the relationship between the two continents. This 
is necessary. It is urgent. We, the jury, hope to have contributed in 
some small measure to this goal.

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