Project Censored Updates

The Battle in Seattle revealed the existence of a growing citizens' movement actively opposing corporate globalization and the international institutions that support it. Many in this movement see the United Nations, with its unique dedication to universal values of peace, human rights, environmental protection, and public health, as a potential counterbalance to the WTO and its pro-corporate agenda of free trade and investment. However, under financial pressure, due largely to the United States refusal to pay its dues, and fearful of irrelevance in world affairs, the UN has turned toward "partnerships" with the private sector, including some of the same companies against which citizens' movements campaign. These include Nike, Shell, Rio Tinto, and many others. "Perilous Partnerships" revealed the trend toward partnerships with business at the UN.

The rhetoric around the partnerships reveals a tendency for the UN to endorse a view of corporate-led globalization supported by the WTO, World Bank, and IMF. This endorsement comes precisely at the time of a popular backlash against corporate globalization, and represents a betrayal of "we the peoples" the UN is supposed to represent. In addition, the partnerships have no monitoring or enforcement of corporate behavior; therefore companies can sign onto UN principles without having to adhere to them. For some of these companies, the partnerships amount to a slick PR initiative, a chance to "bluewash" their image by wrapping themselves in the blue flag of the United Nations while carrying on with business as usual.

After publication of "Perilous Partnerships," the International Forum on Globalization sponsored an all-day teach-in on the UN and corporate globalization. Later that week, the Alliance for a Corporate-free United Nations -- a grouping of non-governmental groups from around the world -- was born. UN officials have acknowledged some of our concerns, though the momentum toward partnerships has not been stopped. At the time of this writing, the General Assembly has been deadlocked since December 12,2000, over a resolution that would encourage such partnerships.

Limited coverage of the story from the UN's point of view started in January 1999, with Kofi Annan's launch of the Global Compact with corporations. Coverage of our critique of the partnerships has been nonexistent on television, while radio coverage has been limited to local stations, with the exception of Pacifica. In print, the New York Times did one major piece, in the context of the Millennium Summit, while Business Week ran a short blurb. In Europe, there has been somewhat more print coverage, including an exchange of opinion pieces in the International Herald Tribune and a highly critical piece in the Guardian.

This coverage, along with exchanges of letters between our Alliance and UN officials, our report "Tangled Up In Blue," and a great deal of other information is available on this theme at www.corpwatch.org/un. We encourage you to visit the site and add your voice to those who believe the UN's role should be to monitor and hold accountable the global corporations, rather than to form partnerships with them.