[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are it behooves you. This HR Reader is about misconceptions and the HR indifference of majorities emanating from the economic system that rules the world today with impunity. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text]. Traducir/traduire los/les Readers; usar/utiliser deepl.com
1. For most people the ideology that dominates our lives has no name. Mention it in conversations and you will be rewarded with a shrug. Even if your listeners have heard the term neoliberalism before, they will struggle to define it. (G. Monbiot) But, alas, Decades of neoliberal austerityhave left many a state hollowed out, i.e., unwilling and increasingly incapable to defend human rights (HR). (Anthony Tirado, M. Goodhart)
2. The Global South has had little voice, let alone influence, in shaping the economically ‘neoliberal’ and politically ‘neoconservative’ unfettered globalization that has led to the contemporary global geopolitical economic conflicts. Note though that conservative, even reactionary Global South governments, occasionally and surprisingly, take anti-hegemonic (‘progressive’) positions in multilateral fora, especially with the growing widespread resentment with the North for being bullied and extorted. (Jomo Sundaram)
You have all heard it: “Big capital tax reductions generate employment”
3.This is nothing more than a tautology without any basis whatsoever. In our times, the accumulation of capital*, and of the product of human labor, in a few hands, serves neither to create employment nor to promote growth. It serves only to satisfy the insatiable greed of capitalists. (Louis Casado)
*: Traditional GDP metrics crumble when AI agents produce infinite knowledge and big profits at zero cost, forcing us to rethink what prosperity by endless accumulation actually means. (Your smartphone contains more processing power than entire governments possessed decades ago, yet we still measure economic success with GDP, like if it were the 1950). (New World Same Humans)
[Not to overlook: A new military-industrial-IT bloc is forming with companies such as Palantir and Anduril allying themselves with authoritarian regimes and taking advantage of the thriving war economy].
In neoliberalism, the market is considered the arbiter of truth. Governments are confined to mere ‘adjusters and balancers’ of the market forces (Philip Mirowski)
4. Frédéric Lordon (French economist and philosopher, born 1962) pointed out that of the mass of profit that swells the accounts of the big capitalists, only a very small part is reinvested in production. (To be precise, only 0.3% of that capital contributes to production, while 99.7% is used for stock market speculation). The stock market is the privileged arena for pure speculation that produces nothing. In this market, speculation accounts for 99.7%. The question is obvious: what is the point of accumulating more capital in the hands of the rich?**
**: Fredric Jameson (American philosopher and Marxist political theorist, 1934–2024) already observed that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of Capitalism.
…and then there is debt
Being in debt is the only way to remain in the memory of the World Bank and the IMF (Politika)
5. Debt is devouring our future. Debt does not just represent an economic crisis; it is a characteristic of systemic injustice! The global financial system continues to divert resources away from education, health, and climate resilience, funneling them instead to creditors. (escr-net)
We are facing far more than a struggle for corporate regulation and conflicts of interest
6. Our struggle is a struggle for life, dignity and the sovereignty of communities long sacrificed on the altar of corporate profit. It is a struggle to reclaim the international order from the clutches of corporate power and build a world where peoples and planet come before profit. (FOEI)
7. In the struggle, it is important to cover both conflicts of interest (COI ) and industry influence –also known as corporate interference. Let me move forward and be clear about what these two are.
8. Corporate interference refers to any corporation intentionally damaging someone else’s contractual or business relationships with a third party causing economic harm. The result pursued is a higher concentrated corporate control. It also refers to when corporations and their allies put forward a strategy to eliminate government regulation and democratic checks on their power. Corporations do use their outsized financial advantage to shape politics and policy robbing people of their ability to use local democratic channels to rein-in corporate-driven excess and harm.
9. Conflict of interest is different. Let me illustrate with a couple of examples: A senator having shares in Coca Cola is a COI; it can influence her or his decision in a vote related to the interests of that corporation. Note that ‘revolving doors’ are a typical additional example of COI. On the other side, Nestlé distributing free educational materials to kids in schools is an example of corporate interference, with this form of influence being super important in shaping public opinion; we call this ‘white washing’ the corporate image.
10. In sum, both COI and corporate interference are relevant and fighting them must be part of the struggle for HR.
Bottom line
We must swim against the tide, because all the economic forces are moving in the direction of more corporate power (Jaime Breilh)
11. People do not fully realize what is happening. They go to the mall, play tennis and go to class. They do not stop to reflect. They keep buying whatever is on the shelves. They just want to stop at Starbucks and have a coffee. This is the so-called ‘normal world’ of today. But it is falling apart.
12. What emerges is clear: this is not a system of malfunctioning governance; it is a system functioning exactly as designed to protect corporate power, extract wealth from the Global South and entrench neocolonial hierarchies.
13. Even so, this architecture of impunity is not unshakable. It is challenged every day by communities on the frontlines. History shows us that corporate-aligned groups consistently weaken enforcement mechanisms under the guise of multistakeholder platforms and PPPs.
14. The TNCs’ lobby has long opposed mandatory HR due diligence, pushing instead for voluntary guidelines that let TNCs evade real consequences. The victims of corporate abuse –workers, indigenous communities, environmental and HR defenders, migrants, etc.– already have their voices overall marginalized in these discussions. Meanwhile, the corporations that exploit them are granted privileged access to shape the rules. This imbalance is not just unfair; it institutionalizes impunity.
15. The solution is clear:
- Exclude corporate lobbyists from the room, regardless of their participatory status vis-a-vis the United Nations, and
- The UN must listen infinitely more to affected communities, HR advocates and independent legal experts –not listen to the architects of systemic harm. [I am not even mentioning here excluding lobbyist from the corridors of parliament…].
To allow otherwise is not compromise, it is complicity in a system that prioritizes profit over justice. (FOEI)
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com