Make multinationals accountable - The legal notion that companies have the same human rights as people should be abandoned. Companies have globalised, but the rules regulating their activities haven't. UN agreements contain sound rules on workers' rights, human rights, consumer protection, indigenous peoples and the environment. But there is no means for consistent enforcement of these standards. There should be a new international mechanism to regulate the activities of all multinationals across the world, with government enforcement supported by independent monitoring to ensure that they abide by it.
Build democratic space for genuine debate - All decisions at the IMF and World Bank are taken on the basis of 'one dollar one vote', which guarantees the world's richest countries an inbuilt majority. A genuine debate must exclude the assumption that these institutions, like their sponsor, the US Treasury, have an authentic interest in reducing poverty. They have no such interest; on the contrary, their policies demonstrably increase poverty.
Regulate capital markets - Financial markets must be regulated to ensure that they are stripped of their ideological power. |