18 May 2006

Campaigners plan to intensify their battle for stronger rules against corporate abuse when they take on the Government and a business analyst in a major debate next week.

The debate comes as the Liberal Democrats challenge the Government to reintroduce tougher laws to ensure British companies report on their social and environmental impacts. Meanwhile David Cameron's pledge to stand up to big business has been brought into question after Tory peers attempted to scrap legal requirements for UK directors to consider their wider impacts.

The event will be a public discussion on moves to win better protection for people and the environment in Britain and overseas. It will take place following CBI president John Sunderland’s claim that campaigners are creating a false opposition between the pursuit of profit and wider objectives such as social justice, public services and the protection of the weak and vulnerable.

The discussion will be staged as Parliament debates the company law reform bill, the biggest shake-up of corporate law for 150 years. The bill, which started in the House of Lords, is expected to reach the Commons in early June.

Speaking at the event, Malcolm Wicks, minister for energy and corporate social responsibility, will defend the government’s record, while economist Philippe Legrain will put arguments for business. The case for people and planet will be made by environmentalist Tony Juniper, Bangkok-based development researcher Dorothy Guerrero, from the organisation Focus on the Global South, and Joanna Blythman, author of The Shocking Power of Supermarkets. The event will be chaired by BBC economics editor Evan Davis.

The debate will take place next Thursday (25 May) from 7.30-9.00 pm in the Franklin Wilkins Building on the Waterloo campus of King's College, at 150 Stamford Street, London SE1. It has been organised by ActionAid, Friends of the Earth, War on Want and People and Planet. These groups are campaigning as part of the Trade Justice Movement and the Corporate Responsibility (CORE) coalition. This alliance represents more than nine million supporters who want new rules to stop UK firms profiting at the expense of the environment and poor communities.

Mr Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth, said: "Business is a major force in the modern world and it has the potential to be a real force for good.  But there is a debate to be had about how companies best serve the broader interests of society.  Who should govern corporate power? What checks should be in place? Business cannot just be allowed to continue with business as usual. The planet and people are paying the price."

Ms Guerrero said: "Our studies and the experience of people in grassroots organisations, in some of the world’s poorest countries where we work, reveal multinational companies have abused communities and the environment. They have also prevented workers from exercising their right to form independent unions. If Tony Blair wants to convince the developing world that his government cares as much for vulnerable people as for business, he must ensure that British law protects them from corporate abuse."

Ms Blythman said: "My investigation showed UK supermarket giants abuse their power by forcing down pay and conditions for producers and suppliers here and in the third world. Unless our government acts, many of the poor who provide food for millions of people in Britain will find ministers' promises to help make poverty history hard to swallow."