DECEMBER UPDATE

The Public Eye on Davos is a joint NGO campaign to challenge the World Economic Forum. It was launched in 2000. For the year 2001, its main activity will be the organization of an independent, public NGO conference in Davos. NGO representatives from all over the world will discuss the following four main topics: global governance, corporate control, international financial relations and international trade policies.

Afternoon

Davos is a place which reflects and reprocesses untransparent, unsustainable and undemocratic world economy. This panel will discuss the impact of the World Economic Forum in Davos on international policies and its role within global governance. And it will explore what sort of global governance would be desirable in order to ensure respect of human rights as well as social and environmental sustainability.

Speakers include:

• Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Tebtebba-Foundation, (confirmed)
• Peter Bosshard, Berne Declaration, (confirmed)
• Probably third speaker

Moderator: Danny Schechter, Executive Editor Mediachannel

Morning

This panel will explore the case for binding regulation to make companies respect and answer to all those that they affect - especially local communities. It will discuss case studies of particular corporations, such as Shell in Nigeria, to assess the need for, and practicality of, such mechanisms. It will expose the role of global corporations in setting global rules to suit their interests, and propose mechanisms by which citizens and democratic governments can regain control.

Speakers include:

• Tony Juniper, FoE International (confirmed)
• Oronto Douglas, Environmental Rights Action / FoE Nigeria (confirmed)
• Meena Raman. Sabbat Alam Malaysia/ FoE Malaysia (confirmed)
• Adam Ma'anit, Corporate Europe Observatory (confirmed)
• Jessica Woodroffe, World Development Movement (confirmed)

Afternoon

This panel will analyze how the policies and projects of public financial institutions affect democratic control, social development and the environment in the global South. It will look at the new faces of structural adjustment as well as the policies of particular institutions, including the export credit agencies.

• Jessica Woodroffe, World Development Movement, (confirmed)
• Hellen Wangusa, African Women's Economic Policy Network (confirmed)
• Peter Bosshard, Berne Declaration (confirmed)
• Kerim Yildiz, Kurdish Human Rights Project (confirmed)

Morning

Panel organized by Jubilee 2000 South Africa, Aktion Finanzplatz Schweiz and the Swiss Campaign on Reparations and Debt Cancellation for Southern Africa.

The way that the new democratic South Africa chose to cope with it's dark past, is unique and has awakened the interest and gained the respect of the international community. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has now given various perpetrators amnesty for crimes committed during the reign of apartheid. The victims were promised a "fair and adequate compensation", based on the right provided in international law. But these people are still waiting for reparations payments.

Jubilee 2000 South Africa's demands for debt cancellation and reparations adress creditor governments, multinational corporations and banks alike, which through their financial support to the apartheid regime enabled them to continue their reign.

Speakers include:

• Yasmin Sooka, Human Rights Commission, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, EU Foundation for Human Rights, Patron Jubilee 2000 South Africa
• Njongonkulu Ndungane, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Patron Jubilee 2000 South Africa
• Baldwin Sjollema, 1st Director of the Programme to Combat Racism, World Council of Churches

Afternoon

Morning

Two Panels of max. one hour each on International Trade Policies

Presentations by:

• Mariama Williams, Economist, Network Gender and Trade, DAWN): The WTO in a macroeconomic view with special focus on gender issues. (confirmed)
• Maria Riley, Economist, Center of Concern, (confirmed): Role of the US concerning the WTO (confirmed)
• Kiran Moghe, All India Democratic Women's Association, Inpacts of trade liberalizations on the poor in India (invited)

• Dr Jayati Ghosh, Centre of Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University (confirmed)
• Ritu Kumar, Economist, director of the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) Europe (confirmed)
• Robert Kuttner, Economist, Editor of Prospect Magazine, and columnist for Business Week. (confirmed)
• Graham Dunkley, Senior Lecturer, Department of Applied Economics, Victoria University (invited)

Moderator: Larry Elliott, Economics Editor of The Guardian

Questions from the audience to all speakers from panel 1 and 2

Afternoon

• Arjun Appadurai, cultural anthropologist, research project on "globalization from below" (invited)
• Representatives of the Public Eye core group

Further activities of the Public Eye will include a daily link to the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brasil, in order to exchange information. Moreover, comments on important speeches held at the WEF will be widely disseminated by the Public Eye on Davos.

The Public Eye on Davos is preparing an NGO statement which we will send to you for endorsement in Mid-January.

The World Economic Forum is a association of the biggest and most influential transnational corporations worldwide. At its Annual Meeting, the WEF members meet representatives of governments and international organizations in a private context. More than 90% of the WEF participants are men, a large majority of them coming from USA and Europe. The private WEF meeting in Davos reinforces the interests of TNCs and increases their influence in the international politics.

As usual, the WEF is very optimistic: "By almost any measure, the world economy has never been stronger" they say and hope that we enter now "a period of unprecedented opportunity". The motto of the annual meeting 2001 is: "Bridging the Divides: Creating a Roadmap for the Global Future"

According to the WEF, key topics of annual meeting 2001 are, among others:

The Second Phase of the Digital Revolution, Biotech: Mapping our Future, and Shaping the Global Corporation: what to expect after the present wave of megamergers and acquisitions.

In the future, the WEF wants to become even more "committed to improving the state of the world" (motto of the WEF). A taskforce initiated by the WEF attempts to identify some "elements of common ground" between developing and industrial countries on which future negotiations could be built to strengthen and expand the multilateral trade system.

The WEF states that "the growing backlash against globalization, and its various public manifestations threaten to derail the entire process". Participants at Davos will discuss ways to integrate civil society in devising appropriate responses to the anxiety and alienations that some aspects of globalization are creating.

Besides the CEOs of the WEF member corporations, many guests from the US will attend the Annual Meeting. Last year Bill Clinton came himself. In 2001, a large number of congress members, governors and academics will be present. And there will be a panel titled: "Meeting great expectations ten suggestions for the new American President. Will America's national interest match with global expectations about what needs to be done?"

Whether Bush will go to Davos is not known. But many presidents from Latin-American States will travel to Davos, for example: Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Fernando de la Rúa (Argentine), Andrés Pastrana (Columbia) and Vicente Fox (Mexico).

The India Economic Summit has taken place in New Delhi from 26-28 November 2000. The Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has inaugurated the Summit. Key areas of the Summit included banking, insurance, privatisation, intellectual property rights and the WTO.

Percy Barnevik, co-chairman of the summit and chairman of Investor AB, Sweden, stated: "There is a tendency in India to back down whenever confronted with anti-reform forces. This has to stop. The reform process is painful everywhere." (The Telegraph, Calcutta, 29.11.2000)

In their closing remarks (which are published on the WEF homepage), the Co-Chairs of the India Economic Summit (Rahul Bajaj, Chairman and Managing Director of Bajaj Auto, India; Percy Bernevik, Chairman of Investor AB, Sweden and Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore) made the following recommendations to the government of India:

• Continue the reforms process. Resist the opposition to the process.
• Revamp labour and industrial relation laws to accord the necessary flexibility to both business and labour.
• Accelerate the privatisation process etc.

www.davos2001.ch: Homepage of the Public Eye on Davos.

www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/: World Economic Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

www.under.ch: Organisers of the demonstration in Davos in January, 27 2001.

www.attac.org/suisse/: Attac Switzerland will organise a conference called "L'Autre Davos" in January, 26 2001 in Zurich, Switzerland.

www.d4mx.org/: Opposition to the Mexico Meeting of the WEF in February 2001.

www.geocities.com/pwdyson/wef_orgs.htm: list of the enterprises that are members of the WEF, with their names and countries of origin.

www.s11.org: Protests against the WEF's regional summit in Melbourne.

www.weforum.org: Official homepage of the WEF.

The Public Eye on Davos is a joint project of the Berne Declaration (coordination), the South American Network "Asociación Lationamericana de Organizaciones de Promoción" (ALOP), Focus on the Global South, Friends of the Earth International (and its Swiss affiliate Pro Natura), Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN), the Tebtebba Foundation, the World Development Movement and the Network Women in Development Europe (WIDE).

The Public Eye on Davos
Contact Address:
Berne Declaration
Quellenstrasse 25
P.O. Box 1327
CH- 8031 Zürich
Switzerland
Phone +41/1/277 70 06
Fax +41/1/277 70 01
E-mail: davos@evb.ch
web: http://www.davos2001.ch