Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 23:13:28 -0400 From: Eric Fawcett <•••@••.•••> Subject: sfp-12: United Nations co-opted by corporations and military? It appears that the United Nations is embarking upon a dubious course of involving corporations in matters of peace and diplomacy [1]. This announcement follows a previous report by Secretary-General Kofi Annan calling for a "global compact" with corporations [2]. A recent U.N. Report recommends a tax on internet use, which in effect would ultimately choke off the only medium that provides information beyond the control of governments or corporations [3]. The first two items were distributed by Steve Staples to the International Network on Globalisation and Disarmament - see below to find how to join this valuable new network. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1] http://www.cnn.com Inter Press Service 9 July 1999 Disarmament: U.N. Calls for New Partnership with Arms Industry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNITED NATIONS, (Jul. 8) IPS - A senior U.N. official today called for a "creative partnership" between the world body and the arms manufacturing industry. Jayantha Dhanapala, Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, said the arms manufacturing industry is "a strategic sector of the global economy" which can assist U.N. efforts to curtail illicit arms trafficking. Arms manufacturers, he said, can promote greater transparency, and curb wrongful uses of weapons that have been acquired to serve legitimate national security needs. With appropriate mandates and funding, he said, the United Nations can establish confidence-building measures and transparency, and eliminate arms races. "As it pursues sustainable development, so can it work to foster sustainable disarmament," he told a seminar organized by Germany's Friedrich Ebert Foundation today. "Working together, we can all the better serve the fundamental principles of international peace and security that remain at the heart of the (U.N.) Charter," he added. In January, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged world business leaders to redesign their corporate practices and policies to conform with basic principles of human rights, international labor laws and environmental guidelines. "I propose that you, the leaders of global business, and we, the United Nations, initiate a global compact of shared values and principles, which will give a human face to the global market," he told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Dhanapala said that there is particular need for a U.N. relationship with the arms industry as it is now in the process of being "globalized." The F-16, one of the frontline fighter planes of the U.S. air force, is being made with components and expertise from nine countries on three continents, he noted. At the same time, the weapons trade is once again on the rise. According to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, the arms trade grew in real terms by 36 percent between 1995 and 1997, compared with a decline of about 11.2 percent in the decade before 1995. "Ongoing efforts to expand the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and to modernize existing arsenals will no doubt encourage further increases," Dhanapala warned. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the five permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia -- continue to dominate the global arms market. The five big powers accounted for 83 percent of the world's exports of major conventional arms last year, SIPRI said. SIPRI also estimates that total annual sales of major conventional weapons has exceeded $20 billion in recent years. Many of these sales went to the Middle East, which accounted for 40 percent of the world's arms imports in the 1990s, Dhanapala said. The post-Cold War adjustments in military expenditures -- and conversions from defense to civilian industries -- have not been smooth in many countries, he pointed out. While the so-called "peace dividend" remains elusive, he said, television coverage of modern warfare has effectively created an "advertising dividend" for the manufacturers of high-tech weaponry and the countries and alliances that use such weapons. Dhanapala said that during the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf and the recent NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, tiny video cameras enabled hundreds of millions of viewers to "experience vicariously" the flight paths of attacking missiles to their intended targets. "Whatever the rationales for such wars, such imagery contributes to a 'demonstration effect' encouraging the proliferation of such weapons and, potentially, to new arms races," he said. Dhanapala added that the arms manufacturing industry is also getting increasingly sophisticated. Some of the weapons now being produced are more powerful, more miniaturized, more reliable, easier to field and more accurate. As the private sector continues to play a dominating role, the global arms industry has also been undergoing a wave of mergers and acquisitions. According to the publication "Defense Mergers and Acquisitions," defense and aerospace companies have either announced or completed mergers and acquisitions amounting to nearly $60 billion just in the first half of 1999. That amount is already well above the total for all of 1998. Last week, a Pentagon official predicted that a wave of new mergers involving U.S., European and Asian defence firms will take place over the next few months. Dhanapala said customers are now increasingly facing a "buyer's market." Surplus weapons from excess military stocks are being made available at bargain prices, a trend analyzed in "Arsenals on the Cheap," a recent study by the Washington-based Human Rights Watch. Additionally, some buyers are demanding "offsets" -- requirements that a seller invest some portion of their contracts into joint ventures, technology transfers and joint production deals. Dhanapala said the United Nations is involved in several initiatives, including public education, the integration of former combatants into civil society, collection and destruction of excess arms, and studies by expert groups on various specialized aspects of the problem of small arms and ammunition. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2] This release was taken from the United Nations' website. Many you involved in the world-wide struggle against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment will recognize the International Chamber of Commerce as the main backer of the MAI at the OECD. Steve Staples --------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.N Press release,5 July 1999 PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN U.N. AND PRIVATE SECTOR WOULD DO MUCH TO SPREAD BENEFITS OF GLOBALIZATION, SECRETARY-GENERAL AND ICC PRESIDENT STATE Global Compact between UN and Private Sector to Promote Human Rights, Improve Labour Conditions, Protect Environment Welcomed by Business Leaders In a joint statement issued today by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the President of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Adnan Kassar, the United Nations and business representatives agreed that a continued cooperative partnership between the Organization and the private sector would do much to spread the benefits of globalization. The joint statement stresses that the world body and the private sector working together to promote human rights and raise labour and environmental standards will help create the conditions in which the United Nations ideals can be realized and business can make its full contribution to sustainable global prosperity,. The statement was issued today at the conclusion of a meeting in Geneva between the Secretary-General, accompanied by senior United Nations officials, and the ICC President, joined by other Chamber representatives, to continue the dialogue the two organizations began in February 1998. The International Organization of Employers also participated. Welcoming the Secretary-General's call for a Global Compact between the United Nations and the private sector to promote human rights, improve labour conditions and protect the environment, business leaders expressed their readiness to cooperate with the Organization in this common endeavour. Both sides saw the Global Compact as reinforcing the collaborative partnership between the United Nations and the ICC that is now well established. The full text of the joint statement reads as follows: The two sides reaffirmed that there is great potential for the goals of the United Nations -- peace and development -- and the goals of business -- wealth creation and prosperity -- to be mutually supportive. The business leaders welcomed the United Nations Secretary-General's call for a Global Compact between the United Nations and the private sector to promote human rights, improve labour conditions and protect the environment. The business leaders expressed their readiness to cooperate with the United Nations in this common endeavour. It was further noted that a stronger private sector worldwide, and articularly the positive impact of foreign direct investment, is already aking an effective contribution to the attainment of United Nations goals. Both sides saw the Global Compact as reinforcing the collaborative partnership between the United Nations and the International Chamber of Commerce that is now well established. snip~ The participants agreed that the recent crisis in emerging markets underlined the importance of closer cooperation, not only among governments, but also among governments, business and civil society. It was agreed that global markets require global rules. The aim should be to enable the benefits of globalization increasingly to spread to all people by building an effective framework of multilateral rules for a world economy that is being transformed by the globalization of markets. Business expertise is necessary to help governments to find the right balance between the freedom that allows the private sector to create wealth and employment, and rules that provide a background of economic stability and social cohesion. snip~ The participants stressed the importance of the forthcoming Third Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization as an opportunity for its member governments to launch a new trade round. They considered that the early and successful conclusion of a new round would contribute to reinforcing the economic momentum generated by liberalization and to building a stronger rules-based multilateral trading system. snip~ The United Nations and business representatives agreed that a continued cooperative partnership between the United Nations and the private sector would do much to spread the benefits of globalization. Working together to promote human rights and raise labour and environmental standards will help create the conditions in which the United Nations ideals can be realized and business can make its full contribution to sustainable global prosperity. ____________________________________________________________________ International Network on Disarmament and Globalization 405-825 Granville Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6Z 1K9 CANADA tel: (604) 687-3223 fax: (604) 687-3277 •••@••.••• To subscribe to the e-mail list, send an e-mail to mailto:•••@••.••• SUBSCRIBE mil-corp "FirstName LastName" <•••@••.•••> as the first and only line in the message body. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3] Major Flaws in United Nations Proposal for Global Email Tax ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A new report released by the United Nations Development Program says that world governments should tax the Internet to help underdeveloped countries get access to the network. "The Internet has the potential to offset inequalities in the global community, but if we don't take action it will only reinforce them," said Kate Raworth, economist and co-author of the Human Development Report. The report proposes a tax of the equivalent of one US cent on every 100 e-mails that an individual might send. Ranworth said that had this type of program been in place in 1996, it would have generated US $70 billion in development assistance that year. Raworth feels that the UN would be in no position to enforce the tax, and that the proposal is merely a suggestion. Individual member nations will decide whether or not to adopt the idea. The proposal suggests that part of the revenue might be used to develop lower-income areas within nations, while the remaining revenue might address global development. The major flaw in this idea is that it attempts to rectify the situation of an unequal distribution of wealth by taxing citizens. Nearly all of the world's wealth is flowing from the hands of the people to the richest few families and corporations. The world's richest three families have more assets than the 600 million people living in the world's least developed countries. The 200 richest people on Earth have more than the combined income of 41 per cent of the world's population. The income gap between the richest fifth of the world's people and the poorest fifth increased from 30 to 1 in 1960 to 74 to 1 in 1997. World poverty and human pain too great to express grows daily because governments will not act to redistribute wealth. The world Corpocracy (the thousands of speculators, billionaires, corporations and lobbyists combined with bankers and the IMF, World Trade Org and other selfish agents) is simply sucking up all of the wealth, power and sovereignty of nations. Only through addressing this problem directly and by acting to disempower them and redistribute wealth can we move ahead with solid human development. The various plans to tax the Internet are hollow and little more than another mask of the Corpocracy. Yes citizens will pay tax and yes those with teams of lawyers and lobbyists will not pay tax. Perhaps if our legislators would face the real problem we could move toward a solution. By Gary Morton http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ | |To unsubscribe: send mail to •••@••.•••, no subject, with the |following message (and no other text): unsubscribe c4ldemoc-l ------------------------------ End of C4LDEMOC-Digest: V2 #169 ******************************* To unsubscribe, send mail to •••@••.••• with no subject, with the following message: unsubscribe c4ldemoc-digest
