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[Music]
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hello and welcome i’m lynn fries
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producer of global political economy
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or gbe news docs today i’m joined by
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nick
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buxton he’s going to be giving us some
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big picture context on the great
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reset a world economic forum initiative
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to reset the world
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system of global governance a worldwide
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movement crossing not only borders but
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all walks of life
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from peasant farmers to techies is
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fighting against this initiative on the
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grounds that it represents a major
00:37
threat
00:38
to democracy key voices from the health
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food education indigenous people and
00:44
high
00:45
tech movements explained why in the
00:48
great
00:48
takeover how we fight the davos capture
00:52
of global governance a recent webinar
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hosted by the transnational
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institute today’s guest nick buxton
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is a publications editor and future labs
01:02
coordinator
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at the transnational institute he’s the
01:06
founder
01:06
and chief editor of tni’s flagship
01:09
state of power report welcome nick
01:13
thank you very much liam nick the
01:16
transnational
01:17
institute was was co-organizer of the
01:20
great takeover webinar so what is it
01:24
that you’re
01:25
mobilizing against uh in opposing this
01:28
great
01:28
reset initiative what we’re really
01:31
concerned about is
01:32
this initiative by the world economic
01:34
forum
01:35
actually looks to entrench the power of
01:37
those most responsible for the crises
01:39
we’re facing
01:40
um and in in many ways it’s a trick it’s
01:43
a sleight of hand
01:45
uh to make sure that things continue as
01:48
they are
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to continue the same and that will
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create more of these crises more of
01:53
these pandemics will
01:54
deepen the climate crisis which will
01:56
deepen inequality
01:58
and it’s not a great reset at all it’s a
02:00
great corporate takeover
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and that’s what we were trying to draw
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attention to what we’ve been finding
02:05
in in recent years is that um really
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there is
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something i would call it a kind of a
02:10
global
02:11
silent coup d’etat going on in terms of
02:14
global governance
02:15
most people don’t see it and people are
02:17
familiar have become familiar with the
02:19
way that corporations
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have far more influence and are being
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integrated into policy-making and
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national level
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they see that more more in front of them
02:30
people see their services being
02:32
privatized
02:33
and they see the influence of the oil
02:36
companies or the banking sector that has
02:38
stopped
02:39
actions such as regulations of banks or
02:42
are dealing with the climate crisis what
02:43
people don’t realize is at a global
02:45
level
02:46
there has been something much more
02:48
silent going on which is that their
02:50
governance which used to be by nations
02:53
is now increasingly be done by
02:55
unaccountable bodies
02:57
dominated by corporations and part of
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the problem is that that has been
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happening in lots of different
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sectors but people haven’t been
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connecting the dots
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so what we’ve been trying to do in the
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last year is to talk with
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people in the health movement for
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example people involved in
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public education people involved
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in food sector to say what what is
03:20
happening in your sector and what we
03:22
found is that in each of these sectors
03:24
global decisions were used to be
03:25
discussed by bodies such as the wh
03:28
o or such as the food and agriculture
03:30
organization
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were increasingly done by these these
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unaccountable bodies
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and just to give an example uh we have
03:39
now the global pandemic and one of the
03:41
key bodies that is now making the
03:43
decision
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is is a facility called kovacs you’d
03:46
have thought
03:47
global health should be run by the world
03:49
health organization it’s accountable to
03:51
the united nations
03:53
it has a system of accountability well
03:55
what’s actually happening is that world
03:57
health organization
03:58
is just one of a few partners that
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really
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has been controlled by corporations and
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corporate interests
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in this case is gavi and sepi and they
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are both bodies which which don’t have a
04:11
system of accountability
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where it’s not clear who chose them who
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they’re accountable to
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or how they can be held to account and
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what we do see is that there’s a lot of
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corporate influence in each of these
04:23
bodies
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what this webinar was about was bringing
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all these sectors together
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who are seeing this silent coup d’etat
04:30
going on
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in their own sector to map it out and so
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one of the things that you’ll
04:35
have seen in the in the webinar is is
04:37
this mapping of the different sectors
04:40
who are um who are seeing this going on
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and the
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idea is just to give a global picture
04:45
that this is something happening we’ve
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had
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we’ve had more than a hundred of these
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um of these mult they’re called
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multi-stakeholder bodies
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uh coming to coming to the fore in the
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last 20 years
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um and and there’s been very little kind
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of taking note of that and taking stock
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of what’s emerging
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and what’s emerging is this silent
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global coup d’etat
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so what you find then in the big picture
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that you’re getting
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is that a global coup d’etat has been
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silently emerging and at the heart of it
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is a move
05:19
towards multi-stakeholder model of
05:21
global governance and
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that this is the model that’s the path
05:25
and mechanism
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of a corporate hijack of global and
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national governance
05:30
structures and the world economic forum
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agenda fits into all this is the wef of
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course is
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one of the world’s most powerful
05:38
multi-stakeholder institutions
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so nick in explaining what all this
05:42
means let’s start with some of your
05:44
thoughts
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on the history of how we got here
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i think what we had was in the 90s was
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the kind of height of neoliberalism we
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had
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we had um the increasing role of
05:56
corporations as
05:58
and the deregulation of the state and it
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really started to come through in 2000
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with the global compact
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and where the un invited in uh you know
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corporations and the idea was that we’re
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going to need to involve corporations
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one because
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we will need private finance became the
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kind of motto
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the mantra so we need to involve
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corporations they can be part of the
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solution so it was
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partly financed it was partly the
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withdrawal of state
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from kind of global cooperation um
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and and that started to invite
06:30
corporations into the global government
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where corporations were increasingly um
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being invited into these kind of bodies
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that dovetailed with this whole movement
06:39
um called
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the corporate social responsibility that
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sid corporations
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weren’t just profit-making vehicles they
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could be socially responsible
06:48
actors um and and so increasingly
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corporations were pitching themselves as
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as not just um corporate entities but as
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global citizens
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um and and one of the key vehicles for
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that of course is the world economic
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forum which has
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really been articulating
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through klaus schwab and through their
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whole and through their whole
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work uh this idea that’s that
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corporations
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should firstly be social responsible and
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secondly as part of that they should be
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treated
07:21
as social entities and should be
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integrated into governance and decision
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making
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that we needed to move from what was
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considered an
07:30
antiquated state-led
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multilateral approach to a much more
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agile governance system
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and this is again the kind of mantra of
07:39
coming in of the private sector being
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efficient
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that the private sector if you involve
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them in decision making
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you would get more faster decisions you
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get agile decisions you’d get better
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decisions
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and so this all really came together um
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and and
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in in some ways it’s even being
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consolidated even further
07:58
the irony is that as as you’ve had
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nationalist governments come to power
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that the kind of trump america firsts of
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the world or modi
08:07
india first they articulate a
08:10
nationalist agenda but they haven’t
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actually questioned the role of
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corporations in any way whatsoever
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and as as they’ve retreated from
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multilateral forums like the united
08:20
nations
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they’ve left a vacuum that corporations
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have been able to fill
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corporations now say we can be the
08:27
global actors we can be the responsible
08:29
actors
08:30
we’re the ones who consort to tackle the
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big crisis we face such as inequality
08:35
such as climate change
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um such as the pandemic and so so really
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this
08:40
this we’ve had this convergence of
08:42
forces coming together
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where as states have retreated um
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corporations have filled the vacuum
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you mentioned earlier that the world
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economic forum was one of the key
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vehicles for these
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ideas and the wef also went big in
08:57
filling that vacuum that you’re talking
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about
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tni reported the wef global redesign
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initiative
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stretching back to 2009 created
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something like
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40 global agenda councils and industry
09:12
sector bodies so in the sphere of global
09:15
governance the wef
09:17
created space for corporate actors
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across the whole spectrum
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of governance issues from cyber security
09:23
to climate change you name it
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so yeah the global redesign initiative
09:27
was one of the first initiatives that
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the world economic forum launched
09:31
in the wake of the financial crisis um
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and their idea was that we needed to
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replace what was
09:39
uh an inefficient um multilateral system
09:42
that was not able to solve problems
09:45
with a new form of things so they were
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saying instead of a multilateral where
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nations make decisions in global
09:50
cooperation
09:51
we needed a multi-stakeholder approach
09:54
which would bring together
09:55
all the interested parties in small
09:58
groups
09:59
to make decisions and the global
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redesign initiative was really a model
10:03
of that they were trying
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to say okay how do we resolve um
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issues such as the governance of the
10:09
digital economy
10:11
and their answer to it is we bring the
10:13
big tech companies together we bring the
10:15
governments together and we bring a few
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civil society players
10:19
and we’ll work out a system that makes
10:21
that makes sense
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um and and so you had a similar thing
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going on in all these other redesigned
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councils really their models
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for how they think governments should be
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done and some of them have not just
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become models they’ve actually become
10:34
the real thing
10:36
so many of the multi-stakeholder
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initiatives we’ve seen emerge today
10:40
have emerged out of some of these
10:42
councils
10:43
um the coalition for epidemic
10:45
preparedness one of the key ones leading
10:48
kovacs right now the response to the
10:49
pandemic was launched at the world
10:51
economic forum so the world economic
10:53
forum is now becoming a launch pad for
10:55
many of these
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multi-stakeholder bodies we should also
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note the world economic forum is a
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very well funded launch pad as
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a powerpoint from the great takeover
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webinar put it
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corporations do not pay tax but donate
11:11
to multi-stakeholder institutions and
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the wef of course
11:15
is funded by powerful corporations and
11:18
business leaders
11:19
the powerpoint also noted the bill and
11:21
melinda gates foundation is one of the
11:23
main funders of multi-stakeholder
11:26
institutions
11:27
in contrast multilateral institutions
11:30
are being
11:31
defunded on the back of falling
11:33
corporate tax revenues
11:35
for nation states given it depends on
11:39
government donors the
11:41
u.n regular budget that’s the backbone
11:43
of funding for the one country one vote
11:45
multilateral
11:46
processes of intergovernmental
11:49
cooperation and decision making
11:51
has taken a big hit perhaps you could
11:54
comment on some big picture implications
11:57
on this kind of
11:58
changing dynamic that’s going on between
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corporate actors and nation states
12:03
yeah yeah i think i think what we’re
12:06
seeing is that the
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um as gradually the corporations have
12:09
become more powerful
12:11
they they have weakened the capacity of
12:14
the state
12:15
so they have reduced the tax basis you
12:18
know most corporations have seen
12:20
corporate tax rates drop
12:21
forward dramatically and even more
12:23
trillions are now siphoned away in tax
12:26
havens
12:26
so the the entire corporate tax base
12:28
which used to play a much bigger role in
12:30
state funding has reduced um at the same
12:34
time
12:35
they they their influence over policies
12:38
which benefit corporations
12:40
has increased so they’re reducing the
12:42
regulations that were on them they’re
12:43
reducing all the costs that used to be
12:45
opposed
12:46
on the things so you’ve had a weakening
12:48
of the state and the strengthening of
12:49
corporations
12:51
and what’s happened at a global
12:52
governance level is that they have also
12:54
moved
12:55
not just from influencing dramatically
12:58
through their power
12:59
their economic power political decision
13:01
making
13:02
but in an easy global governance thing
13:04
it’s the next step forward because
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they’re not just saying
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that we want to be considered and we
13:09
will lobby to have our position heard
13:11
they’re saying
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we want to actually be part of the
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decision-making bodies themselves
13:16
um and the classic again is if we look
13:18
at the pandemic with kovacs
13:21
is that um what i looked actually at
13:24
just at the board of
13:25
gavi the the global alliance of vaccines
13:28
um if you look at the body it’s the
13:31
board is dominated firstly
13:33
by big pharmaceutical companies um
13:36
secondly you have some nations and some
13:39
and
13:40
civil society representatives but you
13:42
have far more
13:43
interest in the almost half a large
13:45
number of the board
13:46
are financiers they come from the
13:48
finance sector they come from big banks
13:51
um so they’re they’re i don’t know what
13:53
they have to do with public health
13:55
um and wh show is just one of the
13:58
players so it’s it’s suddenly over
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crowded by others who have no um
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public health representation they’ve
14:06
been dominated by finance and
14:08
pharmaceutical companies
14:09
starting to really shape and guide um
14:12
decision-making
14:13
and and on the finance side of course
14:15
bill gates foundation
14:17
has is now the big player in many of
14:19
these things and it’s
14:21
it’s it’s not just donating it’s also
14:23
involved now in shaping policy
14:25
so those who give money um in a
14:28
philanthropic way
14:30
no matter how they earn that money or no
14:32
matter what their
14:33
remit is and who they’re accountable to
14:35
they’re only accountable to the
14:37
to to bill and melinda gates um
14:40
ultimately are now part of the decision
14:42
making process as well
14:44
and this has become so normalized that
14:46
there seems to be very little
14:47
questioning of it
14:48
and we will bring together these players
14:50
now who chose them
14:53
who who chose this body to come together
14:55
who’s it accountable to
14:56
there was a british parliamentarian
14:58
called tony ben he says if you want to
understand democracy you need to ask
five questions
- what what power do you have
- who did you get it from
- whose interest do you serve
- to whom are you accountable and
- how can we get rid of you
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if you look at a body that such as
15:16
kovacs um
15:17
who who where did they get the power
15:19
from they just self-convened
15:21
they just brought together a group of
15:23
powerful actors
15:24
they will make a token effort to involve
15:27
one or two civil society representatives
15:29
but the power very much lies with with
15:32
the corporations
15:33
and and with the financiers those who
15:36
are financing it
15:38
and it’s not accountable they chose
15:40
their body
15:41
uh if the interests are very clear who
15:43
it serves it clear
15:44
it serves the pharmaceutical companies
15:46
they will of course do certain things
15:49
um within the remit um but ultimately
15:52
they will not undermine their best
15:53
business
15:54
model even if that business model is
15:55
getting in the way of an effective
15:57
response to the
15:58
pandemic we can’t get rid of them
16:01
because we never chose them in the first
16:02
place
16:03
so it fails really the very fundamental
16:05
principles of democracy
16:07
and yet it’s now been normalized that
16:09
this is the way that global governance
16:11
should happen
16:12
nick comment briefly on an agreement
16:14
that was quite a milestone
16:16
in this process of normalization of
16:19
multi-stakeholderism
16:20
as the way global governance should
16:22
happen i’m thinking
16:23
of the uh strategic partnership
16:26
agreement signed
16:27
by the office of the un secretary
16:29
general with the world economic forum in
16:32
2019.
16:33
so what’s some background in your
16:35
response to that
16:37
uh un-w-e-f agreement
16:41
well the world economic forum has been
16:43
um advocating this mod
16:45
model of multi-stakeholder capitalism to
16:47
replace multilateralism for a long time
16:50
and and they have been um gradually
16:54
i would say kind of setting up parallel
16:56
bodies these multi-stakeholder bodies to
16:58
make decisions
17:00
um on major issues of global governance
17:02
whether it’s the digital economy or
17:04
whether it’s
17:04
how to respond to a a pandemic
17:08
um and and so they’ve they’ve been
17:10
advancing this model
17:11
um alongside the un for some time but
17:14
what what was really concerning to us is
17:16
that they’re starting
17:18
to increasingly um
17:22
engage with the un and start to impose
17:25
this and start to push this model within
17:27
the united nations
17:29
and the classic example was this
17:31
strategic partnership which was signed
17:33
in
17:33
i believe june of 2019
17:37
i don’t think it went even in front of
17:38
the general assembly so it wasn’t
17:40
discussed amongst the members it was a
17:42
decision
17:43
by the secretariat of the un without any
17:46
at least any
17:46
formal systems of accountability to sign
17:49
a deal with the world economic forum
17:51
that would essentially in start to
17:53
involve you
17:55
world economic forum staff within the
17:58
departments of the un
17:59
they would become so-called kind of
18:01
whisper advisors that
18:02
the world economic forum would start to
18:05
have its staff mingling with un staff
18:07
and starting to make decisions
18:09
um and there was no system of
18:10
accountability there was no system of
18:12
of um of consulting more widely
18:16
and and we know the world economic forum
18:19
is is this business forum if you look at
18:21
its board it’s completely controlled
18:23
uh by by some of the most wealthy and
18:26
powerful corporations and many of those
18:27
corporations
18:29
are responsible for many of the crises
18:31
we face and yet here they were being
18:32
open
18:33
open armed and welcomed into the united
18:37
nations to play a very significant role
18:38
and
18:39
and we we protested that we said that
18:42
this is not
18:43
this is not a way to solve global
18:45
problems to involve those who have
18:47
actually responsible for the crisis to
18:48
resolve it
18:50
will only lead to solutions that are
18:51
either ineffective or actually deepen
18:53
the crises we face
18:55
um we understand why the u.n is doing it
18:57
it’s because of this
18:58
lack of national support is because of
19:00
the defunding
19:02
they’re looking to kind of survive as an
19:03
organization and they’re going to the
19:05
most powerful players in the world which
19:07
are the corporations
19:08
but what they’re going to end up doing
19:09
is as ultimately undermined in the
19:12
united nations it will actually
19:14
damage the united nations because it
19:15
will remove all the democratic
19:17
legitimacy that it currently has
19:20
we desperately need global collaboration
19:23
and cooperation
19:24
but it must be based on public and
19:26
democratic systems of governance
19:29
not um unaccountable secretive forms of
19:32
governance dominated by corporations
19:35
so that’s pretty clear you oppose
19:38
multi-stakeholderism because it’s an
19:40
unaccountable
19:41
secretive form of governance dominated
19:44
by corporations
19:45
so as well as being unaccountable the
19:49
multi-stakeholder model is a voluntary
19:52
and a market-based approach to problem
19:55
solving
19:56
comment on how that also uh fits into
19:59
why you oppose the multi-stakeholderism
20:03
yeah the the solutions they’re looking
20:05
for are volunteeristic
20:07
where you can come in or out and they’re
20:09
market-based
20:10
so they will never actually challenge
20:12
the business model as it is ultimately
20:14
what happens is that they make decisions
20:16
which are not binding and actually force
20:19
actors like corporations to do certain
20:21
things
20:22
they’re based entirely on this voluntary
20:23
meth model um but it’s a kind of to take
20:26
it or leave it governance where you can
20:28
do things that you
20:29
that look good for your for your annual
20:31
report
20:32
but don’t actually change the way you
20:36
actually operate
20:37
um and so ultimately they won’t resolve
20:39
the crisis that we’re facing
20:41
so it’s not just that they’re
20:42
unaccountable but they’re actually
20:44
ultimately very ineffective so if we
20:45
look at the climate crisis for example
20:47
we’ll say
20:48
the only way that we can deal with the
20:50
climate crisis is market solutions
20:52
even if we know that really the scale of
20:55
the climate crisis the urgency
20:57
and the timing requires us to take much
20:59
more drastic solutions which will be
21:01
state-led which will require
21:02
corporations to reduce emissions
21:04
and that will start to transform
21:06
economies um
21:08
that will have to be taken these kind of
21:10
public decisions
21:12
we’re ignoring that entirely for a model
21:14
which is based on of market
21:15
incentives which really do nothing to
21:18
change the business model that has
21:19
created the climate crisis
21:21
okay so that goes a long way in
21:22
explaining why you say the world
21:24
economic forum great
21:25
reset initiative is no reset at all
21:29
nick briefly touch on some of your
21:31
further observations
21:33
like why is the multi-stakeholder model
21:36
is based on
21:37
market solutions when push comes to
21:41
shove
21:42
the profit motive will always win out
21:45
under this
21:45
approach to global governance yeah no
21:48
absolutely i mean corporations will
21:50
accept market solutions which give them
21:52
the power
21:53
to uh to really control the pace of
21:56
change
21:56
and so you’ll see it they’re very happy
21:58
to to produce these corporate social
22:00
responsibility reports but
22:02
they will fight tooth and nail for any
22:04
regulation which actually enforces
22:06
social environmental goals and so and
22:09
they will
22:10
fight on an international level to have
22:13
trade rules to actually
22:14
prevent states imposing social
22:17
environmental goals
22:19
so so there’s very much an approach
22:21
where they’re willing to have
22:22
been washed they’re willing to have the
22:24
propaganda around social environmental
22:26
goals but they will absolutely oppose
22:29
and in any rules would actually
22:32
control their their environmental and
22:34
social impacts
22:36
they do not want anything which actually
22:38
requires regulation
22:40
and and impacts which will actually
22:42
force them to do certain changes they
22:44
want their changes to be very much ones
22:46
that they
22:47
control and which they shape and
22:48
ultimately that they can ditch
22:51
at the moment it starts to challenge the
22:53
profits that they want to make
22:55
let’s turn now to the coalition in
22:58
in fighting for a democratic reset
23:01
on uh global governance so a future
23:04
where decision making over the
23:06
governance of global commons like
23:08
for example food water health and the
23:11
internet
23:12
is is done in the public interest and i
23:15
see this
23:16
coalition put together resources and
23:18
it’s posted on your website
23:19
you’re in the nexus of all this so this
23:21
time around in the wake
23:23
of the covet pandemic what’s your read
23:27
on the situation
23:28
of peoples versus corporate power
23:31
this global coup d’etat that’s been
23:34
going on silently in so many different
23:36
sectors has been advancing because there
23:39
hasn’t been enough information and
23:41
knowledge about it
23:42
and also people haven’t been connecting
23:44
the dots to see this is happening in
23:45
every sector
23:47
so what’s really important this year in
23:49
as
23:50
as and i think it’s particularly
23:52
important in the wake of the pandemic is
23:54
that
23:54
so many movements are coming together um
23:57
people’s health movement
23:59
has come together a lot of groups
24:01
involved in food sovereignty uh the
24:04
trade union sector
24:05
coming together they’re all saying uh we
24:08
do this
24:08
this is not in our name um and of course
24:11
these are all groups that you’ll never
24:12
see
24:13
in a in a multi-stakeholder initiative
24:16
whenever they do have civil society
24:18
partners they don’t involve people on
24:19
the front lines you won’t find one
24:23
health union worker in in the kovacs
24:27
initiative you won’t have public health
24:29
people really represented
24:31
represented so these are movements now
24:33
starting to come together to say that we
24:35
don’t want this and
24:36
one of the things we did was launch this
24:38
letter it’s an open letter and it’s
24:40
really saying that
24:41
it’s really alerting people to what’s
24:43
going on it’s saying that we’re facing
24:46
this
24:46
in so many different sectors uh the un
24:49
is is opening the door the un secretary
24:52
i should say is opening the door wide
24:54
open
24:55
uh to the world economic forum which is
24:57
the key body advancing
24:58
multi-stakeholders
25:01
and and it’s changing governance as we
25:03
know it it’s
25:04
and it has no systems of accountability
25:06
or justice embedded in it
25:08
and these movements are now coming
25:09
together to say we we’re
25:11
we’re opposing this we’re uniting our
25:13
forces
25:14
and we’re going to fight back against
25:16
this we know
25:18
more than ever before with the pandemic
25:20
that nationalist
25:21
solutions to the global crisis will not
25:25
work we need global cooperation we need
25:27
global collaboration
25:29
but if we hand over all that decision
25:31
making to the pharmaceutical companies
25:34
for example we won’t be dealing with the
25:36
real issues
25:38
such as as trade protection and trips
25:42
and i um patents and everything that
25:45
that really benefit pharmaceutical
25:47
companies and don’t advance public
25:48
health because they
25:49
are in control of the process they won’t
25:51
allow things that affect their profits
25:54
so we need global solutions but they
25:55
cannot be led by the corporations
25:58
which are actually worsening deepening
25:59
the crisis we face
26:02
so as we close i just wanted to play a
26:04
clip of a comment
26:06
you made back in 2015 about a book you
26:09
had co-edited
26:11
titled the secure and was dispossessed i
26:14
found a review of the book
26:15
so relevant to our chat today i just
26:17
want to cite a few lines
26:19
it said among the books that attempt to
26:21
model
26:22
the coming century this one stands out
26:25
for its sense of plausibility
26:27
and danger it examines several current
26:30
trends in our responses
26:32
to climate change which if combined
26:34
would result in a kind of oligarchic
26:37
police state dedicated to extending
26:40
capitalist hegemony this will not work
26:43
and yet powerful forces are advocating
26:46
for it rather than imagining and working
26:48
for
26:49
a more just resilient and democratic way
26:52
forward
26:53
all the processes analyzed here are
26:55
already
26:56
happening now making this book
26:59
a crucial contribution to our cognitive
27:02
mapping
27:03
in our ability to form a better plan
27:06
so nick in wrapping up briefly comment
27:10
on that book
27:11
and then uh play the clip yeah back in
27:14
2011 we noticed a trend going on in
27:17
terms of climate change where there was
27:19
was
27:20
was a lack of willingness to really
27:22
tackle the climate crisis on the scale
27:24
it needs and with the
27:25
with the with the tools and instruments
27:28
that it needs
27:29
but there was increasingly uh plans by
27:32
both
27:33
the military and corporations for
27:35
dealing with the impacts of climate
27:37
change
27:38
um and they very much looked at it in
27:41
terms of how do we
27:43
secure the wealth of those and secure
27:45
those who already have power and wealth
27:48
um and and and what that would mean so
27:51
in the face of climate crisis
27:53
the solution was very much a security
27:55
solution we’ve already seen
27:57
really an increasing role of military
28:00
and policing
28:01
and security and the real process
28:04
of militarization of responses to
28:06
climate change the most obviously in the
28:08
area of the borders
28:09
we see we see border walls going up
28:12
everywhere
28:13
the response to a crisis has been has
28:16
been to kind of retreat between behind
28:18
fortified fortifications no matter the
28:20
consequences
28:22
um and so that that was really that’s
28:25
that’s really a trend that we
28:26
that we see increasingly is that climate
28:29
our response to climate adaptation by
28:30
the richest
28:31
countries is really to military to
28:33
militarize our response to it
28:36
and that’s that’s a and that’s a real as
28:38
as that quote you just read
28:40
that’s a real concern because um it’s
28:43
the kind of politics of the armed
28:45
lifeboat
28:46
um where basically you rescue a few and
28:48
then you
28:50
and then you have a gun trained on the
28:52
rest
28:53
and it’s it’s both totally immoral and
28:55
it’s also ultimately
28:57
one that will sacrifice all of our
28:59
humanity because
29:01
we need to collaborate to respond to the
29:03
climate crisis we need to find solutions
29:05
that protect the vulnerable
29:07
we cannot just keep building higher and
29:09
higher walls
29:10
against the consequences of our
29:11
decisions and we need to actually start
29:13
to tackle the root causes of those
29:16
crises and that that was very much
29:19
a picture we started to paint back in
29:21
2015 with the launch of the book the
29:23
secure and the dispossessed
29:25
but if anything it’s more pertinent and
29:27
more pressing than ever before
29:30
nick paxton thank you thanks
29:36
keeping the profits the huge profits
29:38
rolling um even though it’s wrecking the
29:41
planet so they have no intention long
29:42
term
29:43
of changing their business model their
29:45
business model is wrecking the planet
29:47
and their determination is how to keep
29:49
that going and what we see in all of
29:51
this is that
29:52
corporations in the military are very
29:53
much responding
29:55
in a in a paradigm of control it’s it’s
29:58
security
29:59
and this word security suddenly infected
30:01
every part of
30:02
daily debate we see it food security
30:05
we’ve seen it really recently now with
30:07
everyone saying we need
30:08
security of our borders to protect
30:09
against refugees we need water security
30:12
and in all of these cases what you see
30:15
is those who are being secured
30:17
are the corporations and those who have
30:20
wealth
30:21
and those who are losing out are those
30:22
who are actually suffering the most from
30:24
climate change
30:25
so the peasant who has their land
30:27
grabbed in the name of food security
30:30
the community that no longer has control
30:32
of their river
30:33
because a corporation has has taken it
30:36
in the name of
30:36
water security all the protesters
30:39
against coal power station are actually
30:40
trying to stop the climate crisis
30:42
being repressed and having the civil
30:45
liberties taken away in the name of
30:47
energy security
30:49
in each of these cases the security is
30:51
quite clearly
30:52
for a small proportion of people and
30:55
insecurity
30:56
for the vast majority i think this is
30:58
one of the most important issues of our
31:00
age is
31:01
is do we want to leave our future in the
31:04
hands of corporations in the military