Project 1: The Southern Africa Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power
The Campaign, officially known as the Southern Africa Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power, is the regional leg of a Global Campaign, hosted by the Transnational Institute, headquartered in the Netherlands and supported and endorsed by hundreds of organisations and movements around the world.
Find out more about the Global Campaign ***HERE***
The Southern Africa Campaign is ongoing and evolving, and will be officially launched with the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Transnational Corporations in August 2016.
READ THE CALL TO ACTION HERE ***HERE***
Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Transnational Corporations in Southern Africa:
To launch the Southern Africa Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power, AIDC is coordinating a Tribunal – the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Transnational Corporations in Southern Africa.
The Tribunal, which will be the first of its kind in the region, will bring together communities and movements from Southern Africa to present their struggles against the corporations who violate their human, environmental and socio-economic rights.
It will create a platform for communities and movements to present their cases and create awareness of their struggles to a larger Southern African and global audience, and to a large media contingent. It will provide, both logistically and financially, a safe space for communities and movements from the region, many isolated, to network, synergize and connect to share experiences and lessons in order to strengthen a joint struggle, as well as to find ways forward. While the campaign is a joint project between several Southern African partner organisations, AIDC is taking the coordinating role for the Tribunal and larger regional campaign.
The Tribunal is split into three sessions: the first session of hearings will be held in August 2016 during the People’s Summit in Swaziland, the second session in May 2017, and a verdict handed down soon after.
The first session will hear 10 cases, on TNC’s working in the mining, infrastructure and GMO industries. The 10 cases will be presented in different ways – through video, photo slideshows, documentation and talks for example. AIDC is providing the communities with funding for the development of their cases, which they spend mostly on internal country travel and accommodation, stationery and equipment for documentation and presentation, and catering.
READ THE CALL TO ACTION HERE ***HERE***
If you would like to know more about the Campaign and Tribunal, or to present a case at the next session in May 2017, you can contact us using the form, or email ilham@aidc.org.za:
Project 2: Lonmin
Our work on Lonmin focused on the company’s illicit capital flows, tax evasion and profit shifting. The outcome of the research was a publication, the Bermuda Connection: Profit Shifting, Inequality and Unaffordability at Lonmin 1999-2012.
View the full publication ***HERE***
Project 3: Glencore and Coal in South Africa
AIDC is currently developing a research project on Glencore, the biggest commodities trader in the world.
Glencore, a powerful multinational corporation based in Switzerland, is changing the entire mining landscape in South Africa. It is a franchise-type operation – going beyond mining to controlling and marketing the vital transport and logistics operations in the industry, and thereby profiting from the entire value chain. Owning more cargo ships than the British navy, Glencore is a physical commodities trading giant. With its operations and corporate structure shrouded in secrecy, it has been referred to as “the greatest company you never heard of”.
These factors make Glencore an ideal case study on illicit financial flows. There are a number of groups working on Glencore, in Southern Africa and globally, as well as tax justice and corporate accountability networks. AIDC is also building on work already done through initiatives of Fastenopfer, Solifonds, and Berne Declaration whose Swiss location enables a strong impact at a local advocacy level.
Given its extensive coal assets and its vertical integration, Glencore is likely to do all it can to maximise its return from coal in South Africa. This may mean buying more coal assets, closing down what it considers to be unproductive mines and working for export parity pricing in the residual market. Glencore is a profit maximising entity which is historically little concerned with issues of reputation or image. As such, it can be expected to work to its maximum advantage in the coal sector in South Africa, regardless of the social, economic and environmental costs of its actions.
