Critical Takes Newsletter No 1

Newsletter: 7 September 2024

 

Welcome! Here's the first month of Critical Takes in a nutshell:

Irit Tamir of Oxfam America enumerated problems of corporate power in the US and set out a response covering transparency, strengthening workers’ rights and wages, curbing monopoly power and the need for corporate forms and business models which put people and planet at their heart.

Alex Cobham of Tax Justice Network explained why the upcoming UN Tax Convention marks a historic shift in the power to make tax rules for multinationals. Now pressure is needed on governments to be ambitious about what the treaty can do.

Parminder Jeet Singh called for a global movement to “break open” the digital power of Big Tech and hand it back to users, communities and countries.

Andressa Oliveira Soares argued that the EU’s new Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) rests on a flawed premise and can’t be a substitute for an international treaty on business and human rights.

 

Coming soon on this platform:

How to take on corporate monopoly power; why civil society should beware the doctrine of “multistakeholderism”.

 

Interesting takes in other places:

Oxfam is doing some ambitious work which points towards a transformative rethink of corporate power. It’s well worth reading the recommendations of Inequality Inc and Inequality, Made in America if you haven’t already.

The Center for Economic and Social Rights has a helpful summary of political positions on a UN Tax Convention.

Here’s some detailed reporting by Felicia Jackson for Forbes magazine on what the EU CSDDD will require multinationals to do.

This long look at Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD, by Paulo Gerbaudo at Phenomenal World, explains why the US and EU are playing catch-up with China’s industrial policy.

 

Would you like to write for Critical Takes?

Critical Takes is looking for articles on all aspects of the power of multinationals and what to do about it, by and for people from civil society around the world. If you’d like to propose an article, please read this first.

 

The next newsletter is in May. Until then, good luck with your work!

The Editor