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preface

Friends of the Earth International campaigns for fair and environmentally sustainable societies that meet people’s needs. In order to do this, we’ve found it necessary to challenge neoliberal economic globalization, which works in the opposite direction, preventing sustainability.

Neoliberal economic policies are failing people in many different ways. We live in a world in which inequality is on the increase and many millions are unable to meet even their most basic needs. Forests are being clear-cut, minerals strip-mined and fossil fuels exploited at completely unsustainable rates to provide natural resources for the global economy. Democracy is being eroded as power is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Biological and cultural diversity are dwindling at an alarming rate. Hard won social and environmental standards are threatened.

The truth is that trade liberalization has winners and losers - and the winners include wealthy transnational corporations scouring the globe for new markets, weak competitors, cheap resources and lower operating costs. These companies, growing in size and power, can and do influence governments to change the rules of the global economy in their favour, at the expense of people, local economies and the environment. Friends of the Earth believes that it’s time to take a much closer look at the links between transnationals and trade, to establish just who is benefiting and how. This publication is intended as a first step in that direction. Don’t let big business rule the world!

ricardo navarro, chair, friends of the earth international