Corporate Greed versus People’s Need
Date: Thursday 16 May 2024, 6.30 pm – 9.00 pm
Venue: Central United Reformed Church, 60 Norfolk Street, Sheffield S1 2JB (opposite Crucible Theatre)
Registration (free): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/corporate-greed-versus-peoples-need-tickets-837718818537?aff=oddtdtcreator
What can possibly justify the ongoing global processes that stoke parasitic corporate greed by progressively depriving people of their basic needs? The capitalist system driving this process must be not only challenged as outrageously unjust in principle, but also disempowered in practice, by dismantling the indefensible structures it uses to carry out its societal and environmental plunder. We must build our own ‘people’s system’ in its place.
Wealth is extracted from Global South communities by multinational companies whose ‘corporate power’ is facilitated by Global North institutions and governments. We will hear about how monopoly power is created, the tricks used to undermine democracy, and the mechanisms by which wealth is extracted and transferred. Fossil fuel companies not only work to block public-interest climate action, so that they can maximise profit from fossil fuel production around the world. At the same time, they work to grab the reins of the transition, so that the rights, freedoms and dignity of marginalised communities everywhere continue to be sacrificed.
How can we better build campaigns and actions to end – and rebuild from – the devastating climate impacts and other existential corporate threats to people, communities, and the environment, both locally and especially in the Global South?
Our panel of seasoned campaigners, activists and academics bring a wealth of experience, through contacts with communities across the Global South and in the UK. They will provide well-informed, thought-provoking insights, and set the scene for lively but focused questioning and debate, and an opportunity to strengthen our networks.
Tyrone is the Senior Movement Building and Activism Officer for War on Want, an organisation which works in the UK and with partners around the world, to fight poverty and defend human rights, as part of the movement for global justice.
Tyrone has over 10 years’ experience with NGOs, movement building, activism and community organising, and he is a public speaker, writer and panellist.
War on Want works with many partners in the Global South, and from these contacts, as an activist, Tyrone will bring the perspectives of Global South communities to the discussion in a very practical and relevant way.
Daisy is the Campaigns & Activism Officer at Global Justice Now, and a long-standing environmental activist. Originally with Extinction Rebellion, she went on to co-found Jubilee for Climate, campaigning for debt cancellation, reparations, and climate justice for the Global South.
She holds a Masters in Graphic Communication Design, specialising in communicating the complexity and intersectionality of the climate crisis. She has recently contributed to a report – Taken Not Earned: How Monopolists Drive the World’s Power and Wealth Divide, and she will present the Fossil Fuel Treaty, a Global South-led campaign, as one of the ways to fight extreme corporate power.
Andy is a Retired Associate Professor, interested in critiquing the imperialism of extractive industries in Latin America and South Africa, and reinterpreting Marx’s Capital relevant to contemporary capitalism. He has been very involved with supporting social movements in Colombia fighting multinationals.
He will explore the links between corporations, the London Capital Markets, Militarism, and the impact of all this for us in building international solidarity movements to fight corporate capitalism.
He will expose UK corporations’ interest in global destruction, and update the concept of ‘imperialism’ to understand the transfer of wealth from the Global South.
