Background

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Today we see corporate capture happening in every aspect dictating the realities of our lives, particularly the lives of communities affected by systemic injustices - including farmers, workers, urban poor, landless women, and oppressed nations. In particular, we continue to see multinational corporations interfere in setting public policies and presenting legislation in a way that would prioritise their profit-making over our human rights. This is done among other things through government lobbying, manipulation of communities, revolving doors, and weaponisation of processes such as the ‘Investor-State Dispute Settlements’ process, to name a few.

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These manifestations of corporate capture undermine State democracies and State sovereignty – preventing States from making progressive decisions to protect their citizens and the land. This will continue if States do not move to end the influence of corporations on decisions related to our human rights and public living. This will continue if we do not regulate corporate activities. Corporate hegemony/ greediness must be stopped and people should be over profit.

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Objectives

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• Expose the failures of the current system which is dominated by corporate hegemony 

• Demask the true faces of corporate greed in different sectors through our grassroots communities in Asia. 

• Share cases: from different Asian and Pacific countries on several aspects: labour, agriculture, and public sector.

• Provide recommendations so that communities and people’s movements can further their resistance to fight for a sustainable, just, and equitable development paradigm.

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Key questions

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• What is overall picture of coporate capture in Asia Pacific?

• How is the corporate capture happening in agriculture and food sovereignty?

• How corporations capture govt decisionmaking when it comes to labor issues

• The role of corporations in perpetuating conflicts and militarism in Asia Pacific countries?

• How can we strengthen the solidarity among unions, among movements?