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WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM INFO SHEET
What is the World
Economic Forum?
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an exclusive, un-elected, invite-only organization; it is a 'think tank' and a driving force behind the global economy.
Incorporated since 1971 as a foundation, the WEF claims to be "independent, impartial and not-for-profit, tied to no political, partisan or national interests." It has a consultative status with the United Nations.
Members include: 1000 CEOs from
the world's largest multi-national corporations. Academics, trade-ministers,
heads of state, and elite media representatives may also attend by exclusive
invitation. To become a member of the 'club', a corporation must have assets of
over $1 billion (U.S.) and must pay the current annual membership fees (26500
Swiss Francs = about $25,000 Can.). To become a 'sponsor' - which means getting
to have a say in writing the agenda of the meeting - corporations and
individuals must pay $250,000 US
Member organisations include McDonalds, Monsanto, Shell, Texaco, Nike, Philip Morris, Unilever, SmithKline Beecham, Exxon Mobil Corporation (Esso), AIB, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and SONY. Strategic partners of the WEF include Coca Cola, BP, Nestlé, and IBM.
One example of the WEF's powerful influence upon the political, economic, and social landscape is the crucial role it played in initiating the World Trade Organization (WTO). At its 1982 annual meeting in Davos, the WEF brought together cabinet members of major countries with heads of international organizations, such as the World Bank, IMF, and GATT. This special informal gathering of trade ministers from 17 countries organized the launch of the Uruguay Round, which laid the foundations of the WTO.
Frequently Asked Questions about the World Economic Forum
What is the World Economic Forum?
Time Europe described the World Economic Forum as ‘probably the closest
thing globalisation has to a world headquarters’. It is an elite think tank
that brings together top companies, politicians and academics to develop a
consensus on economic policy. Up to 2002, it met regularly in the Swiss resort
of Davos but then moved its annual meeting to New York. Its main aim is to
promote privatisation and de-regulated markets.
What is its history?
The WEF was founded in 1971 by Klaus Schwab, a Swiss business professor, to
teach management techniques. It was initially only European-based, but expanded
during the 1980s and took on the name World Economic Forum in 1987. A recent
confidential annual report proclaims its annual meeting to be ‘the world’s
most important global business summit’. It lists amongst as its achievements:
the opening up of China for business interests and the launch of the Uruguay
Round of Trade talks, which led to the formation of the World Trade
Organisation.
Who are members of the WEF?
The membership is made up of one over thousand large US, European and Japanese
corporations. Each corporation pays $12,5000 in annual membership fees and
$6,250 to attend the Annual Meeting. The companies must have annual revenues of
over $ 1 billion to be let join.
Think of an industry and its dominant players are members of the WEF; oil
(Exxon, Chevron, Shell); cars (Ford, General Motors, Mitsubishi) computers
(Microsoft, IBM, Yahoo) media (Time Warner, Viacom), pharmaceutical (Pfizer,
Dupont) banking (Citibank, Chase Manhattan, Deutsche Bank) mining (BHP, Rio
Tinto) agriculture (Novartis, Cargill, Monsanto) food products (Coca Cola,
Nestle) clothing (Nike) tobacco (British American, Phillip Morris). Many of
these companies have an atrocious records of environmental vandalism, denial of
union rights, illegal business practices, and human rights abuses.
The right wing political scientist, Samuel Huntington, has said that ‘Davos people control virtually all international institutions, many of the world governments and the bulk of the world’s economic and military capacities’.
How does the WEF work?
The World Economic Form holds an annual meeting in Davos (or more recently
in New York) where there are speeches from selected heavyweights; smaller
workshops on specific issues given by corporate leaders and ‘experts’;
meetings of ‘sectoral groupings, the most important of which is the Informal
Gathering of World Economic Leaders and back room face to face meetings. There
is a heavy emphasis on informality, building a club atmosphere and personal
relations between global ‘leaders’.
The WEF also holds regional summits to push for specific policies in different continents. The WEF meeting in Dublin on October 20th-21st is a regional summit for Europe.
In addition to these summits, the WEF produces annual
reports to promote the agenda of corporate globalisation. The most important is
the Global Competitiveness Review. This is a scorecard, which compares different
countries and is used to pressurise politicians to push the de-regulation agenda
more strongly. The United States usually comes out on top of these scorecards!
What is the World Economic Forum discussing in Dublin?
The theme of the Dublin summit is ‘Competitiveness’ and the specific focus
is the Lisbon Review. In March 2,000, Europe’s Heads of state met in Lisbon
and committed themselves to have ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge
based economy in the world by 2010’. The WEF believes they are not moving fast
enough on this agenda and have drawn up a Lisbon Review to show where they are
falling down.
They complain that ‘the liberalization of electrify and gas markets is still
incomplete’. They demand a quicker opening up of postal markets’,
privatisation of international rail freight operation and a reduction of state
aids to industry.
The summit will be used to pressurise politicians to deliver this programme for
a bosses Europe – not a social Europe.
What sort of other items are the WEF pushing for at the moment?
· Water privatisation. In June 2003 they launched a Water Initiative
which called for ‘innovative approaches such as payments for environmental
services’. Travis Algan, President of Alcan said ‘I am pleased that Alcan
can bring its 101 year experience with the management of watersheds and water
resources to enhance the availability of this precious resource’.
· Enforcement of Intellectual Property Laws. These rules stop poorer
countries using generic drugs and force them to pay high prices for branded
products. At their European Summit in September 2002, the WEF also called for a
crackdown on young people doing bootleg recordings from the Internet. The
American Chamber of Commerce estimated that companies could make an extra $30
billion if software copying was cut to just over a third.
· More corporate control of universities. At their European summit in
2002, Robert Lloyd of Cisco Systems said there was a greater need for
‘life-long learning’ and gave as an example the need for banks to retrain
‘tellers into sellers’. At the same summit, Barry Nalebuff, Professor of
Management at Yale., said there was ‘a need to create a culture in which the
entrepreneur is a ‘hero’.
Doesn’t the WEF engage with critics?
In 2000, a number of NGOs were invited to participate in the Davos meeting.
However, any NGO who protested about the denial of civil liberties to
anti-corporate globalisation protestors was not invited back next year. After
the huge Melbourne protests against the WEF in 2000, Klaus Schwab praised the
police action in attacking peaceful demonstrators. ‘The police action was
‘excellent’ he proclaimed.
The WEF’s Annual Report for 2001-2002 tried to smear protestors stating that
they are ‘beginning with the threat of anti-globalisation protest and ending
with the threat of global terrorism’.
Why should we protest?
This is a meeting of the top corporations who dominate our lives. The global elite should not be let meet secretly behind close doors to devise strategies that turn our lives into one big commodity.
Ever since the big protests in Seattle in 1999, a huge united movement of trade unionists, environmentalists, anti-debt campaigners have come together to make their presence felt at these summits.
The protests have had a global impact. Millions across the world now believe that ‘another world is possible’ and a new sprit of revolt has fed into many local struggles.
The Celtic Tiger in Ireland has been held up as a model for how neo-liberal economics work. But the super-rich gained the most and there is now wide scale anger about cutbacks and privatisation. The protests will be a chance to pull together everyone who wants to protest against run d-own health service, the plans for privatisation our transport, the lack of services for disabled, the destruction of our environment.