Big Business, Poor Peoples: How Transnational Corporations Damage the World’s Poor

Are transnational corporations (TNCs) the solution to poverty in the Third World or are they part of the problem? They are portrayed as bringing rapid economic growth, jobs and development – yet inequality between North and South, and within countries, continues to grow apace. So what really is happening? In this highly readable book, John Madeley explores this little-investigated aspect of large corporations. He looks at the impact on the poor of TNC activities in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, mining, oil extraction, manufacturing and tourism. He charts how natural resources are being ceded to TNCs at the expense of local communities. He reveals the weakness of the productive links between TNC activity and national economies, and how the power of governments to control these corporations is declining. Yet the news is not all bad. Producers, consumers, local communities, even shareholders are beginning to demand that large corporations take other obligations besides profit into account