An encounter of social movements and organisations calling for a new multilateralism at the service of the peoples and the planet began on Thursday in New York, United States, ahead of the United Nations (UN) Summit of the Future to be held in that same city on 22 and 23 September.

The encounter*, which will be held until Saturday at the People’s Forum building in New York, denounces the corporate capture of the UN and its global governance spaces.

At a press conference on Monday, Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), the Transnational Institute (TNI) and IT for Change, three co-organisers of the encounter, warned that transnational corporations have gained disproportionate influence over global policymaking, weakening the UN’s ability to uphold its mandate of international cooperation. “What was once a symbol of global solidarity has now become a platform for the consolidation of corporate power,” said Anita Gurumurthy of IT for Change.

In a document circulated at the press conference, the three organisations explained that the world is facing a convergence of unprecedented crises, such as climate change, pandemics, genocides and wars, and that the international response led by the UN and its multilateral system has failed.

The organisations state that the Summit of the Future risks becoming yet another exercise in maintaining the status quo. ‘What the world needs is a truly democratic global government—one that is inclusive, accountable, and able to address the urgent challenges we face,’ they explain.

A UN summit turning its back on countries and social movements

In May, FoEI and TNI, as part of the Peoples’ Working Group on Multi-stakeholderism*, warned that the organisation of the Summit of the Future was aiming to reinstate a corporate-driven agenda rejected by states and social organisations. ‘Here they are trying to impose the idea that organised civil society wants multistakeholderism,’ denounced Martin Drago, coordinator of the Food Sovereignty programme at FoEI.

Meanwhile, Gonzalo Berrón, from TNI, considers social mobilisation to be fundamental, because ‘otherwise there is a risk that the corporate capture of the multilateral system will be deepened, as is already happening through various mechanisms such as multi-stakeholderism’.

* The organisers of the New York encounter, titled ‘Stop Neoliberal Globalization, Corporate Capture and the Far Right. Let’s fight for a new multilateralism for the peoples and the planet’, are: Friends of the Earth International, the Transnational Institute, Focus on the Global South, IT for Change, Global Campaign for Education, FIAN International, ESCR-Net, Corporate Accountability and the People’s Health Movement. These organisations are members of the ‘Peoples’ Working Group on Multistakeholderism’, which also includes Public Services International and the ETC Group.