Subvert is a podcast produced by the organization Corporate Accountability about the broad, global movement for corporate accountability. On this podcast, we’ll bring you stories from all over the world of organizers and movements fighting corporate abuse, advancing people-centered solutions, and building a world that prioritizes people over profits.
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In this episode, Lena interviews Geoffrey Supran. He’s one of the researchers who brought to light that ExxonMobil and others knew about the climate impacts of fossil fuel extraction and covered it up. We discuss the implications of today’s Big Oil hearings.
Check out our recent opinion piece on the Big Oil hearings, co-authored by Geoffrey Supran and Corporate Accountability’s Patti Lynn.
Take action with us: urge Congress to bring its full power to bear on the fossil fuel industry!
In this episode, we hear from water activists rising against privatization across the African continent. Against the backdrop of the World Bank meetings and a mega-merger between the two largest private water corporations, Veolia and Suez, organizers are saying a resounding no to water privatization and an enthusiastic yes to public water solutions.
Stand in solidarity with water justice organizers rising up to say no to water privatization at corporateaccountability.org/ProtectTheWater.
This episode featured Akinbode Oluwafemi of CAPPA; Dr. Everline Aketch of Public Services International, and Oumar Ba, via interpretation by Jeff Zerbo.
You can learn more about the Africa week of action against water privatization here.
In the final episode of Season 1, Lena and Michél talk with Patti Lynn, Corporate Accountability’s Executive Director. Patti tells us about the organization’s involvement in developing the Global Tobacco Treaty, and how understanding the corporate playbook laid the foundation for decades of campaigning.
In this episode, we mentioned our report, Cowboy Diplomacy, which you can find here.
Michél also mentioned War on Want and Third World Network. To learn more about Worth Rises, where Michél is now based, visit them here.
Southern Towers, located in Alexandria, VA, near Amazon’s proposed HQ2, is more of a village than a housing development, according to tenant organizers with the #ACT4SouthernTowers campaign. The towers are home to a deeply rooted community of African immigrants and working-class folks. Tenants have long looked out for each other, but when CIM Group, a massive real estate firm, purchased the housing complex in August of 2020, tenants were faced with a new set of challenges to their home and community.
Guests on today’s show are Amaha Kassa, Founder and Executive Director of African Communities Together; Bert Bayou, Chapter Leader and Organizer with African Communities Together, and Chris Bohner, a labor and housing organizer and researcher supporting the campaign.
Visit act4southerntowers.org to support tenants; check out their social toolkit here, and be sure to follow @AfricansUS and #ACT4SouthernTowers on social channels.
In this episode, Lena and Michél chat with three organizers about a treaty known as the UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights. Despite the dry-sounding name, this treaty has the potential to close an enormous loophole—which allows corporations to violate human rights in pursuit of profits—and protect people from corporate abuse all over the world.
Please check out the new comic that explains corporate capture at the UN mentioned by Mona, and the civil society sign-on letter publicly denouncing corporate interference in global governance mentioned by Gonzalo. Our guests on this episode are Keamogetswe Seipato from the Alternative Information and Development Centre, Gonzalo Berrón from the Transnational Institute, and Mona Sabella from the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, or ESCR-net.
In the second episode of Season 1, Lena and Michél talk with Corporate Accountability organizers and partners about climate liability. We discuss the Liability Roadmap, a powerful organizing tool we developed in coalition with allies on the front lines of the climate crisis all over the world, and hear about what’s at stake in the fight to hold Big Polluters liable for knowingly driving the climate crisis.
For more information about the Liability Roadmap, visit http://liabilityroadmap.org/. Our guests on this episode are Sriram Madhusoodanan and Hellen Neima from Corporate Accountability; Nnimmo Bassey from Health of Mother Earth Foundation; and Tetet Lauron, from Rosa Luxemburg – Stiftung.
In the first ever episode of Corporate Accountability’s podcast, Subvert, we’ll go to two virtual press conferences that we held in advance of annual shareholder meetings for Coca-Cola and Philip Morris International. At these virtual events, organizers and public health advocates spoke from their experience organizing against Big Food and Big Tobacco on five continents.
