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a project by Oliver Ressler
The 500 largest companies, which are annually published in a ranking by the
economic magazine Fortune,
as transnational "global players" can be seen as the main protagonists
of economic globalization.
Starting point of the project "The global 500" is research done on
the websites and the annual reports of the 500 largest transnational companies.
The website, the exhibitions and the video in it are based on a selection of
these corporate statements representing different strategies and discourses
of economic globalization. These hegemonic globalization theses are discussed,
analyzed and criticized by representatives of unions and NGOs, theorists and
an economist:
Charles R. Acland (Cultural and Media Theorist, University of Calgary)
Arjun Appadurai (Director of Globalization Project, University of Chicago)
Andy Banks (Campaign Manager, US Teamster Union, Washington)
Olivier Hoedeman (Corporate Europe Observatory, Amsterdam)
Aquiles Magana (Head of the Mexican Union FALD)
Birgit Mahnkopf (Professor for European Politics, Berlin School of Economics)
In a series of exhibitions, selected pages of the corporate annual reports,
which can be seen as a visual representation of "globalization", are
shown in a manipulated version as photographs.
"The global 500"-shows took place in:
1999
"The global 500",
Galerie Stadtpark, Krems (A)
"The global 500 and Other Stories", W139,
Amsterdam (NL)
"Social Machine Money", O.K
- Center for Contemporary Art, Linz (A)
2000
"The global 500",
Truck - Centre for Contemporary Art, Calgary (CAN)
"What, How & For Whom", HDLU -
Croatian Association of Artists, Zagreb (CRO)
"Parallel Reality", Hay Art Cultural Center, Yerevan (ARM)
"World-Information.Org", Centre
Brussels 2000, Brussels (B)
"World-Information Exhibition", Vienna Museum of Technology, Vienna (A)
The topic field
The deregulation of the financial and working spheres, which has been progressing
since the 1980s, the systematic reduction of barriers to trade and the associated
global penetration of the capitalistic world market are being discussed in the
media under the term "globalization". Since more and more businesses
are taking advantage of this regime to transfer even sophisticated work, such
as electronic services to "low wage countries", globalization of the
economy in industrial states is equivalent to a loss of jobs. In countries where
wages are (too) high, jobs are being lost which are only partly won back in
other countries. The balance of jobs is negative, since the transfer is executed
in the direction of those locations where productivity is comparatively higher
and, thus, the labor cost per product unit is less (Altvater/Mahnkopf).
The concept of globalization proves itself a very effective enterprise strategy
which pits the employees in the north and the south against each other and brings
the wages and labor legislation in both hemispheres to the lowest possible level.
Through the radical deregulation of the labor markets, production is sub-contracted
to suppliers, and thus more and more people are dropping out of regular working
relations and ending-up in totally unprotected working conditions. More and
more workers are becoming completely "superfluous". Others have to
sell their labor power below its value, and work illegally and without social
security.
In many industries this means that as the companies' profits rise, the number
of jobs are substantially reduced. The globalization of companies therefore
means a long-term social rearrangement in favor of capital at the expense of
the workers and employees. "Globalization" is therefore not about
mandatory necessities. It is a political strategy with which adjustment performances
are being claimed and legitimized.
This process of the "liberalization" and "deregulation"
of economies is pushed through and enforced by transnational companies through
efficient lobbying in governments and in trade-organizations. Parliaments and
citizens are being evaded and not informed.
As the MAI-negotiations (Multilateral Agreement on Investment) could be stopped
in 1998 after two years of secret negotiations within the OECD, at the moment
negotiations with similar aims are taking place with the exclusion of the public
again within the World Trade Organization under the title "Transatlantic
Economic Partnership":
The attempt is undertaken to set companies‘ rights above the right of states.
Companies should get a direct right to go to court with governments, as soon
as they fear negative effects on their investments and profits, even for national
environmental or social laws. The aim of the negotiations is to enforce the
influence of the corporations and to limit drastically the adjustment possibilities
of governments at the same time.
Publication:
Oliver Ressler: "The global 500", Edition Selene, Reihe Art Exit,
112 p., German/Engl., ISBN: 3-85266-108-0; ATS 146.-/DM 20.-
"The global 500" is powered by BKA, federal curator Lioba Reddeker