Over 100,000 activists have taken action in recent months to urge MPs to support stronger rules against corporate abuse.

Campaigners plan to intensify their battle in the weeks ahead. Parliament has been debating the Company Law Reform Bill, the biggest shake-up of corporate law for 150 years. The bill, which started in the House of Lords, is expected to reach the Commons in early June.

The Liberal Democrats are challenging the Government to reintroduce tougher laws to ensure British companies report on their social and environmental impacts. Meanwhile David Cameron's recent pledge to stand up to big business can rightly be questioned by the public on the concerete evidence that Tory peers attempted to scrap legal requirements for UK directors to consider their wider impacts.

CBI President John Sunderland’s has claimed that campaigners are creating a false opposition between the pursuit of profit and wider objectives such as social justice, public services and the protection of the weak and vulnerable.

This week an event will be staged to help generate more public discussion on moves to win better protection for people and the environment in Britain and overseas.

RIGHT CORPORATE WRONGS
How do we make business work for people and planet?

PUBLIC DEBATE Thursday 25 May 2006, 7.30-9pm

Key figures from business, politics and international development debate the big questions.

Speakers:

- Joanna Blythman, food chain campaigner and author (SHOPPED: The Shocking
Power of British Supermarkets)
- Dorothy Guerrero, Focus on the Global South (www.focusweb.org)
- Tony Juniper, Executive Director, Friends of the Earth
- Philippe Legrain, journalist, economist and author (Open World: The Truth about Globalisation') (www.philippelegrain.com)
- Malcolm Wicks MP, Minister for Energy in the Department for Trade & Industry
Chaired by Evan Davies, BBC Economics Editor

Venue: The Franklin Wilkins Building, Kings College (Waterloo Campus), Stamford
Street, London SE1 9NH (map www.kcl.ac.uk/maps/waterloo.html)

Free tickets for the event can be booked by email  reservations@actionaid.org or telephone 020 7561 7611.

- Can we rely on big business to do the right thing?
- Do we need governments to curb corporate power and make companies act more responsibly?
- How do we ensure multinationals contribute to sustainable development, trade justice and making poverty history?

Why now? The UK parliament is debating the Company Law Reform Bill. We have a unique opportunity to tackle irresponsible behaviour by UK companies by
changing the laws that govern how they operate.

Come to the event and/or find out how you can get more involved in Right Corporate Wrongs - the campaign to stop UK companies profiting at the expense of people and the planet.

For more information about Right Corporate Wrongs visit:
www.tjm.org.uk
www.actionaid.org.uk/corporates
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/corporates
www.waronwant.org

This event is brought to you by:
ActionAid www.actionaid.org.uk
Friends of the Earth www.foe.co.uk
People and Planet www.peopleandplanet.org
War on Want www.waronwant.org
All campaigning as part of the Trade Justice Movement (www.tjm.org.uk) and the Corporate Responsibility (CORE) Coalition (www.corporate-responsibility.org).

Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth, said: “Business is a major force in the modern world and it has the potential to be a real force for good. But there is a debate to be had about how companies best serve the broader interests of society. Who should govern corporate power? What checks should be in place? Business cannot just be allowed to continue with business as usual. The planet and people are paying the price.”

Focus on the Global South's Ms Guerrero said: "Our studies and the experience of people in grassroots organisations, in some of the world’s poorest countries where we work, reveal multinational companies have abused communities and the environment. They have also prevented workers from exercising their right to form independent unions. If Tony Blair wants to convince the developing world that his government cares as much for vulnerable people as for business, he must ensure that British law protects them from corporate abuse."

Joanna Blythman said: "UK supermarket giants abuse their power by forcing down pay and conditions for producers and suppliers here and in the third world. Unless our government acts, many of the poor who provide food for millions of people in Britain will find ministers' promises to help make poverty history hard to swallow."

A poll carried out by ICM for CORE and the Trade Justice Movement found 90 per cent of UK voters felt that “the government should set out enforceable rules to ensure companies are ‘socially responsible’ - for example to ensure companies do not damage the environment".

Over 100,000 supporters of CORE and the Trade Justice Movement have lobbied their MPs to support changes to the bill.

This week's debate heralds a series of meetings to be held across the country in June and July. Experts, activists and members of the public will discuss how to restrain corporate power and ensure multinational companies contribute to sustainable development, trade justice and making poverty history.