They are said to dominate the world, the largest weighing more than our states. Factor or predatory global development lawless, transnational corporations (TNCs) are however a recent invention – born of deregulation – and still poorly studied. Juan Hernández Zubizarreta, professor of law at the University of the Basque Country and member of the anti-globalization network Linking Alternatives 1 , made ​​the object of study and activism. For The Courier, he sifts through this symbol of a globalization that works on the head actor 2 .

You are a professor of law. What defines you as a transnational corporation (TNC)? 
Juan Hernández Zubizarreta : In fact, it is a great company with legal seat matrix, is located in a developed country and has said, since there is power in other states, I call receivers or peripherals through various legal forms (subsidiaries, subcontractors, etc..). Practices and relations around the legal chain varies by sector, oil companies are not organized as banks or textiles, etc.. 
Their common feature is the use of all sorts of strategies and techniques offered by the globalization to evade their responsibilities. Globalization has broken the unity of space and time, creating an environment where transnational move like fish in water. With their sprawling structures, they multiply the tricks to maximize their cash and their interests. Deregulated, finance promotes the up-and-coming opaque. 
Yet, despite this transnational reality, these companies continue to be backed by national legal units. This legal instrument is manifestly exceeded, therefore, with others, I am campaigning for extraterritoriality.

Specifically, should we legally regulate these companies internationally or in their country of origin, as proposed by the Swiss NGO campaign Rights Without Borders?
Given the impunity they enjoy, I think all avenues should be explored ! Within Linking Alternatives, we work with an international treaty on the STN, which would establish a tribunal of economic rights. Far from it, as the United Nations, which should be the protector of the rights of people going in a different direction. The UN has also been colonized by TNCs. His proposals – the Global Compact and the Principles of John Ruggie (see below) – have the same flaw: they are in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is based on voluntary and self.

At the UN, it is the northern states which are the most unfavorable regulations. However, in terms of international competition or tax evasion, these democracies would benefit from a minimum of regulation, right?
There is not only the United Nations that these countries refuse any regulation. Why the European Union she refuses to give the minimum standards? There is a full complicity between governments and TNCs. There is a common identification of interest that goes beyond mere lobbying. We must not forget that they are communicating vessels! Several ministers from Mariano Rajoy boards TNCs. They will return one day, along with other former ministers. 
There is no need to imagine a shadow government or something like this: leaders of public and private are in constant contact, no politics n ‘ is decided without consultation. The first meeting of an elected Prime Minister of Spain, it is with the owners of the IBEX 35 (largest listed companies in Madrid, ed.) It is there that decide the consultation procedures and even the composition of the government. In return, the parties are widely sprayed to conduct lavish campaign. How else to explain that today, in 2013, there are still tax havens?

The G20 seems nevertheless decided to counter tax optimization. Are not you think?
No! It is important not to take their word! Remember Sarkozy: “We must reinvent capitalism! We will introduce a Tobin tax. There will be no more tax havens. “What lies! They are very clever messages, distilled to sleep social protest. “We are about to emerge from the crisis and after all will be well!” They occupy us with their words, but actually, legally, nothing changes. Seen with their black and gray lists of tax havens. Finally, all countries are left but tax havens are still there … 
In fact, they do not care a share of untaxed income. Political priority is not to raise revenue but to tackle spending.

TNCs have they done globalization or not they are the fruit?
They are the fruit. But now they have become a central actor. Transnational corporations are people, they have names and surnames, board controlled by the so-called ruling classes administration. By links that I described above, these networks also dominate states. The practice of transnational corporations is impossible to isolate the behavior of states, matrices or receivers. There has to see the strong reaction matrices States when receiving countries dare to touch the interests of TNCs. Immediately, these governments will join the “axis of evil”! 
The fourth player in globalization, consisting of international monetary organizations, IMF and World Bank, is no less embedded in the other.

By investing in the receiving countries, TNCs create jobs and contribute to the development of the South, right?
Ca, should be measured! That’s what advocates of the model say. When the rich Repsol goes to the Latin American poor, she brings their development. And besides, it brings wealth in the North. It would be win-win! Well, I say, measure it! What brought transnational upon what has been called the second landing, during the 1990s, and how much profit have they taken? How many jobs have they created and how have they destroyed? 
The idea that the installation of a TNC is necessarily good for the people is a myth. Studies conducted by the Observatory of transnational Latin America (OMAL) show that this is not true.In fact, the opposite would be surprising, these companies are extremely voracious, their goal is to make maximum profit in the shortest possible time. In addition, they have an inversely proportional to the legal system supposed to limit legal protection. International trade law is composed of a series of cells that – mixing WTO, free trade treaties and investment protection, as ICSID arbitration courts – surround states. If Repsol spurned Argentina, is frightening. The company took the case to court and private calls not only the repayment of its investment but also the profits it had expected to reap in the future! A true legal deception. But Repsol also attacked the Argentine government to court in New York and Madrid. We are faced with such an imbalance when one affected, as the Mapuche population, Repsol want to attack, they have no court to do so. They can not attack in Madrid, or the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which condemns the states. In contrast, the STN has been open three legal proceedings against Argentina …

What do you think of social clauses that the EU is included in its free trade treaties?
This is rhetoric. These treaties do not include any mechanism to make such environmental and social rights really applicable, effective, unlike the standards of patent protection, investment and other commercial rights legally regulated. The idea of a more social EU policy in this area is a myth, his treatises are heavily traded. And full opacity! Finally, recognizing the right of extraterritoriality in their companies, the United States are more advanced than Europe.

What do you think Atlantic Treaty negotiations between the U.S. and Europe?
Fears, of course. Imagine we had wind of fourteen meetings between employers and lobbies negotiators without the elect were included, nor the unions and social movements! 
Presumably the United States will try to weaken health and environmental standards to better penetrate the European market. Intent displayed by Europeans amuses me: “improving the arbitration system.” It is hollow, the confession that they impose on countries of the South is one-sided and they are afraid to undergo the same domination by the United States. 
As a lawyer, I find that these courts , acting only on commercial dimensions, violent under international law, since at the heart of this legislation are human rights. In law, the remaining provisions relating to commercial transactions should be subject to the Declaration of Human Rights and UN covenants. 
Legally, there is the upside. We continue to believe that fundamental rights, including social, are optional, they are finally realized when money will flow … It’s declarative law.

Switzerland is the fiscal dumping to attract TNCs. A widely supported political left, which sees resources for social policies and a creator of jobs. What do you think?
I think this is a mistake then left. Not only do these businesses create few jobs but more importantly, being highly mobile, they dismiss easily. They drop the crumbs. I think it’s worth well calculate that these companies will reap and what they will ultimately leave here. 
More fundamentally, look only at the tax windfall provided by these companies is quite hopeless from people who should show solidarity with the victims of these companies. Capitalism is already daunting enough without the need that the left cares to offer him asylum.

How can we oppose the omnipotence of TNCs? For example, to prevent the relocation blackmail?
Nation states – or better, the European Union – could without much difficulty to the rules disadvantaging relocations. A State could for example require full repayment of state aid received by the company goes. Or submit the relocation agreement with the works council. Or introduce a departure tax. Or require companies that sell products imported from those who sell products made ​​in the country of sale differently. Etc.. All these measures would be perfectly legal, it is only a matter of policy report. 
The other axis is of course to develop an awareness and practice of international trade unionism. But here, we are very far off, we remain in a national sense, while the international trade union confederations, which include millions of workers are completely bureaucratized, unable to appeal to the means of struggle of workers, the strike . They work only in a logic of dialogue that has much more to give. Today, it is virtually impossible in Europe to raise a works council of STN on a fight in another country. International solidarity is not just making a contribution to development aid is set up agendas of struggle and common goals. 
Finally, it goes through alliances with consumer groups and the development of responsible consumption, environmental and solidarity. The boycott can be a powerful weapon. But it must be used with workers in dialogue with the employees of the undertakings. And must still agree: that aim? And for what purpose?

In Latin America, an important social and political movement challenging the dominance of TNCs. Are they now stronger or weaker there fifteen years?
Stronger, except perhaps the “axis of evil” (Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela), which remains subject to the same pressure but managed to put safeguards. How was the power of transnational redeployed? We went from the logic of the Washington Consensus, focusing on privatization, the financial logic and repression, “consensus of commodities (CC)” (based on large-scale export of primary commodities, including natural resources ed) or neo-extractive model, which implies, as pointed out (geographer) David Harvey, dispossession more than exploitation.Under pressure from world prices, the main sources of profits of TNCs today are mining, oil and food, great devourers of land and territory. The phenomenon is particularly noticeable in America. 
However, in parallel, there has also been a very strong organization of Latin American social movement. Indigenous and peasant conquered a new role in history. In many countries, the old left was scanned. 
Finally, the formation of regional blocs, sometimes composed of progressive governments, is extremely positive. Faced with globalization, the alternative is in the region. There is therefore good reason to hope! 
The central question is this: left governments that have chosen to participate in neo-Extractivism to finance the policies they are transiently the time to build an alternative or Is there, in the old developmentalist strategy, their model is?

Maintaining STN, despite very critical discourse such as Evo Morales in Bolivia, suggests that we can not do without.
This is not the case. It is clear that this is not easy overnight. When Evo came to power, the Bolivian company Repsol-YPF is an empty shell. Repsol had only pump never invest. Or Evo had many open fronts, including with the breakaway right. He preferred to renegotiate contracts. The question is: can YPF does happen eventually Repsol? And the money that they can relate oil to prepare a different, independent economy TNCs. It is a matter of political will and planning. Obviously, it would be easier for states like Brazil or Argentina or Bolivia or Ecuador. But the will to change the model is unfortunately not exist. Hugo Chavez had understood, he tried everything to lead the two countries in a regional center. With his charisma and his constant travels, he managed to results. Unfortunately, his death could spell the end of regional integration, which will have serious consequences. I am almost certain that Ecuador will soon join his former business partners (Peru, Colombia) to sign a free trade agreement with the European Union …

• 1.www.enlazandoalternativas.org
• 2.Monday evening in Geneva, Susan George continue this discussion with his lecture “The rise of illegitimate authority, against transnational democracy” at the High School of Social Work (HETS), rue Pré-Jérôme, 20 h.