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ActionAid staff – not Corporate Muscle - bend the ear of David Laws MP
 ActionAid’s supporter services team in Chard met with David Laws, Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil on April 11 to lobby him to take action to make UK companies work for people and the environment.
Also present was the Corporate Muscle, which represents the powerful network of corporate giants that operate in the shadows of some of the world's largest corporations. Their mission is to increase the profits of global companies at the expense of some of the most vulnerable and poorest people.
Concern over the unbridled power of Corporate Muscle and his gang led ActionAid staff to meet face to face with local Somerset MP David Laws, to make sure that he heard their demands for amendments to the Company Law Reform Bill currently passing through Parliament. These amendments would see UK companies held to account for any harm their actions cause to local communities and the environment, in any part of the world where they operate.
The amendments are being proposed as part of the joint “Right Corporate Wrongs” campaign currently being run by the Trade Justice Movement and CORE, the Corporate Responsibility Coalition.
Alison Liney from the Supporter Services team, said:
"The overall experience was great and went very well. We were all a little nervous before the meeting as we thought David Laws would know much more than us, but he was keen to make the meeting relaxed and informal, and so made it easy for us to express our concerns.
He was very interested to hear why we wanted him to write to Alun Michael (he is going to do this), sign the EDM and support the amendments to the Company Law reform Bill. He is very pro-Trade Justice and he shared some first hand experiences of visiting a tannery in Ethiopia that supplies a UK leather company.
I would definitely lobby him again."
To find out more about the campaign and lobbying your MP, please click here.
Photo:
James Murrell, ActionAid
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