The 43rd meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) was held in Davos, Switzerland on 23-27 January this year. The history and aims of the WEF are readily accessible from its website. It began life in 1971 as the European Management Forum in 1971 in Davos, Switzerland. Its motto is “committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political and academic leaders to shape global, regional and industry agendas”. In applying academic analysis to the business world, its founder Karl Schwab developed “stakeholder theory”. This theory holds that companies serve not only shareholders but all the “stakeholders” of their organisation. This means all the social groups connected directly or indirectly to the enterprise, employees, customers, suppliers, the state and society in which the enterprise is active. The questions that have to be asked are, which class or classes the forum serves and how it fulfils its tasks.
Delegates attending the WEF are there by invitation only. The average cost for each individual’s attendance is Rand 358,400 ($40,0000). This year 2,600 delegates representing 100 countries were invited, ranging from business leaders, heads of state, bankers, politicians, selected journalists, intellectuals and philanthropists. South Africa sent its largest delegation, 126 representatives accompanied by 9 ministers. The cost to the taxpayer is to say the least huge, most of it in foreign currency. The delegation included the ministers of Finance , Trade, Labour, Communications as well as the minister in charge of the National Planning Commission and the President, Jacob Zuma. The business tycoons who attended, included the CEOs of Nedbank, Absa, JSE, chairman of Anglo Gold, Ashanti and chairmen of state owned industries, Telkom and Transnet. As the WEF is thick on the ground with the rich and powerful and those who represent them politically, it is not surprising that the discussions there centred on the interests of the dominant classes, who control world affairs and the global economy.
The main concern of the five day 43rd WEF was the sluggish global economic recovery, specifically as regards the US economic doldrums and Europe’s continuing struggle to save the euro and overcome the financial and economic crisis (Ben Schreiner, Monthly Review, Jan 13). Business leaders at Davos sounded more optimistic, but poor growth, high youth unemployment in the advanced countries and impoverishment of the peripheral countries persist. Although there was much hype at Davos that banks had started repaying some of the cheap money they had borrowed from the ECB, evidence for this claim was lacking. One forum entitled “De-Risking Africa” dealt with “mitigating investment risk in Africa” and included two African presidents on the panel, South Africa’s Zuma and Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan. The moderator of the discussion asked how Africa’s leaders could ensure economic growth on the continent . Her concern was whether African leaders collectively entrenched democratic rights on the continent. Zuma, dealing with the strikes on the mines and the aftermath, laid the blame for the upheaval at one of the mining companies, which had negotiated with the “wrong union” and undermined the collective bargaining system. He did not discuss the role of the state and police in the Marikana massacre and assured the audience that all “stakeholders” had now got together around the table and that calm was descending on the labour scene.
The banks remain in deep trouble as the Dutch government’s nationalisation of the fourth biggest bank in Holland, showed. There have been plenty of speeches and debates at Davos on the global financial economic crisis, particularly since it began in 2008. However, observers of the WEF are sceptical that any definitive consensus or positive action can be expected after the participants leave Davos. As the Economist correspondent put it, “ The brainstorming, deal making and schmoozing is over for another year”. What is to be expected, judging by past experience of WEF conferences is that certain analyses cum predictions will prove to be deficient in credibility. Examples from the past are: in 2011, IMF chief Christine Lagarde, then French finance minister said “I think the euro zone has turned the corner. Let’s not short Europe and let’s not short the euro zone”. The people of Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland are in their daily lives having to fight against the harsh austerity measures imposed on them by the troika. In South Africa, the mineworkers and farm workers continue to resist the draconian regimes under which they are forced to work. It is their voices and those of their brothers and sisters all over the world fighting against the capitalist system, which increasingly will be heard.