Respublica: Business should serve the common good

A new report from this Conservative think tank asserts that the purpose of business is to serve the common good. That's something I can't disagree with, since it was where we started with a people-centered approach to economic development, by saying:

"At first glance, it might seem redundant to emphasize people as the central focus of economics. After all, isn't the purpose of economics, as well as business, people? Aren't people automatically the central focus of business and economic activities? Yes and no.

People certainly gain and benefit, but the rub is: which people? More than a billion children, women, and men on this planet suffer from hunger. It is a travesty that this is the case, a blight upon us all as a global social group. Perhaps an even greater travesty is that it does not have to be this way; the problems of human suffering on such a massive scale are not unsolvable. If a few businesses were conducted only slightly differently, much of the misery and suffering as we now know it could be eliminated. This is where the concept of a "people-centered" economics system comes in."

Blogging for Respublica Joanne Green of Catholic Social Teaching writes:

"Whilst staying silent on a preferred model of economic organisation, CST’s most fundamental challenge to the market, business and economy is that it must have a purpose and that purpose must be to serve wider society and indeed, the common good.  The Common Good can be summed up as seeking the good of all people, with no group or individual being left out"

At the Vatican however, there's a very clear indication of leaning toward a people-centered form of economics, as we described in our work for Ukraine:

"'This is a long-term permanently sustainable program, the basis for "people-centered" economic development. Core focus is always on people and their needs, with neediest people having first priority – as contrasted with the eternal chase for financial profit and numbers where people, social benefit, and human well-being are often and routinely overlooked or ignored altogether. This is in keeping with the fundamental objectives of Marshall Plan: policy aimed at hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. This is a bottom-up approach, starting with Ukraine's poorest and most desperate citizens, rather than a "top-down" approach that might not ever benefit them. They cannot wait, particularly children. Impedance by anyone or any group of people constitutes precisely what the original Marshall Plan was dedicated to opposing. Those who suffer most, and those in greatest need, must be helped first -- not secondarily, along the way or by the way. "

In 2009 a Catholic priest. Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, the President of the United Nations General Assembly said in a speech:

“The anti-values of greed, individualism and exclusion should be replaced by solidarity, common good and inclusion. The objective of our economic and social activity should not be the limitless, endless, mindless accumulation of wealth in a profit-centred economy but rather a people-centred economy that guarantees human needs, human rights, and human security, as well as conserves life on earth. These should be universal values that underpin our ethical and moral responsibility.”

Respublica is a think tank - how come they know none of this thinking?

Following the success of the Tomsk Regional Intiatve, this business was introduced to the UK in 2004 with a call for government support. We described the approach as profit-for- purpose,

"Traditional capitalism is an insufficient economic model allowing monetary outcomes as the bottom line with little regard to social needs. Bottom line must be taken one step further by at least some companies, past profit, to people. How profits are used is equally as important as creation of profits. Where profits can be brought to bear by willing individuals and companies to social benefit, so much the better. Moreover, this activity must be recognized and supported at government policy level as a badly needed, essential, and entirely legitimate enterprise activity.”

By the end of 2004 we were operational in Ukraine, with our primary focus of tackling poverty and childcare reform, describing a depository for disabled children in a place called Torez, which could not be named.

By 2007 recommendations for childcare reform in the 'Marshall Plan' had been applied by Ukraine's government  and led to a 40% increase in the rate of fostering/adoption. We needed support to ensure a family home for every child.

In 2009, Kyiv Post reported an 'Overlooked Success Story' of domestic adoptions. .

It was in 2010 that I called on newly elected PM David Cameron with a petition to support this approach to economic development, in which I described the conditions in which children lived - and died.

With a letter to USAID and the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations, we had made a follow up call in 2008 to be told there was no budget for helping this group of "retarded children"

By the end of 2010 we'd discovered that USAID wanted to do their own social enterprise initiative in Ukraine and we weren't welcome to participate. This was a corporate iniitiative which brought in The British Council, Erste Bank and Price Waterhouse Coopers, who were the only partner not to have been introduced to our peoposal directly.

Our late founder wrote to PWC, pointing out the potential abuse of IP:

"I'm not sure it would be appropriate to call the project to a halt on grounds of Intellectual Property Rights violations because the project is so badly needed for Ukraine. I am sure that the Ukrainian side will not think twice about IPR violations. Ukraine remains among the worst locations in the world for such violations. Without IPR protections, it is extremely unlikely that social enterprise can take root in Ukraine. Reason: any social enterprise project, anywhere in the world, which is capable of turning a profit can have the 'social' part stripped out in favor of increased financial profit. If you understand Ukraine, you surely understand that is instinctive. There is no cognitive loop involved. Ukrainians see no point and assign no importance for IPR. IPR theft is an Ukrainian sport."

 Our work had been very public, having made a point of publishing in a prominent news journal.  

As we are all now aware, the social problems that threatened the stability of Ukraine erupted into violent protest at the end of last year and as a consequence A Malaysian Airliner was shot down over the area of Ukraine controlled by separatists  The same area in which Death Camps, For Children had been found.

It would be an understatement to say that I was surprised to find a senior partner at PWC to be one of rhe contrbutors to the Respublica report.

Perish the thought that business for the common good should find support from the thinkers.

In 2010, a Respublica partner known as The People First Foundation established in Ukraine, It seemed to be linked to a relationship between Margaret Thatcher and former PM Yulia Tymoshenko.  Tymoshenko was going to model her new program on their ideas, we learned. 

"Mrs Tymoshenko indicated in her presentation that her inspiration was the website of the British Conservative party and has even included a link. One of the principle architects of current Conservative policy is the UK think tank 'ResPublica', a partner organisation of the People First Foundation."

The year after my petition to David Cameron, the Death Camps story would reach mainstream media. Martin Foley Martin Nunn of The People First Foundation  wrote about Torez:

"The Ukrainian maxim: “I saw nothing, my home is on the other side of the village” has no place in the modern world. If by our deliberate blindness, children are allowed to suffer such depravities then, by our inaction, we are all guilty."

Foley & Nunn are also a news agency with a code of ethics.  My introduction to the activism with Maidan wasn't welcome on Martin Foley's blog. He deleted it.  We's had much the same experience with the BBC who'd censored us back in 2006. 

Those aware of social conditions in Ukraine might be surprised to read that a leading oligarch was a champion of Ukraine's disabled children. Less surprising perhaps when one reads the list of USAID donors. He had pledged to resolve the problem in 5 years. With 18 months to go, there has been little to show in terms of progress. "We are all in this together", said David Cameron echoing our own words and they certainly were. A cabal of oligarchs, corporations and political NGOs.

"Allowing that some people do not matter, as things are turning out, allows that other people do not matter and those cracks are widening to swallow up more and more people. Social enterprise is the first concerted effort in the Information Age to at least attempt to rectify that problem, if only because letting it get worse and worse threatens more and more of us. Growing numbers of people are coming to understand that “them” might equal “me.” Call it compassion, or call it enlightened and increasingly impassioned self-interest. Either way, we are all in this together, and we will each have to decide for ourselves what it means to ignore someone to death, or not."

As recent news has revealed Cameron's Big Society fall far short of this kind of inclusion.  

In August 2011 our founder's death was reported by a Maidan leader who greatly valued his work. He was chronically ill and had no funds for medical treatment. Others came first.

Our purpose drivien business model distributes no dividend, deploying all surplus revenue for social benefit.  A Daily Mail article published soon after would reveal Philip Blond's own activities in Ukraine - applying a rather different model where dividends were used to support his hedonistic lifestyle.

That I guess explains the distance between bieng the change and making a living from talking about it, 

A man of words and not of deeds
Is like a garden full of weeds
And when the weeds begin to grow
It’s like a garden full of snow
And when the snow begins to fall
It’s like a bird upon the wall
And when the bird away does fly
It’s like an eagle in the sky
And when the sky begins to roar
It’s like a lion at the door
And when the door begins to crack
It’s like a stick across your back
And when your back begins to smart
It’s like a penknife in your heart
And when your heart begins to bleed
You’re dead, and dead, and dead indeed.

( Percy B Green)

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