Governance Gaps in the Global Supply Chain by Auret van Heerden

Labor activist Auret van Heerden talks about the next frontier of workers' rights -- globalized industries where no single national body can keep workers safe and protected. How can we keep our global supply chains honest? Van Heerden makes the business case for fair labor. At the head of the Fair Labor Association, Auret van Heerden takes a practical approach to workers' rights, persuading corporations and NGOs to protect labor in global supply chains. 

Why You Should Listen to Him:

Raised in apartheid South Africa, Auret van Heerden became an activist early. As a student, he agitated for workers' rights and co-wrote a book on trade unionism; he was tortured and placed in solitary confinement, then exiled in 1987. (Later, in post-apartheid South Africa, he became labor attaché to the South African mission to the UN.) For the past decade he's been the president and CEO of the Fair Labor Association, or FLA, an initiative that brings together companies, NGOs and universities to develop and keep up international labor standards in global supply chains.

Founded in 1999, the FLA grew out of a task force convened by President Clinton to investigate and end child labor and other sweatshop practices. Difficult enough in the US, protecting labor is even more complex in the global economy, with its multiple sets of laws and layers of contractors and outsourcers. Policing the entire chain is impossible, so the FLA works instead to help all parties agree that protecting workers is the best way to do business, and agree on voluntary initiatives to get there.

Van Heerden and FLA create a safe space in which stakeholders representing different interest groups within a global supply chain can work together to resolve conflicts of rights and interests, filling in the governance gap. Van Heerden's newest initiative: the Institute for Social and Environmental Responsibility, which will conduct research and convene multi-stakeholder forums on corporate responsibility.

"The gold standard, I think, is the Fair Labor Association. It leads the way ... because its Secretariat is encouraged and even mandated to cast a critical eye on performance and to recommend practical innovations."

John Ruggie, UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights

Inside Job: A Documentary by Charles Ferguson

A brilliant new (dramatic) documentary from Academy Award® nominated filmmaker, Charles Ferguson ("No End In Sight"). Inside Job is the first film to expose the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, Inside Job traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia. Enjoy:)

Crisis of Capitalism by David Harvey

David Harvey, the British-born geographer and Professor of Anthropology, spoke at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) in London recently on the Crises of Capitalism. The RSA, in turn, produced this short animated feature.

Dr. Harvey, who is perhaps best known for his critique of neo-liberalism, remains one of the leading exponents of Marxist socio-economic thought. Having said this listen to his brief 11 minute lecture and see if there is anything with which you can disagree. Dr. Harvey is currently on a lecture tour for his Marxist critique of both the global financial crisis and the narratives told about it.

The principal question that he addresses is it time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that could be responsible, just and humane?