Labour Party PM Keir Starmer has once again shown that he’s on the side of capitalists, tweeting out his excitement to partner with BlackRock. The business is the largest asset management company in the world, with assets totalling over 10.5 trillion US dollars.
Kid Starver – er, Keir Starmer – himself tweeted:
I'm determined to deliver growth, create wealth and put more money in people’s pockets.
This can only be achieved by working in partnership with leading businesses, like @BlackRock, to capitalise on the UK’s position as a world leading hub for investment. pic.twitter.com/qDPpEYEYAh
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) November 21, 2024
“Only”? That can “only” be achieved by working with the largest companies in the world? Perhaps if the pockets he’s talking about are BlackRock CEO Larry Fink who has a net worth of $1.3 billion?
Starmer BlackRock: the capitalist supervillains
Just days ago, climate groups Friends of the Earth US and Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) submitted a complaint to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Their complaint alleges that BlackRock have been:
directly contributing to environmental and human rights abuses around the world through its investments in agribusiness.
The complaint lays out how BlackRock has invested in companies that are destroying rainforests, and with them eradicating sorely needed biodiversity. The asset management company are also accused of human rights abuses in what Friends of the Earth call “an epidemic of violence.”
The complaint accuses BlackRock of a number of violations:
including deforestation and environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, labor abuses, land grabbing, violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, violence against Human Rights Defenders, and corruption.
Friends of the Earth’s own research has found that BlackRock has more than $5 billion in invested in agribusiness. They found that since 2019, BlackRock have increased its investments in these companies by a whopping $519 million.
The executive coordinator of APIB, Dinamam Tuxá, said:
For years Indigenous Peoples have challenged BlackRock to stop financing companies that are illegally setting fire to the Amazon and violating communities’ land rights. But BlackRock has failed to prevent its investments from endangering entire peoples’ way of life.
The fact that Starmer doesn’t even refer to these grave allegations speaks volumes. He’s clearly only interested in putting money in the pockets of ultra-capitalists. Even, and especially, at the cost of indigenous communities and natural resources.
Human rights abuses: big business
BlackRock make such horrifying amounts of money, that these latest accusations are just part and parcel of being a successful capitalist – crushing indigenous communities, carrying out on an onslaught against the environment, and mixing government with business.
In other words, as one social media user said, the most “rapacious capitalists”:
If you know who BlackRock are, this is an incredible tweet for the prime minister to post. It reads like a paid ad! Basically announcing that he has capitulated to the most rapacious capitalists around and is signing Britain over to them https://t.co/DniDNgxxCm
— Jack Seale (@jackseale) November 22, 2024
Should a Labour prime minister be allied with the “face of corporate servitude”?
He literally tagged Blackrock in this. The face of corporate servitude and profiteering over national interests.
💀 https://t.co/2HCaaOGLbk— Bushra Shaikh (@Bushra1Shaikh) November 21, 2024
BlackRock are effectively cartoon villains, and Starmer is the useful idiot trying to worm his way in:
fucking BLACKROCK??
Were Evil Inc. busy tonight? Couldn't make it? https://t.co/LVb6rwOv9i— keewa 🇵🇸 (@keewa) November 21, 2024
Corporate interests
It’s difficult to overstate BlackRock’s influence. They have billions of dollars invested in Netflix, Apple, Google, ExxonMobil, Amazon, and many more. In fact, their response to the allegations of environmental and human rights abuses was basically to shrug their shoulders and say they’re too big for this kind of thing. A BlackRock spokesperson told the Guardian:
This complaint is meritless. As a fiduciary, our focus is to help our clients achieve their selected investment goals. The overwhelming majority of holdings referenced are held in index funds chosen by our clients themselves, and we cannot selectively divest from them
If there’s one thing that Starmer and BlackRock have in common, it’s weaselling out of moral responsibility. BlackRock deal with gigantic levels of capital. There is no scenario in which they can remotely be beneficial for everyday people. The fact Starmer seems to believe so shows that he thinks the British public are credulous fools.
Companies like BlackRock are seen as too big to fail, and certainly too big to bother with divesting from causing the planet and people harm. Now, where have we heard that before?
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/ITV News
