With globalization and liberalization, it is a dominant trend to deregulate nationally and re-regulate internationally on the issues of interest to capital; but in the interests of the people, for social rights, labour rights and human rights, deregulation nationally has not been accompanied with regulation internationally. This is generally left to the voluntary initiatives of CSR. Even the ILO jumped on the CSR bandwagon, and rather than asserting and demanding regulatory powers for compulsory implementation of its conventions, it is moving in reverse gear, going against its own objectives and shamefully singing the CSR song.

Ironically, CSR has generated a new business operation, that of verifying and auditing corporates’ CSR performance. A large number of NGOs have actually been co-opted by their participation in CSR auditing agencies and many others by providing substantial funding for CSR research and campaign. The result has been that these NGOs are actually doing everything to justify CSR, and with mild criticism seeking to maintain a neutral image. Sadly, the impact of these CSR activities has also been disastrous in the sense that it both directly and indirectly engenders in rights-based people’s consciousness a beggar’s consciousness and injects in them a deep dependency on this corporate-led initiative.