Many programs currently available specialize on the topic of CSR. But none, that we are aware of, expect corporations to compensate all their workers in the world with the exact same sense of fairness and, thus, the same benchmark; so that all workers worldwide may enjoy the same standard of living, within their own socio-economic ethos. This perpetuates a pattern of injustice and exploitation engendered by a zero-sum-game business culture.

In contrast, TLWNSI does precisely the opposite. It puts living wages above all other considerations and makes the point that there cannot exist any acceptable degree of Corporate Social Responsibility without all workers enjoying a living wage.

Nonetheless, we advance our mission in a very constructive manner through a program that generates long-term benefits for all: workers, corporations, governments and Civil Society at large. In fact, from a corporate perspective, TLWNSI is a long-term investment strategy to make the global market system far more sustainable. In this way, fair labour endowments through long-term sustainability, and vice versa, is our sole argument and the sole reason for our Alliance's existence.

Vision Statement

To achieve social justice in the world, where everyone enjoys true equal access to the opportunities to participate and equal treatment in their participation.

Mission Statement

The sole purpose of our Alliance is to contribute to global social justice by creating, at the micro-level, the ethos necessary to make all stakeholders of the global market system work to achieve equal terms of participation, so that all participants have the same opportunities to live a dignified life and benefit from a new and sustainable economic paradigm.

Principles

Inequality is Never a Choice While Coexistence is

Free market values cannot prevail over democratic values and the moral value of human solidarity, because people do not have the same opportunities and do not compete on equal terms. This is the central principle in the mission of our Alliance. People do not choose the socio-economic and political conditions where they are born. Thus, if we aspire to a peaceful coexistence of all cultures, we cannot allow a kind of capitalism where the economic survival of the fittest prevails, for if we reject human solidarity and peaceful coexistence, we can only expect unrelenting conflict and human destruction. Nonetheless, despite its many imperfections, capitalism, under a genuinely democratic framework, allows individuals the opportunity to freely develop their talents and earn a living in sync with human nature. Thus, through our collective thinking, taking the best ideas of social justice and capitalism will provide a balanced conception of the right path to a sustained economic development.

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Wealth Redistribution is the Key to Social Justice and Sustainability

Corporations and key financial institutions must be influenced to broaden their scope, so that human capital can be better valued. If all forces of society were to commit to gradual wealth redistribution, through a long-term vision, we would be decreasing the gap between rich and poor and generating a much stronger and sustainable consumer market. However, the MNCs, governments and financial institutions' thoughts are dominated by a "self" short-term interest, because to redistribute wealth, create a substantially larger market and achieve sustainability, will surely take a generation and a sustained commitment.

Comparative Gains in Labour Costs Must be Balanced with Comparative Gains in Social Justice

The IMF, World Bank and the regional development financial institutions' policy of conditionality in lending, currently limited to the opening of the markets, must be extended to include conditionality based on social development, poverty eradication and the rule of real democratic institutions. Market globalization cannot be above bottom-up democratic globalization, monetary values cannot supersede social values. In this way, we believe that the only decisive solution for sustainable development is an equitable economic system that generates wealth redistribution. Nonetheless, we cannot begin to advance in equitable economic development without securing a democratic environment. That is why it is of paramount importance to pressure the economic powers and their multilateral financial institutions to extend conditionality to true democracy and social justice. For, through truly democratic governments, societies can demand and obtain substantial gains in social justice, and wealth redistribution can be achieved. Therefore, parting from the premise that human solidarity ingrained in democratic values is the only form of stable coexistence and sustainable progress, we must move from today's prevailing neoliberalism to a sustainable-equitable-and-democratic ethos.

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A Living Wage is an Essential Human Right

Societies cannot be viable in a global system unless individuals have the right to live a dignified life through the use of their abilities, by earning the means to uphold this right above all social and political considerations. Therefore, all labour endowments that do not provide a dignified quality of life are exploitative of human conditions and fully violate this basic human right.