Briefs

SpaceX: Of Musk, For Musk, and By Musk

Ahead of SpaceX's IPO, Oxfam has released this brief to spotlight the company's contribution to inequality using Oxfam's Corporate Inequality Framework (CIF). Using this framework, the brief argues that SpaceX exemplifies a company that concentrates power and wealth while offering limited accountability. It highlights how Elon Musk’s dominant control, enabled by a multiclass share structure and a closely aligned board, undermines shareholder democracy and weakens oversight. At the same time, employees lack meaningful voice, and the company provides little transparency on pay equity or worker participation.

The brief underscores the risks posed by SpaceX’s deep political connections, significant public funding alongside minimal tax contributions, and growing influence over critical infrastructure like satellite communications. Despite strong market enthusiasm for its IPO, the paper concludes that SpaceX’s structure and practices reinforce inequality by disproportionately benefiting insiders and politically connected investors, while shifting financial, social, and environmental risks onto the broader public.

Navigating Grievance Mechanisms: A Pathway to Robust Accountability for Rightsholders

This Briefing for Business provides practical guidance for companies on how to design and implement effective grievance mechanisms as a core component of human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD). Building on the expectations set by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and emerging regulatory frameworks, it emphasizes that grievance mechanisms are not only a compliance requirement but a critical tool for identifying risks, enabling remedy, and strengthening accountability across operations and supply chains.

The paper argues that effective systems must be both people-centered—trusted, accessible, and shaped by rightsholders—and embedded within a broader grievance ecosystem that connects operational, brand, and multi-stakeholder level mechanisms. Each level plays a distinct but complementary role: operational mechanisms provide immediate, site-level access; brand-level systems extend accountability across supply chains and leverage influence to drive remedy; and multi-stakeholder mechanisms enable collective action to address systemic risks.

Across all levels, the briefing highlights a consistent implementation gap: mechanisms often remain compliance-driven, fragmented, and underused due to lack of trust, accessibility barriers, and limited rightsholder participation. In contrast, emerging good practices show that when mechanisms are designed with rightsholders, supported by local actors, and linked through clear escalation pathways, they can surface hidden risks, strengthen accountability, and deliver meaningful outcomes.

The briefing is structured in four parts:

(1) reframing grievance mechanisms as rights-based systems for remedy;

(2) examining different types of mechanisms and good practices across operational, brand, and multi-stakeholder levels;

(3) exploring how these mechanisms can function together as a layered and complementary system; and

(4) outlining practical steps to embed a people-centered approach across all levels.

Together, these elements support companies in moving from fragmented, compliance-driven approaches toward integrated systems that enable effective remedy, continuous learning, and long-term risk reduction.

Six Months In, Gaza Ceasefire is Failing: Humanitarian Scorecard

This scorecard evaluates the performance of the ceasefire agreement outlined in the Trump administration’s 20-point Gaza plan, as endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2803. It assesses progress against the plan’s stated objectives related to civilian protection, humanitarian access, reconstruction and economic development, and freedom of movement. Overall, the implementation of the plan received a failing grade. For civilians in Gaza, the consequences have been stark.

Resisting the Rule of the Rich

Protecting Freedom from Billionaire Power

A U.S.-Led G20 for the Billionaires? A Primer

What to expect from the 2026 U.S. G20 Presidency

US Tariff Wars and Inequality

This discussion paper explores the nature and consequences of new US tariffs and trade policy in 2025 – in particular their interaction with economic inequality domestically within the US, and internationally, an area that requires greater attention. It shows how current tariffs risk deepening domestic inequality and exacerbating global disparities. The paper suggests principles and policies that can advance a better and proactive alternative approach for trade, premised on reducing inequality and addressing injustice within and between countries.