In the early 1970s, large groups of Dutch people declared themselves in solidarity with the reform politics of the Chilean President Allende.
At the time, the process of democratising the Chilean economy was threatened by the manipulations of multinational - mainly American - corporations with interests in Chile.
Several Third World organisations and sympathisers decided to establish a research bureau to monitor the activities and interests of these multinational companies.
SOMO provided publications and training for works councils and trade union executive groups of almost all the major multinationals which had their head offices in the Netherlands.
Since the end of the 1990s, research work has focused primarily on the themes of Corporate Social Responsibility, labour relationships in developing countries and international trade and investment.
In the period 2005-2010, the focus was on working conditions and the environment in production sectors, along with initiatives covering economic themes, such as ‘tax justice’ and reforming the financial markets.