NEXT NEWSLETTER
No newsletter this December. However, the ten year anniversary newsletter will be out in mid-January in full technicolour glory; well, the cover will be in colour anyway. As for December and January action and event dates for your diary will be in the next news update.

NEW COMPANIES ACT

Corporate Watch aren't usually excited by new laws passed by government. This is usually because some legislation attacks civil liberties, is draconian, lacks teeth to actually achieve anything or are knee-jerk responses that pander to middle England.

Ahem, that aside, for many trade justice campaigners the new Companies Act displays a small ray of hope for change.

The Corporate Responsibility (CORE) coalition, consisting of over 130 charities and campaigning organisations, stated that 'the Companies Act...[is]...a step forward towards greater corporate responsibility, but [that]...new legislation has not gone far enough to ensure that British business will work for people and planet as well as profit.'[1]

So will this new legislation now affect companies behaviour or will it just look for new loopholes to exploit. If you're in a company that is confused by the act, why not turn to socially responsible PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) who provide:
'specialists [that have] consulted with regulators on various aspects of the Act, and are well placed to help companies identify and find solutions to any concerns that might emerge as a result of the legislation.'[2]
All this and PwC STILL insist on facilitating water privatisation in Sierra Leone[3], hmm, not very responsible.

Watch this space for reports on more companies flouting this new law and carrying on with business as usual.

POLICE STATE EDUCATION

A new and sadistic way of getting a student to leave a library is the subject of a meme going around featuring a student being tasered after refusing to leave the library after hours (and for not displaying his student ID). The footage was caputured by another student's mobile phone and shown on Youtube, an open-broadcasting website for people to share their, mostly homemade, videos[4].

The student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, was studying at the Powell's library, a place where on some days during December it is open from midnight to 5pm[5]). When he did not leave the library when asked and after refusing to display his ID he was tasered by the campus police. Interestingly, the UCLA cops do not include tasering on their list of services available for keeping students 'safe'[6].

According to the LA Times newspaper this is the third incident of video footage 'documenting questionable arrest tactics' in Los Angeles.

This seems to have bypassed the UK mainstream media's eye as at the time of writing, this story had only been reported on the UK Indymedia newswire[7] and through various networking and personal blogs.

Why not email Norman Abrams, the acting chancellor of the university with your concerns: chancellor@conet.ucla.edu

Don't forget to visit our Corporate Watch blog for more news and recent updates!

References
[1] Author Unknown, 'Press release 10th November', the CORE Coalition, www.corporate-responsibility.org/C2B/PressOffice/Index.asp?Type=2 viewed 22/11/06

[2] Author Unknown, 'UK Legislation: The Companies Act', PricewaterhouseCoopers, http://www.pwc.com/extweb/insights.nsf/
docid/AAC9AE48B33C7D1A80257220005BA2A8 viewed 22/11/06

[3] Author Unknown, 'Dirty Aid Dirty Water: Take action for Sierra Leone
PricewaterhouseCoopers PrivatisewaterCompanies', World Development Movement, wdm.org.uk/campaigns/aid/action/pwc.php, viewed 22/11/06

[4]Skycam,'UCLA Student Tasered by UCPD Police', http://www.youtube.com/ viewed 20/11/06 (be warned - it's quite horrible)

[5]UCLA Powell's library opening times, www2.library.ucla.edu/about/876.cfm viewed 22/11/06

[6]Author Unknown, 'Police Services', University of California Police Department, ucpd.ucla.edu/ucpd/services_police.html viewed 22/11/06

[7]Concerned, 'UCLA Student arrested and tazered for...not having correct student ID', UK Indymedia, 16/11/06, www.indymedia.org.uk
en/2006/11/356085.html?c=on#c161169, viewed 20/11/06