Corporate Watch news

PATENTS ON FLOWERS: PROFITS TO BLOSSOM?
The European Patent Office is currently considering an application by crop science giant Syngenta to control the DNA that regulates the way flowers grow in rice plants. Read more...

NOT SUCH A CUDDLY PANDA – WWF acts to make GM soya ‘sustainable’
The World Wide Fund for Nature (now known as WWF) continues its career as the thinking corporation’s greenwasher with a recent initiative designed to extend the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) soya across much of Latin America.Read more...

LOGGING COMPANY SET FOR SPECTACULAR OWN GOAL - Tasmanian rainforest destroyer tries to sue protestors into silence
Gunns, the company responsible for logging the Tasmanian rainforests, is responding to a 5-year long campaign of protests and direct action by issuing a mass lawsuit...Read more...

NEWS IN BRIEF
According to a new Gallup poll, 84 percent of Icelanders want Iceland to be taken off the list of countries (called the "Coalition of the Willing") which support US military action in Iraq

The American prison company Management and Training Corporation (MTC), which set up Abu Ghraib jail, is now bidding to operate at least one prison in the UK and to build and manage several more

UK milk is allowed to contain up to 400,000 pus cells per millilitre - the pus comes from sores and other teat infections caused by modern farming practices

Tasers, which fire two barbed darts and then 50,000 volts into their victims, have been issued to some British police - the American CEO of Taser Inc recently addressed a 'Less Lethal Weapons Conference' in Dublin.

UK SEES HUGE RISE IN ALZHEIMERS, PARKINSONS
Report warns of a "potential major public health problem in the not-too-distant future". Read more...

NEW! FIRST CASE OF A CORPORATION GETTING ASBO'D
In June, the first Anti Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) case was brought against representatives of a corporation. Read more...

NEWS
UK GOVERNMENT DELIBERATELY SCRAPPED GREEN RESEARCH - WHEN IT STARTED TO THREATEN NUCLEAR POWER
A piece in the Daily Express recently highlighted the astonishing influence which the nuclear lobby have over UK governments. Read more...

THE ARMED FORCES OF COCA-COLA STRIKE AGAIN
Over a thousand community members adversely affected by Coca-Cola marched to the Coca-Cola factory premises in Mehdiganj, near the holy city of Varanasi in India on November 24, demanding that the factory be shut down. Read more...

BAD TRIPS
Ten years ago this year, more than 100 government ministers signed one of of the most devastating WTO agreements yet devised. Read more...

BOYCOTT BARCLAYS - HERE'S WHY
For over two decades, the Narmada Valley in central India has been the site of one of the country's most famous civil disobedience movements. Read more...

CHANGE IT!
In preparation for the G8 Summit, Seeds For Change launch their latest workshops designed to help you act - and they're free! Read more...

REVIEW:
Powerdown - Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World
Richard Heinberg published by Clairview 2004. Read more...

"Outstanding...a terrific piece of filmmaking" - the Daily Telegraph.
THE CORPORATION! IN UK & IRELAND CINEMAS NOW!
Dates and venues for the documentary of the year. Read more...

Remove Campsfield
On Saturday 27th November people will be gathering outside Campsfield Removal Centre to protest against the fact that it still exists. Refugees and migrants have been detained in Campsfield for the last eleven years, for no other reason than having the audacity to have been born in a different country and want to live in Britain. Read more...

SUBVERTISE GALLERY!
The Corporation
SUBVERTISE! is an exhibition of subverts and anti-corporate art. Displayed in cinemas across the country to coincide with the release of the film 'The Corporation', from 29th October.
See the gallery...
Read more about the exhibition...

WEBSITES OF THE MONTH
Recommended reading from the Corporate Watch Surfers. Read more...

STOP PRESS
PROTESTS AT HEBDEN BRIDGE IN YORKSHIRE. ACTIVISTS CLOSE ILLEGAL QUARRY IN PAPUK.
Another everyday story of developers moving into a protected site and trashing it with chainsaws has been taking place at Hebden Bridge, in Yorkshire. Read more...

THE REALLY INTERESTING EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM
Lying, backstabbing, controlling, disenfranchising - and that was just what people said about the organisers. Read more...

AND WHEN THEY RECOVER FROM THE CARNAGE...
Iraq is a breadbasket of the Middle East and the genetic origin of wheat. Is the US putting legislation in place in Iraq in preparation for commercialising GM wheat there in order to get a foothold in Asia? You bet it is. Read more...

Reviews
A bright idea from the underground and a new booklet from Rising Tide. Read more...

CONFERENCE LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE
On November 18th & 19th 2004, the Department of Geography and Sociology at Strathclyde University is hosting a two day research seminar on the topic of spin and corporate power in November. Read more...

EUROPEAN NGO's IN HUGE CORPORATE PROTEST
In an open letter published by the Corporate Europe Observatory last month, over 50 NGOs from more than a dozen EU countries called upon EU Commission President Barroso 'to act immediately to curb the excessive influence of corporate lobby groups over EU policymaking'. Read more...

WITHER THE ALTERNATIVE
A Corporate Watch US Election Special
- “Sooner or later, you're gonna listen to Ralph Nader”
Read more...

DISSENT!
“If you listen carefully to the celebrating voices, those of the rich and powerful in their corporate offices and government buildings, you can pick up a nervous undertone. Read more...

FILM: THE MEDIUM MAY BE MIXED BUT THE MESSAGE ISN'T
Three amazing films showing just what's happening in a variety of ways - is this going to be a habit? Read more...

INDYMEDIA SERVERS SEIZED
ON Thursday 7th October, claiming that it was acting as a “good corporate citizen”, the British web-hoster, Rackspace Managed Hosting, handed over two Indymedia servers to the American authorities. Read more...

SLOUGH ANTI-INCINERATOR NETWORK BRANCH OUT
Slough Anti-Incinerator Network (SAIN) have branched out. Well-attended public meetings held in Hounslow and Hillingdon have led to the formation of new anti-incinerator groups affiliated to SAIN. Read more...

SHEFFIELD FIGHTS BACK AGAINST CHINA'S MOST POWERFUL OVERLORD
Mast Protest gets Ring of Steel. Don't Buy 3G, say campaigners. Read more...

Feature
Nuclear Contamination in Reading:
A Very British Cover-Up
Corporate Watch continues to follow the case of radioactive contamination in Earley, Reading. In this issue, we expose the continuing corporate and governmental indifference and cover-up of the case, and the gross complacency of regulatory bodies. Read more...

Shell's Nuclear Past
Corporate Watch has some new findings to report on Shell's past involvement in the nuclear industry. Read more...

Cancer on the Beat
TETRA, a new police communication system, is being linked to a cancer epidemic among both cops and civilians living near transmission masts. The government, meanwhile, is rolling out the system as if nothing is wrong. Read more...

Republicans Not Welcome
A tide of protest has engulfed New York during the Republican National Convention. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets, saying “No” to the Bush agenda and promoting visions of a better world. Read more...

The Forest, the Quarry, and the Big Boss
Illegal quarrying in Croatia is threatening one of Europe's most sensitive forests. But activists opposing the destruction are facing a tight web of corruption and violence, weaved by the powerful industry mogul Vlado Zec. Read more...

Feature
Games of Shame
An estimated 4 billion people watched the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the biggest spectacle of our times. Few, however, are aware of the dark reality behind the polished surface of corporate-sponsored sporting: dozens of dead construction workers, sports gear made in sweatshops, and a militarised Athens where the homeless have mysteriously disappeared from the streets and every conversation is monitored. Read more...

Identity Crisis
The government's plans for compulsory identity cards are finally coming under the spotlight, with two anti-ID campaigns being launched in September. As activists prepare to turn up the pressure, we unmask the corporations propelling New Labour's drive towards a surveillance society. Read more...

Barcelona: Whose Forum?
Welcome to the Barcelona Forum 2004. “A new space for democratic reflection on the challenges of the 21st century”...or a corporate-sponsored spectacle heralding inner city gentrification? Read more...

Nanotech report raises red flags
When the government asked the Royal Society to assess nanotechnology, it was expecting the same rubber-stamping service that it got from it on GM foods. But the attempt has backfired, as the much-awaited report highlights a plethora of nano-risks and calls for enhanced regulation. Read more...

Iraq: The Looting Continues
Corporate exploitation of Iraq is moving into high gear, with Shell appointing a high-ranking executive to oversee its renewed business in the occupied country. Meanwhile, activists are organising a “Fat Cat Tour” in London to expose war profiteers. Read more...

Feature
A Burning Issue
Residents in Slough are fighting to remove the planning permissions for a monster incinerator on their doorstep. Severe health concerns, and the revelation of shady deals between the waste management company and local politicians, have led to public outcry and are fueling a powerful public campaign. By Stuart Melvin.

Animal Testing Gets Bigger and Badder
As campaigners corner vivisection labs into an increasingly uncomfortable position, a process of consolidation is sweeping the industry. New research reveals that larger firms are buying up independent labs, facilitating cost-cutting trends in the slumping pharmaceuticals industry. For animal rights campaigners, the results are a double-edged sword. By Max Gastone

PR: “We're Dangerous!”
The shady world of public relations is now seeking to clean up its own public image, with the profession's national Institute applying for a Royal Charter. Will this mean they won't be able to LIE anymore? Unlikely...

Steal the Water, Push the Powder
Nestlé is again on top of the list for corporate violations around breast-milk substitutes, a UK report reveals. Meanwhile in Brazil, residents are opposing a Nestlé/Perrier bottling plant, which is drying up one of the country's historic sources of mineral water. By Mike Brady.

Update
FBI continues harassment of art activist
Dr. Steven Kurtz, a member of the Critical Arts Ensemble, has been charged with four counts of mail and wire fraud, each carrying up to 20 years in prison. The FBI was earlier pursuing bioterrorism charges against him, based on campaigning materials which included some harmelss bacteria and a DNA extraction kit.

Feature
Iraq: A Mercenary's Paradise
Armed to the teeth and controlled by no-one, private security firms are on a rampage in Iraq. Mercenaries who have been involved with atrocities in Sierra Leon, Chile, Papua New Guinea and South Africa protect VIPs and installations. Now, the US government has awarded a UK firm, Aegis, with a generous contract to coordinate them all into one big army. Read more...

Armless Fun at Farnborough
The United Nations say that 90% of war victims are civilians and at least half of these children. Ironic then that Farnborough International 2004 should be using children to foster acceptance of weapons systems at its “air show” this year. Read more...

G8 Summit: Protests in a Military Zone
Surrounded by concrete, razor-wire and heavily-policed protests, leaders of the world's largest industrial states celebrated their yearly power-fest on a secluded island off the Georgia coast. On the other side of the Atlantic, activists launched their own actions of dissent - with an eye on next year's summit in the UK. Read more...

BIO2004 - Why Protests Aren’t NICE
Early this month, protests flared up in San Francisco against the world's largest gathering of the biotechnology industry. Amid complaints about the radical tactics and the polarisation of the debate, John Hepburn argues that when people are denied control of their technological future, the only choice is disobedience. Read more...

PATRIOT Act Unleashed on Biotech Activists
Authorities are pursuing a Kafkaesque “terrorism” case against Steven Kurtz - an art professor promoting public education on the biotechnology industry. The evidence: a mobile kit for detecting GMOs in food, and three cultures of harmless bacteria. Read more...

Who guards the guardians?
The gatekeepers of the legal profession have never looked favourably on challenges to the hegemony of their guild. Recently, top lawyers have been giving a hard time to one group in particular: the Environmental Law Centre (ELC), a volunteer organisation advising the victims of ecological crimes. Read more...

Review
Oil on Canvas
Guests at the National Portrait Awards this week could not enter the event without facing a simple question from campaigners: why are we still going to art galleries sponsored by oil companies? While disrupting the BP-funded festivities, they also set up an alternative exhibition to highlight the dangers of climate chaos caused by our oil economy. Read more...

Feature
PRO WAR, PRO BUSH AND BUYING UP THE AIRWAVES
Clear Channel - Just who will you be listening to?
As Tony Blair instigates deregulation of the UK radio market, corporates are preparing to take over. The most notorious, and most likely to succeed in the UK market, is US conglomerate Clear Channel. Read more...

US HEALTH CORPS PREPARE TO SWOOP ON NHS
UK government colludes in 'fundamentally flawed' report.
Backroom plans to privatise the NHS have already got the American health industry scenting blood. Now the UK government has come out with a report which shows that one of them, Kaiser Permanente, can offer the same level of service as the NHS, but at cheaper prices. There's only one problem. The report is wrong. Read more...

TESCO, WAL-MART SELL WHALE MEAT IN JAPAN
As part of their respective bids for world domination, Tesco and Wal-Mart both own chains of stores in Japan. All these chains are currently selling the meat of whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans), hunted cruelly and often illegally. Read more...

BUSH ADMINISTRATION FAILS TO STIFLE FREE SPEECH
GreenPeace USA Acquitted of "Sailor-mongering" (yes, really)
Miami Judge throws Bush administration out of court, dismissing an attempt to crack down on Greenpeace USA on the pretext of an antiquated charge. Read more...

CAMPAIGNERS HOLDING OUT AGAINST TOXIC CORP
'We must bite the bullet and implement 21st century waste-management'
Campaigners in County Cork, Ireland have forced the state into a corner over the planning application for a 100,000 tonne hazardous waste incinerator. Read more...

COCA COLA - 'WAR VERSUS THE PEOPLE'
Reports from Colombia and Venezuela
Robinson Remolina died on April 20, 2004. His attackers entered the house with automatic weapons and indiscriminately opened fire, killing his mother, father and wounding two of his siblings. His crime - being a relative of a Colombian trade unionist. Read more...

PIPELINE ACTIVIST ARRESTED AND TORTURED
Land Seizures Continue in Turkey
Kurdish human rights activist Ferhat Kaya has again been imprisoned following protests against BP's (UK government funded) trans-Caucasus pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan). Read more...

Bullying & Bribery - the new Olympic Games
As London's bid to host the 2012 Olympics steams patriotically ahead, a Corporate Watch investigation has revealed that Ken Livingstone's London Development Agency (LDA) are threatening residents of the proposed Olympic site with Compulsory Purchase Orders if they do not agree to sell their homes and businesses, and relocate to make way for the developers. Read more...

Victory!
Once in a while we actually win. The PR machine fails, the people say no, direct action stops things. The best laid plans of corporations and politicians go awry, corporate schemes are thwarted or frustrated and GM crops fail to be planted. On the last day of March 2004 Bayer Cropscience quietly let it be known that they would not commercialise the only strain of GM seeds that could be ever expected to get official clearance in the foreseeable future. Read more...

New War Profiteer website launched on anniversary of Iraq invasion
One year after the United States launched the dawn invasion of Iraq, war profiteering by multinational companies is at an all-time high with military contractors dramatically boosting revenues by 19% over 2002. Read more...

And now for the bad news....
Take a look at European law and you find deals which wouldn't look out of place in a Mafia social club; together with a totalitarian master plan of such dazzling brilliance (or imbecility, depending on how you look at it) that it makes the average Bond villain look like a rank amateur with an attitude problem. Read more...

Update on breast cancer genes: Patent granted on BRCA2
Cancer Research UK announced on February 11th 2004 that it had obtained a European-wide patent on the cancer susceptibility gene, BRCA2. This update aims to provide a context for this development, in order to understand why the patent was sought, the impacts it could have and how it relates to the three patents granted by the European Patent Office to Myriad Genetics Read more....

Uncaged Campaigns Action Alert
Global Boycott Procter & Gamble Day: 22nd May 2004
People across the world are invited to participate in the annual Global Boycott Procter & Gamble Day VIII on Saturday 22nd May 2004 - one of the most popular and successful boycott campaigns in the world. Yet one in which there is a role for everyone “from the armchair campaigner to experienced groups of activists. Read more...

BLACKWOOD - PROTESTS WILL CONTINUE
The oldest trees in St David's Wood, Blackwood, were among the last to fall. As the bailiffs moved in to remove the last fifteen or so people trying to save the woodland, both local protestors and supporters were in tears. Read more...

MORE REASONS TO SAVE BLACKWOOD
The already notorious road to be built through St David's Wood in Blackwood, Wales, and the double bypass which is due to bisect the small and peaceful valley, are due to serve an extraordinary purpose. Corporate Watch feels it is important to highlight that behind this mass destruction are two corporations already known for being among the most destructive on the planet. Read more...

The Corporation as Psychopath
A new film and book, currently only available in Canada, are taking the country by storm. The book is titled: The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. It is by Joel Bakan (Free Press, 2004). The movie is called: The Corporation. It is by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, and Joel Bakan. Read more...

ANALYSIS:
CORPORATE COLONIES
Molly Scott Cato. It took we Europeans some 200 years to work out that exercising power over other people’s countries was not a good idea. We were amazed and disbelieving at their violent reaction to what we considered our benevolent and life-enhancing rule. Read more...

CORPORATE POWER V THE PEOPLE: THE SITUATION IN VENEZUALA
By Dario Azzelini. These days the audience of Venezuela’s four most important private TV-channels must have the impression that there is a popular revolt against the Chávez government going on. Globovision is in a leading position with an uninterrupted live program. Read more...

DAMS IN ACTION: A SPECIAL REPORT FROM TURKEY
The Tragedy of Turkey's Dams by Jon Bawn. In a remote corner of north-eastern Anatolia, Turkey’s dam building program is now surging ahead. The fearsome torrent of the Çoruh river is the latest sad casualty of Turkey’s merciless Hydroelectric Power (HEP) program. Read more...

DAMBUSTERS
Plans for a potentially devastating dam in Belize are going ahead, after a split vote by the UK Privy Council (still the highest authority for the island). The three-judge majority acknowledged that the proposed dam would flood an area scientists say is 'one of the most biologically rich and diverse regions remaining in Central America,' home to such endangered species as the jaguar, tapir, and the last 200 remaining scarlet macaws in Belize. Corporate Watch publishes an interview with anti-dam activists. Read more...

WELCOME TO THE MACHINES
More on the US' unaccountable voting machines: Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and PR giant Burson-Marsteller are launching "Help Ohio Vote," a state-wide, 18-month, $15.3 million PR and advertising campaign "educating Ohio voters about new [electronic] voting machines." Read more...

NEW COURSE FOR EARTHY ACTIVISTS
Earth Activist Training, 10th - 24th July 2004, England with Starhawk & Erik Ohlsen, Ragmans Lane Farm, Gloucestershire. Read more...

HUMOUR!
UNUSED AUDIO COMMENTARY BY HOWARD ZINN AND NOAM CHOMSKY, RECORDED SUMMER 2002
An anti-capitalist deconstruction of Lord of the Rings.
(At least, Corporate Watch thinks it's a spoof...) Read more...

Costain v the Earth: The battle for St David's Wood, Blackwood, Gwent
by Lucy Michaels
What would you do if you had a £54 million regeneration grant to develop a small ex-mining town in South Wales? Give it to a major construction firm to build a road that no one wants, of course. Read more...

CORPORATE COVERAGE - ISRAEL, PALESTINE AND THE BBC
By Former BBC Middle East Correspondent, Tim Llewellyn
Why is the BBC so poor at covering Israel/Palestine (I am referring to the BBC's domestic output - BBC World Service and, to some extent, BBC World TV could easily be the product of a different organisation)? Read more...

ANALYSIS: REPORT FROM THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM.
In the third week of January, close to 90,000 people from around the world gathered in Mumbai as part of the fourth World Social Forum (WSF). The level of organization and sheer number of people who participated in this event reflected the growing intensity and momentum of the anti-globalization movement. Read more...

US ELECTION UPDATE - THERE TODAY, HERE TOMORROW?
The news that something is going horribly wrong with the American electoral voting system is starting to filter into the mainstream. CW readers may remember the US’s new electronic voting machines, which are currently being installed across America. Read more...

New Sea Turtle Campaign Takes Aim at Industrial Longline Fishing and Mercury Poisoned Seafood by Dr. Robert Ovetz
Chanting "Get on the right track… stop killing the leatherback!," a festive
protest by people of many ages dressed in colorful turtle costumes wound its way along the busy streets of San Francisco's Fishermen's Wharf. Read more...

DIE BOLD
Typing 'voting machines USA' into the net will bring you up an array of exhaustive research, all of it backed up to the teeth, but still curiously toothless. It's as if the scandal is too big to really tackle; a giant tsunami of a scandal, which makes people just stand there helplessly waving, before they drown. The American people, reads the semaphore, are going to get George Bush in the next election, like it or not, because he is going to cheat. Read more...

TOWN & OUT I
Welcome to the small sad life of the corporate UK town. Corporate Watch hears the story of one man trying to stop the destruction... Supermarket Man. Read more...

TOWN & OUT II
Five years ago Farnborough (Hampshire) had a thriving town centre. For the last four years, KPI, a Kuwaiti-financed property company, has been laying waste to the town centre. The latest plans are to destroy the entire northern half of the town centre for a superstore. Farnborough resident KEITH PARKINS reports on yet another market town facing disaster. Read more...

UPDATE: Killer-Coke Campaign
On 22 July 2003, an international boycott was launched against Coca-Cola. The campaign wasdesigned to bring huge public pressure on the corporation to ensure that workers in its subsidiaries abroad are fully protected by the company from attacks, and are allowed to organise freely in trade unions. There are signs that the campaign is already having an impact with investors dumping large amounts of Coca-Cola shares due to the uncertain climate in which Coca-Cola now operates. Read more...

Analysis
PUTTING THE BOSSES IN THE DOCK:
A case of too many rights and too few responsibilities
By Simon Pemberton
We take a look at New Labour’s election manifesto pledges to reform the law on corporate killing. To date these pledges remain unfulfilled, however proposals for reform to the existing law have been in circulation since May 2000. A further two years after the publication of these proposals, the Home Office conducted a Regulatory Impact Assessment amongst areas of the private sector with the worst Health and Safety records. Read more...

GUEST PIECE
A view from America.
Ten Good Things About a Bad Year by Medea Benjamin (Alternet). Read more...

NEW ETHICAL CAREERS BRIEFING
Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) has just brought out a new briefing entitled 'Your career and sustainable development'. It describes an innovative approach that will help scientists and engineers incorporate environmental and social considerations into their work. Read more...

News
REMEMBER YUSTINUS
Yustinus Murib was a local leader of the OPM; or the Free West Papua Movement. For almost forty years, people in West Papua have been fighting the Indonesian government's attempts at colonisation. They have also been fighting the transnational corporations who, with the backing of the Indonesian government, arrived in the area with one purpose; to exploit as much of West Papua's wealth as possible. Read more...

IRAQ UPDATE
Billions of dollars of oil money from Iraq, which were transferred to the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), disappeared into a 'financial black hole'; according to a report issued by Christian Aid in October. Out of the $5 billion dollars collected (from pre and post war oil revenues and invested assets) the humanitarian agency worked out that only around $1 billion dollars could be accounted for. Read more...

CORE BLIMEY!
The Corporate Responsibility (CORE) Coalition are campaigning for key elements of Corporate Responsibility to become law by the end of the next parliamentary session - but this will only happen if the Corporate Responsibility Bill is taken up in the Ballot. Read more...

Analysis
PERMWAR
The most frequently heard question about Labour’s foreign policy is why. Why does Tony Blair follow so slavishly the imperialist adventures of a corporate-controlled hick? Why does he risk our European friendships for the sake of a few warm handshakes on global TV? These questions are often asked rhetorically, but they have an answer. That answer is the need to safeguard global finance capitalism. Read more...

Feature
DIALOGUE WITH DECISION MAKERS
Corporate Watch publishes the latest study from the Oxford Research Group. This handbook is designed to enable you to quickly understand a successful method of dialogue with decision-makers. Read more...

DAM
ACTION: Plans for a devastating dam in the Macal River Valley in Belize are moving ahead. A little over a year after environmentalists managed to block construction, Fortis, Inc., of Canada has contracted a Chinese construction company to begin building. Read more...

EXCUSE ME, ARE YOU GOING TO THE ARMS FAIR?
EYEWITNESS: Arms dealers are people too. Corporate Watch visits the DSEi arms fair in London's docklands and talks to the businessmen attending. Read more...

BRITTLE POWER
INSIGHT: The recent cascading power failures along the entire east coast of North America were a graphic illustration of the vulnerability and brittleness of hard energy supply paths. They were not due to a dilapidated grid, though that would not have helped. Nor was the problem new - it had happened before. Read more...

LEVI'S EVILS
NEWS: Levi-Strauss, that all-american brand, has announced the closure of its remaining factories in the US and Canada. Almost 2,000 jobs will be lost as the company joins the now familiar race-to-the-bottom in transferring its manufacturing operations offshore. Read more...

KISS DEMOCRACY GOODBYE
...unless you’re the head of a multinational corporation or powerful enough to lunch with government ministers. In the first in our occasional series of guest pieces: this from a recent issue of the excellent magazine VIVA! Tony Wardle discusses democracy and corporations. Read more...

FROM SHOOTING TO SHAKING IN NIGERIA
Oil Multinational Concedes to Female Protest
The Niger Delta should be one of the richest regions in West Africa. It is, after all, the sixth largest exporter of oil in the world, and the fifth largest supplier to the USA. Oil revenues there bring in around $20 billion a year. But, as usual when a two-thirds world country is supplying the West with luxury goods, the people on the ground are the last to see any benefit. On the contrary; the Niger Delta is one of the poorest regions in the area.

URGENT ALERT FROM PESTICIDE ACTION NETWORK UK
An opportunity which may not come round again for decades has arisen. Please would you make a submission to the government’s two public consultations enclosed. There is strong opposition to these proposals from the agrochemical industry and industrial farming lobby: all responses from members of the public are crucial.

US KINDLY LIBERATES IRAQI PRESS
In response to Iraq's burgeoning media, the $5 million-a-month propaganda wing of the US occupation force, the Iraqi Media Network (formerly Iraqi state TV & radio), recently unveiled its plans to expand. Royal Marine Col. Steven Bruce, chief of staff of the Coalition Provision Authority (CPA) - South Central, said some 14 Iraqi television stations will be linked to IMN. 'I'm British, and I consider the IMN the BBC of Iraq,' he said, apparently without irony.

HISTORIC ANIMAL TEST BAN THREATENED
You can't search L'Oreal's website. There's no superpowered engine to help curious visitors; just a slick layout which directs you to the things that the world's largest cosmetics company want you to know. Such as the fact that their profits are up by 7.1% so far this year. Or the fact that they're “changing lives” in an outbreak of “social responsibility” by helping 200 women train as hairdressers in Thailand and Brazil. “Think globally, act locally” the website urges, ironically echoing the cry of anti-corporate protesters worldwide.

DSEi GEARS UP FOR GRIEF
This year's lamentable spectacle of countries shopping at Europe's largest arms fair in London's Docklands (see Corporate Watch Newsletter Issue 14) will be countered by demonstrations of thousands of people; according to police. “It's going to be big” one policeman confirmed, as people across the UK continued with their pre-event plans to inform,disrupt and challenge.

Enron and on…and on…and on
Steve Tombs and Dave Whyte
The first article for Corporate Watch from a collective of writers on corporate crime issues, here looking at the aftermath of the Enron collapse and analysing how its lessons have not been learnt. Read more.

Every little hurts...Tesco on Trial at its AGM 13th June 2003
Lucy Michaels
Annual General Meetings (AGMs) are one of those rare opportunities to confront the people behind the corporate facade. At its AGM in London two weeks ago, Tesco's board of directors faced tough questioning from various sources ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. Read more.

Eating Iraq
A former Cargill executive is now in charge of 'reconstruction' of agriculture in Iraq, and Syngenta is lining up for a share of the spoils. So just whose interests is teh US working in? Read more.

BP chases 'free public money' for Baku-Ceyhan pipeline.
The battle over BP's controversial $3.5bn Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline entered a new phase last week as the project began the approval process for World Bank and European funding.
BP is seeking $150m each from the International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank) and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The next stage of the approval process lasts 120 days and is being vigorously opposed by a coalition of campaigners.
Read more.

Health goes corporate
The Health and Social Care Bill, which will end the role of the NHS as a universal health care system, and shift the nature of UK health care to a market-based service, gets its third and final reading within the next few weeks. Read more

Around the Web
Iraqi reconstruction...GM report from Action Aid...Bargoed bypass campaign... Read more

Food in a Failed Market - A one day conference on the Corporate Control of the Food Chain
On Wednesday, 30th April, Grassroots Action on Food and Farming (a daughter-project of Corporate Watch), in conjunction with the Small and Family Farmers Association, hosted a conference at the Reading International Solidarity Centre (RISC). Read more...

Sugar industry loses sweetness
The International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) is accredited to the WHO and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and dedicated to "being part of a solution to the problem of obesity through a strategy of health promotion programs designed to promote balanced nutrition". Sounds great. Unfortunately, its donors list reads like a who's who of corporations dedicated to promoting obesity. British Sugar Plc, Burger King, Coca-Cola, Interbrew, Mars, Nestle, Pepsi-Co etc., etc. Read more...

Vivendi’s Empire-building
According to the World Bank, the water markets of the world are worth up to $800 billion, which makes them comparable in scale to the fossil fuel markets. And French transnational Vivendi is one of the water 'majors'. Full story. Read more...

Group 4 to Pull Out of Prisons and Immigration Detention?
After buying the U.S. based multinational Wackenhut Corporation last year, Group 4 Falck AS was to be the biggest private prison and refugee detention provider in the UK, and have a significant share worldwide. But at the beginning of the month it announced plans to sell its 57% share of Wackenhut Corrections Corp. Read more...

Genetix RoundUp
US to use WTO to force EU to eat GMO...bad news for Bayer in Australia...Syngenta 'bundling' new barley hybrid with chemical package Read more...

PR Week is watching you
In evident imitation of your favourite anti-corporate research group, PR Week, the public relations trade journal this month launched a new regular feature, NGO Watch. NGO Watch ranks NGOs’ public profile according to the number of mentions they receive in the media each month and provides commentary. Read more...

BP Executive To Head New Iraq National Oil Company?
Since the beginning of the war in Iraq there has been increasing speculation about which companies will benefit. As the Ba'ath Party regime is replaced with one more friendly to foreign interests Western oil majors will be some of the first to enter Baghdad. These companies have been coveting Iraq's oil wealth and over recent years, even with crippling UN sanctions in place, competition among the companies for Iraqi oil concessions has been fierce. Read more.

The Very Greedy Caterpillar
On 16th March 2003 Rachel Corrie, a 23 year old US citizen was killed trying to prevent an illegal home demolition by the Israeli military. Rachel, a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was deliberately killed by an IDF soldier driving a Caterpillar D-9 bulldozer. The driver then backed up and ran over her again. Although Rachel is the first American to die in this way in Palestine she is only one of several civilians that have been killed there in recent years using Caterpillar bulldozers. Read more.

Boomtime for Bechtel
After several weeks of media examination, the privately-owned Bechtel Group Inc. has emerged victorious in the somewhat questionable bidding process to reconstruct Iraq. Bechtel has received attention primarily for its close ties with the US government, with former Secretary of State George Schultz as a board member. It is a generous contributor to politicians, providing $1,297,465 to candidates between 1999 and 2002, with 59 percent going to Republicans. Read more.

Halliburton loses the battle* but wins the War
*(well the $900 million contract for rebuilding the basic infrastructure of Iraq)
"The Bush-Cheney team have turned the United States in to a family business... That's why we haven't seen Cheney - he's cutting deals with his old buddies who gave him a multimillion dollar golden handshake. Have they no grace, no shame, no common sense? Why don't they just have Enron run America? Or Zapata Petroleum (George W. Bush's failed oil-exploration venture) build a pipeline across Afghanistan?" Read more.

MaxiMegaSoft - the hard sell: Microsoft and Bill Gates, Degrees of Capture: Universities, the oil industry and climate change The Lost War: Consumer demand for coltan fueling war in the Congo
PLUS: News stories, book reviews and Genetix Update.

Dis-Asda on the Old Kent Road!
Campaigners living on the Old Kent Road, South London, feel that they do not need another supermarket development and have decided to resist Asda's attempts to move in. Find out how you can support their campaign and read why its essential to stop Asda-Wal-Mart from taking control of our food supply. No War! No Wal-Mart! Read more..

WARMONGERS OF LONDON WALK
ANTI-WAR MARCH, FEBRUARY 15 2003, CENTRAL LONDON
On Saturday up to a million people will gather in central London to demonstrate against the bloodthirsty cabal in whose name this war is being fought, and to insist that there can be no blood for arms and oil.

If you are planning to be at the march you may want to know that the two routes will be passing the doorsteps of some of the major corporate beneficiaries in this likely war on Iraq. Read more - PDF download (500kb)

Doing the right thing for the wrong reason
or, 'It's the oil, stupid.'
Recent events suggest that the French, Germans and Russians are acting on peace-loving altruistic impulses in opposing US and UK aggression against Iraq. Some might think that this new 'axis of peace' have placed their faith in UN inspectors and are at last listening the strong anti-war movements within their countries. However, a closer look at the facts reveals a depressing story of rich elites acting to preserve economic interests. Read more

Supermarket Sweepstakes
by Kathryn Tulip
The race is on and the prize is control of Safeway, the UK’s fourth largest supermarket. So far three retailers; Morrison, Sainsbury’s and Asda-Walmart together with US venture capitalists Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Philip Green (owner of Top Shop and British Home Stores) are in the running to take over Safeway. All are jockeying to make the most attractive pitch to Safeway shareholders. But the bookmaker’s money is firmly behind Asda-Walmart. read more

Nestlé want $6m from starving Ethiopians
Just before Christmas, an Oxfam campaign exposed how Nestlé, as if afraid its public image was getting too positive, has shot itself in the foot by demanding a compensation settlement of around US$6m from the Ethiopian government for the 1975 nationalisation of a company they didn’t even own at the time. Full story.

Update - Nike in free speech battle
On 10th January, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the Nike’s appeal against the California Supreme Court’s ruling that Nike’s PR lying activities are not eligible for ‘free speech’ protection. The U.S. Supreme will hear arguments this spring and issue a ruling by late June on the Constitutional implications of the ruling - essentially, the issue of whether free speech rights extend to corporations.
Full story.

Arms for Farms
On 18th October, British ambassador Lloyd Smith and Deputy Prime Minister General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh signed a deal worth £1 billion guaranteeing financial help to Thailand to develop its agricultural industry and the promotion of Thai food produce in Britain and around the world in exchange for Britain supplying Thailand with Hawk jets, guns, riot control equipment and second-hand frigates. Full story.

McDollars in the s***
McDonalds shares plunged last week after the burgermonster announced it is closing 175 ‘restaurants’ in ten countries, with the loss of 600 jobs. The company is pulling out of three countries entirely, though it has yet to annouce which - they are said to be in the Middle East and Latin America, suggesting that part of their problem is McDollars’ bad image as a symbol of US imperialism. Full story.

Nike in free speech battle by Rebecca Spencer
Not, as you might expect, a story about the überbrand clamping down on opponents. Instead, Nike (poor abused political dissident that it is) is in fact fighting for its own ‘right’ to free speech, in a case which is making waves across US corporate law and activism circles. Full story.

NATO prepares to expand…but at whose expense? by Pippa Gallop
Next week sees the first NATO summit to be held in a former Eastern Bloc country, and once again, thousands of people are expected to converge on Prague to protest against the organisation, both for its policies and its very existence. But who will gain - and lose - from further expansion? Full story.

Around the web
BAT out of Burma campaign launched…nuclear dump in Snowdonia…PFI schools falling down…African conference on biotechnology and food security…Plan Puebla Panama - what is it?…COP 8 reports…greenwash award for General Motors… read more.

Britain’s top arms salesmen exposed - Tony Blair and Prince Andrew
We were led to the conclusion that Tony Blair had read too much George Orwell last week. Taking the 1984 dictum ‘War is Peace’ slightly too literally, he used talks with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee aimed at stabilising the situation in Kashmir to promote the sale of approximately £1bn-worth of BAe Systems Hawk jets. Read more...

The PRIVATE sector
Review: PFI vs. Democracy, Melanie MacFadyean and David Rowland
This series of pamphlets offers case studies which critique the implementation of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and similar schemes. The pamphlets do not focus on the internal issues of cost effectiveness, excessive profits for private companies and risk transfer, because, as the Foreword to the series notes, ‘the government steadfastly refuses to enter into the debate’. Instead, they address the impact of private finance on local democracy, looking at the wider questions of public accountability and participation in the planning process for PFI and similar projects. Review by Rebecca Spencer

Political Correctness Gets Sectioned
Dave Whyte reflects on the latest developments in the government’s new law on corporate killing. Read more...

Around the Web
Dr Martens moves to China, WMC Ltd: corporate greenhouse gangster, site of the week: Prison Privatisation Report International and more.

World bank pulls out of controversial Romanian gold mine
The World Bank announced on Thursday that it is cancelling participation in the Rosia Montana opencast gold mine project in Romania. If completed, the project would be Europe’s largest opencast gold mine, would displace around 2000 people and would turn a neighbouring valley into a 600 hectare unlined cyanide storage pond. Full story.

Want any illegal drugs? I got herbs, I got E. Vitamin E, that is…
It’s not often you’ll find Corporate Watch calling for less regulation of industry, but on this occasion, strange though it seems, we think the European Union is going a bit far. Proposals currently being considered could see sales of high-dosage vitamin supplements banned and herbal remedies which have been on the market for years with no health worries suddenly forced to undergo the same expensive tests as new pharmaceutical drugs. Full story.

Roads not Rights! “State of Emergency” to be imposed in Poland
by Pippa Gallop
Poland is privileged to have relatively few motorways compared to almost everywhere else in Europe, but with EU accession looming, the possibility that the government would keep it this way and instigate a programme of strengthening the national rail network was never very likely. Full story.

Genetix RoundUp™
Let them eat GM
Research published last week by Greenpeace exposes the Bush administration's use of the famine in southern Africa as a marketing tool to push GM food in the continent. The document details how the offer of GM food aid by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the latest move in a long-running marketing campaign designed to facilitate the introduction of US-developed GM crops into Africa. Full story.

Around the Web
Bush’s arms trade links exposed…climate change could bankrupt insurers…Cape PLC fails to pay up on asbestos damages…Mark Moody-Stuart ‘greenwashed… spying on farmers… ’sweatships’ …read more.

Turning up the heat on oil companies
Last week was a rather successful one for those human rights campaigners targeting oil companies operating in Burma. Not only did Premier Oil finally decide to pull out of Burma, but also a federal appeals court in the US has ruled that the oil giant Unocal can be sued for atrocities committed by the Burmese military in its employment. Read more…

The PRIVATE Sector
Connexions - the total surveillance service for the new knowledge economy
Action for the Rights of Children in Education (ARCH) is a group working particularly on issues around surveillnce and children’s civil rights in the education system. They have been concerned for some time about the Depertment for Education and Skills (DfES) 'Connexions' scheme and in particular the use of databases to create an individual file for each 13-19-year-old. Recently they obtained a copy of the astonishing questionnaire the scheme is using. Read more…

And then there were three… Asda plotting take-over of Safeway (aided and abetted by J. Sainsbury).
Asda, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart (US), has reportedly approached the Office of Fair Trading to establish whether it could get approval for a £2.8 billion takeover of struggling sector rival, Safeway. Asda have also been in exploratory talks with Sainsbury about carving up the Safeway estate. Read more…

Corporate Crime at the Tip of the Iceberg
Dave Whyte, University of Leeds
The huge corporate scandals in the US, Enron, Worldcom and a growing list of household names have rocked the world’s biggest and most powerful economy, and resulted in the loss of the life savings and pensions of tens of thousands. Many of them were public sector workers who had little idea of where their savings were held, and thousands of others were employees who had themselves been persuaded by their corrupt bosses that the company they worked for was a sound investment. Read more…

Sir Mark Moody-Stuart - Possibly the most dangerous man alive
Forget Bin Laden and George Dubya, it’s the ‘reasonable’ ones you have to watch out for. Despite promoting himself as Mr Corporate Social Responsibility, Moody-Stuart heads Business Action for Sustainable Development - the business lobby group largely responsible for wrecking the Earth Summit. He is also a director of several companies involved in activities that belie his pledged commitment to ‘sustainable development’. Read more…

Book Review: The Divine Right of Capital Marjorie Kelly
Marjorie Kelly is a writer on corporate social responsibility and co-founder of ‘business ethics’ magazine. Having believed for many years that ‘voluntary change by progressive business people would transform capitalism’ she now proposes that only a systemic change in our institutional arrangements can really be effective. Review by Arthur Edwards.

Blair backs big business at the Earth Summit
The last couple of weeks have been extremely productive for corporate lobbyists to number 10. Once again, Tony Blair has further enhanced his reputation as a corporate lapdog by putting corporate interests far ahead of his social and environmental responsibilities. Not only did Tony try to ditch Michael Meacher, the environment minister from the UK Earth Summit delegation, but he has also invited is top chums from Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Thames Water along. Read more…

Farmers For Action call a national strike
Farmers For Action have called for a national strike by UK food producers on Friday 23rd August. By calling the strike, the group intends to highlight the disastrous situation that is now surrounding British food production. The group is calling on all farmers in the UK and Ireland to abide by the strike and not to sell any product produced on their farm within the 24-hour period. Read more…

Bayer in crop contamination and hiding behind old name shocker
DEFRA and the Scottish Executive revealed on the 15th August that GM oil seed rape (OSR) grown at more than 20 farm scale trial sites in the UK was contaminated with substantial quantities of an unlicensed variety of GM OSR containing genes for antibiotic resistance. Meanwhile, Bayer have so far successfully managed to deflect all the negative publicity towards Aventis, a company that no longer has any involvement in GM crops. Read more…

Monsanto is having a hard time - aah!
Faced with widespread opposition to GM crops, Monsanto chief executive Hendrik Verfaillie was recently forced to acknowledge that it could take much longer than initially forecast to gain regulatory approval for GM crops in Europe and Brazil. The company's profits have also suffered a series of blows over the past year, making the company's future look rather bleak. Read more…

How to get rid of surplus GM Crops
The impending famine in Southern Africa has opened up a potential new market for US grain traders and biotechnology corporations. However, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique have steadfastly refused to accept GM food aid. Malawi, on the other hand, has been forced to accept the GM grain, having had to sell off its own grain surplus to service a debt to a commercial bank. Read more…

Government ministers in corporate influence shocker
Both Elliot Morley, the Countryside Minister, and Michael Meacher, the Environment Minister admitted this week that the UK government was under extreme pressure from both corporations and the US government to allow GM crops and seeds in this country. Read more…

Around the Web
Corporations wreck the Earth Summit…George Bush tries to wreck it even more…UNICEF in McDonalds link row… UK firms face race lawsuit…the human cost of water privatisation in South Africa… Read more…

THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES - A SPECTACULAR DELUSION?
This summer the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the largest sporting event ever held in the UK, takes place in Manchester. The spin on the project is that it will be a spectacular of unprecedented proportions: I won’t be surprised if the Games office announces that the event brings with it the technology to pin back the clouds over the Pennines and Peaks and allow the rays of heaven to shine forever more on God's chosen city. Hallelujah. For something to be heralded as such a panacea for all our problems makes scratching beneath the gloss entirely irresistable. Scratch I have done. This I have found.

Air show, arms fair or corporate gateway to Europe? Keith Parkins
Big business, globalisation, arms dealers, it's all happening at the Farnborough air show. full story

UN - sustainability
From 26 August to 4 September the world’s leaders will be meeting in Johannesburg for the World Summit on Sustainable Develoment (WSSD), to agree a strategy for curing the world’s environmental and social ills, building on the landmark successes of the Rio Earth Summit ten years ago. Or so the publicity would have us believe. full story

The PRIVATE Sector - White Gold
‘Water is a product which would normally be free, but our job is to sell it…’
Just down the road from the wealthy Johannesburg suburb of Sandton, home to the World Summit on Susutainable Development venue, a human and environmental tragedy is being played out that has nothing to do with sustainability and everything to do with big business’ push for profits at any cost. full story

Genetix RoundUp
At the height of the final summer season of the government sponsored Farm Scale Trials (FSTs) there is a sense of things gearing up again on the UK GM crops front. full story

A storm in the making - Stephanie Roth
EuroGold's project to develop Europe's biggest open-cast mine in Romania's Apuseni region threatens to wipe towns and villages off the map and risk another cyanide disaster in the area. Stephanie Roth watches the unfolding of a predictable tragedy. full story

Has Glastonbury sold out?
Wandering off our usual territory, Corporate Watch takes a look at what might be happening to the UK's biggest summer festival - deals with profit making companies, repression and a gradual loss of spirit. full story

The PRIVATE Sector
Toxic waste okay for kids, says Welsh Assembly
Campaigners against plans to build two schools on sites contaminated with toxic waste in Wales
suffered a major setback recently when the Welsh Assembly rejected a motion to have such planning applications scrutinised by health authorities. Full story PLUS links to other PFI stories

Tanzanian Activists Charged with Sedition for Criticizing World Bank Project
The Tanzanian government has charged two environmental activists and an opposition political leader with sedition for speaking out about allegations of widespread human rights abuses at a World Bank Group guaranteed gold mine. Full story PLUS action request.

Occidental gives up on U’wa land
Occidental Petroleum announced at its annual meeting last week that it is withdrawing from oil exploration in the traditional territory of the U’wa people in Colombia, following a ten-year peaceful campaign by the U’wa, supported by activists around the world. Full story.

Genetix RoundUp™
Bayer AGM stormed - Seven GM activists from the UK and the Netherlands managed to sneak into Bayer AG´s shareholder meeting in Cologne, Germany on April 26th. Their mission - to let the directors, employees and shareholders of Bayer know that Bayer´s new venture into GM crops will not go unopposed.
The Pink Castle - ‘By the light of the moon in the early hours of April 25th, protesters moved into a pink castle on one of the two GM sites that besiege Littlemoor near Weymouth…’ Full story

Michael Meacher - scourge of the plastic bag (maybe)
According to the BBC, environment minister Michael Meacher has been observing with approval a scheme in the Republic of Ireland whereby shoppers pay a 15 cent (9p) tax on disposable carrier bags, and may be considering such a scheme for the UK. Full story

Around the Web
Labour to let business decide policy…Yusufeli dam protesters disrupt Amec AGM…Asbestos cancer sufferers win corporate liability case…IMF policies cause riots… Rendon Group PR and the Pentagon…US and oil lobby oust climate scientist… Read more.

Feature Resistance is Fertile! read more
Eyewitness report and comment from the recent COP 6 summit on the
Convention on Biodiversity in the Hague, where activists highlighted the
corporate hijacking of the UN process and the dangers of genetic
engineering and ‘biopiracy’.

Feature - Vision 20/20 Blinded by Development read more
Jyoti Fernandes exposes how the British government, through the
Department for International Development, is giving £65 million to the
government of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh for a program called
Vision 20/20 that will destroy the livelihood of 20 million farmers. PLUS
Corporate Watch looks at management consultants McKinsey and Co -
the company that wrote the plans.

Genetix RoundUp ™ read more
Du Pont elope with Monsanto…FDA in bed with Monsanto (again!)…Bayer
swallows Aventis…

Just say No! to drug dumping read more
Why the new tax credit for drug donations to developing countries might
not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Milking It read more
Lord Ahmed exposed as Nestlé stooge after job offer follows expense-paid
trip to Pakistan

News in brief read more
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge…Bog off Scotts!…Russians reject
McDollars…

The PRIVATE Sector
Birmingham votes against council house sell-offs
Council tenants in Birmingham voted 2-1 against transferring ownership of their homes to a housing association last week, in a massive blow to the government's housing privatisation program.
South Africa - Anti-Privatisation Forum protests against cut-offs
Last weekend, nearly 100 people were arrested at a demonstration against electricity and water cut-offs in Johannesburg. The protesters, from the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, were holding a peaceful protest outside the mayor's house when they were shot at by the mayor's bodyguard from the roof, injuring two of the protesters. Read more...

Genetix RoundUp ™
Occupation of European Patents Office… Campaign to stop licensing of GM maize… Update on Bayer's Aventis takeover… Read more...

Just Say NO! to Drug Dumping
If you missed the Mark Thomas Product on Wednesday night you won't know that the forthcoming budget will include proposals for tax breaks for companies donating drugs to developing countries, similar to a US scheme which leads to tons of useless pharmaceuticals being dumped in the South. Full story...

The PRIVATE Sector
Con-signia may be on the way out
About the only good thing to come out of the organisation formerly known as the post office in recent weeks is that it is to reverse its much-ridiculed name change from Royal Mail to Consignia. Full story....

Milking it
Lord Ahmed of Rotherham has been exposed as the latest 'New' Labour corporate stooge after announcing that he is about to take a job advertising Nestlé. The peer previously supported critics of Nestlé who have gathered evidence of the company's breaches of the WHO code on marketing breast-milk substitutes, but changed his mind after a company-funded visit to some of Nestlé's facilities in Pakistan. Full story....

Meltdown narrowly avoided at nuclear plant
News has gradually been leaking out that a nuclear plant near Toledo, Ohio in the US narrowly avoided a serious accident in February when workers repairing a cracked control-rod drive mechanism at the Davis Besse reactor discovered a six-inch deep, seven-inch wide hole in the reactor's outer casing. Full story....

Turning Devastation into Dollars by Louise Sales
Last week the peat extraction works on Hatfield Moor was the focus of demonstrations by activists campaigning against the continued destruction of lowland raised bogs in the UK. But what's wrong with peat? Full story....

Around the Web
Enron sells Wessex Water…carbon trading launched in UK…Wal-Mart rules the world…nanotechnology …tax breaks for big business…Burma Campaign moves in on Amerada Hess…tax on air travel… Read more...

Unaccountable Accountants
Arthur Andersen, the US accountancy firm at the heart of the Enron bankruptcy scandal has reportedly been in merger talks with rival firms Deloitte & Touche, KPMG and Ernst & Young. A merger is likely to be the company's only chance of survival since the Enron scandal has left its reputation in tatters. Read more…

Curbing the Power of the Supermarkets
The European Commission has released proposals that would force supermarkets to stop selling everyday products such as bread and milk at below cost price. Such proposals are a only a small step in the right direction towards curbing the immense power that the large supermarket chains have over both consumers and producers Read more…

Profiting From (De)Construction
AMEC plc, UK's biggest construction company, announced its financial results last week. 2001 proved to be an excellent year with plenty of business opportunities created by conflict and war. AMEC also found itself in the media spotlight because of its involvement in the highly controversial Yusufeli dam project in Turkey. A major campaign was launched against the company, which proved to be highly successful, even before it got off the ground. Read more…

Women Around the World Unite…
On 9th March International Women's Day was celebrated in over 80 countries throughout the world. Women's day was also a day when cases of female activists facing persecution were highlighted. In the spotlight were Arundathi Roy, sentenced to one-day in prison, and closer to home, British activist Emily Apple, who faced a possible six-month prison sentence. Read more…

Future Looks Gloomy For GM Giants
The Last Chance Rally held on the 9th March in Warwickshire may have been the last chance for GM activists to pull up Aventis GM crops at a public rally. Aventis have had enough of GM crops and are passing on this particular can of worms to Bayer. Syngenta are also having a difficult year, recording flat earnings. European opposition to genetically modified crops is reported to have cost them 'tens of millions of dollars'. Read more…

Around the Web
Bush slaps tariffs on steel…rows over 'fat cat' pay rises…more on the Enron scandal…the tangled webs of corporate directorships…the effect of the war on oil prices…the Financing for Development Conference…poetry from Monsanto… Read more…

Power politics - Labour and Enron
As the US Justice Department’s criminal investigations continue into Enron, are nerves jangling among Labour’s leaders? The Feds may not be about to raid Millbank but it wasn’t just President George Bush who had a close relationship with Enron. The company was also one of new Labour’s closest business pals.
By Steve Davies. Read more...

Genetix RoundUp ™
UK government starts to see sense on farm-scale trials...Canadian organic farmers sue Aventis and Monsanto...Bayer's UK HQ blockaded...new trial site locations... Read more...

TUC launches new ‘safety at work’ campaign as activists face criminal charges
The TUC is joining with the Campaign for Corporate Accountability (CCA) to launch a new campaign to improve workplace safety, including new laws and more resources for the Health and Safety Executive and local
authorities. Meanwhile, five supporters of the campaign for justice for Simon Jones’ death have been in court recently on charges of ‘besetting’ - following arrests during an occupation of Euromin’s Shoreham dock on 3rd December. Read more...

Around the Web:
Triumph closes factory in Burma...worldwide protests against GATS...'Star Wars'...'Sound Science?'...women in Argentina...McDollars colonise Asterix... Read more...

Melchett joins Dark Lord in Mordor - Lucy Michaels
Around the country, Greenpeace activists wept into their organic cornflakes last week, as it emerged that Lord Melchett, former head of Greenpeace and hero of the anti-GM movement, has disappeared off to join the Dark Lord in Mordor, in the earthly form of PR villains Burson-Marsteller.

Argentina Uprising - comment
The recent popular uprising in Argentina has sent the government into turmoil and created odd scenes with politicians jostling to get away from being named the next president. The rich world’s press has made little or no attempt to point the finger of blame for the crisis at the true culprits - the IMF - instead speaking vaguely of ‘corruption and mismanagement’ by successive Argentine governments.

Genetix RoundUp™
Seed company Advanta may be stopping GM trials in Europe, and the mutants of Munlochy…

Campaigns - Farmers for Action
The grassroots farmers’ network Farmers For Action (FFA), which first came to most people’s attention during the fuel protests of September 2000, appears now to be moving towards a more radical and less oil-dependent position by shifting its attention to the exploitation of farmers by supermarkets.

Review: Ethical Corporation Magazine
"Genoa 2001: Would you like this to happen outside your HQ?" asks Ethical
Corporation magazine on its front cover, underneath a picture of some black-clad protesters in a cloud of tear gas. Presumably the implication is that if you take some steps towards showing how socially responsible your corporation is, then you can avoid being targeted by protesters.

Review: The Death of British Agriculture by Richard AE North
Just what we would have liked to get our hands on at Corporate Watch last year when we were trying to formulate our agriculture project, Richard AE North's (Not to be confused with rabid anti-environmentalist Richard D North!) latest book is a fine example of a detailed but accessible volume.

Articles on the collapse of Enron
We hope to be able to bring you a feature on Enron’s links with New Labour in the next set of news updates, but in the meantime, here’s the pick of the news on the web.

Around the web
Privatising the army…Blair aides employed by Tesco…London Underground
fined…CBI bashes workers - shock!…FoE articles on the Johannesburg Earth summit…campaign links…

Balfour Beaten!
After a year and a half the Ilisu Dam Campaign has succeeded - on 13 November the main contractors, Balfour Beatty, pulled out of the scheme along with Italian partner Impregilo. It now seems likely that the dam will not be built - other European firms are unlikely to be interested now that Balfour have pulled out. Full story

Why the UK government supports GATS
Researchers at the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) have just released a report analysing leaked minutes of meetings between government officials and corporate representatives which exposes the roots of UK trade policy. Full story

The PRIVATE Sector: Campaigns - Action for theRights of Children in Education (ARCH)
Worried that corporations are trying to turn teenagers into brainwashed brand-consumers and future corporate work-clones? You should be, especially as the education system is now helping them profile and lure their prey. ARCH have been looking into it. Full story, plus diary dates and links to privatisation stories on other sites

Was it a fair COP in Marrakech?
by Mark Lynas. The low-down on the small print of the Marrakech deal, from a former Corpoate Watch-er on the inside. Full story

Genetix RoundUp ™
Opponents of GM crop trials in both England and Scotland have had much to celebrate in recent weeks with a court victory in Worcester and an official protest camp at Munlochy. Full story

Fighting to a Draw in Doha
Mark Ritchie, President of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, presents a round-up of the results of the WTO meeting in Doha from an NGO perspective. Full story

Campaigns - Urgent Action
Mr. Rugemeleza Nshala, President of the Lawyers' Environmental Action Team (LEAT), a Tanzanian NGO, was arrested on the night of Saturday 25th November. LEAT has been actively investigating the alleged killing of at least 62 gold miners as well as illegal evictions and the destruction of livelihoods at Bulyanhulu Gold Mine in Tanzania.

Corporate Watch does not usually request specific, urgent campaign actions, but we had been planning to produce a feature on this issue and were overtaken by events which made an urgent call to action seem appropriate. Full story

Around the Web
Simon Jones’ employers on trial…oil giants merge…tobacco corporation could profit from cancer vaccine…vitamin pricefixers fined…buying bioethics in the US… DTI comes under industry influence…mobile phone firm to employ child labour in UK…Rolls-Royce occupied… Read more

November 09 2001

Sold out! Government gives in to supermarkets on code of practice
The new government code of practice for supermarkets, prepared in the light of last year’s Competition Commission report on the sector, has been dismissed as a ‘sell-out’by food campaigners. Full story

The Private Sector: Privatised Toxic Waste for Kids
The ongoing scandal of Welsh plans to allow the building of PFI-funded schools on former waste dumps in Llandudno and Newport has taken an interesting turn as the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Peter Clarke, has said he will attempt to halt the plan for Llandudno if a technical and scientific briefing fails to reassure him that the site is safe. Full story

Indonesian cement scandal
The sheer relentlessness of global financial institutions’ drive to privatise was on show in Indonesia this week, as a row over a cement company threatens to destabilise the country’s debt plans. Full story plus links to stories on other sites

Genetix RoundUp™
Updates on crop-trashers’ court cases, GM propaganda being fed to Scottish schools, GM cotton being grown illegally in India, GM maize contamination widespread in Mexico, launch of the Syngenta Foundation… Read more

Businesses tell Blair, ‘Stop picking on us!’
Undifying scenes this week at the Confederation of British Industry conference as business leaders struggled to find new demands to make on the government. Full story

Poor McDonalds...having a bad year are we?? Lucy Michaels.
In September 2001, McDonalds sponsored an insert in the New Statesman on the future of food and farming in Britain with an advert on the back cover promoing its own stands of nutrition and animal welfare. Full story

Campaigns - Oxford Business School funded by arms broker - Pippa Gallop.
In the early hours of Monday morning, opponents of the new Said Business School in Oxford hung a large banner from the roof, proclaiming that the school was 'Built With Blood Money', due to a £20 million donation towards the school from businessman Wafic Said, best known for his role as broker in the Al-Yamamah arms deal. Full story

Around the web…
US clothing manufacturers on trial for alleged labour abuses. Nuclear plant faces legal challenge. Enron set to leave India. China plans ‘Special Economic Zone’ for Tibet. Shell accused of mismanaging toxic waste in Brazil. Bayer pesticides in toxic dump in Nepal. Blair attempting to fast-track Ilisu Dam project. US Groups Protest Post-September 11 Corporate Stance. Diary date - No Sweat Conference. Read on

October 26 2001

The PRIVATE Sector: Hackney NOT for Sale!
Community activists in Hackney are fighting vested interests and a deafening press silence in an attempt to stop the debt-ridden and notoriously corrupt council from destroying the fabric of the borough. Full story

The PRIVATE Sector: Newham brings Housing Benefit back in-house
The disastrous privatisation of Newham’s Housing Benefit system which delayed payments to thousands of residents ended on Monday. The council’s seven year contract with CSL (subsidiary of consultants Deloitte Touche) was torn up following a review which revealed the privatisation cost the council up to £2 million. Full story and links to privatisation articles on other sites.

Shell passes the buck in Nigeria
This week Shell announced that it is suing six Nigerian youths accused of occupying a Shell oil flow station in the Niger Delta on 27th September. The case, set to begin in court next week, has astounded oil campaigners - Shell is pushing for damages of over £17m, an unimaginable amount for inhabitants of the impoverished Niger Delta, so money cannot be the object. Full story

Campaigns - stop the BASDards!
Members of ASEED Europe and friends from around the world (including a couple of off-duty Corporate Watchers) took on the first meetng of new greenwash group Business Action for Sustainable Development in Paris earlier this month. Full story

Book Review - Resource Rebels: Native Challenges to Mining and Oil Corporations by Al Gedicks, Southend Press 2001. Pippa Gallop
For anyone whose knowledge on the way that mining and oil corporations operate isn't full as it might be, this book is an excellent introduction, placing the people who are affected by mineral extraction firmly at the centre of things. Full review

Around the Web
Action on Ecuador pipeline funders…stopping McDonalds…Irish privatisation protesters baton-charged…why electricity pricing is bad for the climate…BP’s new North Sea development…the nuclear industry…moratorium on genetic test use…Unilever mercury scandal…US economic slowdown effects… Read more

September 21 2001

Articles on the plane attacks on the US and their aftermath
Corporate Watch can offer nothing but condolences in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. However, we add our voice to those calling on the US not to create more innocent victims, at home or abroad, by military attacks or the erosion of civil liberties.

Find here links to some articles you may have missed - the heartfelt, the insightful and the just plain misguided. Read on

20 000 jobs created, thousands of livelihoods destroyed
Pippa Gallop - Tesco has just announced its intention to take on ‘up to’ (less than) 20 000 workers worldwide in the next year, as it continues in its quest for global uniformity. The lucky employees will be spread over the UK, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Thailand, Korea and Taiwan, but what Tesco hasn’t mentioned is that the livelihoods destroyed as a result of its expansion will far outnumber the jobs created. Full Story

The PRIVATE Sector
Locking people up for profit - Stories from new private detention centres, where companies may be allowed to use asylum seekers as virtual slaves. Plus: Serco and the benefits of PPP - for companies Full story

Update: Brazil AIDS drugs
Brazil has struck a deal with Swiss company Roche for cheap AIDS drug supplies. Full story

Campaigns - DSEi protests
The protests against the DSEi (or Dicey) arms fair in London last week turned out to have been badly timed. Press coverage was virtually nil as any story was overtaken by the news of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. Full story

Around the Web
Incinerator stopped…Nestlé in foot and mouth scandal…London houses too expensive for workers…Shell sells fuel to Nigeria…Proctor and Gamble in spy scandal…What is the TABD?…Unionising McDollars… Read more

September 3rd 2001

Brazil acts to break AIDS drug patent
Brazil will soon be producing patent-breaching cheap generic AIDS drugs for its estimated 200,000 AIDS sufferers. The health minister last week ordered the public health laboratory to begin producing a generic version of Nelfinavir, a drug patented by Swiss firm Roche, which is used by around 25% of Brazilian AIDS patients. Full story

Kenneth Clarke is bad for Vietnam’s health
Conservative party leadership candidate Kenneth Clarke is suspected of having been involved in a deal which could see British American Tobacco (BAT) dominating the Vietnamese cigarette and tobacco processing markets. Full story

French PM speaks out for speculation tax
French PM Lionel Jospin has raised a small storm by declaring his support for a tax on international financial speculation - called the Tobin tax after its proposer US economist James Tobin. Plus interesting reactions from UK press. Full story

Basmati rice patent upheld
There have been protests in the Indian parliament and both houses were briefly adjourned after the US Patent and Trademark Office upheld a patent granted to US food company RiceTec which many Indians claim is a ‘back door’ patent on basmati rice. Full story

Genetix RoundUp™
Decontaminations and similar entertainment…US weighs in against controls…EU suffering suspected corporate contamination…GM pigs and anti-fungal elm trees… Read on

The PRIVATE sector
This new section will cover events and campaigns around privatisation, PPPs (Public-Private Partnerships) PFI (Private Finance Initiative) local authority sell-offs and similar schemes. This week: Report says Tube plan is a rip-off and events in Hackney and Oxford. Full story

Around the Web
New McLabour conference sell-out…Enron in India…South Africa on strike…musicians against Gap…PR attacks GM opponents…biotech manipulates scientists…free trade zones…RSI… Read on

August 20th 2001

Argentines protest at ‘austerity’ measures
Protests and strikes have rocked Argentina in the light of IMF-ordered reforms which penalise public sector workers. On August 8th, thousands marched in Buenos Aires at the height of a two-day strike which disrupted the civil service, hospitals and transport. The cuts mean state employees’ salaries and pensions are being cut by 13%. Full story

OXY fails to find oil in U’wa land
Experimental oil drilling by Occidental Petroleum (OXY) in North-East Colombia on land belonging to the U’Wa people has been given up after the well failed to produce. The U’wa had recently turned to traditional religious rituals to ‘hide the oil’ from the drilling - and they appear to have succeeded. Full story

Child labour fine for McDonalds
A McDonald’s franchise-holder in Surrey has been fined £12,400 after being caught illegally employing ten schoolchildren aged 15 and 16. Not only did the children have no work permits, but they were found to be working much longer than the legal hours. Full story

British Airports Authority occupied by climate protesters
In an escalation of the developing campaign for action on climate change, activists from London Rising Tide occupied the offices of the British Airports Authority (BAA) on August 9th to protest against the continuing official enouragement of air travel, the fastest growing source of CO2 emissions. Full story

Campaigns - London against Incineration
Edmonton, North London, has the misfortune of being home to Britain’s largest incinerator. It sits beside the north circular, a menace to local residents. In defiance of widespread opposition, the government plans to enlarge this blot on the landscapeas part of its bizarre, incinerator friendly waste policy. Full story by David Binns

Campaigns - Prison labour/Mark Barnsley
On Friday 3rd August, activists from the Mark Barnsley campaign blockaded Hepworth Building Supplies in Doncaster to highlight their use of prison labour. The issue has been highlighted by the case of Mark Barnsley, who is currently in solitary confinement for refusing to participate in prison labour for Hepworth, calling instead for the opportunity to further his education. Full story by Lucy Michaels

Around the Web
Oxfam statement on Genoa…Globalisation isn’t good for economic growth…Amazon mega-project report released…Brighton bin contract re-awarded…Explosive power station re-opens… Read more