Corporate Watch News Updates 27/9/02


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.
 http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/news/turning_up_the_heat.htm


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.
 http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/news/connexions.htm


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.
 http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/news/asda_disaster.htm


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.
 http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/news/tip_of_the_iceberg.htm


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’.
 http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/news/mark_moody.htm


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.
 http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/news/divine_right.htm