DEMOLISHING THE COMMUNTY
What this country's poorest really need is higher house prices. That's the basis of the government's Housing Renewal Pathfinder schemes - demolishing 400,000 houses across the North of England to build more expensive homes.
Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part1.htm

ACTION!
TAKING ACTION AGAINST PATHFINDER
Corporate Watch talks to Natasha LeaJones, secretary of Home Environments at Redearth Triange (HEART), one of the groups taking action against the Elevate East Lancashire Housing 'Pathfinder' scheme in Darwen, Lancashire.
Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part9.htm

FIGHTING FOR OUR HOMES
Community resistance to Prescott's Pathfinder demolitions...
Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part8.htm

THE GREAT COUNCIL HOUSING BLACKMAIL
Labour's current policy amounts to nothing less than the destruction of council housing as we know it. Cllr Matt Sellwood, Oxford City Council Green Group.
Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part10.htm

WORLD

SAVING ICELAND: THE BUCK STOPS HERE
In March 2004, the government of Iceland held a conference in the capital Reykjavik. It was a private conference, attended by representatives of the top multinational corporations, Rio Tinto, Alcoa and Alcan among them, and the population were not told about it in advance. Iceland, a government spokesman informed its people afterwards, was now open for business.
Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part11.htm

‘SUSTAINABLE’ GREEN DESERTS
Vast eucalyptus monocultures are taking over giant swathes of the Brazilian landscape, feeding the pulp/paper and iron industries. Now 'forestry' corporations are claiming carbon credits for these green deserts, giving Western companies a license to burn more fossil fuels, at the expense of the indigenous people with a rightful claim to the land.
Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part12.htm

RESISTING THE ECONOMIC WAR IN IRAQ
Interview with Hassan Juma'a Awad, president of the Basra Oil Union By Greg Muttitt of Platform.
Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part13.htm

UK NEWS

GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONS, IGNORES, NANOTECH REPORT
Last year's Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineers (RS/RAE) report Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies: Opportunities and Uncertainties, although narrow in its remit, was far from glowing in its assessment of nanotechnology. The report was significant in that it was the first time that such pillars of the scientific establishment as the RS/RAE had urged caution about nanotechnology. '.
Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part7.htm

UK DEVELOPMENT AID FUELS CLIMATE CHANGE AND POVERTY
UK aid money is creating an 'oil curse' for developing economies, according to a new report from Plan B. 'Pumping Poverty: Britain's Department for International Development and the oil industry' (17 March, 2005). The report finds that taxpayers' money is being spent on supporting energy projects which benefit UK and US oil companies, but do little to help the countries where they are based.
Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/newsletter/issue23/part5.htm

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