CORPORATE WATCH
LATEST NEWSLETTER NOW OUT
03/08/05


URGENT -- SUPPORT TESCO AGENCY WORKERS
Workers in Tesco's Irish distributing centres have been protesting against conditions since Thursday 28th. Mainly Polish agency staff, they have been brought over by Tesco, presumably in the hope that they will work for lower pay and not know their rights. Two workers who complained at the a back-breaking targets were moved to another workplace. Now they are calling
for solidarity pickets of all Tescos on Thursday the 6th of August, at 6pm. freelance @mailworks.org


MORE NEWS...


CHINA: BACK ON THE SCENE
During the last ten years China has become a full part of the globalised corporate economy. This is a return to normality for the country that dominated world trade for most of its history. On the basis of China's massive labour force, most analysts are predicting a similar role in the near future. Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1865

CHINA'S CORPORATE BABIES
The news that Nanjing Automotive had succeeded in its bid to buy failing car company MG Rover, 22nd July, was greeted as yet more evidence of Chinese economic strength. 'There is a new kid on the world's economic and political block; everything is going to change' -- Will Hutton. As former editor of the Observer and Chief Executive of the Work Foundation (a business think tank, formerly the Industrial Society), Hutton is a good indicator of what the UK elite are thinking -- and it seems that they view China's rising economy with both excitement and a frisson of fear. Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1866


CORPORATE WATCH G8 MINI POSTER
See the latest A3 Poster from Corporate Watch. Lie 8 at the G8.
Download the image here:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1868

BOOK REVIEW: THE CORPORATION
Joel Bakan's seminal anti-corporate work, The Corporation -- probably the most read book in our office since David Korten's When Corporations Rule the World -- has been re-released in a new revised and expanded edition (*now with added Chomsky*). Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1881

CORRUPTION IN IRAQ: AKA 'THE NORMAL' WAY TO DO BUSINESS
The corporate invaders of Iraq have found themselves mired in corruption. Many report that sweetener payments for those who fix them with clients and sub- contractors have become part of the routine. In typical colonial fashion, the occupiers blame Iraq’s endemic bribery and fraud, not on the way that the American firms like Halliburton conduct themselves. Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1867

SEA SHELLS AND PIPE DREAMS
Shell are up to some more landscape trashing, leading a consortium proposing to build an overland pipeline through the west of Ireland. Wending its way sixty five kilometres off the North West coast, passing through villages and farmers' land, the pipeline will got from the Corrib gas field in Western Ireland to a refiner then end at Galway. Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1870

WEIR -- REAPING THE BENEFITS OF WAR
Supported by the British government, Weir – Scotland's 20th largest company – is playing a key role in economic imperialism and feeding the west's oil addiction. Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1871

WHO'S PULLING THE EU LOBBY STRINGS?
Corporate lobbyists first began migrating to Brussels after the signing of the Single European Act in 1986, sensing the rich pickings to be had from Europe’s neoliberal slide. Nearly two decades later there are over 15,000 lobbyists, 70 per cent representing corporate interests, operating in hundreds of lobbying consultancies, PR agencies and EU affairs offices in an industry which generates an estimated €90m every year. Yet unlike in the United States, there are still no binding requirements for EU lobbyists to disclose who they are lobbying for, what they are lobbying on, or how much they are being paid. Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1872

YOUR DEBT DRIVES THE ECONOMY
Ever felt guilty about taking out a loan to buy that car, fridge or presents at Christmas? Well don't -- with all the factories closing down and even the call centres being sourced overseas, consumer spending is one of the only things driving the UK economy. Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1892

PANDA-ING TO THE SOYA BARONS?
'In the past the big conservation organisations used to believe that nature reserves should not include people, so many were moved out, and indigenous people lost their lands. Now it seems as though the WWF is making another big mistake, with serious implications for small farmers, rural communities and food sovereignty.' Helena Paul, EcoNexus. Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1873

WWF REPLIES TO CORPORATE WATCH'S ARTICLE:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1890


DIRECT ACTION FLOODS ICELAND
Direct action against the Karahnjukar hydro-electric dam project in Iceland has started in earnest. The dam will devastate Western Europe's last pristine wilderness, solely to power an Alcoa aluminium smelter (see Corporate Watch number 23, April May 2005, page 9). Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1889


DIARY:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1864

BABYLONIAN TIMES
CORPORATIONS THROUGH HISTORY: HSBC
The 'world's local bank' started off as a British company that took over the lucrative trade with China, after the Opium wars of the mid-nineteenth century had opened up the economy to foreign traders. Read more:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=1874

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Corporate Watch
Oxford, UK
www.corporatewatch.org.uk
01865 791 391

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