Editorial by Olaf Bayer, Chris Grimsahw and Kathryn Tulip

It's been ten years (and a bit) since Issue 1 of Corporate Watch magazine was printed. Cheeky, desperately amateurish, but somehow compelling (or so we like to think), it said something that needed to be said, and still does: that the corporations have already taken over and they're only getting started. That message (hardly original to us) has spread far and wide in those ten years but must go a lot further in the future.

Ten years ago, Britain seemed to be more or less in denial about the power of corporations. Whilst a lot of people grasped the problem, it was apparently unmentionable in polite society or the mainstream media. Since then, and especially since the anti-globalisation campaigns of the late 1990s, public awareness has risen considerably and the problem of the corporation is now widely acknowledged. Although still the dominant force in western politics, the ground is shifting beneath big business' feet.

Campaigning has changed too. Once tactics seemed limited to lobbying the state, but now many campaigners confront the corporations directly over environmental and social crimes. The initial arrogance of the corporations in response to these challenges has turned to a panicked PR based response, most overtly corporate social responsibility (CSR). This shift in public expectations has shaken the corporate world. In general, trust ratings for corporations have collapsed in recent years, just as they have for politicians and the media. Environmental and social justice groups, by contrast, have never enjoyed such high public esteem.

Whilst government responds by attempting to outlaw protest, campaigners can achieve great things, with public support. The successful campaign against GM crops in the UK, saw the summer sport of GM crop destruction virtually decriminalised, and a multi-billion pound industry thwarted. As campaigners' understanding of corporations has improved, increasingly sophisticated tactics have been employed. The Ilisu Dam Campaign, for example, was able to mobilise institutional shareholders against Balfour Beatty. The anti-globalisation protests of London, Seattle, Prague, Genoa et al exposed the previously hidden politics of international trade. Although subsequently knocked out of the headlines by the War on Terror, this movement has upset the status quo contributing to a major shift in the balance of global economic power.

Each of these (and other) campaigns has been an arena in which the struggle against corporate power has played out for all to see. Arguably the most urgent issue facing the planet, and the coming battle ground for the fight against corporate power, is climate change; a problem that government and corporations are incapable of solving. We can expect more corporate driven, business-as-usual solutions to be put in the way of real solutions as demands for a radical restructuring of the economy are set for a head-on collision with corporate capitalism.

Across the board we can expect to see an intensification of CSR as well as more covert forms of PR from the corporations. We can also expect more attempts at 'constructive engagement' and dialogue with the big NGOs in an effort to gain respectability by association. This threatens to divide the opposition to corporate rule. Campaigners must find ways to minimise splits and still remain vigilant against efforts to co-opt their agenda and potential attacks from corporate front groups.

For the corporate stranglehold to be loosened we need to maintain the confrontational approach, keeping big business reactive and vulnerable to our initiatives. The profit-driven nature of the corporation is easily understood. Put simply, they will say and do whatever contributes most to shareholder value; few authorities honestly dispute this. We must continue to expose the smokescreen of CSR as well as the new techniques corporations will no doubt develop to protect their position.

As awareness of the problem of corporate power rises, more and more people will start to take back control. The central political question of the 21st century is: how will the corporate-governmental complex react?