Review section of anti-corporate books, 'zines, music, media and other cool stuff.

In Mark's first book he explores the murky world of the arms trade in his inimitable style by taking on many guises from: arms trade PR consultant to locked-on protestor to running his own arms company. Throughout the book he looks at how to plug loopholes in UK arms trade law to stop dodgy arms deals. And he also provides some good reasons to carry on despising BAe Systems and friends.

Similarly to Jon Ronson's Them - the undercover critique of extremists - Mark seeks understanding of the arms dealer psyche; he even persuades one to talk to a Sixth Form Amnesty group (which turns into an uplifting, yet misguided, career talk)!

The only downside to this otherwise well researched and amusing book is that at times it reads like a stand-up script; sometimes the jokey asides are not really appropriate. However, it will probably inspire you to take some form of action against the arms trade which is the important thing.

Oh dear, those consultants are greedy swines. They also seem to have a scarily huge amount of influence on government. Consultant David Craig, and Richard Brook, a Private Eye journalist provide an in-depth investigation and pay particular attention to the current carve-up of the National Health Service. They look at where the government stopped taking advice from civil servants and started ringing a subsidiary of Arthur Anderson (Enron's auditors) for top tips on how to run a country.

Read about familiar government chums such as KPMG, Capita, PricewaterhouseCoopers and McKinsey who all seem to have done quite well from New Labour's privatisation spree.

If you were wondering why, where and who else your taxes go to (apart from war), check this book out.

'That’s the beauty of argument - if you argue correctly you're never wrong'

If Corporate Watch made films they would probably be like Thank You for Smoking. Having spent months putting together a 30 page scathing critique of Corporate Social Responsibility this film comes along and does my work for me.
Based on the novel by former Bush speechwriter Christopher Buckley, Thank You for Smoking is a study in spin. We follow Nick Naylor, chief spokesperson for the Academy of Tobacco Studies - a character inspired by the real life Tobacco Institute lobbyist Brennan Dawson - as he goes about his daily business of convincing the world that big tobacco is a force for good in our society. Naylor’s charisma is the industry’s secret weapon, turning talk show audiences from lynch mobs baying for blood to cheerleaders for cigarettes.
The film deals some even blows; its caricature of an anti-smoking senator playing the issue for political points is superbly portrayed by William H Macy. And Naylor comes across more as a morally-vacuous-but-generally-nice guy rather than a slug. But you’ll never be fooled again by a talking head on TV after watching this.

Corporate Watch’s new report What’s Wrong with Corporate Social Responsibility is available from our website