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This issue’s features:
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Marrakech Muddles
- the low-down on the climate treaty from a former Corporate Watcher
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The PRIVATE Sector
- Hackney services sell-offs, privatisation of education.. Why the UK government supports GATS.
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Campaigns
- Ilisu dam, Simon Jones, Genetix, No Sweat...
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Babylonian Times
- the CW tabloid section...
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 Babylonian Times
Happy Christmas!!
In these troubled times, as George W Bush says, the best way to avoid complicated thoughts of moral responsibility is mindless shopping. Try happychristmas.com for a host of gift ideas. For example, ever considered adding to your wardrobe from the new Happy Wear range? 'Happy Wear invites you to enjoy the ultimate "Feel Good" headwear item!…The Happy Wear Removable Patch Hat is sure to add fun to anybody's day. Wear it and watch your life change for the better. We guarantee it'. I notice that's not a money back guarantee (In case you were wondering, it's a baseball cap with 'Happy' written on the front and space to velcro on patches saying 'birthday', 'to party' etc.). If that doesn't grab your fancy, what about the excellent board game from Imagination Toys, 'Rush Hour': 'our original traffic jam game is pure bumper to bumper enjoyment...players set up the traffic on the game grid - then try to manoeuvre to escape the gridlock.' Get the kids started early eh? But you can shop with a social conscience at Wal Mart. There you'll be able to 'send a message of appreciation to US troops currently serving abroad' as part of Wal Mart's campaign 'Together We Stand' (to make a profit?).
War Chest
1 - The Downsizers
Obviously in a time of war, what we desperately need is business advice on how to make sure profits aren't dying along with the victims. The Financial Times obliges: 'Focus on family values. When war looms we tend to rally to the flag but retreat to the village. In advertising, look for cosy hearth and home family scenes to replace images of extreme sports, adventure or rugged individualism...Although most companies are making employees redundant, chief executives can cement the loyalty of those who remain by stressing the company's core values, assuring employees that the company has survived difficult times before'. Or put simply - continue to tell staff their jobs are safe right up to the second you plan to sack them.
2 - Tinted Spectacles
It's not just New Labour-trained spin doctors who saw September 11th through weird tinted specs 'The consensus seems to be that it was actually good news. In the following four weeks stock markets in developed economies have recouped all the losses suffered in the aftermath of the attacks...' So said the Observer's article 'Who's Having a Good War?' But the first prize for tastelessness came on radio 5 when a presenter (I'll spare his blushes cos he sounds like a nice chap and probably didn't mean it to come out this way) asked a financial adviser 'so - what shares should I be buying for the war, then?' If ever capitalism was going to be exposed this event has done it. As we've seen in the media, there's often been more concern over the stock market index than the body count.
3 - Who is it good for?
The words of the excellent song, 'War, huh… what is it good for? Absolutely nothing' are not quite true. Because for members of the Bush Administration, this war is turning out rather nicely. Defence contractor Lockheed Martin got the $200 billion top prize Joint Strike Fighter contract. This news will have been welcomed no doubt by Lockheed Martin board member Lynne Cheney. Doubtless she will have kept the news from her husband Vice President Dick Cheney - in order to avoid accusations of conflict of interest and all that. The defence of America is undoubtedly in good hands. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld owns shedloads of shares in various defence corporations and he's personally supervising the military budget. Donald's so careful he spends America's multi-billion dollar tax revenue as if it were his own money - not surprising as in the end much of it will be.
 We’re all terrorists now...
Shortly after September 11th Sun columnist Richard Littlejohn declared in his column, 'We're all Americans Now'. No, can't say it grabbed me either. But unfortunately he was making a very valid point. George W Bush has now repeatedly said 'you are either with us or you are with the terrorists'. And as if to prove the point the USA's official list of terrorists is starting to broaden its scope - there's even a few anti-globalisation groups on there. This isn't too surprising, but in Corporate Watch's opinion the 'defenders of freedom and democracy' need to be consistent. If Reclaim the Streets is to go on the list, there are other clear and present threats to the Blair/Bush Privatised GM Universe who should be lined up too. Possible candidates might be anti-war and therefore anti-American Quakers, that pinko leftie Prince Charles and, of course, those most dangerous threats to Western civilisation - the Women's Institute.
Fighting to a Draw in Doha?
Take 142 Ministers of Trade, a few hundred journalists, NGOs and lobbyists and tens of thousands of police and military, and you have the makings of one of the most surreal events in recent diplomatic history - the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization in Doha, Qatar.
As in Seattle, US and European negotiators used every known form of arm-twisting and bribery to stifle Third World proposals and give the appearance of consensus.
The final Declaration is riddled with language that allowed negotiators to go home and claim victory. A good example of artful word-smithing in the service of domestic politics was found in agriculture. Southern countries demanded radical reforms, including a call for an end to export dumping by the US and EU. Unfortunately, Australian, European and US agribusiness corporations kept this demand off the agenda by conceding to general language on reducing export subsidies.
An exception to the ambiguity of Doha was the combined force of NGOs and some Third World governments, who dealt a blow against pharmaceutical companies on drug patents. A document adopted at the meeting specifically affirmed member nations’ right to put public health before drug companies’ patent rights.
An important emerging issue is the relationship between the WTO and a new generation of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Biosafety Agreement. The WTO holds that trade rules should trump environmental rules and plans to enforce this position through a preemptive strike against the authority of MEAs. Watch this space.
Mark Ritchie, President, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
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