HEADLINES   EVENTS May 2 - 4PM G8 Protest Hart Plaza, Detroit. Come make your voice heard in the streets of Detroit! Let Leaders of the World’s Richest Nations Know Our Communities are Not for Sale! BOYCOTT NESTLÉ NEWS Nestlé, the Microsoft of water and things we eat! Read more about Nestlé / Perrier acquisitions and activities from around the world. “If it was possible to bottle sunshine, well I guess they would do that and sell it back to us.” Nestle Products to Boycott Around the World Major Brands: Alcon, Buitone, Carnation, Chase & Sanborn, Cross & Blackwell, Hills Bros., L'Oreal, Libby's, Nestlé, Perrier (Great Waters), Rowntree, Stouffer's, Wine World Baking Products: Carnation Evaporated Milk, Carnation Powdered Milk, Nesté Cocoa and Baking Bars, Nestlé Toll House Chips Beverages: Arrowhead Water, Calistoga Waters and Juice, Carnation Hot Cocoa, Chase & Sanborn Coffee, Coffeemate, Deer Park water, Encore, Club, Goodhost, Great Bear Water, Hill's Bros. Coffee, Ice Mountain Water, Juicy Juice, Kerns Juice Nectar, Libby's Juice & Nectar, Movenpick, MJB, Nescafe & Nestea, Nestlé Quick, Oasis Water, Perrier (Great waters), Poland Spring Water, Taster's Choice Coffee, Utopia Water, Vitell Water, Zephyr Hills Water Candy and Ice Cream: Aero, After Eights Mints, Alpine White Chocolate, Baby Ruth, Baci, Bit O Honey, Black Magic, ButterFinger, Coffee Crisp, Chunky, Crunch, DeMets, Drumstick, Goobers, Turtles, Do Frozen Juice Bars, Goobers, Haagen Dazs, Kit Kat, Laura Secord, Mr Big, Mirage, Nestlé Ice Cream Bars, Oh Henry!, Pearson's Nips, Perugina Chocolates, Quality Street, Sunmark Raisinets, Smarties, Snowcaps, Turtles, Fundraising Chocolates, Katherine Beich, Harry Lunden Personal Care Products: Alcon Eye Care, L'Oreal, Warner Cosmetics Pet Foods: Alpo, Dr. Ballard's, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Mighty Dog Prepared Foods: Buitone pasta and canned goods, Buitoni, Contadina tomato and pasta products, Cross & Blackwell sauces, soups, Lean Cuisine, Libby's, Maggi seasonings and soups, Stouffer's Frozen Foods, MJB Restaurants: Stouffer's, Borel's, Cheese Cellar, Chicago, J.B.Winberie, James Tavern, One Nation, Parker's Lighthouse, Pier East, The Roxy, Rusty Scupper, The Whole Grain Wines: Beringer, Chateau Souverain, Los Hermanos, Nappa Ridge Tell Nestlé you are boycotting them. Nestlé USA, Inc. 800 North Brand Blvd. Glendale, CA 91203 Telephone: 1-818-549 60 00 Fax: 1-818 549 69 52 Nestlé Consumer Services: Direct Telephone: 1-818 549 6818 Direct Fax: 1-818 549 63 30 Nestlé Website | Nestlé E-mail Tell Perrier you are boycotting them. The Perrier Group of America Rob Fisher, Director of Manufacturing Midwest Region 777 West Putnam Ave. Greenwich, CT 06830 203-863-0288 203-531-4100 Toll Free - 1-888-543-2804 Toll Free - 1-800-937-2002 FAX 203-629-7788 Perrier Website kjeffery@perriergroup.com Chief Executive Officer rfisher@perriergroup.com jlazgin@perriergroup.com rallen@perriergroup.com

Just Say “Hell NO!” To More Unfair Free Trade Deals
It looks like the House Democratic leadership simply did not get the message in the last election. Working Americans want no part of more falsely named “free trade” deals. This is absolutely not an issue where grassroots Democrats want our elected representatives compromising with the Republicans. We want an immediate change in direction concerning trade policy. Democratic members of Congress will face primary challengers if they go along with the rape of the American economy by Corporate forces. Our nation has lost over 3 million manufacturing jobs since Bush seized control of the White House. This mania for “free trade” agreements is lowering wage levels for most citizens. Only the economic elites running corporations are seeing economic benefits. They are profiting obscenely by intentionally gutting the economic health of the nation. They are intentionally destroying the American middle class.

The End of the World As We Know It?
There aren't many tyrants in history who can truthfully say they put the entire future of civilization at risk just to make a buck -- but Dick Cheney can.

Bechtel Takes a Hit for War Profiteering
Government auditors who canceled Bechtel's $50 million contract will soon find reasons to cancel the company's $2.85 billion in Iraq contracts. A comprehensive U.S. government audit of a Bechtel project in Iraq has exposed gross mismanagement by the company.

Bush's Petro-Cartel Almost Has Iraq's Oil
With 140,000 U.S. troops on the ground, the largest U.S. embassy in the world sequestered in Baghdad's fortified "Green Zone" and an economy designed by a consulting firm in McLean, Va., post-invasion Iraq was well on its way to becoming a bonanza for foreign investors. But Big Oil had its sights set on a specific arrangement -- the lucrative production sharing agreements that lock in multinationals' control for long terms and are virtually unheard of in countries as rich in easily accessible oil as Iraq.

[Follow the Money] Bush's Brother Neil To Make Millions Off His Brother's "No Child Left Behind" Act...
Across the country, some teachers complain that President George W. Bush's makeover of public education promotes "teaching to the test." The President's younger brother Neil takes a different tack: He's selling to the test. The No Child Left Behind Act compels schools to prove students' mastery of certain facts by means of standardized exams. Pressure to perform has energized the $1.9 billion-a-year instructional software industry.

Petro Profits Pour in at BP
Profits are pouring in at the BP Group. At the same time, the company announced a profit of $7.27 billion in the second quarter, 30 percent more than the comparable period a year ago and the equivalent of more than $55,000 a minute. Sky-high crude oil prices are the main reason BP’s coffers are overflowing, and analysts expect a string of similarly robust figures from the other global oil giants as they report their second-quarter results in the next few days, which will probably prompt a new round of calls by politicians to impose windfall profits taxes on the industry.

We Have Created the World’s First Truly Global Empire
John Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man," joins us in our firehouse studio to talk about his former work going into various countries to try to strongarm leaders into creating policy favorable to the U.S government and corporations. Perkins describes himself as an economic hit man.

World Bank Approves Ghana Water Privatization Loan
In an unprecedented slippery move, the World Bank approved a $103 million dollar loan for the privatization of Ghana's urban water system, 2 months before the projected Board date. Despite three years of active civil society opposition to the water privatization scheme, the World Bank has continued to push forward with the plan. At least four major multinational companies have expressed interest in bidding for the contract: Biwater, Suez, Vivendi (now called Veolia) and Saur. While the World Bank has approved the loan, the Ghanaian government has still not formally opened the bidding process. The Ghana National Coalition Against the Privatisation of Water says that resistance to the privatization of water will continue and the ultimate objective is clear: we must ensure that access to potable water is available to all and guaranteed as a human right.

As WTO giants bicker on food aid, thousands die: UN
Europe and the United States should be throwing their efforts into increasing food aid instead of arguing about the form it takes, a top U.N. food aid official said on Friday. A long-simmering row between Washington and Brussels boiled over at a trade meeting in Hong Kong this week, with ministers exchanging barbed comments about whether humanitarian aid should be in the form of commodities or cash. "What is disgraceful and outrageous is that 18,000 children die of hunger every day, every one of them a preventable death. That's what the controversy should be about," said John Powell, deputy executive director of the United Nations' World Food Programme. "We need more food and more cash," he told reporters.

Biology Prof. Resigns Over Gvt. Use of Plant Research
We speak Dr. Martha Crouch, a former biology professor at the University of Indiana. She ran a lab dedicated to cutting edge plant research but decided to end her career when she found out that biotechnology companies were co-opting her research for profit.

Wolfowitz To Rule the World (Bank)
First George W. Bush picks UN-basher John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations. Then he nominates Karen Hughes, a champion spinner who has little foreign policy experience, to be under secretary of state in charge of enhancing the United States' image abroad. Next, Bush taps Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to run the World Bank. The Wolfowitz nomination is a loss for the world. Wolfowitz's achievements as a warmonger may say little about his views on international development, but his record on Iraq is one of miscalculation and exaggeration. And the poor of the world deserve a World Bank president with better judgment. A leading neocon, Wolfowitz was a chief cheerleader for the war in Iraq--even before 9/11. In the first months of the Bush administration, Wolfowitz advocated toppling Saddam Hussein by sending in US troops to seize Iraq's oil fields and establish a foothold. Then, according to Wolfowitz, the rest of the country would rise up against Hussein. As Bob Woodward reported, then-Secreatry of State Colin Powell called this idea "lunacy."

Halliburton Could Get $1.5bn More Iraq Work
26 February 2005— Halliburton, under scrutiny for its contracts in Iraq, would receive an extra $1.5 billion as part of the Bush administration's additional war spending proposal for fiscal 2005, a senior US Army budget official said. Halliburton, once led by Vice-President Dick Cheney, is the largest corporate contractor in Iraq and has drawn fire for its no-bid contracts there, with auditors charging its Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) unit overcharged for some work.

Halliburton: $9.6 Billion in Iraq So Far
25 February 2005— Halliburton's logistics contract with the U.S. Army in Iraq has been worth at least $9.6 billion since the start of the war and is mounting at a cost of about $6 billion a year, according to Army documents and officials. The company, headed by Vice President Dick Cheney for five years prior to his election in 2000, has been paid $6.6 billion for its work so far, with another $3 billion in payments pending completion of the work, said Dan Carlson, spokesman for Army Field Support Command, Rock Island, Ill..

Army Gives Halliburton $9.4 Million in Bonuses
25 February 2005—Halliburton Co. received $9.4 million in bonuses for its work in Kuwait and Afghanistan, the Army said Thursday. Some government departments have launched investigations of Halliburton's work in Iraq, including an inquiry on whether it overcharged to supply fuel to Iraqi civilians.

Anti-Coke stir enters 1000th day
Palakkad, Jan 15; Environmental campaigners, anti-globalisation activists, politicians and writers joined hands with villagers and pledged to fight the exploitation of natural resources by multinational corporations.

World Bank Undermines Efforts on Global Warming
The World Bank recently met to consider continued support for development of new sources of fossil fuels, the primary cause of the climatic disruption. It decided to continue support in the interest of offering succor to those less developed nations that might sell oil or coal or gas into the world markets. The action calls attention once again to the growing discrepancy between what the scientific community is saying about the state of the world and what the political and economic communities are willing to hear. The fact is that the environment is being changed in ways that destroy its life-supporting capacities. Immediate effective steps must be taken to stop the erosion.

Lockdown on Sea Island
The body bags have been shipped in, locals are running scared, and foreigners are being arrested and deported. Organisers of this week's G8 Summit are taking no chances with security. E Jane Dickson reports from a community under siege

Perle Failed To Disclose Financial Ties To Boeing
Pentagon adviser Richard Perle came under fire on Friday for failing to disclose financial ties to Boeing Co. even while championing its bid for a controversial $20 billion-plus defense contract.

Group Wants Investigation of Police Tactics at Miami Trade Talks
Some groups are questioning the use of force, including pepper spray and rubber bullets, against protesters at trade talks last week in Miami. Amnesty International called on Wednesday for an investigation into police tactics during last week's Free Trade Area of the Americas meetings here, joining a swelling chorus of complaints that the police used unwarranted violence to stifle mostly peaceful demonstrators.

Urgent Action and Article on Police Brutality in Miami
This week thousands of protestors came to Miami to oppose The Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), an international trade agreement that aims to expand and extend corporate power throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The Empire Strikes Out
Today a globalized corporate empire is menacing the future of the entire biosphere. We all know that empires are castles made of sand that always crumble and fade away, but by the time this empire strikes out, the biological game could be all but over. Corporate globalization is killing off its host – and ours – mother Earth.

IMF Confidential: The Secret Documents The Masters Of The Universe Would Rather You Not See
This document, nominally produced by the World Bank, represents the interlocking directives of both the Bank and the IMF, as well as, indirectly, the wishes of both institutions' largest patron, the United States Treasury Department. Marked "Confidential" or "Official Use Only," these reports are seldom publicized to the citizenry bound up in their stipulations. And yet for the 100-plus that rely on IMF and World Bank loans-countries such as Argentina, Tanzania, Ecuador, Sierra Leone-such agreements serve as de facto legislation, meticulous in detail and ideological in thrust. Although couched as loan conditions or as helpful development advice, these reports more closely resemble the minutes of a financial coup d'etat....

Iraq on the auction block
"Most of the Iraqi private sector was put up for sale yesterday." For that startling bit of news you would have had to read The Times of London. Almost nobody took notice in the United States when Iraq's occupation government _ run by U.S.-picked worthies _ enacted laws allowing foreigners to buy 100 percent of Iraqi's non-energy business and finance.

The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is a trade agreement currently under negotiation that would expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to include 31 additional nations in the Western Hemisphere. This massive expansion is currently being negotiated without meaningful public or Congressional input. The FTAA would not only extend the failed policies of the NAFTA which have eroded living standards, undermined workers rights, devastated family farms, and empowered corporations to challenge domestic public interest laws, but could also include new provisions to severely restrict the ability of federal, state, and local governments throughout the hemisphere to regulate both public and private services, or to provide essential public services.

''Corporations are the main victors in Iraq''
Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of the Iraqi occupation, made that clear back in July when he declared that Iraq needs to accept foreign investment and privatization of its oil before a permanent government is put in charge of the country. In other words, democracy is welcome only after the most important economic decisions regarding the future of Iraqis have been decided for them.

Cancun Postmortem: What Next for the WTO?
The recent collapse of the WTO’s ministerial meetings in Cancun was a disaster, a blessing, or something in between, depending on whom you ask. One thing is certain, the failure of the negotiations will have a profound impact on future international trade matters.

The WTO and the long-lost cause of real free trade
Something crashed to Earth on the beach at Cancun, the problem is identifying what it was.

Taking Aim
Taking Aim is an integral part of the fight-back of working people and the oppressed that is central to the survival of civilization. Once you hear Taking Aim, you will not miss a show, but if you do ...Taking Aim programs are archived on this Internet site, where they can be listened to online or downloaded in mp3 format to your computer.

WTO Beached in Cancun
The WTO was sold to the Congresses and Parliaments of the world in 1994 as an organization that would establish and enforce global trade rules, with the goal of liberalizing trade. But those who read the agreement from the beginning knew that a very different project was in the works. In fact, it is doubtful that the WTO agreement could have passed our own Congress, as well as many others, if the public had been aware of what was being created.

The WTO Should Take A Look In Cancun’s Back Yard
“They promised tourist development that would help indigenous people, help the local people and help the poor people. And we noticed at the beginning of the process that that was lies, that wasn’t the way it was going to be.” The cruise ships and hotel chains are all foreign controlled. Tourists buy an all inclusive package, including arts, crafts, restaurants and fishing excursions.. Foreign investors now control all development in Cancun. Small businesses simply cannot survive.

Developing countries pull out, WTO talks collapse
In a significant victory for the global justice movement, the WTO Cancun Ministerial meeting has collapsed as delegates from developing countries called the bluff of the EU and US, and pulled out. The scene at the convention center where the meetings were being held was jubilant, and both delegates from developing countries and NGO representatives are regarding this as a victory for the developing world.

Rich and Poor Clash Over Farm Aid
The Group of 21 (G21), which includes China, India and Brazil, has threatened the traditional dominance of rich countries during world trade talks in Cancun, Mexico. The G21 is demanding the complete abolition of subsidies paid by rich countries to their farmers which, they say, locks the developing world out of international markets.

Who Owns What? Media Companies Family Tree
100 Leading Media Companies Report and Family Tree Chart . The 100 Leading Media Companies in 2002, according to Advertising Age's 24th annual report on these media behemoths. View Media Tree

Living In a Kleptocrat Nation
The essence of democracy -- our power to control decisions that affect us -- has steadily and quietly been pilfered by corporate Kleptocrats. Not only are the Kleptocrats stealing our country from us, they're stealing our democratic ideals-the very idea of America. And it's time to take them back.

Bush Administration to Gut Clean Air Act: Rule Would Allow More Pollution at 17,000 Facilities
"The Bush administration, using an arbitrary, Enron-like accounting gimmick, is authorizing massive pollution increases to benefit Bush campaign contributors at the expense of public health," said John Walke, director of NRDC's Clean Air Project. "Corporate polluters will now be able to spew even more harmful chemicals into our air, regardless of the fact that it will harm millions of Americans."

Mexican Activists Block GE Maize Coming from US
It's not just a case of double standards - the US administration continues to ride roughshod over the rights of people around the world who say no to genetically modified organisms. The latest scientific analysis shows that one third of US maize entering Mexico is contaminated with GE varieties from Monsanto. Mexico is the centre of diversity of maize, one of the world's three most important food crops and it's at serious risk from GE contamination.

Support Grows for Maine Dairy Sued by Monsanto
Support is growing for the small family owned Oakhurst Dairy, which is being sued by the $5 billion Monsanto Company for labeling their products as rBGH-free. Realizing that the results of the lawsuit could set a precedent for rBGH labeling on a national scale, dairy producers, concerned consumers and even Ralph Nader are donating time and money to the lawsuit. Oakhurst says they have the right to let their consumers know that there are no artificial growth hormones in their milk. Monsanto claims consumers shouldn't need to know whether or not the company's chemicals are in their milk or not.

Thirst for profit
For the past few years, the WTO have been trying to expand its snappily titled General Agreement on Trades in Services (or GATS), whose “privatise everything!” small print is a wet dream for corporations. The EU is using GATS to target everything from public healthcare, welfare, water, energy and transport networks in the developing world as its new golden goose. Its 109 ‘requests’ for developing countries was a strictly classified document that got leaked onto the web. But why do they want to keep it a secret? One of those requests from the EU is that 72 developing countries make commitments to open up their water supplies to competition.

US opposes bigger say for poorer countries
The US is trying to block proposals to give poorer countries a bigger say in World Bank decision-making, dismissing complaints that the institution is too dominated by rich nations.

US trying to block World Bank governance reforms
The Bretton Woods Project has learned that the US government is trying to kill off discussions about reforming the governance structures of the World Bank. This issue is to be discussed by the Bank Board on Monday.

C for capitalism
Can a firm that is so deeply embedded in the iron triangle where industry, government and the military converge be good for democracy? Carlyle arguably takes to a new level the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower feared might “endanger our liberties or democratic process”. What red-blooded capitalist can truly admire a firm built, to a significant degree, on cronyism; surely, this sort of access capitalism is for ghastly places like Russia, China or Africa, not the land of the free market?

Corporate Profile: Bechtel
Profiting from Destruction

Photographer hurt in G8 riot
South London Press photographer Guy Smallman, from Brixton, had two hours of surgery on his leg following Sunday's incident. Guy said he was running away when he was hit in the leg by a grenade that exploded on impact and vlew a fist-sized hole in his leg.

G8 behind the barricades
By a splendid twist of history, this will be the place where the conqueror of Iraq, George W Bush, will set foot on "enemy" French soil - or continent for that matter, since in an overwhelmingly anti-war Europe millions of people bothered to display their displeasure with US foreign policy during mass demonstrations on February 15. This is also the first G8 summit in Europe since an Italian police officer shot dead Italian student Carlo Giuliani during the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001.

Paying for Apartheid
Two major lawsuits--filed against multinational corporations for abetting apartheid--are at a critical juncture.

Here Comes The Funny Money
The International Monetary Fund [IMF], the World Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve System, working in tandem with the United Nations to ultimately achieve a fluid global economy utilizing a single global monetary unit, had originally planned to begin dollarizing the currencies of Central and South America at the end of this year as a condition for allowing those nations to participate in an expanded North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA].

Fast food comes to Iraq
Basra: Fastfood giants Pizza Hut and Burger King have set up their first franchises inside war-torn Iraq, even as many aid convoys waited on the borders for the war to officially end.

$2.4 Billion Project Already in the Works
GE Capital Structured Finance Group and Bechtel Enterprises, Inc. have formed a new company to develop, finance, build, own and operate major pipeline transportation systems throughout the world. In GE Capital and Bechtel, the new company, PSG International, brings together one the world's largest infrastructure financing and investment companies and a global development, engineering, construction and project management company.

Rumsfeld's Old Flame
Everyone's heard of Vice President Dick Cheney's ties to Halliburton, a company standing on the brink of a bonanza as the government doles out post-war reconstruction dollars. But not enough has been revealed about Bechtel, a reported finalist for the first round of contracts, and its connections to another of the war's architects: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It's a sordid little tale, and one that calls into question the depth of Rumsfeld's virtuous claims about his intentions to liberate the Iraqis.

Deal to Sell Water All Wet, Critics Charge
The U.S. military came up with a solution yesterday for the penniless people of this Iraqi port town begging for water: Sell it.

Candidate for Production Job Is a Retired Shell Executive
The former chief executive of the Shell Oil Company appears to be the leading contender to oversee Iraqi oil production after the fall of Saddam Hussein, industry experts who spoke to the Bush administration said yesterday.

Top US firms vie for post-war Iraq contracts
A small group of giant American construction firms are furiously competing for a $900 million US government contract for the initial rebuilding of infrastructure that will be shattered by US bombs and missiles. The battle for the first reconstruction contract is only a foretaste of a vast plundering of the oil-rich country by US-based multinationals. This unseemly “scramble for Iraq” even before the invasion has begun is the clearest indication that the impending war is not about “weapons of mass destruction,” terrorism or Saddam Hussein’s regime, but rather about oil, profits and US economic hegemony in the Middle East and beyond.

US firms to rebuild Iraq
Five companies have been invited to bid for contracts to put Iraq's infrastructure back together after a decade of sanctions and the expected US-led war. Among the five is a subsidiary of Halliburton, the oil and construction giant run by US Vice President Dick Cheney for five years till 2000. Aside from Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown and Root, they include Bechtel, Fluor, Louis Berger and Parsons. All five are US-owned and headquartered.

Disinfopedia Main Page
Welcome to Disinfopedia, a collaborative project to produce a directory of public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion and public policy on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests.

Promoting Privatization
An analysis of World Bank lending policies shows that the bank has increasingly linked aid to privatization.

2001 G8 Summit: Genoa Police 'Admit Fabrication'
Italian media have been publishing transcripts of an inquiry into the policing of the 2001 Genoa G8 summit in which officers admit fabricating evidence against protesters.

Privatizing America's Schools Gone Wrong
The for-profit school administration company Edison Schools Inc., reportedly low on cash but with 20 particularly troublesome Philadelphia high schools to manage, tried to cut some corners in September until reined in by the school board. According to an October dispatch in Toronto's Globe and Mail, Edison ran low on cash and (1) had to send back newly ordered textbooks, computers, lab supplies and musical instruments; (2) tried to move its Philadelphia executives out of their downtown offices and into vacant school-system rooms to save on rent; and (3) suggested to the school board that students could acquire valuable experience if they were assigned various work projects (for free) for Edison. The latter two ideas were thwarted by the school board, but the students were still making do with old books and equipment.

Victors and Spoils
There's probably not a single politician or journalist in Washington who believes that privatizing much of the federal government is really motivated by a desire to reduce costs.

Chokehold on Knowledge
Since it's the threat of obscurantism we're hoping to thwart, let's be blunt: The Bush administration's plan to strip the Government Printing Office's authority is a threat to democracy. As library experts have recently pointed out, privatization certainly would diminish the public's access to information needed to make informed decisions.

Globalization casts trafficking shadow
The conference on “Globalization, Justice, and the Trafficking of Women and Children” met Friday evening and all day Saturday to spotlight this issue from legal, political and geographical angles.

Free Trade Area of the Americas Takes Shape
Trade ministers from the 34 democracies in the Western Hemisphere, minus Cuba, met in Quito Friday for the latest round of negotiations on a possible Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The FTAA would expand the model of the North American Free Trade Agreement throughout the region

Nestle acquires part of French water supplier
Nestle Waters has acquired 33 percent of Saphir, France's fourth largest home and office delivery bottled water supplier, which sells the Opalia brand.

The Globalization of Disease
An Ebola outbreak in London, Dengue Fever in Moscow, Malaria sweeping through Italy, a typhoid epidemic in Portugal or a cholera outbreak in Madrid are not figments of the Hollywood imagination, but a distinct possibility.

Don't Fence Us In
Globalisation, it was said, would break down barriers - of trade, communication, prosperity. In fact, argues Naomi Klein, it has built new ones, repressive and alienating. But we can open the windows - if we know how.

Here's One That's Just Patently Absurd
The U.S. Patent Office has awarded a patent for software that automates international commerce. No, you didn't misread that, and no, this isn't a spoof... It happened, and it might stick. And if it does, get ready for the creation of federal oversight and compliance agencies that will make sure that everyone who's ever used, been used by, forgotten, or ignored a business process will be charged appropriately for the privilege.

Business interrupted by downtown protesters
It didn't take long for the anti-globalization folks to make good on their promise to disrupt business in Washington Friday morning. Several hundred protesters gathered downtown in Franklin Square by 7 a.m. to kick off three days worth of opposition to World Bank and International Monetary Fund lending.

Anti-globalization activists: Divided, they make a stand
The thousands of protesters massing here to "quarantine corporate greed" at the annual World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings should have all the tools they need for the job.

God and globalization
Many concerns about globalization stem from religious teachings relating to the repugnancy of greed, wasted or misused economic power, and disrespect for supportive human relationships. Rather than the general gains for the world’s poor promised by the international economic elite, religious critics see agencies such as the World Bank and IMF forcing developing nations to switch from traditional food crops to cash crops, forcing protected local or national markets to open to ravenous transnational markets, and forcing poorer nations to spend meager public funds to pay down international debts rather than to build up education and health care.

Another Bad Trade Pact
From NAFTA to CAFTA
Under cover of the corporate (and independent) media's obsession with GW Bush's maniacal 'war on terror,' the US is pursuing new trade negotiations to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) debacle to Central and South America.

Globalization Activists Go to Charm School
In a church basement a couple of miles from the citadels of international finance, opponents of globalization are trying to revive the spirit of Seattle. An anti-globalization garage band unleashes a sonic barrage titled "Third World Scene." The Anti-Authoritarian Babysitters Club offers to keep an eye on infants of the revolution. Forty or so protest planners stand shoulder to shoulder in a circle and chant "Si, se puede" over and over. Translation: Yes, it can be done. Even after Sept. 11.

Globalization, Alive and Well
If one were having a contest for the most wrongheaded prediction about the world after 9/11, the winner would be the declaration by the noted London School of Economics professor John Gray that 9/11 heralded the end of the era of globalization. Not only will Sept. 11 not be remembered for ending the process of global financial, trade and technological integration, but it may well be remembered for bringing some sobriety to the antiglobalization movement.

Globalization, US Aid & Taxes

• US aid pays for the Caterpillar bulldozers which are destroying Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories.
• US aid pays for the Apache helicopters terrorizing Colombian farmers.
• The US government pays for the F16s that regularly bomb Iraqi and Afghan civilians.
• The corporations that build this military hardware are paid with our tax money, and make huge profits off this human misery.
• US military aid terrorizes and destroys lives, homes, and communities in the name of peace and stability.
• US-controlled institutions like the IMF and World Bank destroy public healthcare, education, and utilities, in the name of globalization. These institutions and the US military are two heads of one system that protect the power and privilege of a minority of people at the expense of the majority. Capitalist globalization is expanded and reinforced with US guns, tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets so multinational corporations can secure access to cheap labor, resources, markets, and increase their profits.

Three Hundred Citizen Groups Call on Secret World Bank Trade Court to Open Up Bechtel Case Against Bolivia: Case called a "Preview of the Free Trade of the Americas"
More than three hundred citizens groups from 41 countries presented a petition today to a World Bank-affiliated court, demanding that it allow public participation in a controversial case in which Bechtel Corporation is suing Bolivia for $25 million. (Petition and support letter available at: http://www.earthjustice.org/news/display.html?ID=435

WTO backs EU against U.S. law
Handing down the largest judgment in its history, the World Trade Organization on Friday authorized the European Union to impose more than $4 billion in duties against the United States as compensation for an illegal system of tax breaks.

Who Owns Water?
As the World Summit on Sustainable Development draws closer, clear lines of contention are forming, particularly around the future of the world's freshwater resources. Government and corporate delegates to the September meeting will gather in the lavish hotels and convention facilities in the fabulously wealthy Johannesburg suburb that houses huge estates, English gardens and swimming pools. There, they will meet with World Bank and World Trade Organization officials to set the stage for the privatization of water.

A moment of deep hope
An interview with Vandana Shiva
The phenomenon of violence is the dominant fact of our time. That then connects further into the vicious circle: a vicious circle of violence, in which you have a violence of globalization, a denial of basic needs, usurpation of resources, undermining of democracy. It gives rise to fundamentalism, exclusion, chauvinism, nationalism of all kinds, fueling into a politics of diversion, in which the globalization agenda, which could never have gone through in democratic forms, is scuttled through, in a way, sneakily.

Kill the Corporation
For much of the 1990s, those in the know told us the boom was permanent. So permanent, in fact, that we should transfer money out of old-fashioned Social Security into the with-it stock market. Then every janitor and school teacher and cop and hairdresser could get as rich as people with real money.

V Is Not for Victory
How do you water down what once was little more than a water utility company? Vivendi Universal (NYSE: V) had ambitious global intentions once, but now its struggling conglomerate is under water. With big bets leading to even bigger debts, the French company that grew to become the world's third-largest media empire is now in a cash crunch.

Enron subsidiary Azurix's failed attempt at Florida's water rights sends warning message
Little did most of us know that when Enron collapsed, it was due in large measure to an ill-fated campaign for control of Florida's drinking water.

Concern over foreign ownership of key public utility aired in hearing
Wilma Davis was taken aback when she read about plans to sell her local water company to a multinational conglomerate based in Germany and operating in many businesses all over the world. Jim Duffield, expressed concern that the state's abundant water supplies could be diverted to drier parts of the world.

Water proposal angers residents
Angry customers packed City Hall on Thursday to speak out against a proposed 51 percent increase in their water rates. The customers are fuming about a 33 percent rate increase the district imposed in to pay for a water tower and well the district has yet to use. “My water bills are just as high as my electric bills because of the last increase,” said Renee Stockton ... “When is this going to stop?”

Utility ‘trying to milk us’
“The people of Missouri will work together when they really need help, but we don’t like outsiders coming in and trying to milk us,” he said to applause from the crowd. A crowd of more than 200 people turned out for a public hearing Thursday night to voice opposition to a 51-percent rate hike proposed by the Missouri American Water Co. (a private water supply company)

Jackals of War
As high level delegations from the U.S. and Britain flew in and out of New Delhi and Karachi, lobbying for peace. It turns out that is not all they were lobbying for. With the scent of blood in the air, the arms jackals have poured into South Asia, sometimes in the suits of leading government officials hawking weapon sales.

Corporate Secrecy Oils the Wheels of Poverty
While oil, gas and minerals are by far the largest sources of state revenue for the world's poorest nations, these resources, which should help fund development and sustainable economic growth, all too often turn out to be a curse, leading to increased poverty, child malnutrition and civil conflict.

Taking our common wealth and selling it: Stop the Corporate Takeover of Our Water
The greater villains are loose in our world today, literally thirsting to take things that are yours and min—and this time they might make off with the greatest plunder of all: our water. Yes, the ideologues and greedheads brought us the fairy tale of energy deregulation and the Ponzi scheme of Enron are aggressively pushing for deregulation and privatization of the world's water supplies and systems. They are determined to turn this essential public resource into another commodity for traders and speculators—a private plaything for personal profiteering.

Trouble on the Farm
Corporate attacks on family farm activists have increased dramatically since the Seattle anti-WTO demonstrations in 1999.

What Are They Doing to Argentina?
Imagine that someone is drowning, and a passerby does nothing to save him. This would be morally reprehensible. But what if the drowning man is trying to claw his way onto the shore, and the passerby kicks him and pushes him back into the river? Very simply, the IMF is practicing a form of extortion, and a fairly brutal one at that.

Air chaos as Europe becomes no-fly zone
Travellers face cancellations and delays as traffic controllers in 10 countries coordinate strike in protest at plans for mass privatisation.

Workers Pay Brutal Price for Cheap Fruit
In the report Tainted Harvest, which was issued last month, Human Rights Watch slammed the Ecuadorian industry for malpractice, including child labor. Ian King, senior organizer for the GMB union in Scotland, said: ' Conditions won't improve if people stop buying Ecuadorian bananas but it would help if people tell stores they want fruit that has been produced in accordance with fair practice.

100m more must survive on $1 a day
June 19: Globalisation is part of the problem, not the solution, warns UN.

Greed Is Bad
Perhaps corporations will reform themselves, but so far they show no signs of changing their ways.

Former Soviet leader Mikhael Gorbachev would like to help build a new world order, but warned against attempts to Americanize cultures across the world.
"Unfortunately," he said, "we wasted a lot of time after the end of the Cold War. Today, we have to build a new world order step by step."

The Age of Inequality
Here's the latest evidence of the startling growth of income and wealth inequality, in the United States and around the world

Making America Truly Safe
Globalization has eroded the geographical and economic barriers that once shielded the U.S. from the consequences of its foreign policy. Our new vulnerability was most vividly revealed by the events of Sept. 11, but we are likely to get occasional reminders in the days ahead. The U.S. has thwarted democracy, inserted puppet dictators, smothered human rights and stifled freedom in many of these countries. Is it any wonder that the seeds of those policies are bearing fruit?

Farm Bill Outrage Goes Global
The ink was hardly dry on the furious newspaper editorials inspired by the Bush administration's decision to protect the steel industry when along comes the Farm Bill to further stoke the fire. The world is supposed to be moving toward more open markets, embracing liberalization as the route to globalization--and then the self-appointed leader of free trade abandons the script. These turnabouts couldn't come at a worse time, as negotiations to deepen global trade rules at the World Trade Organization (WTO), just getting started in Geneva, will now begin with almost every country in the world expressing disgust with the U.S. retreat behind trade barriers.

Activists Take New Tack to Promote Human Rights
A few hundred years from now (if our species is still around), people will look back on our time, note the nearly unchecked power we granted these entities called corporations, and wonder: What were folks back then thinking?

U.S. Exports Misery to Africa
The White House and Congress are trumpeting their determination to bring economic opportunity to the people of Africa. But first, a few million sub-Saharan farmers will have to suffer.

Study Says Rubber Bullets Too Dangerous For Civil Crowd Control
Some types of rubber bullets used by police to restrain unruly protesters kill and maim too often to be considered a safe method of crowd control, new research concludes.

Over 100,000 Protest
Some 100,000 anti-globalization demonstrators rallied peacefully on Sunday, chanting against capitalism and war and dancing to the beating of drums.

Provision In Trade Bill Could Cost Taxpayers Billions, According To New Study
Legislation to renew the President's authority to negotiate new trade agreements could set the stage for unprecedented legal protections for foreign investors against local, state and federal laws. If not fixed, the legislation could cost taxpayers $32 billion in monetary damages and threaten many of our public health and safety laws, according to a new study released today by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a national budget watchdog organization.

Corporate Bribery on the Rise Worldwide
International conventions have not stopped multi-national corporations from trying to secure valuable contracts by bribing government officials in the world's emerging economies - especially in the arms and defense, and public works and construction industries.

Bush Wins, World's Children Lose at the United Nations
The U.N. General Assembly Special Session on Children, a conference held to advance the health, education and safety of children everywhere. One out of five of the world's children has never been to school, one out of three is malnourished and one out of four is not immunized against preventable childhood diseases.

What protectionism fails to protect
Less than two months after the US increased its aid budget from 0.1% to 0.13% of national income, the "new compact for development" declared at the time by George Bush now looks cynical and empty, in the light of the farm bill he signed on Monday.

Artificial societies may make real policy
Agent-based modeling is an emerging computer technology that holds promise as a powerful tool for analyzing policy problems -- and experts in the field believe it has the potential to fundamentally change the way social scientists and economists test theories, examine data, and create new policies.

Expanding Free Trade
In order to ram a free-trade bill through the Senate, President Bush will have to support a Democratic proposal aimed at softening the impact of trade agreements on workers who lose their jobs.

Coalition of 135 Groups Voice Opposition to Fast Track 08.06.2002
In a letter to the Senate, 135 groups denounced the Baucus / Grassley Trade Promotion Authority bill, also known as "fast track". The letter calls on the Senate to instead support international trade and investment policies that ensure that the benefits of trade are broadly shared, that the environment is protected, and that allow ordinary citizens full access to the decision-making process.

Nations Authorize “Regime Change” for USA
The Association of Nations Destroyed, Destabilized or Otherwise Violated by Uncle Sam, or ANDDOVUS, has authorized the ouster of the current U.S. administration by no later than March 2003. Foreign ministers of the 123 nations that make up ANDDOVUS met earlier this week in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they agreed to appropriate $42.8 billion for what they termed “regime change in the United States.”

United States Formally Retracts Support of International Criminal Court Treaty
The NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court, a worldwide alliance of more than 1,000 civil society organizations and independent legal experts, expressed its disappointment at the Bush administration who has formally revoked its support of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court—the first permanent, independent tribunal capable of trying individuals for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide...

Homeland security support cools?
Some 300 executives from government, the armed forces and private industry agreed overwhelmingly at a seminar on homeland security that the nation's leaders have failed to engage the American people in the effort to protect against terrorist attack. Foreign governments often help U.S. security agencies and don't want their role exposed.

Laugh If You Like, But Don't Ignore the Determination of Today's Protesters
Tthe movement for global equality isn't just about these days of brief, ineffective chaos. People who see themselves as part of this movement go on chugging along in other ways, on other days of the year, in campaigns against, say, privatizing public services or Third World debt – although we certainly don't get to hear about their work and their ideas as much as we once did.

G8 Summit in Detroit
The Detroit Police Department stated that they will have 4,000 cops mobilized on the 2nd and 3rd for the G8 Summit at Hart Plaza in Detroit. He assumed that we would pulling out a couple thousand based on the number of cops. Television clips have been shown of riot cops (basic Robocop uniform -- body armor, gas masks, shields, batons -- and horses) drilling in an open field and practicing use of tear gas.

British protesters flock to summit
Police armed with tear gas as thousands prepare to descend on Barcelona.

New world, but the same old disorder
Three challenges, of universal and enduring import, were posed by 11 September. The first was the challenge of reinforcing the security dimension of globalisation.

Doha spells disaster for development
Those who claim 'anti-globalisation' has no positive agenda are wrong.

Bridging the global divide
Protestors must ditch 'anti-globalisation' if they are to pressure the rich world to finally keep its promises to the poor.

Keeping the pressure on
A new US multilateralism will come with many strings attached. Popular pressure is more important than ever

What we want
Leading thinkers and campaigners set out their agenda for how the globalisation debate should respond after September 11th

'Historic' deal saves Kyoto, but America stays outside
Every country in the world except the US reached agreement this weekend on how to enforce the Kyoto accord on tackling climate change.

Dangerous road to Doha
Success at this week's trade talks is critical. But are they doomed from the start

The agenda: Food, drugs - and debt reduction

'War on terrorism could be lost here'
The DTI's Patricia Hewitt what the UK hopes - and fears.

UK block on drugs for poor
The British government is blocking moves to get cheap life-saving drugs to poor countries ravaged by diseases such as AIDS

Aftershocks that will eventually shake us all
A new international order may not have emerged from the cauldron of 11 September, but it is not too early to discern the outlines of the emerging world

Only liberals can be aggressive and just.
But are we hard enough to fight back?

Just what is this 'civilisation'?
It's a word that can mean all things to all men, but it's also a concept used in the current conflict to suit many different purposes

'You can't talk... you've got to go and beat them'
Kamal Ahmed, political editor, talks to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Ending oil dependency
Dan Plesch of RUSI argues that the oil economy makes industrialised countries more vulnerable and reduces our diplomatic options.

No man is an island
All religions have texts that can be used to justify terror, believes Fred Halliday. We have to trust, instead, in international law.

At last, the fall of the great wall of China
China joining the WTO is the biggest international event since the end of the Cold War - but for good or bad?

Bigger the boom, greater the bust
The dangers of the global downturn.

Trojan horse at the feast of globalisation
Some home truths for the World Economic Forum.

Why we must stay silent no longer
Book on corporate power is sparking intense debate on both sides of the Atlantic.

Look, no brands...
Surprise bestseller No Logo has propelled 30-year-old Naomi Klein to the forefront of the radical anti-corporate movement. But can boycotting Gap really change the world?

A Third Way for the Third World?
Self-indulgent protest must not deflect attention from helping the developing world join in the same capitalism that delivers the goods for us

Freedom's market
Many of the criticisms of globalisation can be rejected, but tackling poverty depends as much on democracy as it does on free markets.

Police sniff out mother of all stink bombs
Police forces are considering using vile smells to quell riots, disperse anti-globalisation protesters and end hostage situations.

Power to the people
The May Day demonstration, like those at Seattle and Quebec, is not about smashing capitalism, but about demanding a say in the future of the planet, says Kevin Danaher, the American writer and architect of a growing New Protest movement.

Don't press the panic button
Do we really want 'collective bargaining by riot' or should we be fighting instead to keep democracy?