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 | Toyota: Auto Industry Race to the Bottom
by Barbara Briggs, Special to CorpWatch
September 16th, 2008
Globally, Toyota is known for its innovation and quality of products like the Prius hybrid. A closer look at operations in Japan, the Philippines, Myanmar and the U.S. reveals a story of extreme working conditions, union-busting and other corporate abuses. In Japan and elsewhere, workers are speaking out. |
 | Dark Side of the Tourist Boom: Cruise Ship Controversies Cross Borders
by Kent Paterson, Special to CorpWatch
July 9th, 2008
The Mexican Pacific resort of Zihuatanejo recently cancelled a major new cruise ship terminal, giving a victory to environmental activists and other opponents. However, Mexico remains the world’s Number One cruise ship destination; and with little regulation, allegations of onboard crime, and increasing militarization as regards security while ships are in port, the rapidly expanding industry is facing new challenges. |
 | Booming Chinese Demand Has Ripples Down Under In Queensland
by Patrick O'Keeffe, Special to CorpWatch
April 16th, 2008
A bauxite mine and a proposed refinery in northern Queensland, Australia, to be developed by a Chinese mineral company, has divided local and traditional landowners. Part of a major industrialization scheme, it has also sparked worries among environmentalists. |
 | Playing with Children's Lives: Big Tobacco in Malawi
by Pilirani Semu-Banda, Special to CorpWatch
February 25th, 2008
Cigarettes may be damaging not only your own health, but also that of some of the world's poorest children. Much of Malawi's thriving tobacco industry rests on the backs of exploited children, some as young as five years old. |
 | An Uncomfortable Spotlight in Davos
by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch
January 31st, 2008
The CEOs of three-quarters of the world's 100 largest companies have just completed an uncomfortable weekend at the tiny Swiss ski resort of Davos, while their companies' share prices nosedived on global stock markets, amid concern that the U.S. economy is staggering towards recession. |
 | Titanium or Water? Trouble brews in Southern India
by Nityanand Jayaraman, Special to CorpWatch
October 24th, 2007
Tata, India's largest conglomerate, wants to take 10,000 acres of land to mine ilmenite in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The plan has sparked protests by local villagers who say the project will destroy their traditional way of life and the environment. |
 | Lessons of Empire: India, 60 Years After Independence
by Nick Robins and Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch
August 14th, 2007
60 years after India gained independence, British capital is still exploiting poor communities in its former colony. Centuries after Britain's East India Company -- the world's first multinational -- faced protests in London, a group of villagers continue the tradition of resistance. |
 | The Life and Death of a Border Town
by David Martinez, Special to CorpWatch
June 12th, 2007
Two towns in the Mexican border state of Coahuila discover the reality of "free trade" with the United States: Ramos Arizpe is still riding the boom in automobile production while Morelos has been abandoned by the denim manufacturers, as factories relocate to even cheaper production sites overseas. |
 | A Proxy Battle: Shareholders vs. CEOs
by Kevin Kelleher, Special to CorpWatch
June 13th, 2006
Earnest shareholder resolutions presented at company annual general meetings on everything from human rights to executive compensation are routinely shot down in flames. But shareholder resolutions may have an effect, even in defeat. |
 | Australia Reaps Iraqi Harvest
by Marc Moncrief, Special to CorpWatch
April 4th, 2006
United Nations sanctions against Saddam Hussein may have failed to end his regime but they succeeded in enriching both the Iraqi dictator and corporations able to manipulate the scandal-ridden world body's Oil-for-Food program. Among the profiteers was the Australian Wheat Board, a former state-owned monopoly, which funneled over $200 million into Saddam's coffers even as the “Coalition of the Willing” was preparing for invasion. |
 | Happy Meals, Unhappy Workers
by Aaron Glantz and Ngoc Nguyen, Special to CorpWatch
March 6th, 2006
Vietnamese workers earn less than $2 a day making stuffed animals and Happy Meal toys for U.S. consumers. An ongoing series of wildcat strikes this winter has forced the government to raise wages to prevent factories from moving to other countries.
Listen to an interview about this article with Aaron Glantz on CorpWatch Radio.
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 | Some Strings Attached: Cotton, Farm subsidies tie up global trade talks
by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch
December 13th, 2005
West African cotton farmers are among those hardest hit by government subsidized corporate agriculture. This week in Hong Kong, trade ministers from the 148 members of the World Trade Organization meet to discusss this and other global free trade issues. |
 | Vedanta Undermines Indian Communities
by Nityanand Jayaraman, Special to Corpwatch
November 15th, 2005
Vedanta, a fast growing British mining and aluminium production company founded by a billionaire expatriate Bombay businessman, threatens communities in India with environmental degradation and widespread pollution. |
 | Mixing Occuption and Oil in Western Sahara
by Jacob Mundy, Special to CorpWatch
July 21st, 2005
Oklahoma-based Kerr-McGee's contract with Morocco to explore for oil and gain in the contested territory on the Atlantic coast of northern Africa is complicating a 30 year independence struggle.
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 | 'Tis the Season for Shareholder Activism
by Jan Frel, Special to CorpWatch
May 4th, 2005
Every spring, activists and investors attend annual general meetings to protest and meet face-to-face with CEOs and corporate boards. The goal is to place their agendas -- on everything from the environment to labor practices -- front and center. |
 | World Contrasts
by Eduardo Galeano, www.portoalegre2003.org
January 16th, 2003
Next week, thousands will descend on Porto Alegre, Brazil for the World Social Forum, under the slogan "Another World is Possible." We thought these reflections by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano on the world as it is today were a good place to start. |
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