CorpWatch Exclusives
 | Regulating Ramatex: Authorities Shut Out as Malaysian Investor Threatens Namibian Environment by Moses Magadza, Special to CorpWatch April 5th, 2009 For nearly six years Ramatex Textile and Garment Factory barred government regulators from entering industrial premises leased from the City of Windhoek. Ramatex came to Namibia in 2001, lured by the newly implemented African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). Evidence of environmental violations finally emerged after the company absconded. |
 | 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. |
 | Trademarking Coffee: Starbucks cuts Ethiopia deal by Anton Foek, Special to CorpWatch May 8th, 2007 Starbucks, the world's largest coffee shop chain, and the Ethiopian government are on the verge of unveiling a deal that the company hopes will end attacks on the company's carefully constructed ethical image. |
 | Barrick's Dirty Secrets: Communities Respond to Gold Mining's Impacts Worldwide May 1st, 2007 A new CorpWatch report details the operations of Barrick Gold in nine different countries, focusing on the efforts on the part of the communities to seek justice from this powerful multinational. Download Spanish version of report |
 | Barrick Gold Mine Transforms Pacific Island by David Martinez, Special to CorpWatch February 21st, 2007 Papua New Guinea, one of the world's largest islands, has fortunes in gold under its lush green mountains and a diversity of indigenous culture. The arrival of a Canadian mining company has brought violent clashes and transformed the indigenous lands forever. Listen to an interview with the author, David Martinez. |
 | 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. |
 | Two World Forums, Two Visions by Pratap Chatterjee, Special to CorpWatch January 27th, 2005 While the world's biggest CEOs and politicians gather in Davos, Switzerland to network and negotiate, activists and NGO-workers meet halfway around the world in Porto Alegre, Brazil to imagine other, more humanity-focused possibilities. |
 | Barren Justice by Sasha Lilley, Special to CorpWatch May 13th, 2004 Nicaraguan banana workers have been struggling for compensation from Dole Fruit, Shell, and Dow Chemical for exposure to the pesticide DBCP. The obstacles to justice are many, including the US courts, powerful lobbies, and free trade agreements. |
 | Robert Zoellick's Free Trade Evangelism by Toni Solo, Special to CorpWatch November 17th, 2003 Free trade advocates and multinational corporations are pinning their hopes on Robert Zoellick, the United States trade representative, as negotiators from around the two continents gather in Miami for the Free Trade of the Americas talks. |
 | Cancun Round Collapses by Dan Jaffee, Special to CorpWatch September 15th, 2003 WTO negotiations collapsed in Cancun amid deep divisions between the US, EU and Japan on one side and the Group of 23, led by Brazil, South Africa, India and China, on the other. |
 | MEXICO: Will Agricultural Issues Derail WTO Talks? by Tim Russo, Special to Corp Watch September 10th, 2003 A show down is taking place at the WTO over agricultural issues that pits northern countries against the global south and small farmers against worldwide agribusiness. |
 | The Stalemate in the WTO by Walden Bello and Aileen Kwa, Focus on the Global South June 11th, 2003 An in-depth analysis of the WTO's flaws, the roots of globalization and what they mean for the upcoming WTO Summit in Cancun. |
 | Jordan's Sweatshops: The Carrot or the Stick of US Policy? by Aaron Glantz, Special to CorpWatch February 26th, 2003 While the world braces for a US war against Iraq, Washington is using its newly inked Free Trade Agreement with Jordan to open sweatshops and secure an ally in the region. |
 | The Lacandon Jungle's Last Stand Against Corporate Globalization by Ryan Zinn, Special to CorpWatch September 26th, 2002 A battle is raging in Chiapas, Mexico to protect rainforest biodiversity and indigenous rights. Both are threatend by the Plan Puebla Panama. |
 | PPP: Plan Puebla Panama, or Private Plans for Profit? by Miguel Pickard, Special to CorpWatch September 19th, 2002 A primer on the development scheme that would turn southern Mexico and all of Central America into a giant export zone. |
 | September 11th Didn't Change Everything by Kenny Bruno, CorpWatch September 10th, 2002 A New Yorker looks at the squandered opportunities to make desperately needed changes in the American psyche and global policy following last September 11th. |
 | Sempra: Exporting Pollution by J.P. Ross, Greenpeace, Special to CorpWatch May 27th, 2002 San Diego-based Sempra Energy is dodging US environmental laws by building power plants in Mexico -- and shipping the electricity back to California. |
 | Globalizing Hope by Joshua Karliner, CorpWatch February 6th, 2002 The only way to really describe the World Social Forum that just ended in Brazil is a global political ''carnaval.'' |
 | The Whole World Was Watching by Kenny Bruno, CorpWatch February 6th, 2002 The first week of February posed a test to the anti-corporate globalization movement and its targets. Local NY organizers got an A for attitude. The police passed. The WEF -- they flunked as usual. |
 | World Economic Forum Protests Pose New Challenges for Anti-Globalization Movements by Kenny Bruno, CorpWatch January 29th, 2002 Will demonstrators show that anti-corporate sentiment is alive and well? We look at the issues raised by the World Economic Forum in New York and the World Social Forum in Brazil. |
 | Fast Track Passage Won't Defeat the ''Seattle Coalition'' by Sarah Anderson and John Cavanagh, Institute for Policy Studies December 6th, 2001 Fast Track trade authority has squeaked through Congress. Analysts from the Institute for Policy Studies say it is one set back among many victories in a battle that is far from over. |
 | The Meaning of Doha by Walden Bello and Anuradha Mittal, Focus on the Global South and Food First November 15th, 2001 Two activist-scholars set the record straight on what was gained and what was lost at the recent WTO summit in Qatar. |
 | ENGLAND: The WTO's Hidden Agenda by Gregory Palast, Special to CorpWatch November 9th, 2001 Confidential documents show top corporate executives met secretly with government officials to set the pro-business agenda for the current WTO talks. This may be the smoking gun that proves corporate collusion in the WTO process. |
 | Prelude to Doha: Northern Countries Try to Ram Through Agenda by Martin Khor, Special to CorpWatch November 9th, 2001 WTO officials and delegates from the US and EU try to strong arm developing countries into accepting a new round of trade negotiations. |
 | War Profiteering: Bayer, Anthrax and International Trade by Kavaljit Singh, Asia-Europe Dialogue Project November 5th, 2001 US officials have refused to bust Bayer's monopoly on anthrax drugs, even though generic drugs would save $millions. Bayer's patent was protected under the WTO. Now those rights are challenged. |
 | WTO and the Fate of the World's Forests by Victor Menotti, Special to CorpWatch November 1st, 2001 At stake in upcoming WTO negotiations is the question of who will control and benefit from the world's forests. |
 | The WTO, Forests and the Spirit of Rio by Ricardo Carrere, Special to CorpWatch November 1st, 2001 Rainforest activist Ricardo Carrere argues that it's time to reject free trade and return to the environmental principles that guided the 1992 Earth Summit. |
 | ENRON: Washington's Number One Behind-the-Scenes GATS Negotiator by Tony Clarke, Special to CorpWatch October 25th, 2001 Tony Clarke, looks at how Enron, the largest service provider in the world, uses its clout to shape WTO talks on cross-border trade in services. |
| After Carlo Giuliani, Peaceful Protests Must Continue by Kenny Bruno, Special to CorpWatch July 25th, 2001 The highly publicized killing of Carlo Giuliani during the protests in Genoa on Friday, July 19th may mark a milestone for the anti-corporate globalization movement as significant as the Battle in Seattle. |
| G8: Are You Happy? by Susan George, Special to CorpWatch July 24th, 2001 The movement for a different kind of globalization is in danger. Either we expose what the police are actually up to and prevent the violence of the few, or we risk shattering the greatest political hope in the last several decades. |
| Quebec: One More Crack in the Wall by Sarah Anderson, Special to CorpWatch April 23rd, 2001 QUEBEC CITY -- ''Excuse me, but is this Canada?'' Scrawled on the ''Wall of Shame,'' a 10-foot high, 2 and a half mile long fence erected to keep protesters away from George Bush and 33 other leaders gathered at the Summit of the Americas, the slogan just about says it all. |
 | Zapatistas: Bad For Business by Martin Espinoza, Special to CorpWatch March 22nd, 2001 Are the Zapatistas winning the war of ideas against neoliberalism and free trade? |
 | This Is What Democracy Looks Like by Kenny Bruno, Special to CorpWatch January 28th, 2001 Thousands gather in Porto Alegre, Brazil to look towards a future in which corporations no longer rule. |
| The Promise of Porto Alegre by Ignacio Ramonet, Le Monde Diplomatique The new century is starting in Porto Alegre. All kinds of people, each in their own ways, have been contesting and critiquing neo-liberal globalisation, and many of them will be gathering in this southern Brazilian city on 25-30 January for the first World Social Forum. This time they won't just be protesting -- as they were in Seattle, Washington, Prague and elsewhere -- against the world-wide injustices, inequalities and disasters created by the excesses of capitalism (see the article by Bernard Cassen). |
| The Struggle for a Deglobalized World by Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South September 6th, 2000 In the mid-nineties, the WTO had been sold to the global public as the lynchpin of a multilateral system of economic governance that would provide the necessary rules to facilitate the growth of global trade and the spread of its beneficial effects. |
| US: Against China PNTR by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, Focus on the Corporation May 22nd, 2000 The debate over whether the U.S. Congress should grant Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR, formerly known as permanent most favored nation) status is about many things, but none more important than this basic question. |
| US: Don't Bash China by Walden Bello and Anuradha Mittal, Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First May 1st, 2000 The anti-China trade campaign amounts to a Faustian bargain that seeks to buy some space for US organized labor at the expense of real solidarity with workers and progressive worker and environmental movements globally against transnational capital. |
| WTO: Watershed for Alternative Media by Julie Light, Media Alliance April 1st, 2000 There are watershed moments in which world events and popular perceptions of them are changed. The week of protests at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle last year was indisputably such a moment. |
| Where was the Color in Seattle? by Elizabeth (Betita) Martinez, Colorlines February 1st, 2000 In the vast acreage of published analysis about the splendid victory over the World Trade Organization last November 29-December 3, it is almost impossible to find anyone wondering why the 40-50,000 demonstrators were overwhelmingly Anglo. |
| The Historic Significance of Seattle by Vandana Shiva, Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology December 10th, 1999 The failure of the WTO Ministerial meeting in Seattle was a historic watershed, in more than one way. Firstly, it has demonstrated that globalisation is not an inevitable phenomena which must be accepted at all costs but a political project which can be responded to politically. |
| US: The Revolt of Developing Nations by Martin Khor, Third World Network December 6th, 1999 It was an amazing week. In Seattle, the contradictions of globalization revved to a climactic conclusion. At the end, the WTO Ministerial Conference that was supposed to launch a new Round collapsed, suddenly, in almost total chaos, like a house of cards. |
| La Linea: Gender, Labor and Environmental Justice on the US-Mexico Border by Julie Light, Special to CorpWatch June 30th, 1999 TECATE, Mexico -- Tecate's coat of arms dubs this Mexican town ''Baja California's Industrial Paradise.'' About 30 miles from Tijuana, the city is home to the Tecate brewery and also houses an industrial park filled with assembly plants, or maquiladoras. This ''industrial paradise'' is one of several Mexican border boomtowns that is part of a global production system. |
| Engendering Change by Julie Light, Special to CorpWatch June 26th, 1999 For women working in Mexican assembly plants, known as maquiladoras, insisting on their legal rights takes what are colloquially referred to as cojones. It indicates that Mexico's low wage feminine labor force may not be as docile as foreign employers would like to believe. It also is a harbinger of an incipient movement inside Mexico's expanding export-processing sector. |
| Tijuana Police Defy Court Protection of Maquiladora Strike by David Bacon, Special to CorpWatch May 16th, 1999 TIJUANA -- For two weeks, Tijuana has teetered on the brink of official lawlessness, as city and state police continue to defy Baja California's legal system. Raul Ramirez, member of the Baja California Academy of Human Rights, warned last week that ''the state is in danger of violating the Constitution and the Federal Labor Law... as it succumbs to the temptation to use force.'' |
| MEXICO: Standing up for Health Rights on the Job Special to CorpWatch May 1st, 1999 First hand accounts of two workers who sued a San Diego-based medical manufacturer after a workplace accident. |
| MEXICO: University Professors Photos Draw the Wrath of Border Industrialists by Julie Light, Special to CorpWatch April 29th, 1999 It wasn't just the politically provocative photographs that got Fred Lonidier's exhibit at Tijuana's public university taken down. It was the fact that he had the audacity to leaflet maquiladora workers outside the factory gates and invite them to the gallery that got his show yanked. |
| CorpWatch Interviews Lora Jo Foo CorpWatch September 22nd, 1997 Here is an interview with Laura Jo Foo of the Asian Law Caucus and President of Sweatshop Watch on the issue of a Living Wage. |
| Clinton's New ''No Sweatshop'' Agreement by Tim Connor, Community Aid Abroad September 22nd, 1997 In April this year, with much fanfare, US President Bill Clinton announced the introduction of a new ''No Sweatshop'' Code of Conduct for US Apparel and Footwear companies. The code is voluntary, but high profile companies like Nike Inc., Reebok International Ltd. and Liz Claiborne Inc. were among the ten initial signatories. These companies agreed that a set of minimum standards for working conditions in factories would be adhered to in the production of their goods -- wherever that production occurs. |