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johnwhilley
Joined: 03 Oct 2004
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Location: Glasgow
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 Post subject: The corporate courting of NGOs |
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Entryism and ‘corporate social responsibility’:
the relationships between big business and NGOs
Examples, links and discussion welcome here
The recent Media Lens alert The Invisible Corporate Shadow (14 September 2006), http://www.medialens.org/alerts/index.php ably illustrates how big business is peddling the fiction of ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) and having their claims endorsed by assorted NGOs and much of the green lobby. Many of these bodies have now become absorbed into a corporate-linked network, underwritten by a ‘let’s work with them’ agenda.
In complementary fashion, the ‘sustainable initiatives’ proclaimed by multinationals like Shell, BP and Toyota are being accepted and filtered by the liberal media as ‘responsible corporate actions ’. Even that which Guardian, Independent and other environmental editors concede to be obvious ‘greenwash’ often gets reduced to the ‘lesser charge’ of ‘errant’ corporate behaviour. As Media Lens show, nowhere do these media ‘watchdogs’ address the real, fundamental issue: the profit-driven, “pathological” nature of the corporation itself.
The buzz term ‘CSR’ is, thus, a classic “liberal herring”:
| Quote: | The reality is that Greenpeace and other NGOs largely accept the ideological premise that corporations can be persuaded to act benignly. To question that premise - never mind to point out the illegitimate power and inherent destructive nature of the corporation - is anathema for most pressure groups.
(Media Lens, ‘The Invisible Corporate Shadow’.)
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/index.php |
As also noted at Corporatewatch:
| Quote: | CSR diverts attention from the damaging impacts of companies and deflects concern about corporate power. It also gives companies the power to decide what it means to be responsible. This undermines any work at exposing and challenging corporate power. Even SustainAbility admits that 'at worst [CSR initiatives] may even undermine long-term solutions by deflecting attention from the root problems.
(‘CSR isn’t a sustainable solution’.) http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=2693 |
| Quote: | Since companies cannot act in any wider interest than the interest of profit, CSR is of limited use in creating social change. Since CSR is also a vehicle for companies to thwart attempts to control corporate power and to gain access to markets, CSR is a problem not a solution. Efforts to control corporations' destructive impacts must have a critique of corporate power at their heart and a will to dismantle corporate power as their goal, otherwise they reinforce rather than challenge power structures, and undermine popular struggles for autonomy, democracy, human rights and environmental sustainability.
http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=2699 |
As part of this process, advocates of big business, like the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Adam Smith Institute, the Social Affairs Unit and others, have also been making stealthy efforts to insert themselves into NGO/green debate with a view to influencing policy formation, co-opting NGO directors and maintaining intellectual platforms. This corporate entryism is now taking increasingly sophisticated forms, often creating what may seem rather odd alliances.
Much of this information is documented at sites like:
Corporatewatch http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=2670 ,
PRwatch http://www.prwatch.org/
Sourcewatch http://www.sourcewatch.org/
GMwatch http://www.gmwatch.org/
Spinwatch http://www.spinwatch.org.uk/
Other valuable details, as in the ownership and corporate connections of media outlets, can be found at various Media Lens alerts and articles.
However, contributors might also want to use this space to identify and discuss the often unseen alignments between NGOs and corporate sponsors, free-market think tanks and other business-supporting organisations. Such postings might range from references and links to small case studies and comments.
Again, the purpose is to illustrate the interconnecting nature of NGO-business networks and how, as Media Lens argue, these relationships are serving to keep the real issue - corporate violation of people and planet - in the shadows.
A few (varying) examples to follow. Please feel free to contribute.
Cheers,
John |
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Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:03 pm
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johnwhilley
Joined: 03 Oct 2004
Posts: 690
Location: Glasgow
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World Wildlife Fund
http://www.wwf.org.uk/core/index.asp
A browse through the list of WWF Trustees offers valuable insight into the multifarious business interests and corporate linkages underlying mainstream environmental organisations. http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/wwf_trustees.pdf
Their own business interests and values illustrate how corporate activity gets legitimised by NGOs as somehow natural and mainly benign. The names here range from CEOs with backgrounds in high banking and international finance to young entrepreneurs and major corporate advisors.
Under the rubric of ‘ethical sponsorship’, the WWF has entered into ‘educational partnerships’ with large corporations, facilitating their access into schools and colleges. For example, under ‘Companies we work with’, the WWF’s website declares that: “Toyota’s electric/petrol hybrid car, the Prius is sponsoring WWF’s online education tool for teachers…The sponsorship provides an opportunity for Toyota to engage in school activities, contributing information regarding its policies and practices in relation to sustainability.” The WWF also collaborate with a range of other multinationals including Vodafone, Unilever, American Express, Canon and HSBC.
http://www.wwf.org.uk/business/whoweworkwith/c_0000000019.asp http://www.wwf.org.uk/business/whoweworkwith/intro.asp
As discussed at: http://www.aliran.com/content/view/127/10/
John |
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Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:08 pm
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johnwhilley
Joined: 03 Oct 2004
Posts: 690
Location: Glasgow
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Institute of Ideas
http://www.instituteofideas.com/
The entryist tactics of the ‘new libertarian’ Institute of Ideas have been documented by Sourcewatch and George Monbiot. The IoI is a creation of ex-Living Marxism figures now dedicated to right wing libertarian ideas and ‘alternative environmental’ policy agendas.
In a past critique, Monbiot has noted:
| Quote: | On one issue after another, there's a staggering congruence between LM's agenda and that of the far-right Libertarian Alliance. The two organisations take identical positions, for example, on gun control (it is a misconceived attack on human liberty), child pornography (legal restraint is simply a Trojan horse for the wider censorship of the Internet), alcohol (its dangers have been exaggerated by a new breed of "puritan"), the British National Party (it's unfair to associate it with the murder of Stephen Lawrence; its activities and publications should not be restricted), the Anti-Nazi League (it is undemocratic and irrelevant), tribal people (celebrating their lives offends humanity's potential to better itself; the Yanomami Indians are not to be envied but pitied) animal rights (they don't have any), and global warming (it's a good thing).
(Monbiot, ‘Living Marxism - ‘Festering Fascism?’, Prospect Magazine, November 1998.)
http://www.urban75.org/archive/news028.html |
The IoI’s main director is Claire Fox, who co-published LM. As LM and then IoI, Fox and her co-directors have moved into a close alignment with free market bodies. As Monbiot later notes:
| Quote: | LM described its mission as promoting a "confident individualism" without social constraint. It campaigned against gun control, against banning tobacco advertising and child pornography, and in favour of global warming, human cloning and freedom for corporations...In the late 1990s, the group began infiltrating the media, with remarkable success. For a while, it seemed to dominate scientific and environmental broadcasting on Channel 4 and the BBC. It used these platforms (Equinox, Against Nature, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Counterblast, Zeitgeist) to argue that environmentalists were Nazi sympathisers who were preventing human beings from fulfilling their potential.
(‘Invasion of the Entryists’ Guardian, 9 December 2003.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1102753,00.html |
Monbiot also notes the free market/anti environmental themes contained in the film Against Nature (Channel 4 1998), produced by LM figures:
| Quote: | LM's contributors do seem to have the most extraordinary contacts. Late last year, Channel 4 devoted its Sunday night peak slot to a three-hour series called Against Nature. By seeking to impose limits on progress, the series alleged, environmentalists are the true heirs of the Nazis.
The assistant producer of Against Nature, Eve Kaye, was one of the principal coordinators of the RCP/LM. The director, Martin Durkin, describes himself as a Marxist, denies any link with LM, but precisely follows its line in argument. The series starred Frank Furedi, previously known as Frank Richards, LM's regular columnist and most influential thinker, and John Gillott, LM's science correspondent, both billed as independent experts. Line by line, point by point, Against Nature followed the agenda laid down by LM: that greens are not radicals, but doom-mongering imperialists; that global warming is nothing to worry about; that "sustainable development" is a conspiracy against people; while germline gene therapy and human cloning will liberate humanity from nature.
The Independent Television Commission, reviewing Against Nature in response to hundreds of complaints, handed down one of the most damning rulings it has ever made: the programme makers "distorted by selective editing" the views of the environmentalists they interviewed and "misled" them about the "content and purpose of the programmes when they agreed to take part." Channel 4 was forced to make a humiliating prime time apology.
(Monbiot, ‘Living Marxism - ‘Festering Fascism?’, Prospect Magazine, November 1998.)
http://www.urban75.org/archive/news028.html |
Associates of the IoI to follow.
John |
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Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:35 pm
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johnwhilley
Joined: 03 Oct 2004
Posts: 690
Location: Glasgow
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Worldwrite
http://www.worldwrite.org.uk/
One of the Institute of Ideas associate groups is Worldwrite.
In a recent marathon, Worldwrite’s charity volunteers (September 2006) all had this message emblazoned on their running shirts: “Ferraris for everyone”. http://www.worldwrite.org.uk/hydroactive_pics.htm
Worldwrite claim that this conveys their ideal of equality for the third world, free from the ‘patronising’ demands of environmentalists.
In October 2006, Worldwrite will hold their (now annual) conference, Battle of Ideas, an initiative of the Institute of Ideas. The partners and sponsors of the conference make interesting reading. One of the headline partners is the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, another is the Times. Key sponsors include Cheapflights.co.uk and the mobile phone company, Tiscali. Another core sponsor is The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) a quasi academic environmental study group whose appointees are made by Science and Innovation minister Lord Sainsbury. http://www.nerc.ac.uk/publications/latestpressrelease/2006-53newmember.asp
http://www.battleofideas.co.uk/C2B/document_tree/ViewACategory.asp?CategoryID=47
Sourcewatch describe the interconnections between Worldwrite, LM and the Institute of Ideas, thus:
| Quote: | WORLDwrite provides a political platform for the British libertarian LM group, lambasting environmentalism and sustainable development while eulogising genetically modified crops. The director, Ceri Dingle, is a veteran of the Revolutionary Communist Party and its offshoot, Living Marxism. Other key positions in the organisation are also dominated by LM group members and sympathisers: Kirk Leech, another LM partisan, is an assistant director.
Ceri Dingle is the director of WORLDwrite. As a platform for the libertarian LM group, WORLDwrite attacks environmentalism and sustainable development, which it labels 'sustainababble'.
A veteran of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), she stood as a candidate for Sheffield Central in the party's 1987 "Red Front" campaign …Libertarian in outlook, her output includes pieces with titles such as "Fox Hunting is Fun"…She continues to collaborate regularly with LM group luminaries such as James Heartfield…Dingle, like other members of the LM network, uses the media to promote the group's anti-environmental agenda. In December 2003, she appeared on BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze as an 'expert' in a debate about climate change. On the panel assessing the arguments was Claire Fox, co-publisher of Living Marxism. Her political connections with Dingle, however, were never disclosed, giving Fox free rein to defend anti-Kyoto polemic unchecked …Dingle's performance on the program landed her the 'Newcomer Contrarian Award' in the Guardian's tongue-in-cheek Ecology Awards: "Let's forget about Kyoto. We want the poor driving Ferraris!"
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=WORLDwrite |
As noted, one of Worldwrite’s main functions is the organisation of debates critical of ‘mainstream development’ agendas:
| Quote: | A characteristic strategy employed by WORLDwrite is the promotion of conferences on development which are dominated by speakers from the LM network. WORLDwrite disguises the fact that nearly all the contributors are members of the same ideological clique by presenting them as independent experts.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=WORLDwrite |
Sourcewatch also highlight some of the other luminaries behind Worldwrite, the IoI, its website voice Spiked, and their business backgrounds:
| Quote: | Reshmi Parag is a trustee of WORLDwrite, a British "youth education charity" with an anti-environmental agenda and close ties with the libertarian LM group. Born in South Africa, she has written for Spiked Online and has worked for the oil company SchlumbergerSema since 1998. According to its website, Schlumberger is "the leading oilfield services company supplying technology, project management and information solutions that optimize performance for customers working in the international oil and gas industry."
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Reshmi_Parag |
| Quote: | Professor James Woudhuysen, also known as James Woods, is an academic and long-time associate of the LM group. He collaborates extensively with various organisations associated with the LM network, including Spiked Online, Transport Research Group, the Institute of Ideas and Novo, the German sister publication of Living Marxism.
Woudhuysen is a regular public speaker. The right-wing Transport Research Group held a conference in February 2003. James Woudhuysen was on the panel for a debate on congestion charging www.transportresearch.org.uk/transcripts.htm www.culturewars.org.uk/2003-02/mobility.htm .
In June 2003, Woudhuysen spoke at a debate organised by the LM platform the Institute of Ideas: "A knowledge revolution? Information overload and the crisis of judgement" www.instituteofideas.com/events/ideas.html … He is a director of Audacity.org with LM partisan James Heartfield.
According to his profile on Audacity's website, Woudhuysen has variously run the Worldwide Market Intelligence Unit for Philips Consumer Electronics, edited Design magazine, was an associate director at Finch, the designers, and at the Henley Centre for Forecasting…He is a professor at De Montfort University in the Department of Product & Spatial Design… and contributes to IT Week and Management Today.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_Woudhuysen |
Sourcewatch refer here to the directorial involvement of Woudhuysen and Heartfield:
| Quote: | Audacity.org www.audacity.org claims to be a "research company for construction industry professionals questioning the assumptions and limitations of British development". With close ties to the Living Marxism group - its directors are all associates of the network - it opposes environmental restraints on development and sustainability.
Audacity argues that society suffers when the polluter is made to pay, and is up front about its antagonism to community groups opposing urban sprawl. Its website states that "Audacity is a campaigning company that advocates developing the man-made environment, free from the burden of 'sustainababble' and 'communitwaddle'."
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Audacity.org |
John |
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Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:49 pm
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johnwhilley
Joined: 03 Oct 2004
Posts: 690
Location: Glasgow
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Living Issues (Richard D North)
http://www.livingissues.com/v2/
Another figure sympathetic to Worldwrite and its network is the market libertarian, Richard D North. North introduces one of his anti-environmental polemics with this testament to Worldwrite:
North has been a prolific advocate of libertarian deregulation, consultant to a number of energy and GM firms and a frequent media figure in support of such free-market causes. He is a Media Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs and runs a free market discussion site: www.livingissues.com/v2/
North has defended LM/Institute of Ideas as a new and invigorating addition to free market thinking: http://www.richarddnorth.com/new_stuff/spiked.htm
He has also defended the controversial pro agri-business series Against Nature (Channel 4 1998), produced by LM figures. North appeared on Channel 4 News (18 September 2006) arguing against the idea of green taxes as a libertarian infringement.
North is the author of Rich is Beautiful: A Very Personal Defence of Mass Affluence (2005), published by the right wing Social Affairs Unit. Other SAU luminaries include Oliver Kamm, who is also close to the extreme US right wing Henry Jackson Society.
http://zope06.v.servelocity.net/hjs/events/news_item.2005-12-28.2518886670
John |
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Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:52 pm
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johnwhilley
Joined: 03 Oct 2004
Posts: 690
Location: Glasgow
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The RSA
http://www.rsa.org.uk/rsa/index.asp
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) list among its five key objectives: “Encouraging enterprise” and “Moving towards a zero-waste society”. http://www.rsa.org.uk/projects/index.asp
The RSA Trustee list is another who’s who of establishment business interests. http://www.rsa.org.uk/fellows/paul_judge.asp
Here’s the profile of the RSA head, Sir Paul Judge:
| Quote: | Sir Paul was an Open Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge and a Thouron Fellow at the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, where he gained his MBA. He spent thirteen years with Cadbury Schweppes plc and then led the buyout of their food companies to form Premier Brands Ltd which was successfully sold in 1989. He was subsequently a government-appointed Member of the Milk Marketing Board, Chairman of Food from Britain, Director General of the Conservative Party, a Ministerial Adviser at the UK Cabinet Office, a Director of the Boddington Group plc and of WPP plc and the key benefactor of the Judge Institute of Management at the University of Cambridge.Sir Paul is currently Chairman of Teachers TV, of the Businessdynamics Trust, of Digital Links International and of the British-North American Committee, President of the Association of MBAs and of the Chartered Management Institute, Master of the Worshipful Company of Marketors and Deputy Chairman of the American Management Association. He is a Director of Standard Bank Group Ltd of South Africa, of Tempur-Pedic International Inc of Kentucky, and of the Schroder Income Growth Fund plc of London.
http://www.rsa.org.uk/fellows/paul_judge.asp |
The RSA and electronics giant Canon are co-sponsoring the WEEE Man (denoting the European directive on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment), a giant robot-like figure assembled from discarded electrical hardware, presently based at the Eden Project http://www.weeeman.org/ The Eden Project has collaborated with Canon on a number of other ‘green initiatives’. Canon’s ties with the RSA and the Eden Project illustrate how corporate brands are being endorsed by academic and green organisations through supposed corporate ‘commitments’ to renewables and clean energy. See: http://www.aliran.com/content/view/127/10/
Although open to a range of views, the RSA has also provided a platform for the Institute of Ideas, Worldwrite and their advocates, as in the What Future for Environmentalism? event. Keynote speakers included Tony Gilland, Science and Society Director at the Institute of Ideas and Viv Regan, Assistant Director, WORLDwrite. http://www.rsa.org.uk/events/detail.asp?eventID=1720
Many of these same people organised and participated in the “Enlightening the Future 2024 in association with Orange”: http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/surveys/2024_atoz/P25/
John |
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Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:59 pm
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johnwhilley
Joined: 03 Oct 2004
Posts: 690
Location: Glasgow
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International Policy Network (IPN)
http://www.policynetwork.net/main/index.php
The IPN is worth noting here given its connections to Exxon oil. This was highlighted in a letter of complaint from the Royal Society (not to be confused with the RSA – see above) to Exxon about its funding of IPN and other such ‘climate sceptics’. http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1876540,00.html
| Quote: | The International Institute for Economic Research was founded in 1971 by the late Antony Fisher, who also founded the Institute of Economic Affairs. Later it was known for many years as the Atlas Foundation UK Ltd before being renamed the International Policy Network (IPN) in 2001.
The IPN is part of Fisher's Atlas Economic Research Foundation, headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. Atlas was established with the aim of bringing 'freedom to the world' by helping 'develop and strengthen a network of market-oriented think tanks that spans the globe.'
The IPN has addresses in London and Washington D.C. The Washington address is the same as that of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). Roger Bate who is an IPN Fellow, and a long-time associate of the IPN's Director Julian Morris, is an Adjunct Fellow of the CEI. Kendra Okonski who is the IPN's 'Project Director' in London was previously a CEI researcher. Okonski and Morris appear to be the driving force behind another organisation, the Sustainable Development Network (SDN), while Morris and Bate connect to the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the European Science and Environment Forum (ESEF).
IPN's mission is to 'share ideas that free people'. It believes in de-regulation but that 'where regulations are necessary... they should be based on sound science and good economics.' IPN works with a network of individuals and organizations around the world who share its beliefs. The IEA and the ESEF are both on the list of the IPN's 'partner organisations'. The CEI is not currently on the list, despite sharing its Washington address with the IPN. In 2003 IPN and spiked-online co-sponsored a debate held at PR firm, Hill and Knowlton, on 'GM food: should labelling be mandatory?'. The seminar was introduced by Greg Conko of the CEI. Tony Gilland of the Institute of Ideas also spoke.
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=155 |
| Quote: | Julian Morris, Executive Director
Julian Morris founded International Policy Network in 2001. He has been the Director of the IEA’s Environment and Technology Programme. He has two Masters Degrees in economics and a Graduate Diploma in Law from the University of Westminster. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Buckingham.
http://www.policynetwork.net/main/content.php?content_id=6 |
Sourcewatch on IPN:
| Quote: | The International Policy Network (IPN) is an organization based in the UK set up in 2001. It originally had offices around the world in the USA, Chile By 2003 all of the offices had closed down apart from the London one.
The IPN is connected with the White House Writers Group, a for-profit corporate lobbying company (the senior director at the White House Writers Group is also a trustee of the IPN).
The great majority of the IPN's income from donations is from corporations: in both 2003 and 2004 the proportion was about 85%.[4]
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=International_Policy_Network |
The IPN on Climate Change:
| Quote: | In 2001, the IPN held a seminar on "Global warming - a European myth" by Philip Stott who says that global warming is a "lie"
IPN's executive director, Julian Morris, told the BBC:
"There are basically 3 groups that benefit from the global warming myth: government, scientists and environmentalists. Environmentalists benefit because they are able to present a scary scenario to the general public, and because of their desire to maintain revenues scary scenarios are good business for them, it means the general public are more likely to give them money." [(http://www.open2.net/truthwillout/globalwarming/global_morris.htm)
Journalist Mark Lynas says:
The policy network's "partners" around the world include Tech Central Station (funded by ExxonMobil, General Motors and McDonald's) and the Cambridge-based European Science and Environment Forum, an anti-environmentalist group originally set up for the Philip Morris tobacco company by a PR firm. Julian Morris often accuses environmentalists of inventing the global warming "myth" in order to generate cash." (http://www.marklynas.org/wind/document/11.html)
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=International_Policy_Network |
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Atlas
The IPN is part of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation
http://www.atlasusa.org/V2/main/
At the Atlas Freedom Dinner event, 2005, guests of honour were invited to give a toast and speech.
http://www.atlasusa.org/V2/main/page.php?page_id=245
Here’s a flavour of the anti-Chavez/Venezuelan feelings within this body:
2005 Atlas Freedom Dinner - Toast to Freedom
by Rocio Guijarro
| Quote: | Dear friends:
I am honoured and very pleased to give a Toast to Freedom tonight.
The institution I represent: the Centre for the Dissemination of Economic Knowledge, Cedice thanks you for your kind invitation.
I am delighted to be among such important advocates of freedom: Anwar Ibrahim, Huber Matos, June Arunga, Franklin Cudjoe, John Stossel, David Asman and Mart Laar.
I just hope that the cause I defend is equally valuable and important to humanity as theirs.
This opportunity to speak to you is a token of sympathy for the delicate situation that we have in my country Venezuela. We are living in a mix of authoritarianism, poverty, and repression. The defence of freedom, individual choice, a transparent government, and market initiatives have been our leit motiv at Cedice for more than 20 years.
We have gone through periods of disagreements with the Venezuelan economic policies and we have been criticized by the different governments in office. But never before have our efforts been so badly needed. Even dark periods of the past were not as terrible as what we have now.
Cedice believes that bureaucracy, the partisan approach to democracy, the lack of economic freedom and the promotion of incentives favouring corruption, continue to condemn our people to poverty.
One of Cedice´s founders, Carlos Rangel, foresaw in his decisive work “From the Good Savage to the Good Revolutionary,” the dangers of strong State intervention in the Venezuelan economy and the risks of ignoring individual property rights. Quoting Carlos Fuentes, Rangel asked:
“Will Latin America become a vast continent of beggars? Will we become the India of the western hemisphere? Will our economy turn into a fiction sustained by the philanthropy of others?”
These questions, sadly enough, have all been answered affirmatively with the recent setbacks to freedom in our sub-continent.
Unfortunately, once more, Venezuela is leading the political trends – a sad outcome considering that my country used to export freedom to the rest of Latin America. Currently, we host one of the most repressive and perilous dictatorships, concealed behind the disguise of democratic procedures.
For the first time in 20 years, Cedice is suffering political persecution. Our staff members and I have received prohibition to travel abroad, and have to request special permission to attend events like this one. Our financial statements are subject to government auditing and even the Venezuelan President is attacking our work. We are suspects of a crime: defending freedom and markets mechanisms, using as weapons our ideas, our publications, and our meetings. Our purpose offends the Venezuelan authorities and makes them suspect us of being allies of the US.
Beggars can’t be choosers. That statement is truer than ever in today’s Venezuela.
How can the political elections and the use and abuse of democratic procedures, such as referendums, result in an authoritarian system?
How can a country still defend the dictator Fidel Castro and his tyranny? The answers to these questions are essential to the defence of freedom in Latin America.
Other countries, notably Argentina, Bolivia, and Uruguay, are following the current Venezuelan trend. Far from being just a matter of economics, this rejection of freedom and liberty comes from deeper sources. Our societies fear freedom. It is not only a matter of empty stomachs. It is also a problem of institutions that rely on a basic misconception:
The denial of individual wisdom and the arrogant and false belief that a benevolent and wise dictatorship would do better in the allocation of social resources and in guaranteeing social order.
This shameful attitude only helps to foster the unfortunate repression of the innocent.
I urge you to think about the Venezuelan case and how we can help overcome this dangerous and murky scenario. This lack of freedom is not just the problem of an oil exporter. It is a menace to the dignity and well-being of humankind.
In Latin America we must take the most passionate defence of freedom and prosperity.
Thank you kindly for supporting this cause. And my best wishes to you all.
http://www.atlasusa.org/V2/main/page.php?page_id=244 |
| Quote: | | ROCIO GUIJARRO - Rocio Guijarro is the general director of the twenty-year-old Venezuelan think tank, CEDICE (Centro de Divulgación del Conocimiento Económico), a free-market organization that promotes individual freedoms that encourage individual initiative, and institutions that ensure the existence of free societies. Prior to joining CEDICE in 1985, Guijarro was an Assistant General Manager at CONSECOMERCIO, (the National Council of Commerce and Services), a leading Venezuelan business association. While at CONSECOMERCIO, she became involved in the Latin American Institute of Organizational Management (ILGO), which trains promising executives selected from throughout the region. Rocio was an Atlas fellow in 1992. |
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Best,
John |
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Fri Sep 22, 2006 5:49 pm
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johnwhilley
Joined: 03 Oct 2004
Posts: 690
Location: Glasgow
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Worldwrite - see http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Worldwrite -
are currently promoting the screening of Mine Your Own Business, a film which challenges environmental concerns about mining operations in Romania. As with many other of Worldwrite’s activities and the causes it supports, it’s instructive to see the pro-business agenda behind this film and the funding it receives from mining interests and a neoliberal think-tank. Here’s the circular being sent out by Worldwrite and some background on the film itself.
John Hilley
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| Quote: | Dear Friends
We do hope you may be interested in attending the following event, please circulate these details to friends and colleagues.
‘Mine Your Own Business’ to screen at London’s Rich Mix
The controversial film Mine Your Own Business which was picketed by environmental activists during its Washington screening will be shown at Rich Mix in London on Monday 30th April at 7pm. The screening, which has been arranged by the education charity WORLDwrite as part of its documentary film training programme is intended to encourage film makers and audiences to consider approaches to making films with a strong political message or content.
The film suggests environmentalism has a dark side and campaigners who oppose mining operations can undermine living standards for the world’s poorest mining communities.
Written, directed and presented by Phelim McAleer, former Romania/Bulgaria correspondent for the Financial Times, the documentary had its world premiere in New York and has since been touring Australia and now Europe. The film follows McAleer as he investigates the consequences of the environmental movement’s activities for poor countries around the world. “Mine Your own Business is the first documentary to take a hard look at the environmental movement” says McAleer. It allows us to hear what so-called “traditional peasants” have to say about their need for progress and their desire for a long and healthy life.
Having arranged this London screening, WORLDwrite’s Director Ceri Dingle said today: “As Film makers we can learn from brave and strident approaches which impact on what we think and this film shows the devastating consequences of privileging the environment over peoples’ needs.”
This public screening of Mine Your Own Business will be followed by a lecture and short Q&A session with director Phelim McAleer himself. It’s a must see!
The event will take place at the Rich Mix cinema, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1 6LA.
The screening will start at 7pm prompt. Tickets are £10 and must be booked and paid for in advance using PayPal on the WORLDwrite website (www.worldwrite.org.uk).
Half price tickets are available to film students and volunteers on application to WORLDwrite.
For more information about the documentary and to watch the trailer go to: www.mineyourownbusiness.org.
For further details please email WORLDwrite at world.write@btconnect.com or call on 020 8985 5435.
Ceri Dingle
Director
WORLDwrite,
Millfields Lodge,
201 Millfields Road
London E5 0AL
Tel 020 8985 5435
world.write@btconnect.com
www.worldwrite.org.uk
A UN DPI accredited NGO, DfES registered NVYO and UK registered Charity No. 1060869 |
From Wikipedia:
| Quote: | Mine Your Own Business: A Documentary About the Dark Side of Environmentalism is a documentary, produced by filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, which investigates controversial proposed mining projects in impoverished villages. Their main focus in the film is the village of Roşia Montană in Romania. There, McAleer and McElhinney interview western environmentalists who oppose the project as well as the local people that are in favour of the project. The movie portrays western environmentalists as wealthy elites who are working counter to the interests of the local people.
Film financing
The film project was initiated by the Canadian mining company Gabriel Resources Ltd., who provided 80% of the film's funding.[1] The film has also received funding from the Moving Picture Institute and support from the Institute of Public Affairs, Australia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine_Your_Own_Business
Gabriel Resources (TSX: GBU) is a multi-national mining firm based in Toronto founded in 1995 by serial entrepreneur and convicted heroin dealer Frank Timiş.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Resources
The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is a conservative/neoliberal think tank based in Melbourne, Australia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Public_Affairs |
See also:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Phelim_McAleer
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/stories/2006/1791367.htm# |
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Sat Apr 21, 2007 1:11 am
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