Red Pepper News

Privatisation? What us?

The blue pearl necklace fell out of the corporate press pack like an unwanted christmas cracker toy. It was accompanied by a new-age sounding insert that explained that the necklace "represented the transparency and fragility of water, a crucial resource that needs our constant care."

The media pack was embossed with glossy photos of water works across the world and talked of dignity, tolerance, rights, progress and transparency.

Clearly the Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico which has been condemned by activists as a front for promoting worldwide water privatisation is seeking an image change.

So what is the World Water Forum?

Joe Zacune from War on Want has written a good introduction at OpenDemocracy.

Also check out the blogs from WDM activists and US water activists, Food and Water Watch

World Water Forum

Where ever there is a conference to talk about poverty, you can normally find luxury hotels full of delegates. Mexico is no different as the Fourth World Water Forum kicks off today.

The city is full of international delegates from around the world making emotional speeches about the three thousand nine hundred children who will die by the end of today due to unclean drinking water who then head to their hotels to drink imported French mineral water with their sumptuous dinners.

I have come with a delegation from Bolivia, but even though I am surrounded by endless posters and booklets of water droplets, waterfalls, kids playing in rivers, it still at times needs some effort to remember why I am here. The reality of the 200,000 people who live on my doorstep in Bolivia who still don't have drinking water and who have led massive rebellions to end disastrous water privatisation experiments can seem very far away.

Coca Cola banned from New York University

New York University (NYU), the largest private university in the United States with over 50,000 students and 16,000 employees, becomes the 12th college or university in the US, and at least the 20th worldwide, to have taken strong economic action against The Coca-Cola Co. by banning the sale and marketing of Coke products on campus.

Chairman Mao: the new face of Starbucks

We've received a few requests for the 'Starbucks Mao' image from the Red Pepper China issue. So by popular demand, here it is - courtesy of our designer Tom Lynton. Clicking on this small version will bring up the full size image.

Select your winner in Europe’s debut ‘Worst EU Lobbying’ awards 2005!

Corporate Europe Observatory in association with LobbyControl, Spinwatch and Friends of the Earth Europe invites you to vote for this year’s most offensive case of corporate lobbying in the EU capital Brussels. 

This is your opportunity to decide which of the ten nominated cases of dubious lobbying deserves to be remembered as the most ruthless influence peddler, the fastest spinner of spin, the grand master of disguise, in short who will become the EU Worst Lobby Award 2005 champion!  Go to: http://www.corporateeurope.org/worstlobby/

Telefónica: what’s at the other end of the line?

With today's news that Telefónica has bid to take over British mobile phone operator O2, readers in the UK might be interested to find out more about the dodgy labour practices and anti-union strategies of the Spanish phone giant. You could do far worse, then, that read this article on the company by Gemma Galdon, first published in Eurotopia (a collective project involving Red Pepper and seven partner magazines from across Europe):
http://www.eurotopiamag.org/article.php3?id_article=8

Fairtrade Nestle: a call to action

The Fairtrade Foundation has just announced that it has given a fairtrade label to a new line of Nestle coffee (Nescafe Partners Blend). This is a betrayal of the principles of fairtrade principles, set up over the last 20 years to stop the marginalisation of small-scale farmers, to guarantee fair prices for products, and to support democratic control by producers over their products.

For Nestle this is a cheap public relations trip to undermine the Nestle boycott – the biggest consumer boycott of any single product in the UK. For the Fairtrade Foundation, it undermines its reputation and will undoubtedly damage the success of fairtrade.

Rossport 5 released

The Rossport 5, arrested (some say at the behest of Shell) for their campaign against the company’s Corrib pipeline in Ireland, have been released. In a statement, they said: "We remind Shell and their Irish government partner that imprisonments have historically and will always fail as a method to secure the agreement of Irish people.” The 5 now promise to step up their campaign.