Tag: corporations

Why is the world going to hell? Netflix’s The Social Dilemma tells only half the story

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25 September 2020 — Jonathan Cook

If you find yourself wondering what the hell is going on right now – the “Why is the world turning to shit?” thought – you may find Netflix’s new documentary The Social Dilemma a good starting point for clarifying your thinking. I say “starting point” because, as we shall see, the film suffers from two major limitations: one in its analysis and the other in its conclusion. Nonetheless, the film is good at exploring the contours of the major social crises we currently face – epitomised both by our addiction to the mobile phone and by its ability to rewire our consciousness and our personalities.

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Has the left been gulled into believing its small right to speech is already too much?

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20 July 2020 — Jonathan Cook

My post earlier this month on the so-called “cancel culture” letter proved to be the most polarising I have written – matched only by another recent post on the pulling down of a statue in the UK to a slave trader. The ferocity of the reactions to both, I believe, is related. It derives from a similar refusal, even on the left, to factor in power – and how it is best confronted – when assessing issues of speech and oppression.

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A lesson coronavirus is about to teach the world

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17 March 2020 — Jonathan Cook

If a disease can teach wisdom beyond our understanding of how precarious and precious life is, the coronavirus has offered two lessons.

The first is that in a globalised world our lives are so intertwined that the idea of viewing ourselves as islands – whether as individuals, communities, nations, or a uniquely privileged species – should be understood as evidence of false consciousness. In truth, we were always bound together, part of a miraculous web of life on our planet and, beyond it, stardust in an unfathomably large and complex universe.

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How we stay blind to the story of power

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24 February 2020 — Jonathan Cook

If one thing drives me to write, especially these blog posts, it is the urgent need for us to start understanding power. Power is the force that shapes almost everything about our lives and our deaths. There is no more important issue. Understanding power and overcoming it through that understanding is the only path to liberation we can take as individuals, as societies, and as a species.

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The Debtor’s War: A Modern Greek Tragedy By Andrew Gavin Marshall

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7 November 2013 — Andrew Gavin Marshall

Early on Thursday, 7 November 2013, Greek riot police stormed the offices of Greece’s main public broadcaster, which had been under a five-month occupation by workers who opposed the government’s decision to shut down the broadcaster, firing thousands and destroying a major cultural institution. The broadcast seems to have come to an end.

A Brave New Transatlantic Partnership: The Social and Environmental Consequences of the Proposed EU-US Trade Deal

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14 October 2013 — corporateeurope.org

As the second round of negotiations on the EU-US trade agreement kick off in Brussels next week, a new report published by members of the Seattle to Brussels Network (S2B), including CEO, reveals the true human and environmental costs of the proposed deal.

GCHQ sells your information to big corporations

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3 July 2013 — RT

Prism wartime sell secrets

Journalist Steve Boggan had gate-crashed ‘Secret Work in an Open Society’, an invite only gathering organized by MI5’s then Director General Stephen Lander. Britain’s domestic security service, he found, was quietly offering to sell secrets to companies such as Rolls-Royce, BP, Ernst & Young, arms firm BAe Systems and to a bank since proven to be a multi-billion dollar money launderer HSBC.  

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Monsanto Refuses to Testify on Genetically Modified Crops in Puerto Rico By Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero

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19 June 2013 — WHAT’S NEW ON CORPWATCH: Holding Corporations Accountable

Monsanto has refused to testify at a major government hearing in Puerto Rico about local testing and sale of genetically modified seeds. Critics say that crops from these seeds harm the environment and can cause serious human health problems.

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Ikea’s Race to the Bottom BY John Logan

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19 June 2013 — In These Times

Turkish workers say Ikea takes advantage of the authoritarian government’s anti-union policies.

Ikea’s labor practices in Turkey are more like those in Saudi Arabia—a country that represses independent unions—than those of Sweden, where companies generally have cooperative relationships with their unions.

With total sales of $36 billion in 2012, Ikea is the world’s largest furniture retailer, and one of the world’s most recognizable retail brands. Worldwide, Ikea operates in approximately 40 countries and has more than 100,000 employees.

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Google & Facebook Discussed Secret Systems for U.S. to Spy on Users By Pratap Chatterjee

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8 July 2013 — CORPWATCH: Holding Corporations Accountable

Google and Facebook have discussed – and possibly built – special portals for the U.S. government to snoop on user data, according to revelations sparked by an investigative series of articles by Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian. 

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The Anti-Empire Report #117 By William Blum: What our presidents tell our young people

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4 June, 2013 — Anti-Empire Report

What our presidents tell our young people

In this season of college graduations, let us pause to remember the stirring words of America’s beloved scholar, George W. Bush, speaking in Florida in 2007 at the commencement exercises of Miami Dade College: “In Havana and other Cuban cities, there are people just like you who are attending school, and dreaming of a better life. Unfortunately those dreams are stifled by a cruel dictatorship that denies all freedom in the name of a dark and discredited ideology.” 1

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Video: Julian Assange Pt.1: Stratfor Hacker Jeremy Hammond Guilty Plea Part of Crackdown on Journalism, Activism

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29 May 2013 — Democracy Now!

Jeremy Hammond of the hacktivist group Anonymous has pleaded guilty to hacking into the private intelligence firm Stratfor, the FBI and other institutions. Hammond says his goal was to shed light on how governments and corporations act behind close doors. Some five million Stratfor emails ended up on the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, shedding light on how the private intelligence firm monitors activists and spies for corporate clients. In a statement, Hammond said he accepted the plea deal in part to avoid an overzealous prosecution that could have resulted in at least 30 years in prison. He has already served 15 months, including weeks in solitary confinement. Joining us from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says Hammond’s prosecution comes as part of a wider crackdown “on effective political activists and alleged journalistic sources.

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Cables: How the U.S. State Department Promotes the Seed Industry’s Global Agenda

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14 May 2013 — Food and Water Watch

The article presents a report, done by the organization, that shows how US State Department has launched a strategy to promote agricultural biotechnology for the benefit of agribusiness and seed corporations, lobbying foreign governments to adopt pro-agricultural biotechnology policies and laws.

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Declaration of the Social Movements Assembly

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6 May 2013 — The Bullet • Socialist Project E-Bulletin No. 816

World Social Forum 2013, Tunisia

As the Social Movements Assembly of the World Social Forum of Tunisia, 2013, we are gathered here to affirm the fundamental contribution of peoples of Maghreb-Mashrek (from North Africa to the Middle East), in the construction of human civilization.

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"Shadows of Liberty": New Film Explores How Corporate Control of Media Erodes Press Freedoms

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6 April 2013 — Democracy Now!

Shadows of Liberty: Using individual cases of journalists whose attempts to tell their stories have been muzzled by corporations and the government, the film shows how a corporate-controlled media can silence the truth about issues ranging from war to labor practices. In one instance, CBS refused to re-air an investigation by the prize-winning journalist Roberta Baskin on Nike’s use of sweatshop labor in Vietnam. Published on Apr 5, 2013 The new documentary “Shadows of Liberty” had its U.S. premiere last night at the National Conference for Media Reform in Denver.

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Media Lens: Heading For A Different Planet By David Cromwell

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26 March 2013 — Media Lens

Global Warming, Propaganda-Journalism And The Definition Of Insanity

The systematic propaganda of the corporate media – its deep-rooted antipathy towards upholding proper journalistic standards in the public interest – extends to its coverage of human-induced climate change. The Independent recently delivered a masterpiece of headline obfuscation with: ‘World cools on global warming as green fatigue sets in.’

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