Wednesday, February 28, 2007
More corporate coffee bitterness
Starbucks, the global coffee super-chain wants to expand from 3,600 outlets to over 20,000 wold-wide. What makes Starbucks Phony (have you ever been in one)? Some information from the site Ihatestarbucks.com offers some useful information from
http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/why.php
1. The vast majority of the coffee is grown using underpaid third world labor.
2. Starbucks is spreading across the world like a virus, infecting cultures with their formula of what a coffee shop should be.
3. They are everywhere.
4. They have predatory business practices. Common practices are things like paying landlords to not renew leases for coffee shops so that they can move in.
5. They sell fake corporate responsibility.
6. I think that their coffee sucks. It is always bitter.
7. The gross profit margin per store is, on average, 59.1%, therefore there is plenty of wiggle room for the company to pay more than a dollar a pound for coffee. (read: livable wage for their slave labor)
8. Faux ecologic responsibility.
9. False employee benefits. They give part time workers (20 hours per week) health insurance. However, I have received hundreds of emails from employees that consistently receive 19.75. 15 minutes shy of earning those costly benefits.
10. The crap they sell is incredibly unhealthy. Get the nutritional information, from their website it is appalling. The Caramel Pecan Sticky Roll (which has more fat than a Big Mac) or even better (worse), the Eggnog Latte are so bad for you it is astounding.
You can find some (big) figures in their financial report
Starbucks vs Ethiopia over coffee trademarks
Coffee superchain Starbucks in an ongoing row with the government of Ethiopia which wants to trademark the names of three of its coffees. Starbucks is exerting its influence on the National Coffee Association in the US in attempts to squash Ethiopia's hopes of an industry-wide acceptance of its trademarks.
Starbucks' profits continue to escalate while the farmers growing their coffee in Africa live on or below the poverty line.
Read more here from BBC news and in more detail on the excellent poorfarmer blog.
In an attempt to ameliorate the bad PR resulting from this row Starbucks has promised to buy more coffee from Africa and support anti-poverty and education initiatives there. Isn't it interesting how billion dollar corporations only manage to find their morals when things don't go their way? Starbucks could have treated its coffee growers ethically and invested in the welfare of African coffee farmers right from the start, if it gave a shit about anything other than profit and PR.
Bottom line is that if corporations can get away with it, they will.
Mugged (poverty in your coffee cup)
(Phony takes no credit for this great headline and strap which is taken wholesale from an article on the Make Trade Fair website).
Coffee prices drop by almost 50% in the last three years - has your Starbucks Grande Mocha Latte got any cheaper? Read all about the terrible grip corporate coffee has on some of the worlds poorest farmers in its excellent article:
http://www.maketradefair.com/en/index.php?file=16092002164814.htm
It's YOU
Yes you. And me. We're the reason corporations exist, the reason TV content is mere fluff between the adverts, the reason the world is Phony.
Four corporations (Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and Morrisons) control 74% of food purchasing in the UK through aggressive pricing and aggressive business practices. Why? Because we let them. Because we want to eat junk, and pay peanuts for it. Do something about it. Shop less in Superstores. Buy more from local shops and independent stores. Eat seasonal fruit and veg.
We're Phony, but we're trying not to be.
2% of the adult population owns half of the world's wealth....
...while a mere 1% of total wealth is shared by the bottom 50% of the world's population (or in other words the poorest half of the world have to share 1% of the worlds wealth between them).
The World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) report on the distribution of world wealth is startling:The most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken also reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. In contrast, the bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth.
Inequality anyone?
Download the full report HERE
Turn Off your TV
Some interesting facts about TV habits in the US:
- Number of 30-second commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000
- Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 38.5
- Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680
- Percentage of children ages 6-17 who have TV's in their bedrooms: 50
- Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70
- Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours
- Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500
- Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66
Source: turnoffyourtv.com
The Universal Off
We love this, I want one... I'm going to get one. Buy yours here
Its a universal TV remote with only one button, the off switch. Available in US and European versions.
www.turnoffyourtv.com/reviews/tvbgone/tvbgonereview.html
Site with anti-advertising/anti-corporate images...
You can view and download full PDF versions of more of these at:www.boakart.com/merzcult.html
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The Great Milk Robbery
Corporations are putting UK dairy farms out of business. This situation is not new, it's been getting worse for the last decade.
You see, the 4 major supermarkets pay dairy farmers 18p per litre and then sell it at 49p per litre. Nice profit, eh? And what of the dairy farmers? Well, 1000 went out of business in 2006. Over the last decade farmer's margins have fallen so low they are losing, on average, 4p per litre on their milk. In a nutshell, they are being paid less than the cost of production. While the farmers income has fallen 8%, the retailer's income has risen to over 4000%.
So what can we do?
Take action. Boycott the supermarkets. Write to them and tell them so. Ask the government why it's letting British Industry get driven into the ground by corporations.
Go to www.thegreatmilkrobbery.co.uk for more info, to sign their petition and to take action.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Update on the Road Tax Petition
The Road Tax petition is now closed. As a result of approx 1.7 Million people signing the petition, Tony Blair had to come back with some answers...
"Before we take any decisions about a national pricing scheme, we know that we have to have a system that works. A system that respects our privacy as individuals. A system that is fair. I fully accept that we don't have all the answers yet. That is why we are not rushing headlong into a national road pricing scheme. Before we take any decisions there would be further consultations. The public will, of course, have their say, as will Parliament."
Interesting that the government were planning on putting this scheme (for which they don't have all the answers to) forward with out consulting the public.
Read various independent views on the proposed road tax
Visit 10 Downing Street website for more info and discussion.
Friday, February 23, 2007
High Street Robbery?
The consumer backlash against Bank charges has begun in the UK.
According to the Independent newspaper, the UK's banks collectively charge £4.75 billion for overdrafts and bounced cheques. The BBC programme Watchdog investigated and discovered that Terms in the Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, discern that banks can't make a profit from such charges, they can only cover their costs (which experts reckon should be a maximum of £4.50).
So why do some banks claim up to £35 for a single charge? If they can't explain it, those charges could be unlawful - which is why thousands of people have claimed back their money. Maybe you should do the same.
More info, sample letters and forms to download at moneysavingexpert.com, Consumeractiongroup.co.uk, or the links highlighted above.
Join the 10,000 people a day writing to their banks demanding an explanation and refund. It worked with the proposed road tax petition on 10 Downing Street.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Wolverhampton City Council vs Dell...
Wolverhampton City Council, UK, has made a complaint under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, naming Dell, Intel, Price Waterhouse Cooper and a heap of individuals as co-defendants. The allegation is that Dell Direct promised 15 per cent plus profitable growth at a time when other PC firms were showing slower demand.
Wolverhampton City Council, which looks after the West Midlands Metropolitan Authorities Pension Fund, bought Dell stock at artificially inflated prices and was damaged by that, it alleges.
"As Dell's stock moved higher during the class period, the Dell insiders' stock options... became worth billions of dollars. Dell's insiders took advantage of this artificial inflation in Dell's stock price, selling off an enormous amount of their Dell stock, nearly 99 million shares, for illegal insider trading proceeds of $3.3 billion." This, the lawyers allege, is the "largest insider bail out in the history of any US public company."
Source: The Inquirer
Breach of the Peace?
Former world champion boxer Chris Eubank has been arrested for an alleged breach of the peace while demonstrating in his truck in Whitehall.
He had been driving his truck bearing a banner stating: "Blair, don't send our young prince to your catastrophic illegal war to make it look plausible."
In 2003, he was arrested for a one-man protest over the war in Iraq. He backed his huge truck - which bore the slogan "Tony Blair: Military occupation causes terrorism" - outside Downing Street and sounded his horn for about a minute.
Source - BBC News
Monday, February 19, 2007
Senseless working overtime....
UK employees are on average working harder than in any other European country. According to the TUC (Trades Union Congress) workers in the sceptered isle are clocking in for longer than ever, a heroic 43.7 hours per week, though we're not even claiming overtime.
An article on the financial website www.thisismoney.co.uk quoted that
"[the TUC] calculated that if employees did all their unpaid work at the start of the year, the first day they would be paid would be February 23."
Presumably then, the UK is also bottom of the league in the UN's International Shrewdness tables, though perhaps it might at least come in for a special mention in the World Economic Authority's Tedious Fun-Vacuum Shithole report.
So as average Joe Briton frantically cultivates an episode of stress-induced apoplexy over a stained and smoking xerox machine perhaps we imagine a small bit of his tired gland as yet turned to jelly, longingly tuning-in a stereotypically-romantic image of his gallic counterpart; feet on desk, croissant in hand lazily shirking the day away. Assuming they'd been bothered to come in at all. But it's no stereotype. The French work the fewest hours in all of the developed world, clocking up a meagre 1453 hours a year and an entire month less than young Frimshaw from Sales. A month!?! Imagine spending a whole extra month each year with your family.
Its no surprise then that since its workers are spending so much precious time stressing out in the office the UK also came 21st out of 21 in the rankings on child welfare in the latest report by UNICEF, beating even the USA out of the lowest spot.
So the moral of this story is, if you're going to work yourself into an early grave, neglect your children and your loved ones in a mindless compulsion to purchase yet more inane crap that corporations have convinced you your life would be meaningless without, at least get fucking paid for it!
Phony support the TUCs 'Don't bother coming in for work on February the 23rd' day this coming Friday.
Of the world's 100 largest economic entities, 51 are now corporations and 49 are countries.
From 16 downwards:
..
16 Russian Federation 375,345.00
17 Argentina 281,942.00
18 Switzerland 260,299.00
19 Belgium 245,706.00
20 Sweden 226,388.00
21 Austria 208,949.00
22 Turkey 188,374.00
23 General Motors 176,558.00
24 Denmark 174,363.00
25 Wal-Mart 166,809.00
26 Exxon Mobil 163,881.00
27 Ford Motor 162,558.00
28 DaimlerChrysler 159,985.70
29 Poland 154,146.00
source
Unfair contracts makes Coke "impossible to escape"
The organization Coalition Against Coke Contracts has an online resolution you can sign to register your protest regarding Coca-Cola Company's unethical worldwide activities and unfair contract policies which attempt to monopolize its sale of beverages in US educational institutions. The resolution states
"The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has a five year exclusive contract with the Coca-Cola that is up for renewal in 2007. This exclusive contract implies that the only beverages you can drink on campus are manufactured by Coca-Cola."
Similar protests demanding the severance of contracts or their non-renewal have occurred at 33 other universities in the US and Canada. A study by The Polaris Institute has revealed that Coke's attempted monopolization and control of this lucrative on-capus market includes 48 post-secondary education institutions. The Polaris Institute has an enlightening report on Coca Cola which can be downloaded here.
It begins with this amazing quote from a past Coca-Cola Company Annual Report:
“All of us in the Coca-Cola family wake up each morning knowing that every single one of the world’s 5.6 billion people will get thirsty that day. If we make it impossible for these 5.6 billion people to escape Coca-Cola, then we assure our future success for many years to come”
source
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Coca Cola Company's crimes against humanity
Coke, that paradigm of world harmony and peace (remember those arse-puckeringly, saccharine-sentimental 'I'd like to buy the word a coke' adverts of the 70s?) has been accused of terrible crimes in Columbia. We're not talking about minimum wage issues or working condition infringements here, we're talking actual murder of trades union officials.
We know this sounds like reactionary rhetoric and the kind of tree-hugging ultra-left-wing dogma that your average Starbucks-supping, Power-Phony can safely dismiss as ludicrous ('What? A multi-billion dollar corporation doing bad things in the world? Poisoning the populace of sub-continental India with pesticides we can understand, but this...?), but the evidence against Coke and its indifference to these killings seems unequivocal.
KillerCoke.org is a web site that has documented Coke's aggressive and complicit activities in the South American Country's bottling plants and has a downloadable form for petitioning Coke's board of directors:
"I am shocked to learn of your indifference to the safety of workers who bottle your products. There are undisputed reports that Coca-Cola bottling plant managers in Colombia, South America, allowed and encouraged paramilitary death squads to murder, torture and kidnap SINALTRAINAL leaders and members in an effort to crush their union."
Since 1998 the plant in Columbia has seen the death of eight of its National Union of Food Industry Workers (SINALTRAINAL) union officials. Can you imagine the outcry if just one such killing had occurred in a factory in the US or Western Europe?
As of November 2006 Swarthmore College in the USA, has ceased buying Coca-Cola products, effectively banning their sale from it's campus in protest of Coke's history of world-wide worker abuse. They have also called on the beverage giant to accept an independent investigation into the murders at its Columbian bottling plants.
Sources
Thursday, February 15, 2007
BP committed to Green future?
BP is building a huge new oil pipeline through Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
The pipeline is likely to:
- Worsen climate change
- Increase oil spills
- Cause social strife for local people
If BP is so committed to a green future, why is it investing in a dirty oil project with a 40 year lifespan?
Each year, the pipeline will transport oil whose impact on climate change will be the equivalent to the pollution from every power station in the UK.
BP has signed agreements with Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey which make it exempt from any laws - including environmental and labour - that may affect its profits.
Read more on Freinds Of The Earth's Website and join their mailing list for corporate action.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Bono saves the world again...
Bono’s latest world-saving campaign, (Product) RED, in which companies license the red brand and donate some profit from RED-branded products to help fight disease in Africa, is getting some heat for its much-hyped partnership with 'the Gap'.
“It’s absurd, weird, really,” says Charles Kernaghan, director of the anti-sweatshop National Labor Committee for Worker and Human Rights. “The thought of using consumer dollars made off the backs of workers held in sweatshops to help fund Bono’s causes is really hypocritical—that’s not the way to go.”
'The Gap' has historically been a target of anti-sweatshop activists; according to the Gap’s own data, in Africa last year, between 25 and 50 percent of the factories the Gap used to make clothes violated local labor laws on working conditions.
But a spokesperson for the Gap says that Bono personally inspected the factory where the RED products were being made in Lesotho this year and, she says, it was “sparkling.”
NB. 50% of gap sweatshops in sub-Saharan Africa run machinery without safety devices. A worker in Lesotho, southern Africa, makes as little as (US) 0.30 cents an hour.
Source
Bono for Nobel Peace Prize...?
Bono is backing a videogame which promotes the invasion and destruction of Venezuela.
"Mercenaries 2: World in Flames," created by Los Angeles based Pandemic/Bioware Studios, simulates a mercenary invasion of Venezuela in the year 2007.
Elevation Partners is an investment firm that Bono helped create in order to exploit marketing opportunities between U2 and its fans, including projects from Pandemic/Bioware Studios. Pandemic states that as a partner in Elevation Partners, Bono "has visibility into all projects at Pandemic and Bioware."
The Venezuelan Solidarity Network calls for Bono, who has appealed to the world on many occasions for peace and poverty reduction, to apply those same values to block the manufacture and distribution of this videogame.
Original story: www.ushov.org/content/view/52/
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Democracy in Action?
We've just found out there are only 12 days left to register your objection to the 'Pay as you go' road tax – which closes to petitions on the 20th February 2007.
The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell anybody about it. Therefore at this time only 671,354 people have signed it so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them introducing it.
Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address, just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition.
The UK government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.
On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill.
If you care about our freedom please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link below) and let as many people as possible know.
sign petition
Brought to our attention, by our friends Captains of Industry