Read this stunning… story… by Ken Silverstein in Foreign Policy. It’s about corporate power, energy needs, corruption, immunity from prosecution, Bill Clinton, the company Glencore and how our world is increasingly ordered: When Glencore, the world’s biggest commodities brokerage firm, went public in May 2011, the initial public offering (IPO) on the London and Hong Kong stock…
Showing all posts tagged privatisation
Serco is determined to do one thing worldwide; turn a massive profit
If more evidence was needed of the global menace that is British multinational Serco (via Salon): On April 4, Barbara Harms’ boss forced her to attend a meeting about why she shouldn’t join a union. The two-hour, on-the-clock meeting was run by Michael Penn, a professional anti-union consultant. Harms says Penn told workers that “you’re…
Private military and intelligence still alive and well in Afghanistan
My following investigation appeared in Australian publication Crikey last week: The private security compound is on the outskirts of Kabul, along the road to Jalalabad, a notorious strip of highway, the landscape is predominantly industrial, with shipping containers set against a string of mountains on the horizon. Several logistics companies sit behind these concrete walls”‰—”‰this…
War business in Afghanistan
My following investigation is published by Lebanon’s Al Akhbar: Since the US invasion in 2001, Afghanistan has seen multiple private armies take control of the country’s security sector. The private security compound was on the outskirts of Kabul. Situated along the road to Jalalabad on a… notorious strip of highway, the landscape was industrial with sun-drenched…
We are America and civilised and that’s why we outsource everything
What does austerity mean in reality for Western democracies? Privatisation, privatisation and privatisation. Welcome to slave labour with a corporate smile (via TomDispatch): Sweatshop labor is back with a vengeance. It can be found across broad stretches of the American economy and around the world.… Penitentiaries have become a niche market for such work.… The… privatization…
This is what military contractors think of journalism in the US
A disturbing story that reveals the danger real journalism poses to the vulture capitalists in our “democracies”: A USA TODAY reporter and editor investigating Pentagon propaganda contractors have themselves been subjected to a propaganda campaign of sorts, waged on the Internet through a series of bogus websites. Fake Twitter and Facebook accounts have been created…
G4S, like a cancer, spreads to Palestine
The role of private security companies operating globally is a massive problem that is rarely addressed in the media. I investigated the role of G4S in Pakistan recently. The BDS movement in Palestine is also going after the same firm for very good reasons: Today, on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, we the undersigned Palestinian civil society…
Private militias polluting Pakistan
My following investigation is the lead story on Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar English: The past decade has seen a significant increase in foreign investments in the private security market around the Middle East. Pakistan is one of the countries that attracted the most attention in this global mercenary business. The American killing of Osama bin Laden last…
What I saw in Afghanistan researching disaster capitalism
I’ve just returned from Afghanistan where I was independently investigating the role of the war economy and vulture capitalism since 2001. I’ve never been to a country like it; Beautiful, suffering under Western occupation, Taliban attacks, deep conservatism, poverty and US-empowered warlords. I met Afghan civilians who had suffered at the hands of private mercenaries,…
Britain being transformed into an unaccountable, privatised mess
One (via Open Democracy): My post yesterday about G4S… recruiting ex-police officers to run cut-price murder investigations… [9]… ran with a rather shocking image: epaulettes emblazoned with the red, white and black G4S company logo above the words (in much smaller type): “LINCOLNSHIRE POLICE”. G4S dominant and on top, as it were. I guessed that the image (first…