This is the first publication of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), an Amsterdam-based foundation which will ‘monitor and report on the activities of European corporations and their lobby groups’. Very nicely produced and illustrated, this is 72 A-4 pages and costs £5.00 in the U.K. and US $10.00 in the USA/Canada from the address in the next paragraph. (Those prices include postage and they would prefer cash money though postal orders will do.)
Corporate Europe Observatory is producing a quarterly newsletter, Corporate Europe Observer. The first, Zero issue, 14-page edition appeared in late October. Four issues is £10 (UK) in hard copy form but free on e-mail. Contact them by e-mail: or at PO Box 92066, 1090 AB Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
They have a Web site at http://www.xs4all.nl/~ceo/
This is very important material, in my view, and rather than try to summarise CEO’s contents, I reproduce here their own Summary from Europe Inc. Only the occasional odd use of English will remind readers that this was written and produced by Dutch people for whom English is a second (or third) language.
Summary
The evidence presented in this report shows how European industry lobby organizations work systematically and successfully to shape the policies of the European Union (EU) to their best interest, thereby by-passing democracy.
It clarifies how the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT) in particular performs an agenda-setting role, resulting in the prioritisation by the EU of new policies benefitting transnational corporations (TNCs). This is evident in plans for ‘completing the internal market’, which will mean deregulating and liberalizing a number of sectors such as transport, telecommunications and energy. EU efforts to push for global free trade can be also be traced to industrial priorities. Furthermore, the introduction of ‘bench-marking’ – comparing wages, taxes, infra-structure and potentially all other fields with the situation of global competitors – as a decision-making tool is a disturbing example of how the EU has made inter-national competitiveness its overriding concern.
Whereas the ERT sketches out the general policy direction and avoids the details of legislation, UNICE (the Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe) uses its extremely efficient lobbying machine to ensure that the interests of business are integrated into every niche of EU legislation. Although these two main industry lobby organisations differ in focus and working style, their overall vision is strikingly similar.
ERT Offshoots
The ERT has proven remarkably flexible in adapting to evolving circumstances with its creation of new organisational structures whenever beneficial. This adaptation was visible with the transference of the ERT’s successful infrastructure work to the European Centre for Infrastructure Studies (ECIS) in 1994. ERT efforts had initially put the massive Trans-European Network infrastructure programme (TENs) on the EU political agenda, and ECIS was established in order to ensure its implementation. From its incipience, ECIS has worked in an almost symbiotic relationship with the European Commission, both hoping to speed up the construction of this trans-European infrastructure net-work.
The ERT’s access to EU decision-making structures has become increasingly institutionalized. This has mainly happened through ERT participation in EU working groups, which are often set up on recommendation of the ERT. The most remarkable example is the Competitiveness Advisory Group (CAG), a working party with official EU status which effectively doubles the voice of the ERT. The Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) is another example of the increasingly blurred distinction between ERT and EU initiatives. Both the CAG and TABD focus on the promotion of free trade and measures aimed at improving competitiveness.
Another ERT offspring is the Association for the Monetary Union of Europe (AMUE). After having played an important initial role in putting the EMU project on track, the AMUE now works closely with the European Commission in the implementation of the monetary union. It enjoys the same access to high-level decision makers both in Brussels and on the national level which has been the key to the ERT’s success.
The ERT, UNICE, ECIS and AMUE are among the most influential, but by no means the only industrial lobby organizations in Brussels. There are thousands of lobbyists representing hundreds of individual companies, national industry organizations, sectoral lobby groups and so forth. Another influential lobby group, described in this report, and an example of the enormous diversity and flexibility of the EU corporate lobbying landscape, is EuropaBio. This lobby group has achieved disturbing success with its efforts to abolish restrictions in the use of bio-technology.
Finally, an overview of the World Business Council of Sustainable Development (WBCSD) who despite a remarkable overlap with the busiest ERT member companies, sings quite a different tune than does the Roundtable, describing itself as one of the world’s most influential green business networks.
Strengthening Corporate Europe
Both the ERT and UNICE have worked successfully and at high speed to influence the EU’s current Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) process. Their priorities are very similar: strengthening of the Council and Commission’s power and ‘ability to act’; ensuring that the EU sticks to previously-adopted schedules (for Monetary Union, for expansion to Central and Eastern Europe and for global free trade); and preventing that the treaty revision brings in new elements which might endanger their competitive agendas, such as the integration of environmental and social concerns. [This sentence doesn’t make sense as it stands. I guess it meant to say ‘preventing treaty revisions which might endanger…’]
Other voices in Brussels
Several organizations representing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are also to be found in Brussels, the most important of which is UEAPME. UEAPME, the European Union of Craftsmen and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, is represented in numerous advisory bodies in the EU decision-making system, but is denied access to the most important fora, such as the Social Dialogue and high level bodies like the Competitiveness Advisory Group (CAG).
The largest European trade union umbrella is the ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation), which is represented in the EU’s Social Dialogue (along with the employer’s organization UNICE and the public sector confederation, CEEP). Both the internal market and broader globalization have undermined the national position of trade unions. And although ETUC as one of the social partners now forms part of the European corporatist system, its position is weak. The Social Chapter prescribes consultation, but employers want to keep commitments to an absolute minimum and there is little they can be forced to do. Trade unions, which remain weak on the European level, and member states are in most cases unable to force employers to commit to social legislation.
The environmental movement finds itself in a similar situation; lacking the financial and organizational means to be adequately represented in Brussels. Another crucial problem is their difficulty in accessing high-level decision makers, especially in the European Commission. The European Parliament is much more accessible, but here industry has also established a strong presence by offering MEPs jobs, assistants and gifts. Most important of all is however the fact that the strength of the environmental movement still lies at the national and local level. European-wide mobilisation with a comparable impact is merely a dream.
A unique new entity on the Brussels scene is European Partners for the Environment (EPE), which is not a lobby group but rather a forum for dialogue between social and environmental groups, public institutions, and industry (not necessarily the progressive type). EPE has organized meetings on specific topics upon the request of the European Commission, but has made no attempt to attack the fact that the EU’s overall development model will have strong negative effects on the environment and on people.
The billions of ECU available in different EU funds are another target of corporate lobbying. The example of the Phare and Tacis aid programmes shows how close cooperation between TNCs and EU institutions has resulted in substantial funding for TNCs craving market access in Central and Eastern Europe. The main beneficiaries of these ‘aid’ programmes are western corporations.
De-corporatising Europe
It is not enough to look at the democratic gaps in the EU decision-making structure to explain why corporate lobby groups have gained such a strong foothold in the apparatus. The strong grip of TNCs on European economies, which is a direct consequence of the creation of the Internal Market and increasing globalization, must be challenged. Economic dependency upon TNCs leaves governments with little option but to adapt to the agenda proposed by corporate lobby groups. To effectively reduce the political influence of TNCs, European economies must be weaned from their dependence upon these corporations.
Statewatch
Statewatch has published a collection of 60 hitherto secret European Union documents and reports on policing, immigration, asylum, the Trevi group etc. Key Texts on Justice and Home Affairs in the European Union, Vol 1, (ISBN 1 874481 06 7) is £16.00 from Statewatch, PO Box 1516, London N16 0EW. Further information, e-mail at
Colemanballs
Dr. John Coleman is a name with which those patrolling the outer fringes of conspiracy-land will be familiar, even if, like me, you haven’t read any of his books. So it was with some interest that I received a copy of Dr Coleman’s magazine, World in Review. WIR vol 6 no. 5 is mostly chunks from Coleman’s books which, from these extracts, appear to be the standard populist, back-to-the-constitution stuff which now passes for thought on the further fringe of the U.S. right, liberally dosed with now rather archaic communist conspiracy stuff. In the pursuit of which, in an open letter to a U.S. senator, Coleman produces one of the great non-sequitors.
‘If you do not believe that Roosevelt was a Communist, view the footage by C.N.N. covering the dedication of the F.D.R. memorial in Washington D.C., and you will see the designer of the monument, giving the Communist salute …. as a signal that Communism has triumphed in the United States.’
There are also curious anti-British overtones, reminiscent of Lyndon LaRouche Jnr., which would be more interesting if Coleman, whom I have seen described as a former SIS member, knew anything about British history. He writes
‘The attack [on the Argentine warship the Belgrano] was not popular with the British people as she found out in the 1983 General Election, which badly rattled the “Iron Lady”…… during the negotiations preceding the conflict, the British government had indicated that it would have little objection to returning the Malvinas Islands to the Argentine government, and invited General Galteri to send units of his forces to being the return of the islands to its rightful owner.’
Everything in that paragraph is wrong, down to the spelling of General Galtieri. Sinking the Belgrano was popular with the majority of the Brits who were deep into a nostalgic imperial relapse at the time; Mrs Thatcher won the 1983 election at a canter; and the British government did not invite Galtieri to send in his troops.
World in Review is also dotted with unsubstantiated allegations. For example:
- Grace Kelly was killed because Grimaldi [Prince Rainier] kept on skimming off millions of dollars from the top of heroin revenues.
- London-based film-maker Alan Francovich, who died in April this year, was on his way to meet one of Olaf Palme’s assassins. ‘Francovich had told colleagues before leaving London that he believed the assassins were Russians who had transferred to the Iranian secret service, the former SAVAK for deep cover.’ Oh, really? How does he know this?
Baloney is what this is.
Unclassified
Unclassified is back on form. Some interesting material in the Fall 97 issue, including an account of what looks like continuing U.S. covert ops (chemical warfare) against Cuba; an account of working with Coalition Missing, the group trying to bring to light the truth about Guatemalan death squads; a brief memoir from Ralph McGehee of CIABase on his time as an analyst in the CIA; and a transcript of testimony given to a Congressional seminar by Alfred McKoy, author of The Politics of Heroin, ‘C.I.A. Covert Actions and Drug Trafficking’.
$20 a year in the U.S., $30 overseas; 1909 M.L. King Jnr Parkway, Des Moines, Iowa 50314, USA. They have a Web site at http://ourworld.compuserve. com/homepages/verne_lyon
Keepin’ on keepin’ on
The New Zealand spook-watchers appear to be a good deal more active than their U.K. equivalents. Recent issues of Peace Researcher, Journal of the Anti-Bases Campaign, in which N.Z. spook-watchers are encamped, have been dotted with interesting bits and pieces. If you think, ‘Oh New Zealand seems a long way away, so why take an interest?’ it should be noted that N.Z. is a member of the American-dominated intelligence and surveillance network of which Britain is another junior member, and what goes on down under can inform us about developments in this benighted isle. New Zealander Nicky Hager’s book, Secret Power on that global surveillance network (reviewed in Lobster 32) has now sold over 5,000 copies in New Zealand — phenomenal for a country with a population of 3.5 million.
The striking thing about the N.Z. spook-watchers is the way that area overlaps with the campaign against foreign control of New Zealand. Would a Campaign Against Foreign Control of the U.K. get off the ground? I doubt it. The British Left would run a mile screaming, ‘xenophobia, racism’.
Peace Researcher, 4 issues a year, cost NZ$30 from PO Box 2258, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Intelligence
Back in the mid 1980s when Lobster was just getting going there was a very good French magazine called Intelligence/Parapolitics. This became Intelligence Newsletter, became more professional-looking and became unaffordable at hundreds of dollars a year. Recently the grapevine reported that the original producer of Intelligence/Parapolitics, Olivier Schmidt, had split with his partner in Intelligence Newsletter; and, right on cue, a sample issue of Schmidt’s new magazine, now just called Intelligence, arrived.
Looking more like the original, Intelligence is still very expensive at $290 for 23 issues from ADI, 16 rue des Ecoles, 75005, Paris.
Intelligence has an interesting web site at http://www.blythe.org./Intelligence, with articles as well as details of the magazine so those with Net access can check it out. This site also links to another interesting left site, New York Transfer, with interesting material from Latin America and Cuba. http://www.blythe.org/
Author! Author!
Don Bateman sent me a copy of a curious document, Vol. 1, issue 1, of Working Class Times. The WCT is 4, A3, well-written, typeset pages devoted entirely to the proposition that the middle class (undefined) run and control everything against the interests of the working class (undefined). Page 4 asks those in agreement with WCT‘s views to send them their name and address and gives PO Box addresses in Bristol (Box 1076, BS 99) and Birmingham (Saltley, Box 3241). I wrote to WCT and asked them who was producing the paper and got no reply. Would someone in the Bristol and Birmingham area care to inquire at the Post Office in those towns as to the identity of the box holder? (The Post Office will identify box holders on request.)
Mountain Men
I’ve been receiving copies of Taking Aim, the Militiaman’s Newsletter. In this case they are the Militias of Montana fronted by John Trochmann. It’s the standard agenda: U.N.-phobia, IRS-phobia, internment camps, Clinton’s ‘Reich’, gun control and so on. Such little nuggets of interest that exist are buried under hysteria and constitutional fundamentalism. However, of signs of racism and anti-semitism there are none in the few issues I have skimmed. Militias of Montana, PO Box 1486, Noxon, MT 59853.
They have a Web site at http://www. logoplex.com/resources/mom
O’Hara News
Just before I took this to the printer the first copy of Larry O’Hara’s new magazine, Notes from the Borderland, arrived. I will return to this is detail in the next Lobster. (See the flyer enclosed in this issue of Lobster.) If you enjoyed his previous publications you will want this. Subs are £5.00 for two issues in the UK (add 15% in Europe and 20% elsewhere) to Larry O’Hara BM Box 4769, London WC1X 3XX
The Fluoride Conspiracy
Yes, I know: fluoride, mainline crank country, right? Wrong. A major piece of research on the history of fluoride has been published by the National Pure Water Association. Using government documents a pair of U.S. researchers have uncovered the following. (And this is a very rough paraphrase indeed.)
Fluoride was used in very large quantities by the WW2 nuclear programmes. Its toxic effects were known but suppressed — ‘national security’. The early research showing that it was ‘safe’ was done by scientists working on nukes in the late 40s and early 1950s whose affiliations with the nuclear programme were suppressed, and key documents or sections of documents are missing. Same old same old…..
This is all documented in ‘Fluoride, Teeth and the Atomic Bomb’, a special edition of Watershed, available for £1.50 from National Pure Water Association, 12 Dennington Lane, Crigglestone, Wakefield, WF4 3UT, UK.
FBI files guide
The Web site http://www.crunch.com/01secret/01secret.htm contains a subject guide to thousands of FBI files (and their file numbers) that are now publicly accessible. In many cases, these files have never been seen outside the FBI.
Compiler of this list, Michael J. Ravnitzky, notes, ‘Getting any of the files listed here should be comparatively simple. One of the most time-consuming parts of the FOIA process – the search through an agency’s holdings for requested information – can be eliminated because you’re able to provide the FBI’s own file number.’
CIA FOIA requests
A list of the Freedom of Information Act requests filed with the CIA each year can be had from the Agency. To get a complete list for any year, write and ask for a copy of the year’s FOIA Case Log to Lee Strickland, Office of Information and Privacy, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington DC 20505.
Tom Davis Books
One of the original parapolitical mail-order companies, Tom Davis is still going at PO Box 1107, Aptos, CA 95001-1107; e-mail They have an interesting web site at www.tdbooks. com
Distributor problems
Two of my favourite magazines, Steamshovel and Flatland are reeling under the impact of the bankruptcy of one of their main distributors in the U.S. which went belly-up owning them large amounts of moolah. As a result their Web sites have been expanded while they sort things out and are even more worth a look than they were before.
- http://www.umsl.edu/~skthoma
- www.flatlandbooks.com
That bankruptcy reminds me how lucky are those of us in the U.K. whose magazines are distributed by Central Books’ efficient operation. Anybody who tells you the left can’t get it together – cite Central Books at them.