Dirt Diggers Digest No. 46
December 12, 2003
Editor: Philip Mattera
1. Website tracks human rights records of corporations
2. Report analyzes 20 years of prison (mis)management by CCA
3. Georgeson's annual corporate governance review
4. "Oligopoly Inc." looks at concentration in agribusiness and drugs
5. Northern Light seeks to shine again
6. USDA's new PACA database
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1. Website tracks human rights records of corporations
Shawn Gilchrist of PACE International union has just
brought to our attention a valuable website called Business & Human Rights
Resource Centre <http://edit.business-humanrights.org/Home>. Based in
London and affiliated with Amnesty International, the site indexes and
provides links to a wide range of materials, including books, news articles,
lawsuits, reports from government agencies and non-profits, etc. Its material
in five languages, is arranged various ways, including by company, with more
than 1,000 individual corporations covered.
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2. Report analyzes 20 years of prison (mis)management by CCA
Dirt Diggers editor Phil Mattera is one of the authors of a new report
that exposes the ongoing financial and operating problems of
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest player in
the controversial business of incarceration for profit. Published by
Grassroots Leadership, the 81-page report is meant to serve as
an antidote to CCA's 20th anniversary celebrations. The other
authors are Mafruza Khan (Phil's colleague at the Corporate Research
Project) and Stephen Nathan, editor of London-based Prison
Privatisation Report International. The report can be downloaded at
<www.grassrootsleadership.org>.
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3. Georgeson's annual corporate governance review
The following was submitted by Rick Rehberg:
Georgeson Shareholder Communications, one of the largest proxy
solicitors for corporations, has released its Annual Corporate Governance
Review of the 2003 proxy season. Among its findings, labor funds have
become the single largest proponent of corporate governance reform.
The report includes detailed analysis of proposals submitted by labor,
public pension, religious and other shareholder groups, and it contains
voting results by company <www.georgeson.com>.
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4. "Oligopoly Inc." looks at concentration in agribusiness and drugs
"Oligopoly Inc." is the name of a new report from the ETC Group
<www.etcgroup.org> on the concentration of corporate power in
pharmaceuticals and agribusiness. The report, which can be found at
<http://www.etcgroup.org/documents/oligopolyfinal.pdf>, notes, for
example, that the world's top ten drug companies control an estimated
53% of the global market and that the top ten pesticide producers control
80% of their business. Winnipeg-based ETC Group (otherwise known as
Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration) was formerly
called the Rural Advancement Foundation International, or RAFI.
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5. Northern Light seeks to shine again
Northern Light, an online service that sought to combine a web search
engine and access to "premium" content, has announced plans to
return from limbo with a new product focused on business research. In
a recent press release <http://www.northernlight.com/press/20031204.html>
the company said that the new service will include "over 100 million pages
of Web content editorially selected to be of high quality for business research,"
along with "millions" of full-text articles from trade journals, newspapers and
business wires. The service will initially be marketed only to organizations--and
presumably larger ones, given that the annual subscription price will be $19,500
(for unlimited usage). A version for individuals is also planned. For more details,
see <http://www.northernlight.com/library.html>.
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6. USDA's new PACA database
Those of you who research agribusiness will be interested to know that the
USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service has introduced a search engine that
provides access to information on fruit and vegetable growers holding licenses
under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (which regulates trading
practices in the produce industry). The search engine, which includes the
names of the firm's principals and its branches, can be found at
<http://www.ams.usda.gov/pacasearch>.
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Philip Mattera
Director of the Corporate Research Project
Good Jobs First