4
April 2002
WINNER(S) TO BE NAMED FOR THE ROGER AWARD
FOR THE WORST TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION IN NEW ZEALAND IN
2001
All
inquiries about the event to: Jim Gladwin, greenleaf@pl.net
The
annual Roger Award is organized by two Christchurch-based groups, the Campaign
Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) and GATT Watchdog.
The
six finalists for 2001 are: Tranz Rail; Monsanto; Carter Holt Harvey; Mobil;
United Water and British American Tobacco (BAT). This strong field contains the
current titleholder and two times winner (Tranz Rail); one other previous
winner (Monsanto) and a runner up (BAT), plus one brand new entrant (United
Water).
The
criteria for judging are by assessing the transnational that has the most
negative impact in New Zealand in each or all of the following fields:
unemployment, monopoly, profiteering, abuse of workers/conditions, political
interference/running an ideological crusade, environmental damage, cultural
imperialism, impact on tangata whenua, impact on women, health and safety of
workers and the public.
The
judges are: Sukhi Turner, Mayor of Dunedin; Glenn Turner, world famous cricketer
and coach (and Sukhi’s husband); Prue Hyman, academic and feminist, of Victoria
University; and Michael Gilchrist, leading trade unionist, of Wellington.
The
finalists take the Roger Award very seriously indeed. This year, for the first
time ever, one of them (Tranz Rail) approached all the judges and the organizers,
asking for senior managers to meet with us to discuss "safety and company
ownership issues", plus to bring us a letter from the Managing Director.
We declined, saying such an approach was quite improper, in any sort of
contest. Tranz Rail responded that "ownership changes" mean that it
is no longer a transnational and should be "ineligible" for the
Roger! Such desperation to get out of the spotlight of this Award proves that
we must be right on target. In the immortal words of Corporal Jones of
"Dad’s Army": "They don’t like it up them, sir".
The
Roger Award is part of our challenge to the "Centre-Left" Government
- are you going to do anything to control and roll back the power of our real,
unelected government, the transnational corporations?
Murray
Horton
for
the organizers
CAFCA
Campaign
Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa
Box
2258, Christchurch, New Zealand
cafca@chch.planet.org.nz
www.cafca.org.nz