Articles on revolving doors, lobbying, corruption etc.

The Con-Dem coalition government has started to roll out its austerity package and introduce cuts worth £83bn over the next four years, which will hit the poorest hardest and open doors for big business to reap the benefits. But people are fighting back. Over the past few weeks, we have witnessed extraordinary and inspiring protests across the UK. Many of these have had an anti-corporate focus, targeting big businesses that are eager to profit from the cuts and have the government’s ear in policy formation. Here is some information on some of them.

Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) charts the revolving doors between the arms industry and Blair's Labour government.

“We are one team with one mission”[1]
ITT company motto

During the late 1960s and early 1970s ITT brought inexorable pressure on the Nixon administration to ameliorate the effects of US anti-trust policies. This included pressure on government from an army of lobbyists, and covert funding for the 1971 Republican Convention in San Diego. At the same time, ITT was leading a group of international companies who aimed to block Salvador Allende's nationalisation plans in Chile and guide US foreign policy.

- "I'm a bit like a cab for hire, I suppose, at the moment..." - Stephen Byers, former New Labour transport secretary, 2010.

This section of the Corporate Rule website will examine the processes whereby corporations exert influence over government through a series of case studies. The resources section provides a list of films and writing on the topic, as well as links to sources of information and relevant campaigning groups