It came to my attention recently that this government are planning to sign up to the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) which in effect would hand over control of the country to the large corporations. This got me thinking about these corporations and why they are so large, you would think the answer is obvious, because we buy loads of stuff from them. We buy loads of stuff from them quite often without knowing we are doing so unless we take a little time to investigate. I shall give you an example; I have a personal loathing of one particular company of Swiss origin who has been responsible for a number of rather dubious events and statements from their CEO seem to show that the ethics of this company are about as rock bottom as you can get. For this reason, and mainly because of the baby milk powder scandal I have endeavored not to allow a Nestle product into my house since around the mid 1980’s You can get background on this scandal here ;- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott
Some effort is required because not everything out there which is Nestle has Nestle written on it, a good example is pet food, these are all Nestle owned brands Felix, Friskies, Go Cat, Butchers, Bakers, Winalot , Gourmet, ONE, Pro Plan, and Purina and if you look carefully (in the very small print) you will find the words “A Nestle company” somewhere on the packaging. You might also be interested to learn that Nestlé owns 30% of the world’s largest cosmetics and beauty company L’Oreal and its brands including Garnier, Maybelline, and Lancôme as well as The Body Shop stores. So why should this matter to you?
Well in simple terms we, the people , need to reduce the power of the big corporations because without us , the consumer, patronising them by using their products, they are no longer Big Corporations and would thus lose their power and influence over government policies and even more worryingly, the law. What I am saying is quite simple, we should take the oxygen of wealth away from the corporations so they cannot threaten our government with legal action if they don’t like a decision that government might make and we do this by simply not buying their product.
Look for the small company who make the things you want, the local market, farm shop or even the £1 shops. Get a list of brands which have a massive corporate name behind them and simply don’t buy their stuff. Write and tell them what you are doing and why, write to your MP and tell them what you are doing because of this proposed “Trade Partnership” and ask whether they are prepared to help stop this thing happening , if there is a radio phone in about this, get on the radio and tell them what the TATIP is really all about and finally, if you research properly you can keep targeting the unethical corporations such as Nestle, Coca Cola, and various others until they change their policies toward people, the environment and the planet in general. It does not take a great number of people boycotting a brand to have a significant effect on turnover and profits. While you are at it, remember that Tesco, Boots, Asda, etc are also large multinationals (or are owned by one) and stop using them too. Check out your local farmer’s market, get back into the high street (while we still have one) and support local traders, the quality is often better and the prices are hardly any different from the supermarkets.
If we all do this then in no time the (now not so) big Corporations will be ready to admit defeat and the government can run the economy without their interference.
Am I dreaming? Many would say so but (to quote a little old lady in a musical) ‘If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come true’ and if nothing else you will be able to say that you are doing something!! A matter of opinion ( because we are all entitled to one at the moment)
Martin Short
