Corruption and Capitalism From BAE Systems to financial regulation

Corruption and Capitalism
From BAE Systems to financial regulation

Taking Soundings present Sarah Sexton and Nicholas Hildyard from the Cornerhouse
Wednesday 24th of February 2010, 6.15 at the Old Broadcasting House.

In discussions about the ills and problems of capitalism convergence is often found across the political spectrum in criticising and blaming corruption. Corruption is understood to undermine the regulation of markets, from its basic principles such as the rule of law to more sophisticated social and environmental standards implemented in legislation and transnational governance. Tackling corruption is prominently placed on the agendas of governments across the world, while an international anti-bribery convention has been in place for over a decade.

But such emphasis has not prevented the UK government from intervening in the investigations of its own anti corruption body, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), into alleged bribery and corruption by BAE Systems, the largest British (and third largest global) arms manufacturer.

Corruption, moreover, is more than the obvious bribery and fraud. As the purpose of the neo-liberal state has increasingly become one of serving private financial interests rather than public ones, regulation itself can be viewed as a form of corruption. From this perspective, global efforts to regulate finance in the wake of the 2007 credit crunch to prevent future meltdowns may be facilitating profit-making at public expense rather than taming it.

For the past decade, The Corner House, an environmental and social justice research and solidarity group, has been using the political space created by corruption to raise issues about the rule of law and the public interest. It was one of two groups that challenged through the courts the Serious Fraud Office decision to stop its Saudi Arabia BAE investigation. It has analysed official responses to the financial crisis and climate change through the lens of corruption and conflict of interest.

Two members of The Corner House, Sarah Sexton and Nicholas Hildyard, will present some of their recent activities as an introduction to a discussion on the wider implications of corruption.

Rebranding the Tories

John Corner

Professor of Communication Studies, Leeds University,
Managing Editor of Media, Culture & Society

6.30 – 8.00 pm (note slightly later start than usual)
27th January, 2010

The Boardroom, Old Broadcasting House
Woodhouse Lane
Leeds Metropolitan University

Tony Bunyan essay

For those who were at Tony Bunyan's Taking Soundings talk on Surveillance culture the EU (or indeed, for those who missed it), here is a link to Tony's essay on the EU's response to the 'War on Terror' http://www.statewatch.org/news/2005/oct/ecln/essay-11.pdf

It makes for an illuminating, if unsettling read, from one of the most well-informed observers of the State and Civil Liberties in Europe.

More on this and related topics can be found at http://www.statewatch.org/

Climate & Violence Workshop

Securing the State: Securing the Corporate Nexus
The Coming Militarization of Climate Change
27 November 2009 9:30am-5:00pm
The Rosebowl 408
Leeds Metropolitan University
£10 (waged), £6 (unwaged)


The climate crisis deepens...
As part of the Climate and Violence series, this workshop will explore military and corporate responses to climate change and mass migration, and brings together key researchers on new military crowd control, surveillance and space technologies.
The world is holding its breath for a successful outcome to the International Panel of Climate Change to be held in Copenhagen December 2010. The meeting will bring together the world’s leading scientific experts in climate change, and its consequences.
The Copenhagen conference is rich in the number of technical issues covered including migration. However, what is less explored is how states will respond if told they could be facing over a billion people being forced to migrate if the world’s temperature rises by more than three degrees.
This workshop will, therefore, examine how the current revolution in military affairs has financed a new generation of weapons and control technologies in the "war against terror," and how these will become rapidly reoriented toward area denial and for border exclusion purposes.

How to book your place
To book your place for this workshop please visit the Leeds Met online Store
Speakers include experts on sub-lethal and paralysing weapons, new techniques of urban control and destruction, and the development of militarized robotics. Also discussed will be state responses to human security as the climate crisis deepens, and how these could go beyond the limits of international and humanitarian law.

The Climate Crunch: Postcapitalism or Green New deal?

Emma Dowling (Writer, Researcher, Global Activist)
6.00 – 8.00 pm
25th November

Room 103, Humanities Building - Broadcaasting Place (rust-coloured exterior)
NEXT to our usual venue Old Broadcasting House

Leeds Metropolitan University

Woodhouse Lane, Leeds

Climate Change Talk - Video

Here is a video from our talk on Climate Change from a few months ago:

29th April 2009 Chair - Roger Tyers
Speakers - Dr. Simon Lewis (The Royal Society, University of Leeds )
Dr. Paul Chatterton (University of Leeds)
Paddy Gillett (Plane Stupid)

Money And Power - Book Launch

Wednesday, 28th October
6-8 pm
Old Broadcasting House,
Woodhouse Lane, Leeds Metropolitan University.

Sarah Bracking explores the role of governments and development finance institutions in managing the markets in which the poorest countries operate. These institutions - the 'Great Predators' - are trapping the populations of the south in a permanent cycle of austerity. Bracking shows how pseudo-public 'development' institutions retain complete economic control over Southern markets, yet the international system is itself unregulated. Operating in the interests of North America and the European Union, they have a political purpose, and yet serve to cloud the brute power relations between states.This book will be of interest to anyone studying debt and development, global financial institutions, and the way the world economy is regulated and governed.

For further information contact Barry Winter: b.winter@leedsmet.ac.uk