and here is a guardian article on the same topic: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,629281,00.html
Greenpeace UK has been stepping up to defend melchett. the guardian article includes the following quote: 'Stephen Tisdale, the director of Greenpeace UK, said he did not foresee any conflict of interest. "Anyone who knows Peter will know that he hasn't changed his agenda at all," he said. "He sees Burson-Marsteller as a conduit to some very influential companies who would not normally talk to environmentalists. In some ways Greenpeace held him back, and he has become more radical after leaving last year."'
as i understand it melchett is still on the greenpeace board.
j
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Soenke Zehle <soenke.zehle at web.de>
> Date: Thu Jan 10, 2002 05:50:30 AM US/Central
> To: <nettime-l at bbs.thing.net>
> Subject: <nettime> PR post for ex-Greenpeace head
> Reply-To: Soenke Zehle <soenke.zehle at web.de>
>
> Newsletter from the transnational corporations observatory
> Wednesday, January 9, 2002
>
> 1. PR post for ex-Greenpeace head
> 2. An Ex-Greenpeacer Examines the Melchett Affair
> 3. WPP: World Propaganda Power
> 4. Company profiles
> 5. More on advertising - PR
> 6. Citizen group : PR Watch
>
> ____________________________________________________________
>
> 1. PR post for ex-Greenpeace head
>
> Former Greenpeace chief Lord Melchett is to work for a PR firm which
> includes GM company Monsanto among its clients.
>
> The former Labour peer once led Greenpeace's campaign against GM crops.
>
> He is to join Burson-Marsteller next week as a consultant.
>
> The firm is one of the world's leading public relations companies.
>
> Lord Melchett is expected to head a committee advising businesses on
> how to
> deal with controversial issues such as GM food, toxic waste and child
> labour
> in the Third World.
>
> The old Etonian, who was once arrested over an incident in which GM
> crops
> were destroyed, retired as executive director of Greenpeace in 2000.
>
> During his time there, it grew from an organisation with a turnover of
> £1.4
> million, 12 staff and 25,000 supporters to one with a turnover of £7.5
> million, 80 staff and more than 200,000 supporters.
>
> Alan Biggar, chief executive of Burson-Marsteller London, said: "This
> is a
> growing area of business for us, and Peter's vast store of knowledge and
> experience will help us to do even more for our clients."
>
> Lord Melchett said: "I am impressed by what I have seen of
> Burson-Marsteller's CSR Unit and look forward to working with them and
> some
> of their clients.
>
> "In my time at Greenpeace, I saw both the best and the worst of the
> corporate sector's activities and intend to put that experience to good
> use
> in this new role."
> (Ananova 8 January 2002)
>
>
> 2. An Ex-Greenpeacer Examines the Melchett Affair
>
> A longtime Greenpeace activist sent the following comments to PR Watch:
> "The
> Lord Melchetts of the activist (and now corporate) world are only one
> symptom of a broader contagion. Is there even a real environmental
> movement
> anymore? How accountable are NGOs to their own base? ... Look how
> little is
> being accomplished in addressing Global Warming in the U.S. at a time
> when
> it's obviously a national security issue and a global security issue. I
> think this is in part because the environmental groups don't believe in
> mass
> movement building like they used to. Most of us are treated like
> consumer
> and spectator activists -- expected to pay our membership dues and trust
> that full-time salaried activists will solve the issue -- without
> expecting
> to get involved ourselves. How easy it is to confuse salaried NGO actors
> with real movement leaders. And when they leave to work for
> corporations, if
> they haven't built a base that can carry on the radical push for
> change, how
> weak the organizations become that they leave beh
> d. But alas, Lord Melchett hasn't even fully left Greenpeace: Should
> Greenpeace International allow an employee of Burson Marsteller on their
> board?"
> (PR Watch, Tuesday, January 8, 2002)
>
>
>
>
--------- jeff fisher dilettante--er, that's 'intellectual nomad' BM: Value for the Information Age http://www.brainmortgage.com/