Thus it begins to appear as if the NEF view presented here is pro-informal but only in the context of a minimal-government, neoliberal, market-oriented approach. This is social democracy as viewed by the Third Way. As a force for change it is whistling in the wind.

My second focus is therefore on the underlying assumptions made in this book. The ability of markets to give justifiable wages to different types of worker is not questioned. The banks' capacity to require self-sufficient commercial operation in exchange for micro-loans is not questioned. Nearly all the examples in the book are women's voices, yet the triple burden on active women (family + job + social work) is not questioned.

My conclusion is that the reforms suggested by the NEF are constructive yet they amount to tinkering. The NEF's attempt to re-value women's social work is much appreciated. The role played by NEF in mediating between local groups and the UK government may be a helpful one. The present book, however, underestimates the scale of the changes that will be needed for real improvements in human lives. Local government's responsiveness; regional decentralisation with the power to issue money; fundamental changes in valuations away from money evaluation and toward making public assessments of shared needs and social goals - these are the missing links. Of course this agenda would require a longer book than 84 pages!

Wendy Olsen lectures at the University of Bradford on economic development, social research methods, and gender and development. She is active in the Association for Heterodox Economics and the International Association for Critical Realism. See www.bradford.ac.uk/staff/wkolsen for more details.

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Private Planet: Corporate Plunder and the Fight Back

David Cromwell Jon Carpenter, UK 2001. �12.99

At first glance, here is yet another quest to swim against current trends in vain, critiquing global corporatism without hope of turning the tide. However, true to its subtitle, Private Planet describes both the problem and the ongoing quest for solutions in an authoritative and readable style. Detailing many causes for concern, David Cromwell explains why the majority of people who lead a "reasonably affluent lifestyle", offering them the time and energy to consider the matter, do not go out and demand from their leaders a reorganisation of society. The question is answered.

The first two chapters demonstrate that free trade benefits transnational corporations and wealthy investors, while the requirements of the rest do not even come into consideration. Transnational corporations are now responsible for one third of global production and two thirds of the world's trade. The history of the WTO, MAI, SAPS and other quests to render the poor even poorer in the name of global corporatism are clearly documented and well referenced. However, the third chapter `makes' the book. Drawing expertly upon the work of Noam Chomsky, and providing a useful introduction to Chomsky's work, Cromwell offers a thoughtful explanation of the inertia of the affluent, reliant as they/we are on the mass media for information about current issues.

Using specific examples, Cromwell describes in detail the `propaganda model' whereby the five classes of `filters' determine what is `news' i.e. what gets printed in newspapers or broadcast by radio and television. Ownership of the media has become increasingly centralised, as more independent 'worker-friendly' newspapers have disappeared. The threat of withdrawal of advertising is a central concern to editors, hence they cannot publish much by way of criticism of their advertisers. The sourcing of news is essential to journalists and editors, who find themselves barred from press conferences if their reporting is unfavourable to the individual, government department, business or other institution concerned. Business organisations often come together to form `flak', "negative responses to a media statement or [TV or radio] program". The emasculation of dissident viewpoints through `demonisation' as 'biased', ideological', or `extreme'. These filters are particularly interesting to social crediters, since the history of Douglas and the social credit credit movement can provide a wealth of detail on the operation of the five filters.

While US business spends $500 million a year in `greenwashing', environmental issues are kept separate from the "`real' bread and butter issues: interest rates, superpower posturing, corporate take-overs and personality politics". Climate change is reported in dry factual terms, and then the reports return to