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Police monitor Facebook protest

The annual demonstration at Nestlé (UK) HQ in Croydon passed off peacefully on 16 May with protesters handing out leaflets to passers by and listening to the alternative Nestlé Chairman’s speech, given by Mike Brady of Baby Milk Action. Prior to the event Baby Milk Action was contacted by Croydon Police who had been tipped off by the Police Intelligence Unit about the numbers of people signing up to the event on Facebook.

We pointed out that people from around the world were giving their virtual support in cyberspace and we weren’t expecting these people to arrive in Croydon from China and Sri Lanka and other countries, however convenient for Gatwick Airport.

Nestlé thanks us at its AGM

Campaigning shareholders, ACTARES, held a demonstration outside Nestlé’s AGM in Lausanne in April 2009, handing out leaflets about the Nestlé spying scandal. Baby Milk Action’s Patti Rundall called on the new CEO, Paul Bulcke and the Board to rewrite its Annual Report taking into account the independent evidence of its widespread malpractice, to stop using health and nutrition claims, to stop opposing the adoption of strict legislation, to address the obesity problem (which had not yet been discussed at Board level) and to accept our Four-Point Plan.

Peter Babeck-Letmathé, previous CEO and current Chairman, said that since she no longer trusted him Richard Laube, CEO Nestlé Nutrition, should answer. Laube said that their internal audits showed a “trend to less, quote, violations of the code,” but he denied they are the worst violators. He then gave us a vote of thanks saying: “Because we have found that when the Code is...the most strictly enforced at the national level, Nestlé’s market share in business is the healthiest...inadvertently the Code has acted in Nestle’s favour. So we have every interest to uphold it and maintain it and we have absolutely no interest in undermining the code in any of our behaviours.” (See page 8, page 15 & page 22).

Sheffield University keeps boycott

In March there was a cross-campus referendum at Sheffield University asking: “Do you agree that the Union should end its boycott of Nestlé, although not actively promote their products, but engage with Nestle and other manufacturers on the ethical issues involved in promoting breast-milk substitutes?”

 Jess Haigh (pictured) campaigned to keep the boycott and wrote about her experiences for the Boycott Nestle blog.

The team of five that Nestlé sent to lobby against the boycott could not win the argument over whether malpractice is taking place - it came down to the best method to prompt changes. Fortunately students appreciated this was a ruse to undermine the campaign and backed the boycott.

Trust and anti-trust

Although Baby Milk Action ‘engages’ with Nestlé on many occasions, it takes public campaigns, backed by the boycott, to stop its malpractice. We also work for legislation implementing the World Health Assembly marketing requirements to create a level playing field for all companies. Companies oppose legislation in favour of codes of conduct, but also claim they cannot cooperate to end violations voluntarily, because of anti-trust regulations.

Interesting then to read in PR Week: “Nestlé Waters, Danone and Highland Spring have joined together to launch a new association to lobby on behalf of the bottled water industry.” That would be the same Nestlé and Danone, the two biggest baby food companies who are driving down standards as they compete.

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