Consumerism

Book Review: Swimming with Sharks: My journey into the world of the bankers
Jenny Nelson reviews Luyendiks analysis of the City – the ‘time bomb at the heart of our society’.

Change-a-leujah!
Jo Littler interviews Reverend Billy and Savatri D about the politics of anti-consumerism

Doing it for the kiddies
Dear Subcomandauntie, I've just been sent £256 from Gordon Brown's Child Trust Fund (CTF) to invest for my nine-month-old daughter's future, but I don't have a clue what to do with it. I understand I can either invest it in stocks and shares or a bank or building society account. Is there an ethical option? Yours, Sleepless in E9

Every Lidl hurts
The super-low prices of Lidl, Europe's answer to Wal-Mart come at a cost: the rights, wages and dignity of the company's workforce. Chris Leach reports

“Whiplash” Wilko
Mark Barnsley reports on the high-street hardware store growing fat on the profits of prison slavery

The self-indulgence of bourgeois consumer boycotts
Dear Subcomandauntie, In between my bizarre double-life as a financial adviser and Marxist guerrilla, I regularly go jogging and clubbing. Such a lifestyle makes a decent pair of trainers essential. How can I protect my little pinkies in trendy, reliable footwear without wearing expensive branded shoes stitched together by mainly Third-World women or child workers for a few pence a day? Yours, Dancing Queen, Leeds