ANOTHER KIND OF MONEY LAUNDERING

When the Financial Times launched an investigation into the contributors to "counter-capitalist groups," its dragnet hauled in an unlikely name--Unilever, one of the world's biggest multinational corporations. Last year when the global giant purchased Ben & Jerry's, the Vermont ice cream maker, it had to agree to contribute $5 million to the progressive-minded company's charitable foundation and at least $1.1 million a year to social change groups. Thus it was that the Ruckus Society, whose demonstrators helped shut down the Seattle WTO meeting, and Global Exchange, a human rights group, and other groups dedicated to subverting global capitalism received no-strings donations from Unilever--laundered through the Ben & Jerry's Foundation.

FOLLOW-UP

Aram Roston writes: Colombian-born activist Gustavo Soler, a heavy equipment operator at a US-owned coal mine featured in a recent Nation story ("It's the Real Thing: Murder," September 3/10), was murdered October 6--shot twice in the head, presumably by right-wing paramilitaries. Soler had pushed for the rights of Colombian workers employed by the Alabama-based Drummond Company. His predecessor as union president was assassinated in March. The paramilitaries have gone on a rampage, slaughtering more than 100 civilians across Colombia, just as Human Rights Watch came out with a new report on the links between the right-wing group and the Colombian military.

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