Internet campaign slams British retail giant

An increasingly bitter campaign is being waged against UK retailer Tesco by an umbrella alliance of campaigners, trade unionists, environmentalists and charities protesting at its "devastating" impact on communities.

Campaigners opened a new front yesterday against the retail giant by helping local people organise opposition to planning applications through a new website, Tescopoly.

The site attacks Tesco's record on workers' rights, farming, the environment and local retailing.

Opposition to the march of the supermarkets - led by Tesco - is intensifying and threatening to become a political issue.

Campaigners claim the big four - Tesco, Asda (owned by Wal-Mart), Sainsbury's and Morrisons - are bullying suppliers and local authorities, harming the environment and deliberately driving small grocers, butchers and bakers out of business.

A parliamentary report yesterday called for the Government to halt all new supermarket mergers and acquisitions and appoint a supermarket regulator to watch over the stores.

During its seven-month inquiry, the Parliamentary Group on Small Shops heard evidence that the chains had engaged in predatory pricing - selling goods below cost - to damage local rivals.

Tescopoly - tescopoly.org - mimics Tesco's colour scheme and alters its slogan to read "Every Little Hurts".

Among its backers are Friends of the Earth, GMB London, the Small and Family Farms Alliance, nef (new economics foundation) and War on Want.

Tescopoly wants the supermarket sector to be independently regulated and for the Competition Commission to investigate supermarket dominance.

A new local campaign section of the website allows protesters to co-ordinate action and educates newcomers on fighting planning applications.

Tesco has become the most high-profile supermarket with annual profits of £2bn and market share of 30 per cent.

Rivals fear its large land bank for new stores will make it all-powerful in British retailing.

Many business commentators see the company as an example of a successful British company which is creating jobs and expanding overseas.

Robin Webster, the supermarket campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: "Tesco has got such a massive part of the market and they have got such a stranglehold on suppliers.

We have found that the majority of people coming to us are people fighting Tesco's plans to build new stores in their community."

As acting general secretary of the GMB union, Paul Kenny represents 600,000 people.

"I don't want to be seen to be picking on Tesco but we are becoming increasingly concerned, as many people in this country are, from consumers to ministers, about the impact of supermarket power," he said.

"They seem to be able to command planning permission at will.

They destroy local shops and communities and they terrorise suppliers.

Asda for example has just been fined £850,000 for trying to trick and harass their workers out of joining a union.

Frankly, if this was any other part of the economy ... there would be a regulator set up tomorrow."

Tesco said that it tried hard to engage with campaign groups to explain the benefits Tesco brings to communities.

It said in a statement: "In our experience, these groups do not represent the views of most ordinary people ... All we ask is that these groups recognise that people have a choice and how they exercise that choice should not be dictated by regulation."

- INDEPENDENT