Chat to Anita Roddick

Roddick: sees public pressure bringing ethical business

Founder of the Body Shop Anita Roddick says she is quitting the world of business to become a full time campaigner on social issues.

The woman who campaigned at Seattle in November 1999 says she wants to "smash the WTO, blow up the armaments industry, and do some populist campaigning."

"I do take the moral high ground," she says. "I take it because I prefer kindness over rapacity, public good over private greed."

"If I can't do something for the public good, what the hell am I doing?"

Roddick, 57, believes her legacy will be a business world compelled to be more ethical by public pressure.

She says that waves of public consciousness -- like the anti-WTO protests at Seattle and the boycott of Shell in 1995 -- are steadily forcing corporations to re-evaluate their actions and to change for the better.

You can chat to Anita Roddick on CNN.com/chat at 1530GMT (1130 ET) Monday.

Click on to CNN.com/chat from 1530 GMT until 1615.

Silenced in Seattle: Protesters quiet as WTO talks near end
December 3, 1999

World Trade Organisation
The Body Shop

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