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Letters

No Logo for the Swiss

Planning a winter break in Switzerland? Be careful what you bring as holiday reading. On Friday, members of Bookmarks staff were refused entry at the Swiss border on their way to Zurich to do a bookstall at a conference organised in opposition to the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos (The South rises as Bush fails to show, January 27). They had books that the Swiss border guards deemed as too subversive and dangerous to be allowed in while the world's economic leaders were in the country.

The books in question? Captive State by Guardian columnist George Monbiot, and No Logo by Naomi Klein, which came third and first respectively in the Guardian's best-selling books last year. After hours of pressure and outcry here and in Switzerland the authorities finally backed down and the books and booksellers were allowed in.
Judith Orr
Bookmarks bookshop

I read Naomi Klein's book and listened to her talk in central London. It was all beautifully done. But, old Marxist fuddy-duddy that I am, kept asking myself: "Yes, but what is it about? What does she want?" Now I've read her piece (Outflanking the rich and powerful, October 26), all is clear. No need to worry about the destruction of the environment, the attacks on trade union and democratic rights, the fact that a set of zillionaire nutters is now running the White House and the Pentagon on behalf of the biggest of big business. Being outflanked will cause them to collapse like a pack of cards. Why didn't we think of it before?
Cyril Smith
London