[ecrea] The G8, Bono and Tax Avoidance: In the Name of Power - New title from Verso

THE FRONTMAN: BONO (IN THE NAME OF POWER)

by Harry Browne



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Published June 2013



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Join Harry Browne in conversation with Dan Hancox this Friday, 6pm at 
Rough Trade East, London. The event is free and unticketed.



For more information visit:

http://www.versobooks.com/events/677-bono-frontman-for-the-rich



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Scathing and hilarious takedown of a frontman for the rich and powerful.



Celebrity philanthropy comes in many guises, but no single figure better 
encapsulates its delusions, pretensions and wrongheadedness than U2’s 
iconic frontman, Bono—a fact neither sunglasses nor leather pants can 
hide. More than a mere philanthropist—indeed, he lags behind many of his 
peers when it comes to parting with his own money—Bono is better 
described as an advocate, one who has become an unwitting symbol of a 
complacent wealthy Western elite.



THE FRONTMAN reveals how Bono moved his investments to Amsterdam to 
avoid Irish taxes; his paternalistic and often bullying advocacy of 
neoliberal solutions in Africa; his multinational business interests; 
and his hobnobbing with Paul Wolfowitz and shock-doctrine economist 
Jeffrey Sachs. Carefully dissecting the rhetoric and actions of Bono the 
political operator, THE FRONTMAN shows him to be an ambassador for 
imperial exploitation, a man who has turned his attention to a world of 
savage injustice, inequality and exploitation—and helped make it worse.



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"Bono is portrayed as a spokesperson for the poor, when in actual fact 
he is job is to defend the rich." Harry Browne on Ireland AM

http://www.tv3.ie/ireland_am_video.php?locID=1.65.74&video=64117


"Bono has all this credibility, he has the glow of humanity, but the 
reality is he has largely used that in the service of the powerful." 
Harry Brown on News Talk (see 08:00)

http://www.newstalk.ie/player/listen_back/8/1769/10th_June_2013_-_Moncrieff_Part_2


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“The Frontman is sharp, funny and deadly accurate” – Doug Henwood



“Browne’s dug past the PR and the rhetoric and found…a Mad Men cliché 
for our times. But that’s not why you need to read THE FRONT MAN. You do 
need to. Not because you want to better understand Bono, let alone 
empathize with his plight, but because what topples is not only Bono’s 
stature but the excuses his chosen trade, liberal philanthropic 
paternalism, makes for itself.” – Dave Marsh, COUNTERPUNCH



“At last! A bracing take-no-prisoners polemic that acknowledges Bono’s 
practical contributions to a more humane version of global capitalism, 
but demonstrates how good intentions can be no alibi for fronting for 
the status quo.” – Alex de Waal, author of FAMINE CRIMES: POLITICS AND 
THE DISASTER RELIEF INDUSTRY IN AFRICA and Executive Director of the 
World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School



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Paperback / ISBN: 9781781680827 / $16.95 / £9.99 / $18.95CAN / 192 Pages



For more information on THE FRONTMAN or to buy the book visit:

http://www.versobooks.com/events/677-bono-frontman-for-the-rich



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