Corporatism

Prosecution Rates For Environmental Crimes Near Zero

August 3, 2014 Carey L. Biron, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! Corporatism, Environment, Law

While U.S. regulators are actively flagging and tracking corporate violations of federal environmental laws, the government is rarely pursuing criminal penalties for those infractions. The Environmental Protection Agency, the key department in safeguarding the country’s health from pollutants, pursues criminal charges in fewer than one-half of one percent of total violations, according to new research. Both the EPA and the Department of Justice do continue to score high-visibility accountability successes for environmental crimes every year, but most of these are civil charges, which require less evidence to prove and fewer resources to prosecute. Yet critics worry that civil proceedings, which typically result in fines but no jail time or restitution, don’t offer the robust deterrent effect necessary to substantively impact corporate decision-making or offer compensation to affected communities. “More than 64,000 facilities are currently listed in agency databases as being in violation of federal environmental laws, but in most years, fewer than one-half of one percent of violations trigger criminal investigations,” according to a newinvestigation from the Crime Report, a publication of the Center on Media, Crime and Justice at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Corporations Creating Life-Threatening Water Shortage

August 3, 2014 Carl Gibson, www.occupy.com Educate! Corporatism, Privatization, Water

Imagine the swift and fierce government response if Al-Qaeda took a precious resource out of a delicate environment, sold it for profit and endangered 40 million people in the process. Now compare that example to the nonexistent government response to American energy companies, golf courses and corporations like Nestlé taking 75 percent of the groundwater out of the Colorado River Basin at a time when the American West is facing a record drought. Corporations will continue to abuse their constitutional protections as legal “persons” until fresh water has become fully privatized, or until corporate constitutional rights are eliminated with a constitutional amendment. Depleting a Precious Resource Nestlé has two plants on the Colorado River Basin that take in water to bottle and sell under its Arrowhead and Pure Life brands. One is in Salida, Colorado, on the eastern edge of the Upper Basin; the other is in the San Gorgonio Pass, halfway between San Bernardino and Indio, Calif., on the western edge of the Lower Basin. According to annual reports filed up to 2009, Nestlé bottles between 595 and 1,366 acre-feet of water per year – enough to flood that many acres under a foot of water – from the California source. The company takes 200 additional acre-feet per year from the Colorado source. This means altogether Nestlé is draining the Colorado River Basin of anywhere from 250 million to 510 million gallons of water per year, according to the acre-feet-to-gallons conversion calculator.

McDonalds Responsible For Determining Wages At Franchises

July 30, 2014 Candice Choi, www.abcnews.go.com Educate! Corporatism, Labor, McDonald's, Minimum Wage

McDonald's is coming under intensifying pressure for labor practices at its U.S. restaurants. The National Labor Relations Board said Tuesday that the world's biggest hamburger chain could be named as a joint employer in several complaints regarding worker rights at franchise-owned restaurants. The decision is pivotal because it could expose McDonald's Corp. to liability for management practices in those locations. It also comes as protests for higher pay have captured national attention, with labor groups calling for pay of $15 an hour and the right to unionize. Organizers had been pushing to get McDonald's named as a joint employer at franchised restaurants, a move intended to give them a centralized and powerful target. In the U.S., the vast majority of McDonald's more than 14,000 restaurants are owned and operated by franchisees. The same is true for many other fast-food chains, including Burger King and Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza hut. As such, the companies have sought to distance themselves from the pay protests by saying they don't determine wages at its franchised locations. Heather Smedstad, senior vice president of human resources for McDonald's USA, said in a phone interview that the company has never been determined to be a joint employer in the past and that it would fight the decision by the labor board.

Market Basket Revolt A Sign Of Fed-Up Times

July 29, 2014 Bill Nemitz, www.pressherald.com Resist! Corporatism, Labor, Protest

Micum McIntire stood shoulder to shoulder with his employees inside the cafe at Market Basket in Biddeford just after noon Monday, his eyes glued to live TV coverage of his company imploding at an outdoor protest in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. “They’re calling for us to shut the stores down,” said McIntire, the Biddeford store director, as thousands of Market Basket workers and their supporters rallied for their recently fired CEO and against the company’s new leadership. “That’s what they’re saying: ‘Shut it down.’ ” Demonstrators display placards outside a Market Basket grocery store as a shopper pushes a grocery cart on Tuesday in Chelsea, Mass. Supporters and employees rallied at Market Basket locations calling for Arthur T. Demoulas to be reinstated as CEO. The Associated Press And where did that leave McIntire? “I have no idea,” he replied. Had he received any guidance from Demoulas Supermarkets Inc., the grocery chain’s Massachusetts-based parent company? “There’s nobody there,” replied McIntire, his face etched with anxiety. “They’ve all been fired.”

Boycott Walgreens: The Tax-Dodger On The Corner

July 25, 2014 Eugene Lim, www.suntimes.com Resist! Corporatism, health, Taxes, Walgreens

Since learning that Walgreens may move its headquarters overseas, we’ve heard most from its shareholders, its executives, and politicians in Illinois and Washington. We haven’t heard much from the general public, much of which is still struggling economically in the wake of the recession and all of which stands to lose out when US corporations dodge taxes. Walgreens, if we let it, will become the latest in a string of companies to exploit an accounting trick called “inversion,” which will allow the company to move its corporate address to a known tax haven. It will also become inversion’s most shameless exploiter: nearly a quarter of the company’s revenues come from Medicare and Medicaid, and its profits soared by 68 percent when Obamacare brought it new customers last quarter. Yet, Walgreens may decide as soon as August to renounce its “corporate citizenship,” become Swiss only in name, and slash its tax rate from 31 percent to 20 percent. The push for inversion comes from a minority of Walgreens’s shareholders. This is a minority accustomed to outsize power over shareholders and stakeholders alike: Goldman Sachs, three activist hedge funds, and the executive chairman of Alliance Boots, the Swiss firm that Walgreens must acquire to complete its inversion. The camp pushing to decamp offers tax evasion as a route to shareholder profit. This offer may sway the shareholder majority, but Walgreens’ stakeholders stand to lose big time.

While California Sips Scarce Water, Nestle Gulps

July 24, 2014 Gregg Levine, www.america.aljazeera.com Educate! Climate Change, Corporatism, Water

Last week saw California adopt mandatory restrictions on civilian water use. People caught watering their lawns to the point of runoff, hosing off sidewalks or driveways or washing cars without a shut-off nozzle can face fines of up to $500 a day. The Golden State is in the third year of record drought, and while these consumer restrictions are not expected to make a sizeable dent in state water usage on their own, officials hope the fines, which go into effect August 1, will send a message to Californians who apparently have yet to grasp the severity of the situation. That message, however, has not, it seems, reached Nestlé Waters North America, makers of a variety of bottled waters, including Arrowhead brand.

New Study: Looking To Lower Your Wireless Bill?

July 20, 2014 Josh Tabish, www.rabble.ca Resist! Corporatism, Internet

A new study commissioned by the CRTC confirms that the Big Three -- Rogers, Telus, and Bell -- are offering Canadians far less bang for their buck than new independent providers when it comes to mobile phone and Internet service. Sadly, the report confirms that Canadians still pay some of the highest prices for wireless service in the industrialized world. Canada continues to lag behind its global counterparts, especially when compared with European nations. The silver lining on this familiar cloud is the impact that new independent providers like Wind and Mobilicity are having. As the report points out, overall, new independent providers in Canada are hugely outperforming Big Telecom on a number of key metrics.

Illinois To Sue Predatory Student Debt Settlement Corps

July 15, 2014 Rachel Abrams and Jessica Silver-Greenberg, www.dealbook.nytimes.com Resist! Corporatism, Law, Student Debt

Student loan debt hovers at more than $1 trillion, a threefold surge from a decade ago, and a record number of college students who graduated as the financial system nearly imploded have an average debt load of more than $20,000. More than half of recent graduates are unemployed or have low-paying jobs that do not require that expensive college degree. Some Americans, including baby boomers whose savings were devastated by the financial crisis, are still struggling to pay off their student loans well into their 50s. For the debt settlement industry, all this means a tantalizing gold mine of new customers. “Your entire student loan can be forgiven,” Broadsword Student Advantage of Carrollton, Tex., boasts in radio ads. Debt settlement companies, which offer to help borrowers lower their monthly loan payments for a hefty upfront fee, have long been fraught with problems. But federal and state regulators are spotting new instances of abuse as the companies shift away from their traditional targets — credit card and mortgage debt — to zero in on student loans.

Nader: The Myths Of Big Corporate Capitalism

July 15, 2014 The Nader Page, www.nader.org Educate! Capitalism, Corporatism, Myths, Ralph Nader

Large corporate capitalism is a breed apart from smaller scale capitalism. The former can often avoid marketplace verdicts through corporate welfare, strip owner-shareholders of power over the top company bosses and offload the cost of their pollution, tax escapes and other “externalities” onto the backs of innocent people. Always evolving to evade the theoretically touted disciplines of market competition, efficiency and productivity, corporate capitalism has been an innovative machine for oppression. Take productive use of capital and its corollary that government wastes money. Apple Inc. is spending $130 billion of its retained profits on a capital return program, $90 billion of which it will use to repurchase its own stock through 2015. Apple executives do this to avoid paying dividends to shareholders and instead strive to prop up the stock price and the value of the bosses’ lucrative stock options. The problem is that the surveys about the impact of stock buybacks show they often do nothing or very little to increase shareholder value over the long run.

Amendment To Reverse Citizen’s United Advances To Senate Floor

July 11, 2014 Andrew Prokop, , www.vox.com Organize! Amend the Constitution, Corporatism, Democracy, Money As Speech

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a resolution to amend the US Constitution to allow greater regulation of political spending, on a 10-8 party line vote. This clears the way for a vote by the full Senate later this year. The proposal, sponsored by Senator Tom Udall (D-NM), is intended to reverse recent Supreme Court rulings that have deregulated the campaign finance system, such as Citizens United and McCutcheon v. FEC. It states that both Congress and the states would "have power to regulate the raising and spending of money" on elections. Specifically, it would allow limits on outside spending in support of candidates, which the Court has struck down. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, "Since we banned child pornography — which I imagine my colleagues support — a limitation on the First Amendment, has free speech been hampered in any way? Absolutely not." And he said the measure would limit spending from both liberal and conservative funders: "The Soroses and the Steyers will be just as banned as the Kochs and the others. And they should be."

Majority Of Brazilians Think World Cup Is Bad

July 9, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Brazil, Corporatism, Democracy, Education, Environment, FIFA, Finance and the Economy, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Poverty

In this episode of Acronym TV, Derek Poppert of Global Exchange talks with Dennis about his Re-Think The Cup series. In a recent piece from the series, FIFA: Return The Beauty To The Beautiful Game, Derek writes: “So who wins the World Cup? While it may seem that decision is still getting played out in stadiums across Brazil, FIFA president Sepp Blatter is surely laughing from his luxury suite. The winner had already been decided well before the first match even began. FIFA’s 4 billion dollars in untaxed revenue from the event is the trophy. It appears to be of little interest to Mr. Blatter or other FIFA execs that this trophy has come on the backs of 200,000 low-income people being forcefully evicted from their homes to make room for the event, 8 construction workers dying in the frenzied rush to erect stadiums on time, or 14 billion dollars in Brazilian taxpayer money being spent on the tournament in the face of poverty, inequality, and widespread social issues within Brazil.”

The Limits Of Corporate Citizenship

July 9, 2014 Robert B. Reich, www.robertreich.org Educate! America, Capitalism, Corporatism, Taxes

Dozens of big U.S. corporations are considering leaving the United States in order to reduce their tax bills. But they’ll be leaving the country only on paper. They’ll still do as much business in the U.S. as they were doing before. The only difference is they’ll no longer be “American,” and won’t have to pay U.S. taxes on the profits they make. Okay. But if they’re no longer American citizens, they should no longer be able to spend a penny influencing American politics. Some background: We’ve been hearing for years from CEOs that American corporations are suffering under a larger tax burden than their foreign competitors. This is mostly rubbish. It’s true that the official corporate tax rate of 39.1 percent, including state and local taxes, is the highest among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But the effective rate – what corporations actually pay after all deductions, tax credits, and other maneuvers – is far lower.

Why At Least one FIFA Player Should Protest The World Cup Final

July 8, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Corporatism, Democracy, FIFA, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Protest, Worker Rights and Jobs

Imagine the impact if a player from one of the remaining FIFA semifinal World Cup teams (Germany, Brazil, The Netherlands, or Argentina) were to engage in an act of protest against FIFA for it’s Imperial practices that have literarily displaced at least 250,000 Brazilians? Imagine if Lionel Messi, Thomas Muller,Arjen Robben, or even the injured Neymar were to pull a John Carlos sometime during the semifinals or finals of the World Cup? If any sports organization deserves to be protested, FIFA is it. As Dave Ziron correctly pointed out, Luis Suárez May Bite, but FIFA Sucks Blood.

Cartoon: Understanding Net Neutrality

July 8, 2014 Michael Goodwin, www.economixcomix.com Educate! Corporatism, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

Net neutrality doesn't sound very exciting, but if we lose it, a lot of people will be upset. Michael Goodwin, in collaboration with artist Ian Akin, explains just what net neutrality means and why we should all care about it in the following cartoon. Right now, the Internet is a place we can all go an explore. It is a place where we can find information, share ideas, communicate and collaborate and importantly for Popular Resistance, organize. It is an essential tool in our lives where people find things they need and sign up for services. Can you imagine if instead of a public highway, it started to function as a restricted toll road? We have until July 15 to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission to tell them that the Internet was created with public dollars and it belongs to all of us. Go to FCC.gov/comments and click on proceeding 14-28.

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