Corporatism

Psychiatry’s Manufacture Of Consent: The Antidepressant Explosion

June 20, 2014 Bruce Levine, www.brucelevine.net Educate! Corporatism, Depression, Mental Illness, Profit, Psychiatry

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s book title Manufacturing Consent derives from presidential advisor and journalist Walter Lippmann’s phrase “the manufacture of consent”—a necessity for Lippmann, who believed that the general public is incompetent in discerning what’s truly best for them, and so their opinion must be molded by a benevolent elite who does know what’s best for them. Starting in the 1990s—despite research findings that levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin were unrelated to depression—Americans began to be exposed to highly effective television commercials for antidepressants that portrayed depression as caused by a “chemical imbalance” of low levels of serotonin and which could be treated with “chemically balancing” antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Why has the American public not heard psychiatrists in positions of influence on the mass media debunking the chemical imbalance theory?

Top 10 Reasons Why Corporate Social Media is Not Your Friend

June 19, 2014 Bruce A. Dixon, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Corporatism, Facebook, Profit, Social Media, Surveillance

It's new, it's now, it's cool, learn how... everybody's on it, everybody's doing it. For some time now, we've been told you cannot build a business, find old friends or organize much of anything without the indispensable aid of corporate social media, especially Facebook and Twitter. But what if this is about as true as other stuff the supposedly wise and informed told us in recent years, like that real estate prices could be counted on to always go up? Human societies are based on lots of horizontal communication. What if corporate social media is little more than a gigantic scam to extract revenue from the otherwise ordinary communication the internet permits between groups and individuals, between people and businesses, and among communities of interest. What if corporate social media ultimately aims not to open up but to throttle and restrict those conversations to make them artificially scarce and valuable commodities. What if corporate social media's business model is to thrive on content its proprietors don't create, and to place itself between that content and prospective audiences, even to substitute itself for the web sites, email lists and media offerings of content creators?

Repressing World Cup Protests: A Booming Business For Brazil

June 19, 2014 Anna Feigenbaum, www.wagingnonviolence.org Educate! Brazil, Corporatism, Profit, Protest, world cup

On June 12, Brazilian police fired tear gas on a group of 50 unarmed marchers blocking a highway leading to the World Cup arena in São Paulo. On June 15 in Rio de Janeiro another 200 marchers faced floods of tear gas and stun grenades in their approach to Maracana stadium. Armed with an arsenal of less lethal weapons and employing tactics imported from U.S. SWAT teams in the early 2000s, police clad in riot gear are deploying forceful tactics, wielding batons and releasing chemical agents at close range. In Brazil, this style of protest policing is not only a common form of political control, but also a booming business. World Cup and related economic protests occurring across the country are bringing in big profits for Rio-based company Condor Nonlethal Technologies. As part of the World Cup’s massive security budget Condor scored a $22-million contract, providing tear gas, rubber bullets, Tasers and light and sound grenades to police and private security forces. Selling riot control and public order weaponry to law enforcement, military and United Nation buyers, Condor’s business has grown by over 30 percent in the past five years.

After Occupy, Reform or Revolution? | American Autumn Excerpt

June 18, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Climate Change, Corporatism, Democracy, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Food and Agriculture, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Occupy, Occupy Wall Street, Protest, Solidarity, Student Activism, Wars and Militarism, Worker Rights and Jobs

A year after the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City, writer, director and producer Dennis Trainor, Jr. made a full-length feature documentary capturing the fervor and passion that spread through the nation in fall 2011, fueled a street revolution and introduced the concept of “the 99%” to define the corporate greed that has crippled the U.S. American Autumn lets the protestors and organizers tell in their own words why they joined the protests and what they hoped to accomplish. Shot at the birthplace of the Occupy movement at Zuccotti Park in New York City, as well as on location at protests in Washington, D.C., Trainor offers a Ground Zero view of the movement and its participants. On camera, protesters strive to define the goals of Occupy as well as how to achieve them. “Imagine that a single voice carries as much weight as the CEO of Goldman Sachs” the film posits, distilling one of Occupy’s core beliefs.

Coca Cola’s Evil Empire: Campaign To Stop Coke

June 16, 2014 Bernard Alvarez, www.thegic.org Resist! Coca Cola, Corporatism, Labor, police brutality, Strike, Unions, Violence

Dear Sisters & Brothers: Strong labor unions are critical to improve wages, working conditions and human rights for all workers and for democracies to flourish. For workers in Colombia and Guatemala, a strong union can also mean the difference between life and death. The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke originated to stop the gruesome cycle of violence against union leaders and organizers in Colombia in efforts to crush their union, SINALTRAINAL. Since then, violence, abuse and exploitation leveled against Coke workers and communities have been uncovered in other countries as well, notably China, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Mexico and Turkey. Colombia In Colombia, the importance of winning the struggle against Coke was best summed up by SINALTRAINAL Vice President Juan Carlos Galvis when he said: "If we lose this fight against Coke, First we will lose our union, Next we will lose our jobs, And then we will all lose our lives!"

Commonbound: New Economy For A New Society

June 14, 2014 Aaron Cantu, www.truth-out.org Create! Corporatism, Democracy, New Economy, Revolution

I landed at "CommonBound: Moving Together Toward a New Economy" in Boston, Massachusetts with the dilemma of having to critically report on a movement in which I've wanted involve myself for years. The conference was organized by the New Economy Coalition, a nonprofit with its own small full-time staff that works to connect people across the country operating in the "new economy" - worker-owned businesses and cooperatives, credit unions, community land trusts and other "post-capitalist" endeavors - in the hopes that this widespread structural rearrangement can form the backbone of a social, political and economic revolution. Certain aspects of the "new economy" are not so new: living in harmony with the environment, for example - an oft-repeated value among the 700 people who attended the conference last weekend - is hardly a new idea to many indigenous cultures (some of which were represented prominently at CommonBound). And even in a Western context, Karl Marx praised the federation of worker cooperatives under the 1871 Paris Commune as a vision of "'possible' communism," which was strikingly similar to CommonBound’s vision of a decentralized, worker-owned economy facilitated by friendly municipal and state governments.

How Agribusiness Infiltrated The EPA

June 10, 2014 Kamil Ahsan, www.alternet.org Educate! Corporatism, Corruption, EPA, Food and Agriculture

Earlier this year, in an exposé in The New Yorker, Rachel Aviv detailed the story of Syngenta, an agribusiness firm that was sued by the community water systems of six states in a class-action lawsuit over the firm’s herbicide atrazine. Atrazine is the second most commonly used herbicide in the US and is used on more than 50% of all corn crops. It is one of Syngenta’s most profitable chemicals with sales at over $300 million a year. Banned in the EU, atrazine remains on the market in the US despite scores of scientific publications demonstrating its role in abnormal sexual development. Almost insoluble in water, atrazine contaminates drinking water supplies at 30 times the concentration demonstrated to cause severe sexual abnormalities in animal models. Recently unsealed court documents from the lawsuit have disclosed how Syngenta launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to disrepute and suppress scientific research, and influence the US Environmental Protection Agency to prevent a ban on atrazine.

Cable Companies Astroturfing To End Net Neutrality

June 8, 2014 Lee Fang, www.news.vice.com Educate! Astroturfing, Corporatism, FCC, Internet Freedom, Net Neutrality

Consumer advocates everywhere are demanding that the Federal Communication Commission continue down its current path for shelving net neutrality and allowing a two-tiered internet. That is, if cable company-created front groups and other industry-funded organizations are to be believed. The controversy, at the moment, rests on a legal distinction. A federal lawsuit filed by Verizon has forced the FCC into a corner by creating a standard under which effective net-neutrality rules—which ensure all internet traffic is treated equally—can only be reached, according to most analysts, by classifying the internet as a "common carrier," or in other words, a public utility. Such a distinction would allow the FCC to demand that internet service providers, like Comcast or Verizon, are not allowed to create internet slow lanes and fast lanes. To the surprise of probably no one, ISPs are enraged at the prospect of being classified as a utility and are fighting back. But the attacks are not fully transparent. Many of the organizations protesting a move toward classifying ISPs as a utility, which is the only likely option for enacting net neutrality, are funded by the ISP lobby.

‘Remy’ From ‘House of Cards’ Is Real

June 6, 2014 Pascal Robert, www.blackagendareport.com Create! Civil Rights, Congress, Corporatism

The idea of a Black lobbyist working with such merciless dedication to a corporate paymaster like the socially repugnant energy conglomerate “Sandcorp” might seem far fetched to some. But thanks to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), its former staffers have entered into the world of K street lobbying. These Black lobbyists leverage not only the “moral authority” of the CBC, but the historical weight of its perceived ties to Civil Rights Movement to protect the interests of those same financial institutions and corporations that caused the Black community to be targeted during the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. We can’t imagine the other pernicious corporate forces these Black lobbyists might take on. Such clients surely do untold damage not only to people of color, but all Americans. What makes these characters troubling is not so much their race – deviousness and greed aren’t limited by skin color – it’s their ability to pimp out the Civil Rights Movement through its perceived connection to the CBC.

The United Corporations Of America

June 6, 2014 James Woods, www.dcmediagroup.us Educate! Corporatism, Money As Speech, oligarchy

Earlier today, someone asked me to explain why corporations have so much more power than the American people. The easy answer is that now, in America, money is free speech and corporations can speak far louder. And while the sentiment is true, I thought a viable example of how it works was required to validate my statement. So I did a little research and discovered just how intertwined large corporations are and how much power they wield. Citigroup, Inc. was formed in 2008 after Citicorp and Travelers Group merged into the largest financial services network in the world. Their current 13-member Board of Directors feature financial giants who also sit on the Board of Directors of 25 other corporations. This practice is called “Corporate Interlocking,” and it allows one “parent company” the ability to control Congress and dictate the direction of future state and federal legislation any time it chooses. For example, let’s say that a state like Oregon has a public referendum, and the people vote overwhelmingly to ban GMOs (genetically modified organisms). Now, in a democracy, where representatives are sworn to uphold the will of the people, this would become a state law. However, Pepsi uses GMO beets to make the sugar that goes in their product, which is sold globally in every Taco Bell and KFC (owned by Yum Brands), as well as all Target stores. The members of the Board of Directors of Yum Brands, Pepsi, and Target go back to Citigroup and explain that they need the will of people ignored, because using non-GMO sugar would increase their unit price of Pepsi by 2 cents and shrink their shareholders’ quarterly earnings.

It’s Official: The US Has Worst Health Care System

June 6, 2014 Lynn M. Petrovich, www.commonsense2.com Educate! Corporatism, Health Care, Hospitals, Nonprofit

Since the publication of my report, Sticker Shock, in 2010 on non-profit hospital accounting detailing the abusive accounting mechanisms in place (read: policies) which reward a select few at the top with outrageous salaries, bonuses, first-class travel, golf club memberships, housing allowances, personal loans, chauffer-driven limousines, tax indemnifications, specially funded split-dollar life insurance policies, and deferred compensation packages in the millions at the expense of pursuing the poor, un, and under-insured to the point of inflicting stress, bankruptcy, wage garnishment, further illness, and death for payment of hospital bills puffed up by as much as 1,500%, things have gotten much worse for people needing medical care. The breaking point for me was the story of Wesley Warren, Jr., a 45 year old man from Las Vegas with a 132 pound scrotum (roughly the size of 8 bowling balls). Here was a guy, who for four years dressed his engorged ball in an upside down zip-up hoodie because it couldn’t fit into his pants and carted this enormous appendage around in a wheelbarrow just to go to the store for milk and coffee.

Fighting The Corporate Dictatorship In Michigan

June 4, 2014 People's Tribune, www.peoplestribune.org Resist! Corporatism, Democracy, Michigan, Protest

Dear Readers, Benton Harbor, MI has become ground zero in the struggle against the corporate dictatorship sweeping across our country. Rev. Edward Pinkney has been fighting the take over of Benton Harbor by the Whirlpool Corporation for years. The community’s latest battle is the recall of Mayor James Hightower, a puppet for the Whirlpool Corporation. Rev. Pinkney is under house arrest and faces 25 years imprisonment on false “vote fraud” charges. Fellow resident James Cornelius also faces lessor vote fraud charges. What appears on these pages are statements from some of the movement leaders across America in support of those under attack in Benton Harbor. Take this message out! Donate to the defense at BANCO, 1946 Union Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022 or visit bhbanco.org

USTR Told: Help Workers Not Just Corporations

June 4, 2014 Dave Johnson, www.ourfuture.org Resist! Congress, Corporatism, Mass Media, TPP

Last week 153 Democratic members of Congress – three-fourths of the Democrats in the House – signed a letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman demanding that trade negotiators focus first on protecting the rights of working people to organize before asking Congress to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. Currently the negotiations appear to be focused primarily on increasing corporate and investor rights – even as lethal violence continues against union organizers in Colombia following the trade agreement approved by Congress and signed by President Obama in 2011. Past trade agreements have cost millions of American jobs and increased our country’s trade deficit while helping to dramatically increase income inequality.

Lives Of Students Ruined By For-Profit Colleges

May 29, 2014 David Halperin, www.republicreport.org Educate! Corporatism, Education, Profit

Dear Secretary Duncan: I participate in the work of the coalition of more than 50 organizations, from the AFL-CIO to Consumers Union, the NAACP to National Council of La Raza, Paralyzed Veterans of America to Young Invincibles, who have today submitted a comment urging you to strengthen the gainful employment rule with specific changes, and I join that comment. I also strongly endorse the comments submitted by coalition participants, including The Institute for College Access and Success, the Center for Responsible Lending, the National Consumer Law Center, New America Foundation, the Mississippi Center for Justice, a comment by ten veterans groups, and a joint comment from Consumer Federation of California, Consumers Union, and negotiated rulemaking participant Margaret Reiter. I write separately to stress a few points, all of which are driven by the principle embodied by the gainful employment provision that Congress enacted in 1965: Federal aid should go only to those career education programs that actually help students to train for and build careers. Your Department must stop delivering billions of dollars of our taxpayer money to programs that consistently leave a large percentage of students worse off than when they started.

Meet The Organizer Behind ‘Gap Does More’ Hoax

May 25, 2014 Isabelle Nastasia, www.wagingnonviolence.org Resist! Corporatism, Worker Rights and Jobs

18 Million Rising, an online organization dedicated to “activating Asian America” pulled off a Yes Men-style hoax targeting the Gap. Posing as the clothing company’s public relations department, Cayden Mak and fellow 18MR organizers launched an impeccably designed fake website called Gapdoesmore.com and released a statement coinciding with the company’s shareholder meeting on Tuesday. The statement announced that Gap had signed on to a significant labor accord in Bangladesh. Gap has released a response confirming the Mak’s site as a fraud and serving them a take down notice. Despite the corporation’s statements, 18MR continues to plans for escalation in their ongoing campaign to expose Gap’s unjust labor practices.

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