Corporatism

Makers Of PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ Covered Up Health Risks

June 8, 2023 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! Corporatism, Coverup, health, PFAS

Makers of PFAS (per and polyfluoroalkyl substances) “forever chemicals” have a lot to hide. Exposure to the toxic compounds — found in everything from nonstick cookware and personal care products, like shampoo and dental floss, to waterproof rain gear — has been shown to cause cancer, thyroid disease, liver damage and fertility issues. Recently, previously secret chemical industry documents were analyzed by researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). They found that chemical manufacturers had used tactics previously employed by the tobacco industry to suppress their knowledge of the health hazards caused by PFAS exposure, a press release from UCSF said.

The War Over No Strike Clauses Has A New Front Line

June 3, 2023 Hamilton Nolan, In These Times. Resist! Corporatism, Pennsylvania, Strikes, Worker Rights and Jobs

“Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains,” philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau said in the 18th century. Likewise, the right to strike is the fundamental source of a union’s power, and everywhere they have signed that right away. “No strike clauses,” which ban workers from striking during the course of a union contract, have been ubiquitous for decades — the price, companies argue, of having a contract at all. Breaking out of this power-sucking bargain is a vital task for the labor movement, if it ever wants to be able to stand up to corporate America in a meaningful way. The good news is that at least one union is actively trying.

Debt Deal Gives Fossil Fuel Lobby A Legal Shield

June 1, 2023 Rebecca Burns, Julia Rock and Andrew Perez, The Lever. Educate! Corporatism, Debt Ceiling, Finance and the Economy, Mountain Valley Pipeline, Oil and Gas

The House of Representatives voted 314 - 117 last night to approve a debt deal that includes provisions expediting construction of a controversial fossil fuel pipeline — and attempting to block courts from hearing challenges to its legality. The language nestled into the agreement reached by the Biden administration and congressional Republicans last weekend came amid a flood of campaign cash from executives at NextEra Energy, one of the companies spearheading the pipeline, to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ind.-Ariz.) and two other Democratic senators whose votes could be needed to pass the agreement.

A Regime Of Private Corporations That Is Normalizing Fascism In Italy

May 30, 2023 Muhammed Shabeer, People's Dispatch. Resist! Corporatism, Europe, Fascism, Italy, Worker Rights and Jobs

Italy is one of a few countries in the European Union without a legal minimum wage; 21 out of 27 EU countries have instituted minimum wages. In Italy, minimum wages are only determined in collective labor agreements, but these salaries are often very low — around four to six euros per hour. In addition, Italy is the only country in the continent where since 1990, real wages are not growing — they even diminished by 3% in the last 30 years. Thus, one out of 10 people in Italy are working poor, among the youth, this number increases to one out of six. Already a year ago, Potere al Popolo started a political campaign seeking the introduction of a legal minimum wage. At the end of May, together with the alliance Unione Popolare, we submitted a legislative proposal to institute a minimum wage of at least 10 euros (US$ 10.72) per hour, which will also be automatically inflation-linked.

SCOTUS Case May Slash Regulation Of Everything

May 15, 2023 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. Educate! Chevron, Corporatism, Supreme Court, Worker Rights and Jobs

In an ominous but unsurprising development, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that may well imperil our health, safety, labor, clean air and water, food and environmental protections. On May 1, the court decided to reconsider its 40-year-old precedent in the current case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. This right-wing court, which demonstrated its disregard for legal precedent when it overruled Roe v. Wade, may now overturn the well-settled “Chevron deference.” Doing so would be consistent with the conservative fealty to deregulation in order to protect corporate profits.

Clarence Thomas Reversed Position After Gifts And Family Payments

May 15, 2023 Julia Rock and Andrew Perez, The Lever. Educate! Chevron Deference, Clarence Thomas, Corporatism, Regulations, Supreme Court

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas changed his position on one of America’s most significant regulatory doctrines after his wife reportedly accepted secret payments from a shadowy conservative network pushing for the change. Thomas’ shift also came while he was receiving lavish gifts from a billionaire linked to other groups criticizing the same doctrine — which is now headed back to the high court. The so-called “Chevron deference” doctrine stipulates that the executive branch — not the federal courts — has the power to interpret laws passed by Congress in certain circumstances. Conservatives for years have fought to overturn the doctrine, a move that would empower legal challenges to federal agency regulations on everything from climate policy to workplace safety to overtime pay.

The Country Is Not For Sale

May 12, 2023 Teri Mattson, WtF is Going on in Latin America and the Caribbean. Podcast – WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean Corporatism, Honduras, ISDS, Trade, ZEDES

On May 3, Democratic U.S. lawmakers urged the U.S. Trade Representative and State Department to eliminate investor-state dispute settlement provisions from current and future trade deals and to intervene on behalf of Honduras against a U.S. company's nearly $11 billion claim against the country. In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Trade Representative Katherine Tai, 33 lawmakers said that investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) systems in trade deals constitute a "problematic corporate handout" that violates countries' sovereignty and democratic rights. ISDS mechanisms enable multinational corporations to sue the governments of foreign trading partners for profits they claim have been forfeited as a result of domestic policies designed to protect workers, consumers, and ecosystems.

Unions Say Share Buybacks Should Stop Until Safety Improves

April 30, 2023 David Lassen, Trains.com. Resist! Corporatism, Precision Scheduling, Railroads, Workplace Safety

Washington — A coalition of railroad labor unions today called on the Class I systems to pause their stock buyback programs and abandon the low-cost Precision Scheduled Railroading operating model until safety improves. The 14 unions, which combined represent more than 100,000 railroad workers, claim that since 2015 the six publicly-traded freight railroads spent more than $165 billion in stock buybacks, which is $46 billion more than they invested in safety. “For years, rail workers have been sounding the alarm about safety issues. It’s time to listen to rail workers, not rail CEOs,” the union coalition said on their new nostockbuybacks.org website.

Mexico: Wind Energy Is Not As Clean As You Think

April 22, 2023 Michael Fox, The Real News. Resistance Report Corporatism, Land Rights, Mexico, Wind Energy

March 2023, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry met with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Oaxaca, Mexico, to discuss U.S.-Mexico collaboration over renewable energy. It was announced that the United States would commit to invest in at least 10 new wind and solar parks in the region — already one of Latin America’s top wind power hot spots. But there’s a problem. These wind farms there have been largely constructed and run by foreign transnational corporations. Residents say that while on the surface these wind turbines are generating clean energy, they have been disrespecting communal land rights, stiffing local residents money owed for renting their land, and refusing to benefit the local community with discounted or subsidized utility rates.

Report Details Private Equity’s Stranglehold On US Healthcare

March 26, 2023 Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams. Educate! Class Struggle, Corporatism, Health Care, Privatization

Private equity's ownership of U.S. healthcare providers is incompatible with the needs and best interests of patients and should be checked with federal legislation, according to a report published Wednesday by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. Critics of for-profit care have long decried private equity's focus on maximizing returns through practices including slashing staff, surprising patients with astronomical bills, and eschewing low-margin care upon which vulnerable populations rely. The new report—authored primarily by Public Citizen healthcare policy advocate Eagan Kemp—examines investment firms' impact on more than a dozen healthcare sectors, from reproductive health through end-of-life care.

Indigenous Group Fighting Emissions Cap Supported By Oil Company

March 20, 2023 Geoff Dembicki, DeSmog. Educate! Canada, Corporatism, Indigenous Activism, Oil and Gas

A national Indigenous group is fighting a proposed federal limit on oil and gas sector emissions by arguing it will harm First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities. But the group has a powerful non-Indigenous ally, according to corporate documents from Canada’s second-largest oil and gas producer. Cenovus, a Calgary-based oil sands company that last year had net earnings of $6.5 billion, says in those documents that it has paid for membership with the Indigenous Resource Network (IRN). Yet a spokesperson for the network called that a “misrepresentation.”

Railroad Executives Got Cash, In Part For ‘Record’ Train Length

March 8, 2023 Mark Greenblatt, Carrie Cochran and Rosie Cima, Scripps News. Educate! Corporatism, East Palestine, Railroads, Workplace Safety

While concerns have been building across the railroad industry for years about the growing length of trains, our Scripps News investigation found that Norfolk Southern’s top executives personally pocketed millions of dollars in incentives and cash rewards after the company hit a controversial financial target and made its trains longer. Critics from within the industry say the specific financial metrics the executives were incentivized to hit can pressure them to cut costs — potentially at the expense of safety. The Norfolk Southern train that derailed just outside the small Ohio town of East Palestine stretched nearly two miles long.

Berlin’s Pledge To Socialize A Quarter Million Apartments In Danger

February 6, 2023 Molly Shah, The Real News Network. Educate! Berlin, Corporatism, Germany, Housing

Just over a year ago, Berliners won one of the biggest victories in decades for tenants in large cities. On September 26, 2021, in a landslide victory, locals voted overwhelmingly in favor of a referendum that called for the drafting of a new law to socialize almost a quarter of a million apartments in the city. Such a law would clear the way for the largest expropriation of housing in post-unification Germany—a significant step forward in the global fight against vampire real estate and the large private companies and wealthy investors that have gobbled up housing stock and maintained a death grip on rent prices throughout the world. The passage of the referendum was a rare victory and a lesson to many tenant activists that, through organization and education, they can fight back—and win. The fight, however, is far from over.

We Should Be Able To Fix Our Stuff Ourselves

February 5, 2023 In These Times. Create! Consumerism, Corporatism, Right to Repair

From IPhones To John Deere Equipment, Corporations Shouldn’t Be Holding Needed Repairs Hostage. Think back to your flip-phone or bulky tube TV of yesteryear. When they were on the fritz, you didn’t necessarily fix them yourself, but you may have turned to a local repair shop to get things sorted. Today, most of the repair options that await (when your iPhone starts glitching, for example) are deeply unpleasant. After trekking out to an Apple Store, an “authorized genius” might ask for an exorbitant fee or, more often, just tell you to buy the newer model. John Deere restricts how its tractors can be repaired, hospital equipment manufacturers don’t share their repair documentation, and on. Right-to-repair advocates point out this situation is an intentional, controlled part of a planned obsolescence that creates waste and drives up repair fees. Beyond the cost to your pocketbook, churning through electronic devices takes a huge toll on the environment in the form of tens of millions of tons of electronic waste each year.

Utilities’ Failures And Shady Practices Show We Need Energy Democracy

February 3, 2023 Lauren Schandevel, The Real News Network. Create! Corporatism, Energy, Energy Democracy, Monopolies

In June of 2021, torrential rains flooded the City of Detroit and surrounding areas, causing over $100 million in damages, mostly in poor, Black, and Brown neighborhoods. Kamau Clark, an organizer for the nonprofit We The People Michigan, moved into his apartment in Detroit’s West Village neighborhood just two days before the storm. “I came home at 2AM and the apartment was flooded,” he recalls. Overwhelmed and unsure of where to turn, Clark went to a town hall on the city’s east side, where representatives from water and sewage authorities tried to explain the situation to him and a crowd of angry residents. According to officials, the city’s infrastructure was not fit to handle the unprecedented volume of rain. However, there was another problem — the storm had also caused a power outage at the city’s wastewater facilities, rendering some of their pumps only partially operational. At the time, city officials told residents that it was these outages, combined with the heavy rain, that caused the record flooding.

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