Corporatism

Spooky Business: New Report On Corporate Espionage Against Non-profits

November 20, 2013 Gary Ruskin, www.corporatepolicy.org Educate! Corporatism, Surveillance

Giant corporations are employing highly unethical or illegal tools of espionage against nonprofit organizations with near impunity, according to a new report by Essential Information. The report, titled Spooky Business, documents how corporations hire shady investigative firms staffed with former employees of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), US military, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Secret Service and local police departments to target nonprofit organizations. “Corporate espionage against nonprofit organizations is an egregious abuse of corporate power that is subverting democracy,” said Gary Ruskin, author of Spooky Business. “Who will rein in the forces of corporate lawlessness as they bear down upon nonprofit defenders of justice?”

Trade Talks Open In Utah, Secrecy Spurs Protests

November 19, 2013 Tom Harvey, www.sltrib.com Resist! Corporatism, Democracy, TPP

Outside Salt Lake City’s Grand America Hotel on Tuesday, the rains fell, the speakers rose, the marchers chanted. Inside, top trade negotiators from the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations perhaps discussed imports and exports, profits and products, prices and patents. The exact topics aren’t known. The talks were closed. And that concerns critics most of all as parties from the Trans-Pacific Partnership launched a 19th round of negotiations — this time in Utah — in search of a sweeping free-trade agreement. Tuesday’s rally, organized by a coalition called the Citizens Trade Campaign, of Washington, D.C., drew 100 or so protesters, who worry that the high-level talks have been conducted behind closed doors with only multinational corporations given access to proposed provisions.

The Obamacare Disaster Is Bigger Than Technical Website Problems

November 19, 2013 Gary Lapon, www.socialistworker.org Educate! Corporatism, Health Care

The introduction of the new health insurance system established by Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a technical--and political--disaster. But the problems aren't confined to crashing websites, and they won't be solved by Obama's promises that the enrollment process will be fixed before the end-of-year deadline for the uninsured to sign up for health plans on the ACA's "insurance exchanges." Even if the glitches are ironed out, millions of people will face a choice that's no choice at all: Spend thousands of dollars each year on health insurance plans that, because of high deductibles and co-pays, will be even more expensive to use if they do get sick--or pay a fine with their taxes while they remain uninsured. The fiasco of the Obamacare rollout is a direct consequence of a byzantine law that was bent and twisted to fit the needs of the health care industry, at the expense of tens of millions of people who will find themselves paying even more for even less health care than now.

The Carbon Pollution Profiteers Have Taken Over The Climate Summit

November 18, 2013 Staff, www.corporateeurope.org Educate! Climate Change, Corporatism

The Climate Summit, COP19, being held in Poland has been taken over by the very industries that profit from the carbon-based economy. Democracy Now! reported that these industries are actually the sponsors of the summit. They report that the industries that are sponsoring the meeting include "major car manufacturers, oil companies, steel manufacturers and coal firms. Meanwhile, the Polish Ministry of Economy has teamed up with the World Coal Association to put on a parallel 'International Coal & Climate Summit,' also in Warsaw." Below is a report from the Corporate Europe Observatory which describes how these polluting profiteers are putting forward false solutions that allow them to continue to pollute, profit and increase the risks of climate change. For comprehensive background information, check out the COP19 Guide to Corporate Lobbying. For the latest, follow in Twitter: #CorporateCOP19 , @pascoesabido , @ecospaceship

A Call For A Crowdsourced Worldwide Wave Of Action ~ #www

November 16, 2013 Resist! Corporatism, Democracy, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Occupy, Police abuse, Surveillance, Whistleblowers

Let's pick a three-month span, perhaps throughout this coming spring, and unite our collective actions into an unprecedented Worldwide Wave that cannot be ignored by anyone. Let's crowdsource a relentless global wave of action that protests the corrupt, while also rallying around and celebrating effective alternatives and solutions to the vast problems we are confronted by. Imagine thousands of nonviolent guerrilla armies swarming corrupt targets and rallying for viable solutions for a sustained three-month cycle. If we begin preparing now, a massive spring offensive can lead to a summer of transformation. Staying true to the vital nature of the movement, you lead, in your own way. Pick whatever issues concern you most and run with them, knowing that likeminded people throughout the world will also be fighting in solidarity, in whatever way they can, at the same time you are. This time the police state will not be able to crush us. We will not have stationary targets. We will be everywhere, fluid and evasive. The movement will be an unstoppable crowdsourced, decentralized and autonomous revolutionary force. We will engage in a diversity of nonviolent tactics, from large-scale mobilizations to small daily acts. Most of you already know the actions and tactics that are needed. Our ability to take part in civil disobedience is multiplied by our ability to easily record the actions on video and spread them throughout the Internet. By flooding social media with these inspiring videos, we will create a positive feedback loop that translates into more action on the ground. Radical change is urgently needed, so let's make transforming the world the cool thing to do. Let's create a culture of transformation. Let's blaze a contagious nonviolent wave of action through mass consciousness, signaling the end of the old world, ushering in a new paradigm. Now is the time.

Popular Resistance Newsletter – We Need To Know The Truth

November 15, 2013 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Austerity, Climate Change, Corporatism, Criminal Justice and Prisons, TPP, Whistleblowers

Knowledge is essential for popular power. In fact, it is access to knowledge and accurate information that will aid our liberation from this ruthless plutocracy. Even former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski agrees, although he does so as a warning to his fellow elites. In a recent speech, he described the “accelerating social change driven by ‘instant mass communications such as radio, television and the Internet.’” Brzezinski warns his fellow members of the power structure that there is a “rise in worldwide populist activism;” that this “persistent and highly motivated populist resistance . . . has proven to be increasingly difficult to suppress” and that as a result of this “universal awakening of mass political consciousness” they cannot exert “external control” over the masses.

Former ESPN Zone Workers Declare Victory Against Disney After Final Hearing

November 15, 2013 Staff, www.unitedworkers.org Resist! Corporatism, Worker Rights and Jobs

This Wednesday, November 13, former ESPN Zone workers held a press conference to finally declare victory over Disney, after a three-year legal battle over wages and severance packages. Just before the press conference, a judge approved a $230,000 settlement between the workers and the Disney subsidiary, ESPN Zone. "I feel jubilant," said former ESPN Zone host Emanuel McCray. "It's been a long battle, with so many hours and hard work." Check out this video of highlights from the press conference, filmed and edited by the United Workers Media Team. On June 16, 2010, the Inner Harbor ESPN Zone abruptly closed its doors, laying off roughly 140 workers without notice. Former workers were forced to move from their homes or take their kids out of day care. At least two former employees were stricken with cancer and now face growing health care debt, having lost health insurance when ESPN Zone closed.

Hedges: Jeremy Hammond Exposed State’s Criminalization Of Dissent

November 14, 2013 Paul Jay, www.therealnews.com Resist! Corporatism, NSA, Privacy, Surveillance

Without figures like Jeremy Hammond, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, Barrett Brown, there is no free press. Jeremy Hammond broke into the private security firm known as Stratfor, which does work for a variety of intelligence agencies--for the Marine Corps and the Defense Department, the Pentagon, but also for corporations, including Raytheon, Dow Chemical, and others. And he turned over 3 million emails, email exchanges within the company to Rolling Stone, WikiLeaks, and other publications. Now, this was quite a significant dump, because it illustrated two or three very chilling things about the security and surveillance state, first of all that there was no division between corporate spying and government spying. It was seamless, including the same people going back and forth. It was from that dump that we realized the extent to which the Occupy movement was being spied upon and infiltrated and monitored and followed. And we also found from those email exchanges that there was a concerted attempt on the part of security officials, both inside the government and within the private security contracting agency, to link, falsely, nonviolent dissident groups with terrorist groups so that they could apply terrorism laws against these groups.

Greens In Australian Parliament Seek To Expose TPP

November 14, 2013 Senator Scott Ludlam & Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Corporatism, TPP

With today's damning leak of a secret trade deal document by the WikiLeaks publishing organisation the Australian Greens have given notice that they will move a motion in the Senate, when it next sits on December 2nd, to end the secrecy around the TPPA trade talks. "The TPPA text still forces internet providers to police Australian internet users and enables the US to place us under surveillance, justified as a US-led crackdown on internet piracy," said Senator Scott Ludlam. "We have one piece of the TPPA puzzle, and it is chilling," said Senator Peter Whish-Wilson. "The Greens will move for the rest of the document to be made public to the Parliament and the Australian people, before the Government signs up to something we will regret." "It's clear this secret deal, driven by foreign interests to benefit some of the largest multinationals, will still censor internet content, impose harsh criminal penalties for non-commercial copyright infringements, and force Australian internet service providers to police users and hand information over to law enforcement," Senator Ludlam said.

FLUSH The TPP! Visibility Actions Shine Light On Secret Corp Coup

November 13, 2013 Staff, www.backbonecampaign.org Resistance Report Corporatism, TPP

On Tuesday evening citizens in Seattle and 12 other cities appeared on overpasses and roadsides to pull the Trans-Pacific Partnership, aka TPP, out of the shadows and into the light of public scrutiny. From Dallas to DC, San Diego to Seattle, Tucson to Detroit, Baltimore to Bellingham, Spokane to Chicago people took their messages to interstate overpasses, prominent monuments, and busy city streets using coordinated daytime and nighttime, high visibility tactics. They deployed giant banners saying No New NAFTA, mobilized LED light panels saying "(thumbs up) Democracy, STOP The TPP," and projected with spotlights messages like "Don't Fast Track A Train Wreck." These coordinated citizen's actions coincided with ongoing TPP negotiations taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah from November 12-24 and today's anticipated release by Congressperson Rosa DeLauro and George Miller detailing the growing opposition to "Fast Track" among Congress, and preceded today's surprise release by Wikileaks of a leaked chapter of the secretive "TPP" agreement.

5 Scary Provisions In WikiLeaks’ Trans-Pacific Partnership Release

November 13, 2013 Connor Adams Sheets, www.ibtimes.com Educate! Corporatism, Finance and the Economy, Health Care, Internet Freedom, TPP

WikiLeaks broke the seal on key parts of the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership on Wednesday, when it released the agreement's intellectual property chapter online. The document details proposals for "international obligations and enforcement mechanisms for copyright, trademark and patent law, and includes the combined positions of all of the parties as they were by the end of August 2013," according to WikiLeaks, but at 30,000 words it is a dense and complicated read. As such, a number of advocacy groups and independent organizations have begun parsing the 95-page chapter for provisions that could prove detrimental to the public good, and they have already found quite a few problematic passages.

Congress Voices Bipartisan Opposition To Fast Track

November 13, 2013 Arthur Stamoulis, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Corporatism, Finance and the Economy, TPP

Fair trade advocates praised the release of a new letter today voicing Congressional opposition to Fast Track, a policy-making process that allows trade pacts to circumvent ordinary Congressional review, amendment and debate procedures. Today's letter, spearheaded by Representatives Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and George Miller (D-CA), was signed by three quarters of the House Democratic Caucus, and comes on top of other recent letters signed by Republicans and Democratic members of the Ways & Means Committee. Taken together, the letters demonstrate a strong bipartisan demand for better oversight over the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement than Fast Track would allow. "With trade negotiators rushing to conclude the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership, it's heartening that so many Members of Congress are standing up and demanding that each provision of the pact be scrutinized to ensure that it is in the best interests of working families," said United Brotherhood of Carpenters General President Douglas J. McCarron.

Wikileaks Leaks Key TPP Documents: US Isolated In Corporate Advocacy

November 13, 2013 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Corporatism, TPP

The TPP is shrouded in secrecy by the Obama administration because the more people know, the more they will oppose the agreement. From these documents we see what had been suspected, the Obama administration has been an advocate for transnational corporate interests in the negotiations. This is not surprising since we already knew that 600 corporate advisers were working with the US Trade Representative to draft the TPP. This means that for four years some of the top corporate lawyers have been inserting phrases, paragraphs and whole sections so they agreement suits the needs of corporate power, while undermining the people and planet. Now from these documents we see that the US is isolated in its aggressive advocacy for transnational interests and that there are scores of areas still unresolved between the US and Pacific nations. The conclusion: the TPP cannot be saved. It has been destroyed by secret corporate advocacy. It needs to be rejected. Trade needs to be negotiated with a new approach -- transparency, participation of civil society throughout the process, full congressional review and participation, and a framework that starts with fair trade that puts people and profits before planet. The Congress needs to reject Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority as these documents show the Obama administration has been misleading the people and the Congress while trying to bully other nations. This flawed agreement and the secrecy essential to its becoming law needs to be rejected.

5 Signs Bank Of America Has No Humanity

November 12, 2013 Kevin Mathews, www.care2.com Educate! Corporatism, Finance and the Economy, Housing, Human Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs

If corporations are people, then Bank of America is a sociopath. The nation’s largest bank continually demonstrates that it doesn’t play nicely with other people. While the institution will gladly take your money, don’t expect it to have any respect for you in return. Here are five recent signs that BoA lacks humanity: 1. Stealing Homes Heartlessly foreclosing on homes and leaving families homeless is definitely greedy. However, when Bank of America is caught illegally fudging paperwork and rules to steal homes from families who met the terms to keep their property, that’s when it’s clear how despicable the institution is.

Why We Are Allowed To Hate Silicon Valley

November 12, 2013 Evgeny Morozov, www.faz.net Educate! Corporatism, NSA, Poverty, Privacy, Surveillance

“Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?” ran the title of a fabulous 1984 essay by Thomas Pynchon – a question that he answered, by and large, in the affirmative. This question feels outdated today. “Is it okay not to be a Luddite but still hate Silicon Valley?” is a much better question, for the real enemy is not technology but the present political and economic regime – a wild combination of the military-industrial complex and the out-of-control banking and advertising – that deploys latest technologies to achieve its ugly (even if lucrative and occasionally pleasant) ends. Silicon Valley represents the most visible, the most discussed, and the most naive part of this assemblage. In short, it’s okay to hate Silicon Valley – we just need to do it for the right reasons. Below are three of them – but this is hardly an exhaustive list.

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