Corporatism

Private-Equity ‘Vampires’ Run Into A Wall Of Worker Resistance

July 17, 2021 Roger Bybee, The Progressive Magazine. Resist! Corporatism, Unions, Wisconsin, Worker Rights and Jobs

At the peak of the Great Recession in 2008, General Motors was bailed out by U.S. taxpayers and survived. Bail-out money in hand, GM sharply increased its production in China and other low-wage nations on its way to recovering its past heights of profitability. But back in Janesville, Wisconsin, GM closed its plant, costing an estimated 9,000 jobs and widespread social misery that has not abated. And now Janesville finds itself again at the mercy of another far-off corporation. OpenGate Capital, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, is planning to close the 120-year-old plant of a company named Hufcor Inc., wipe out about 160 jobs, and ship them off to Monterrey, Mexico. Hufcor has been an established, familiar fixture in the community, and workers are intent on keeping it that way.

Scheer Intelligence: Something’s Rotten In The Science Of Food

July 16, 2021 Robert Scheer, ScheerPost.com. Educate! Big Ag, Book Review, Corporatism, Food and Agriculture

Leading nutritionist Marion Nestle has spent much of her long illustrious career writing about what we eat and the science of food. The James Beard award-winner and author of the blog Food Politics has written a whopping 14 acclaimed books on subjects related to nutrition, including “Soda Politics” and “What to Eat.” And yet, “Unsavory Truths: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat, ” a book journalist Robert Scheer calls one of her most important books to date, has gone largely ignored by mainstream media. On this week’s installment of “Scheer Intelligence,” Nestle joins Scheer to discuss some of the shocking revelations the author uncovered about the links between food science and the incredibly powerful food industry.

Climate Breakdown And The Corporate Media

July 13, 2021 Media Lens. Strategize! climate crisis, Corporatism, Extreme weather, Media

In today’s world, the prospects for human civilisation, never mind the existence of historians in the future, look bleak indeed. According to many leading climate scientists and biologists, the most likely outcome for humanity is the collapse of what is called ‘civilisation’. They warn that it may already be too late to change course.

Environmental Groups Call On Big Plastic To Drop Lawsuit

July 10, 2021 Environmental Defence, Cision. Resist! Canada, Corporatism, Environment, Plastic

Toronto, Canada - This Plastic-Free July, Canadian environmental groups are calling out the top three producers of plastic in Canada: NOVA Chemicals, Dow Chemical and Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil. These three companies are suing the federal government in an effort to stop the federal action plan to reduce plastic pollution. This trashy tactic is aimed at protecting Big Plastic's bottom line. "Big Plastic likes to pretend that plastic waste is someone else's fault: consumers, litterers and municipal waste management," said Karen Wirsig, Program Manager for Plastics at Environmental Defence. "But the real issue is that there's already too much plastic and the industry wants to prevent the government from doing anything about it. That's why our #1 tip to Canadians this Plastic-Free July is to tell Big Plastic to drop its lawsuit."

Kucinich Memoir Is A Moving Account Of The Battle Against Corporate Power

July 9, 2021 Chris Hedges, ScheerPost.com. Educate! Book Review, Chris Hedges, Corporatism, Dennis Kucinich

The Division of Light and Power,” by Dennis Kucinich, like Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York,” is a gripping, moving and lucidly written account of the hidden mechanisms of corporate power in the United States and what happens when these corporate interests are challenged. It is essential reading, especially as we face an intensified corporate assault, done in the name of fiscal necessity following the financial wounds imposed by the pandemic, to seize total control of all public assets. Kucinich warns that this assault is more than the seizure of public assets for private gain. These corporate forces, which function as a shadow government in Washington and cities across the country, threaten to achieve a monolithic lock on all forms of power and extinguish our anemic democracy.

Fascist Plots: Contemporary Lessons From The 1934 ‘Business Plot’

July 8, 2021 Gabriel Rockhill, Liberation School. Educate! Bonus March, Corporatism, Fascism, United States

Six months ago, on January 6, 2021, a racist mob, incited by outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump, stormed the U.S. Capitol in a chaotic attempt to prevent the congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election results, a necessary step before the inauguration of Joe Biden. The assault on the Capitol was led by militarized fascist groups composed of many current or former military and police.[1] Some of the leaders of the organizations involved, such as Enrique Tarrio and Joseph Biggs of the Proud Boys, had direct ties to U.S. intelligence agencies, having served as FBI informants.[2] Only one fifth of Capitol Police were on duty that day, and they were unprepared and under-equipped, even though the U.S. national security state had advance knowledge of the plot.

Weaponizing Science In Global Food Policy

June 26, 2021 By Maywa Montenegro, Matthew Canfield, and Alastair Iles, Inter Press Service. Educate! Corporatism, Food and Agriculture, Sustainability, United Nations

Santa Cruz, CA - In July, the United Nations will convene “Science Days”, a high-profile event in preparation for the UN Food Systems Summit later this year. Over the course of two days, the world will be treated to a parade of Zoom sessions aimed at “highlighting the centrality of science, technology and innovation for food systems transformation.” Nobody disputes the need for urgent action to transform the food system. But the UNFSS has been criticized by human rights experts for its top-down and non-transparent organization. Indigenous peoples, peasants, and civil society groups around the world know their hard-won rights are under attack. Many are protesting the summit’s legitimacy and organizing counter-mobilizations.

UnitedHealthcare Has Been Denying ER Claims For Years

June 26, 2021 Andrew Perez, Daily Poster. Educate! Capitalism, Corporatism, Health Care, UnitedHealthcare

The man’s son had been vomiting, feeling nauseous, and experiencing bad heartburn for several weeks. The child’s pediatrician eventually made the call: It was time to take the boy to the ER. The father, who requested anonymity, wasn’t the sort of person who went to the emergency room on a whim. He was an internal medicine physician after all, so he tried to avoid ER visits as much as possible. But in late 2019, he listened to the boy’s doctor and took his son to the ER near where they lived in Florida, then took him a second time when he once again couldn’t hold down food. The decision ultimately seemed to make sense. Tests found the boy was suffering from a newly onset auto-immune disorder. But the family’s insurer, UnitedHealthcare, refused to pay the bills, which totaled $7,000...

Fair Trade USA’s Dairy Label Fails Workers

June 11, 2021 Fair World Project. Educate! Corporatism, Fair Trade, Finance and the Economy, Worker Rights and Jobs

Fair Trade USA released a new “Fair Trade Dairy” label in partnership with Chobani. It’s a program that has been opposed by farmworker and human rights organizations since it was first announced. Now that there is yogurt on the shelf, but still no final standard released, this report looks at the label claims and evaluates “Fair Trade Dairy” based on the available standards. The critique focuses on three key areas: Inadequate standards development process Standards that are not fit for purpose Lack of enforcement mechanisms Finally, the report also reviews the rising tide of research that shows that corporate-developed and led certifications are inadequate and points instead to existing models that are better suited to defending workers’ rights and safety.

A People’s Guide To The War Industry: The New BOSS

June 3, 2021 Christian Sorensen, Consortium News. Educate! Corporatism, Military Industrial Complex, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

To make more money, more and more aspects of life must be pulled into capital. This is why we see everything in civilian life being commodified, including food, housing, land and water. And this is why corporations take over many military functions. A given corporation now in charge of what was once a governmental job needs to get a layer of profit out of the task. To obtain that profit the corporation ends up over-charging, cutting jobs, polluting, and/or harming unions. Corporate America is in charge of the tasks that keep a military installation up and running. They call it “base operations support services,” or BOSS — one of the many business sectors of war. Corporations selling BOSS usually provide a combination of facility management, fire and emergency services, grounds maintenance, janitorial services, pavement clearance, pest control and waste management.

Tribune Publishing Shareholders Let Everyone Down

May 23, 2021 Jon Schleuss, The Newsguild. Organize! Corporatism, Labor Union, Media, Worker Rights

Thousands of NewsGuild-CWA members, myself included, were upset by Tribune Publishing’s announcement today that shareholders approved the company’s takeover by Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund known as “the destroyer of newspapers.” There were several hours of confusion after Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of 24% of Tribune shares, announced that he had abstained from voting. A marked “Abstain” vote, according to the proxy proposal, would serve as a rejection of Alden’s attempted takeover. However, several reports indicated Dr. Soon-Shiong submitted a blank proxy card, allowing his shares to count as favoring the takeover. I’ve reached out to Tribune Publishing and people close to Dr. Soon-Shiong for clarification. Tribune replied linking to a report by the Chicago Tribune as providing the best clarification.

A national public intercity service, especially if supported by regional public services, would make for a welcome system dedicated to the public interest rather than the profit motive. Image by Canadian Dimension

With Greyhound Gone, Let’s Replace It With A National Public Operator

May 18, 2021 David Moscrop, Canadian Dimension. Create! Canada, Corporatism, Public investment, Transportation

After serving Canadians with varying degrees of success for the better part of a century, Greyhound Canada has elected to cease serving them at all. On May 13, the intercity coach service ended its routes in the country for good. The national press release discussed the “decision rationale” for closing up shop. The company looked back to 2018 and its suspended services in the west, citing “years of declining ridership and the impact of a changing and increasingly challenging transportation environment, including de-regulation and subsidized competition such as VIA Rail and publicly owned bus systems.” Then, it pointed the finger at the pandemic and a 95 percent drop in ridership along with “negligible” support from the public purse. In short, the private market space was untenable.

Shareholders Push To End Secret Political Spending

May 12, 2021 Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria, Popular.info. Resist! Corporatism, Money in Politics, Shareholder activism, Transparency

Popular Information focuses a lot of attention on the activities of corporate PACs, even though the dollar figures involved are relatively small. Corporate PACs can contribute a maximum of $5,000 per election to a federal candidate. For a typical candidate that has a primary and general election, that's $10,000 per cycle. So why do we spend so much time tracking this spending? Because corporate PACs are one of the few aspects of corporate political spending that is fully transparent. All of the money donated by corporate PACs to federal candidates is reported to the FEC. Things are a bit more complex on the state level, but it's a similar dynamic. Most states also have fairly regular disclosure of corporate PAC donations. Some states allow corporations to donate directly to candidates but those donations still must be disclosed.

Corporate Versus Public Control Of Science And Technology

April 10, 2021 Nicholas Freudenberg, Stat News. Create! Corporatism, COVID-19, Patent Law, Science and technology

"Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity.” Louis Pasteur said that in 1876. Today it would be more accurate to say that science belongs to the corporations and investors that have the money, power, and savvy to secure patents and bring new developments to global markets, a change that threatens human and planetary health. As illustrated by the pharmaceutical industry’s windfall profits despite its failure to date to get Covid-19 vaccines to the poorest nations and the poorest in wealthy nations, Pasteur’s observation that bringing science to the world is “the highest personification of the nation” now seems aspirational at best.

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