At 05:06 PM 1/12/2000 +0100, S. Lerner wrote:
>Crime of the Century
>
>
>The corporate century ends with private enterprise unanswerable to the
public.
etc
This piece intrigues me, and I have forwarded it to other Listservs
To me the two key paragraphs are:
"In the beginning, we the citizenry created the corporation to do the
public's work build a canal or a road and then go out of business. We asked
people with money to build the canal or road. If anything went wrong, the
liability of these people with money * shareholders, we call them today *
would be limited to the amount of money they invested and no more. This
limited liability corporation is the bedrock of the market economy. The
markets would deflate like a punctured balloon if corporations were
stripped of limited liability for shareholders."
[Does anyone know the original reference for this paragraph? -- CS]
and
"Let us not forget that corporate control was never inevitable. They took it
from us, and it is our responsibility to take it back."
These paragraphs have strong implications for the balance between the
power of governments and Corporations
i.e. the definition of Democracy
Obviously, I believe that, over time, Direct Democracy could do much to
re-balance this situation. I know of no other change to our governance
system that has the potential to do so
Colin Stark
Canadians for Direct Democracy
Vancouver, B.C.
http://www.npsnet.com/cdd/
*************
>Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 15:10:40 -0500
>From: Charles Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Corporate Crime
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain
>
>
>http://www.sfbg.com/focus/71.html
>
>Crime of the Century
>
>
>The corporate century ends with private enterprise unanswerable to the
public.
>
>By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
>
>
>AS WE MOVE to the end of the millennium, it is important to remind
>ourselves that this has been the century of the corporation, when largely
>unaccountable, for-profit organizations of unlimited longevity, size, and
>power took control of the economy and of the government. And did so largely
>to the detriment of the individual consumer, worker, neighbor, and citizen.
>
>Let us again remind ourselves that corporations were the creation of the
>citizenry (thanks here to Richard Grossman of the Project on Corporations,
>Law, and Democracy for resurrecting and teaching us a history we would have
>collectively forgotten).
>
>In the beginning, we the citizenry created the corporation to do the
>public's work build a canal or a road and then go out of business. We asked
>people with money to build the canal or road. If anything went wrong, the
>liability of these people with money * shareholders, we call them today *
>would be limited to the amount of money they invested and no more. This
>limited liability corporation is the bedrock of the market economy. The
>markets would deflate like a punctured balloon if corporations were
>stripped of limited liability for shareholders.
>
>And what do we, the citizenry, get in return for this generous public grant
>of limited liability? Originally, we told the corporation what to do. You
>are to deliver the goods and then go out of business. And then let us live
>our lives.
>
>But corporations gained power, broke through democratic controls, and now
>roam around the world inflicting unspeakable damage on the earth. Let us
>count the ways: price-fixing, chemical explosions, mercury poisoning, oil
>spills.
>
>Need concrete examples? These are five of the most egregious of the century:
>
>Archer Daniels Midland and price-fixing
>In October 1996, Archer Daniels Midland, the good people who bring you
>National Public Radio, pled guilty and paid a $100 million criminal fine at
>the time, the largest criminal antitrust fine ever for its role in
>conspiracies to fix prices to eliminate competition and allocate sales in
>the lysine and citric acid markets worldwide.
>Union Carbide and Bhopal
>In 1984, a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, released
>90,000 pounds of the chemical methyl isocyanate. The resulting toxic cloud
>killed several thousand people and injured hundreds of thousands.
>Chisso Corporation and Minamata
>Minamata, Japan, was home to Chisso Corporation, a petrochemical company
>and maker of plastics. In the 1950s fish began floating dead in Minamata
>Bay, cats began committing suicide, and children began getting rare forms
>of brain cancer. Thousands were injured. The company had been dumping
>mercury into the bay.
>Exxon Corporation and the Valdez oil spill
>Ten years ago, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker hit a reef in Prince William
>Sound, Alaska, and spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil onto 1,500 miles
>of Alaskan shoreline, killing birds and fish and destroying the way of life
>of thousands of Native Americans.
>General Motors and the destruction of inner-city rail
>Seventy years ago, clean, quiet, and efficient inner-city rail systems
>dotted the U.S. landscape. They were eliminated in the 1930s to make way
>for dirty, noisy gasoline-powered automobiles and buses. The inner-city
>rail systems were destroyed by those very companies that would most benefit
>from the destruction of inner-city rail oil, tire, and automobile
>companies, led by General Motors. By 1949, G.M. had helped destroy 100
>electric systems in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, Oakland,
>Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. In 1949 a federal grand jury in
>Chicago indicted and a jury convicted G.M., Standard Oil of California, and
>Firestone, among others, of criminally conspiring to replace electric
>transportation with gas- and diesel-powered buses and to monopolize the
>sale of buses and related products to transportation companies around the
>country. G.M. and the other convicted companies were fined $5,000 each.
>
>These are not unusual examples. Books have been written documenting the
>ongoing destruction. The question remains how do we put a stop to it? And
>the answer seems clear to us reassert public control over what was
>originally a public institution.
>
>How to reassert such control is the subject of debate and conflict, in
>Seattle and around the world. But it seems clear to us that as the 20th
>century was the century of the corporation, the 21st promises to be the
>century in which flesh-and-blood human beings reassert sovereignty over
>their lives, their markets, and their democracy.
>
>Let us not forget that corporate control was never inevitable. They took it
>from us, and it is our responsibility to take it back.
>
>__________________________
>
>Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
>Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
>Multinational Monitor. They are coauthors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt
>for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Common Courage Press, 1999).
