CORPORATE PREDATORS
The Hunt For Mega-Profits and the Attach on Democracy
By Russell Mokhiber & Robert Weissman
Common Courage Press. Monroe Maine 1999. 213 pages 364.16
Reviewer: Ken Setter

‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.’

The Declaration of Independence was indeed a noble document. It had a profoundly liberating character, proclaiming the right of the people, not only in America, but everywhere, to confront their oppressors, to depose tyrannical governments that trampled on their ‘unalienable rights.’ Some 230 years on these rights once considered sacrosanct, unassailable, and unalienable have been devalued.

No person, being of sound mind, could believe similar sentiments would be approved today in either house of the US Congress. America has become subservient to the corporations. The corporations are the most powerful organizations in America, more powerful than government, or religious institutions, or labour unions.

In 2007 we find a privatized America where corporations have assumed authority beyond their entitlement. A snap shot of America today reveals a picture much altered from the halcyon days of the Declaration. Today we find the CIA in the process of privatization; where McDonalds are sold on warships in combat zones, private armies fight unpopular was, so-called independent (privately owned) policy institutes determine armaments procurement, and foreign policy is out-sourced to private think tanks such as the Institute for the Study of War. What we see is government not ‘by the people for the people’, but government by the corporations accountable to no one other than the shareholders.

Fifty-one of the top one hundred economies are corporations, not countries. They are the most powerful organizations in history they intimidate, coerce, and as such present a menace to democracy. The corporations have, with market driven decisions, diminished our public culture, usurped much of our public space, placed generations at risk with fast food obesity inducing sugar compounds, and complicated the task of raising the nations’ children. In their hands the American dream has transmuted into a semi-criminal, semi-violent virus that is afflicting large parts of the elites of the country, corporations are strip-mining America and many countries around the world at will.

Business long ago wised up to the idea that citizens held organizations with such names as the ‘Tobacco Institute’ or the ‘Business Round Table’ in low regard. To counter the disquiet in the community they funding think tanks, university chairs, institutes and so-called independent intellectual centres. ‘Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse’ sounds much better, so too ‘Electric Consumers Association’ or the ‘World Wildlife Federation’, the names might sound friendly but the aims remain as repressive and exploitative as before. In corporate America an Orwellian ‘new-speak’ has become the lingua franka; health care conferences are organized and funded by drug companies, and the new ‘consumer power’ is channelled into discreet corners by VISA, General Motors and the national Meat Association. Have you noticed that ‘gambolling’ has been sanitized, it has evolved into gaming’ that sound a whole lot less sinful, even a beneficial thing to do.

That’s democracy folks, Americans, good Americans, and there are millions of them, have not tried and failed they have been deceived and betrayed by a corrupt system that allows corporations to run amok. The reality of America has long since discard the notion of all men have being created equal, and free speech is restricted to those with the money to buy, hire and sue. The dream that was America has soured as giant corporations are allowed to ride roughshod over hard won democratic rights as they roam the world in search of mega-profits, shifting jobs from country to country in order to drive down wages and conditions of working families.

There was a time when American legislators were independent enough to enact anti-trust legislation strong enough to dissolve the giant Standard Oil combine and fragment Bell telephone. But those days are long gone; legislators in corporate America owe their election funds to corporation they are bound head to toe by obligations as tens of thousands of lobbyists watch their every move ensuring their vote fits the needs of the corporation. Washington D.C. has more lobbyists than legislators a sure sign that democracy has failed America.

Since the 1886 US Supreme Court decision corporations have held the legal status of a personhood, yet that is not good enough for some. Individuals when they transgress the law are subject to arrest and possibly jailed for their crime, it has become popular to argue that ‘crime exists in the mind of the individual, since corporations has no mind it follows that corporations can not commit a crime, this mumbo jumbo might go down well in a Philosophy 101 tutorial but in the real world the corporation do commit crimes and must be held accountable. Already they enjoy the benefit of the First Amendment ‘right to speak and associate’, the Fourth Amendments ‘right to privacy’, and the Fifth Amendment ‘right to protection from double jeopardy’, with little reciprocal accountability.

As I write GM foods are in the news, a timely reminder of 1999 when Monsanto rushed the introduction of genetically engineered foods into the foodstream without adequate safety testing and without labeling, thus exposing consumers to unknown risks. (page 117). Today the fears of many are confirmed as GM contamination spreads across crops. Thus forcing the UK Government to raise its base threshold from 0.1 to 0.9 to ‘organic’ food label.

Not that Monsanto is overly bothered, any criticism is soon stomped on with heavy boots of its legal department and backed up by stand over tactics, business pressure and a fear that forces publishers to pulp magazines and restrict reporters from comment through deformation laws. The US Constitution clearly states that no laws shall be passed to restrict the right of free speech seems not to apply to corporations. ‘The company, through reputation alone, has managed to bring about a de facto censorship’. (page 106) Monsanto rejects this of course.

Investigative reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson tell a different story however. Both were fired from the Fox-owned WTVT in Tamper, after completing a four part TV series on BGH in the Florida milk supply the series alleged, among other things, that supermarkets have been selling milk from cows injected with BGH despite promises by supermarkets that they would not buy milk from treated cows until the hormone gained widespread public acceptance. Monsanto sent a threatening letter to the Fox network starting a campaign that ended with Fox firing both reporters despite their willingness to rewrite portions of the program.

This is a book for doers not idlers, it is compact just the right size for slipping into your pocket to read in the train. The sad thing is that it draws on material that is nine years out of date yet for the willing reader it is a storehouse of information, and you can always follow up at the excellent Multination Monitor website at www.essential.org/momnitor.

American journalists, at their best, excel in the field of investigating, probing and exposing. This book is no exception, its text has a movement about it that I found a pleasure to read, if the dates of writing bother you then read their web site, personally I found the history interesting and informative.

I can do no better than to end with a reminder of that fine document, so dear to Americans, The Declaration of Independence. A reminder perhaps that ‘Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.’ For the happiness of millions of Americans and the rest of us around the world an urgent review is needed, over due. I’d say.

Russell Mokhiber is editor of Corporate Crime Reporter, a legal weekly based in Washington, DC. He is also author of Corporate Crime and Violence.

Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington DC based Multinational Monitor, the leading source of critical reporting on corporate power. He is also co­director of Essential Action, a corporate accountability group.