Darrell G. Moen, Ph.D. http://dgmoen.net/blog Promoting Social Justice, Human Rights, and Peace Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:15:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 en Stories of Hope and Change http://dgmoen.net/blog/2008/10/02/stories-of-hope-and-change/ http://dgmoen.net/blog/2008/10/02/stories-of-hope-and-change/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:15:33 +0000 DGM General http://dgmoen.net/blog/2008/10/02/stories-of-hope-and-change/

Stories of Hope and Change You Didn’t Hear About in 2007 and 2008. Project Censored 2009 highlights a new form of journalism: one that looks for the places where real change for the better is already underway. Here are their 10 featured stories…

Communities take on corporate power




Small town citizens are claiming the right to govern themselves by adopting laws that protect their voting rights and their natural resources while challenging the laws stacked in favor of corporations. The courts have not yet ruled on some of these measures. If they are challenged, no one knows what the outcome will be. But these new activists point to the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements, which also were viewed as radical challenges to well-settled law. In the best tradition of the patriots of the 13 colonies, these communities are asserting their right to govern themselves and to make sure their votes count.
Communities Take Power
Doug Pibel, “Communities Take Power” YES! Magazine #43, Fall 2007
Humboldt County, California, first to abolish “corporate personhood”
Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, “Democracy Unlimited” YES! Magazine #43, Fall 2007

The environmental movement: Now there is a place for everyone




Since the blockbuster success of the 2007 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” the attitude toward global climate change has turned a corner. It seems like everyone is suddenly, and ostentatiously, “going green.” Mainstream media programs are promoting “environmental alternatives” and even Fortune 500 CEOs are talking about their efforts to reduce their companies’ “carbon footprint.” What isn’t making it into the national conversation is a core cause for the global crisis: the inequality of wealth, power, and consumption. Yet millions of environmental activists know that the climate crisis can’t be solved without also taking on the poverty crisis. These hard-working groups from all parts of the world aren’t waiting for the mainstream to catch up. They’re putting these issues on the agenda now.
Social Justice First at Climate Negotiations in Bali
Tom Athanasiou, “Global Fairness” YES! Magazine #45, Spring 2008
The Green Economy Can Carry All
Ian Kim, “Green Jobs for All” YES! Magazine #45, Spring 2008
Retooling for Green Jobs that Serve the Poor and Working People
Doug Pibel, “Unions, Churches, and Schools” YES! Magazine #45, Spring 2008
Young People with a Passion for Climate Protection
Shadia Fayne Wood, “Youth Feel the Power” YES! #45, Spring 2008
A Global Water Movement
Maude Barlow, “Life, Liberty, Water” YES! Magazine #46, Summer 2008

Food: Consumers say yes to local agriculture; no to GMO




A consensus is building around the world about the dangers facing our global food chain. The small farmers at the front lines of this historic struggle are beginning to make important headway—for which we may all owe them a debt of gratitude.
Europe’s Patents Office Revokes Monsanto’s Monopoly on Genetically Modified Soy
Hope Shand, “Challenging Monsanto’s Monopoly”, Z Magazine, July/Aug 2007
Saskatchewan Farmer Reaches Settlement with Agribusiness Giant Monsanto Canada Inc.
Barbara L. Minton, “Small Farmer Wins Moral Victory Over Monsanto” NaturalNews.com, April 01, 2008
World’s Largest Rice Exporters, Processors, and Retailers Won’t Purchase GE Rice
Rik Langendoen, “No to Genetically Engineered Rice” YES! Magazine #42, Summer 2007
Mallorca, Menorca, and Ibiza Declared a GMO-free Zone
“Spanish Islands Go GMO-Free” YES! Magazine #44, Winter 2008

Indigenous peoples: The fight for recognition bears fruit




The global movement to recognize and respect the rights of indigenous peoples took a dramatic step forward in 2007 with the adoption of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights. Many corporations and governments continue to exploit and appropriate the lands of native people—including some of the world’s most biodiverse and environmentally productive regions. But the recognition of the rights of first peoples is growing, and the indigenous peoples of the world are joining forces.
United Nations General Assembly Passes Indigenous Rights Declaration
Poka Laenui, “U.N. Declaration on Indigenous Rights” YES! Magazine #44, Winter 2008
Bolivia’s New Constitution Fully Recognizes Indigenous Sovereignty
Juliette Beck, “Bolivia Adopts New Constitution” YES! Magazine #45, Spring 2008
Indigenous Nations Call on the World to Adopt a Culture of Life
Jallalla Indigenous Pueblos and Nations of Abya Yala, “Declaration of La Paz” YES! magazine #42, Summer 2007

Energy alternatives take hold




While the “pain at the pump” is allowing the debate about energy to broaden once again in the mainstream media, think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute are working hard to position nuclear and coal as the only “alternatives.” Commuters, school districts, home owners, and others who are paying the financial, security, and environmental costs of oil dependence are “getting it” though. Real alternatives and opportunities are taking hold around the world, and even here in the U.S.
Solar Industry Poised for Rapid Growth
Alisa Gravitz, “Solar Power Surge” YES! Magazine #43, Fall 2007
Enough Wind, Solar, Geothermal, and Tidal Power to Power the U.S.
Guy Dauncey, “Electricity: an Astonishing Abundance” YES! Magazine #45, Spring 2008
Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment Blocks Two Coal-fired Power Plants
Margit Christenson, “Blocking Big Coal” YES! Magazine #44, Winter 2008
“I won’t buy another new car unless it has a plug on it.”
Sherry Boschert, “The Secret Life of Plug-in Hybrids” YES! Magazine #45, Spring 2008
How Can All U.S. buildings Be 100 Percent Carbon Neutral By 2030?
Guy Dauncey, “Smart, Green Buildings” YES! Magazine #45, Spring 2008

Altering the media landscape




As the corporate media increasingly acts as stenographers and spinmeisters for the status quo; people are looking elsewhere for reliable sources of information. Independent media outlets are becoming the news source of choice for many. Meanwhile, people power and citizen pressure are beginning to chip away at the monolithic structure of big media multinationals.
Maine’s Legislature First in the Nation to Protect Net Neutrality
Jon Bartholomew, “Maine Leads on Net Neutrality” YES! Magazine #43, Fall 2007
Crackdown on Fake News
Margit Christenson, “FCC Fines Comcast for Fake News” YES! Magazine #44, Winter 2008
The People Speak Out at FCC Hearing
“The People Speak Out at FCC Hearing in Seattle” YES! Online

Real health care solutions are on the table




The debate about healthcare is receiving more diverse coverage in the media than it has in many decades. It cannot be denied that the much-maligned Michael Moore documentary “Sicko” created an opportunity to change the conversation. Programs like the PBS series “Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?” and Frontline’s “Sick Around the World” are digging deep into the reality of the situation. Healthcare activists are building on this national movement.
Michael Moore’s Film, “SICKO” Opens Door to Community Organizing
“Sicko Paves the Way” YES! Magazine #43, Fall 2007
San Francisco First to Offer Health Care for All
Brooke Jarvis, “San Francisco’s Health Care for All” YES! Magazine #44, Winter 2008
Has Cuba Got the Cure?
Sarah van Gelder, “Health Care for All; Love, Cuba” YES! #42, Summer 2007

Developing countries take charge of their economies
For years, “developing nations” in Africa and South America have been challenging the neocolonial economic policies that have hindered their growth and autonomy. In 2007 and 2008, many countries pulled away from the old models with a speed that left transnational corporations, multi-lateral agencies (and the US media) speechless.
Latin America Goes Dept Free
Sarah Anderson, “IMF: Paid in Full” YES! Magazine #42, Summer 2007
Reclaiming Corn and Culture
Wendy Call, “New Light in the Sky” YES! Magazine #46, Summer 2008
African Countries Stand Up to European Union
Ignacio Ramonet, “Africa Says No” Le Monde Diplomatique, January 2008 and
Tom Knudson, “Promises and Poverty” Sacramento Bee, 9/23/2007
Ethiopia Wins Battle With Starbucks Over Trademark Entitlement
Matthew Clark, “In trademarking its coffee, Ethiopia seeks fair trade” The Christian Science Monitor

Moving beyond war




While the Iraq conflict sparked large protests throughout the world, the larger “war on terror” has had a quieter, more profound impact that has grown largely unnoticed in recent years. Now, even the hawks of yesterday are recognizing the worth of the anti-war movement and its call for a move beyond war.
Nuclear Abolition More Urgent Than Ever
“George Shultz Calls for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons,” an interview with Sarah van Gelder, YES! Magazine #46, Summer 2008
A Responsible Plan to Exit Iraq
Erik Leaver, “Candidates for Congress Show the Way Out” YES! Magazine #46, Summer 2008
Has Your Town Declared Peace Yet?
Ben Manski and Karen Dolan, “Cities Declare Peace” YES! Magazine #46, Summer 2008
Shifting Our Defense Budget
Miriam Pemberton, “Raiding the War Chest” YES! Magazine #46, Summer 2008

Seattle: The beginning of a new culture of activism




The “Battle in Seattle” against the WTO was but a single event in an ongoing struggle to take back power from global corporations and finance agencies. Nonetheless, the 1999 mass protest, direct action, and popular education events marked a turning point in activism. People around the world are taking notice.
WTO Protests in Seattle Sparked Biggest Global Movement
Paul Hawken, “Remembering the Battle of Seattle” Ode Magazine June 2007
Another World is Possible—Another U.S. is Necessary
Sarah van Gelder, “We Saw Another World in Atlanta” YES! Magazine #43 Fall 2007
Taking On Corporate Power
Michael Marx and Marjorie Kelly, “Who Will Rule” YES! Magazine #43, Fall 2007

Read an excerpt from Project Censored 2009
 

]]> http://dgmoen.net/blog/2008/10/02/stories-of-hope-and-change/feed/ The Corporation (transcript part two) http://dgmoen.net/blog/2008/09/28/the-corporation-transcript-part-two/ http://dgmoen.net/blog/2008/09/28/the-corporation-transcript-part-two/#comments Sun, 28 Sep 2008 11:00:21 +0000 DGM Mark Oseland transcript http://dgmoen.net/blog/2008/09/28/the-corporation-transcript-part-two/ FEATURE TRANSCRIPT: PART 2 TEXT
12.00.08
12.00.19
Archive Voiceover: “…Today the job of building this nation geographically, is
completed. There are no new frontiers within our borders. So to what new
horizons can we look now.
Where are tomorrow’s opportunities? What’s ahead for you, for your children.
The frontiers of the future are not on any map. They’re in the test tubes and
laboratories of the great industries…”
12.00.36 ADVANCING THE
FRONT
12.00.40
12.00.50
12.01.01
Rifkin: The Chakrabarty case is one of the great judicial moments in world
history. And the public was totally unaware it was actually happening as a
process was being engaged.
General Electric and Professor Chakrabarty went to the patent office with a little
microbe that eats up oil spills. They said they had modified this microbe in the
laboratory, and therefore it was an invention.
The patent office and the U.S. government took a look at this quote “invention”
they said, “No way. The patent statutes don’t cover living things. This is not an
invention.” Turned down.
12.00.41 Jeremy Rifkin,
President, Foundation
on Economic Trends
12.00.51 United
States/Chakrabarty et
al./ bacteria…
12.01.06 rejection
12.01.07 not patentable
subject matter …microorganisms
are alive…
12.01.22 GE advert:
“GE. We bring good
things to life!
12.01.43 U.S. Supreme
Court
12.01.45 Appeals
12.01.49 Living things
are not patentable
12.02.08 Argued March
17, 1980;Decided June
16, 1980
12.02.10 affirmed
12.02.11 Burger, C.J.
12.02.15 delivered the
opinion of…
12.01.13
12.01.23
12.01.26
Rifkin: Then, General Electric and Doctor Chakrabarty appealed to the U.S.
Customs Court of Appeal. And, to everyone’s surprise, by a three-to-two
decision, they overrode the Patent Office.
GE commercial: “… GE, we bring good things to life…”
Rifkin: They said, “This microbe looks more like a detergent, or a reagent, than a
horse or a honeybee.” I laugh because they didn’t understand basic biology; it
looked like a chemical to them. Had it had an antenna, or eyes, or wings, or legs,
it would never have crossed their table and been patented.
12.02.18 US Department
of Commerce Patent
and Trademark Office
12.01.44
12.01.52
Rifkin: Then the Patent Office appealed. And what the public should realize now
is the Patent Office was very clear that you can’t patent life.
My organization provided the main amicus curiae brief.
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 1
12.01.57 Rifkin: “If you allow the patent on this microbe”, we argued, “it means that
without any congressional guidance or public discussion, corporations will own
the blueprints of life.”
12.02.08 Rifkin: When they made the decision, we lost by five to four, and Chief Justice
Warren Burger said, “Sure, some of these are big issues but we think this is a
small decision.”
12.02.17 Rifkin: Seven years later the U.S. Patent Office issued a one sentence decree ¾
“You can patent anything in the world that’s alive, except a full-birth human
being.”
12.02.29
12.02.38
12.02.46
12.02.53
12.03.02
12.03.10
12.03.16
12.03.25
12.03.32
12.03.36
12.03.41
“…the Supreme Court of the United States ruled today that living organisms
produced in the laboratory may be patented. This decision to extend patenting…”
“…the question the U.S. Supreme Court had to decide was whether one man, or
one company, should be able to control new forms of life…”
“…if we allow any company or college to exclusively own a species, what does
that say about our reverence for life…?”
“…researchers at Harvard manipulated the genes of mice making their offspring
more susceptible to cancer. They patented the Harvard mouse in the U.S,
Europe & Japan…”
“…the legal battle finally came to an end today. The Supreme Court of Canada
ruled the genetically engineered mouse can’t be patented…”
“…Canadians don’t think that life forms are inventions of industry like light bulbs
and widgets…”
“…bio prospecting’; scientists and drug companies search the planet, companies
scouring the planet for valuable dna, genes they can patent and sell…”
“…it feels a lot like the wild west. We’ve got bandits going around the world,
collecting wherever they can, sometimes under false pretenses…”
“…because it’s been so isolated, Newfoundland has a unique gene pool, and
there’s been so much interest from gene prospectors that the government is
funding a study …”
“…my genetic imprint, my genetic blueprint, really has been taken away from
me…”
“…modern scientific research , instead of being the impartial pursuit of the truth,
has become the pursuit of profit…”
12.03.55
12.04.09
12.04.19
Rifkin: We’ve all been hearing about the announcement, that we have mapped
the human genome. But what the public doesn’t know, is now there’s a great
race by genomic companies, and biotech companies, and life science
companies, to find the treasure in the map.
The treasure are the individual genes that make up the blueprint of the human
race. Every time they capture a gene and isolate it, these biotech companies they
claim it as intellectual property.
The breast cancer gene, the cystic fibrosis gene ¾ it goes on, and on, and on. If
this goes unchallenged in the world community, within less than ten years, a
handful of global companies will own, directly, or through license,
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 2
12.04.32 the actual genes that make up the evolution of our species. And they’re now
beginning to patent the genomes of every other creature on this planet.
12.04.42
12.04.54
Rifkin: In the Age of Biology the politics is going to sort out between those who
believe life first has intrinsic value, and therefore we should choose technologies
and commercial venues that honor the intrinsic value.
And then we’re going to have people who believe, “Look, life is simple utility. It’s
commercial fare”, and they will line up with the idea to let the marketplace be the
ultimate arbiter of all of the Age of Biology.
12.05.09 Narration:
In a world economy where information is filtered by global media
corporations keenly attuned to their powerful advertisers, who will defend
the public’s right to know? And what price must be paid to preserve our
ability to make informed choices?
Move after Ressler.
12.05.31 UNSETTLING
ACCOUNTS
12.05.33 Wilson: What Fox television told us was that we were just the people to be The
Investigators.
12.05.35 Steve Wilson,
Investigative Reporter
12.05.3
8
Akre: Do any stories you want, ask tough questions and get answers. So we
thought “this is great, this is a dream job.” Fantastic.
12.02.38 Jane Akre,
Investigative Reporter
12.05.45 Akre: The very first thing they had us do was not to research stories, but to shoot
this promo, which was…The Investigators
12.05.53
12.05.58
Promo narrator(VO):”…The Investigators. Uncovering the truth, getting results,
protecting you…”
Akre: And they had a film crew and a smoke machine, we’re silhouetted…
12.06.03 Wilson: One of the first stories that Jane came up with was the revelation that
most of the milk in the state of Florida and throughout much of the country was
adulterated with the effects of bovine growth hormone.
12.06.14
12.06.26
12.06.33
Akre: With Monsanto, I didn’t realize how effectively a corporation could work to
get something on the marketplace. The levels of coordination they had to have.
They had to get university professors into the fold.
They had to get experts into the fold. They had to get reporters into the fold. They
had to get the public into the fold.
And of course the FDA, let’s not leave them out. They had to get the federal
regulators convinced that this was a fine and safe product to get it onto the
marketplace. And they did that, they did that very, very well.
12.06.17 MONSANTO:
Food – Health- Hope
12.06.24 Dairy Science
Program at the
University of
Florida/Dept. of Animal
Sciences
12.06.32 FDA/Protecting
Consumers, Promoting
Public Health
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 3
12.06.42
Posilac ad:
“…Posilac is the single most tested new product in history, and is now available
to use specifically so you can increase your profit potential…
12.06.42 Monsanto
Promotional video
12.06.51 Akre: The federal government basically rubber stamped it before they put it on
the marketplace. The longest test they did for human toxicity was 90 days on
thirty rats. And then either Monsanto misreported the results to the FDA, or the
FDA didn’t bother to look in depth at Monsanto’s own studies.
12.07.10
12.07.20
Wilson: The scientists within Health Canada looked very carefully at bovine
growth hormone and came to very different conclusions than the Food and Drug
Administration in the US did.
CBC Reporter’s voiceover: “…Monsanto’s engineered growth hormone did not
comply with safety requirements. It could be absorbed by the body, and therefore
did have implications for human health. Mysteriously, that conclusion was deleted
from the final published version of their report…”
12.07.10 Health
Canada/Health
Protection Branch
12.070.14 rBST
(NUTRILAC) “Gaps
Analysis” Reports by
rBST Internal Review
Team / Health
Proctection Branh,
Health Canada
12.07.35
12.07.43
Chopra: I personally was very concerned that there’s a very serious problem of
secrecy, conspiracy and things of that nature. “…we have been pressured and
coerced to pass drugs of questionable safety, including the rBST.”
12.07.38 Dr. Shiv
Chopra, Health Canada
Scientist
12.07.50
12.07.55
Wilson: We wrote the story. We had it ready a week beforehand. They bought
ads…
Eyewitness News ad: “…Farmers in the milk industry say it’s safe, but studies
suggest a link to cancer. Don’t miss this special report from The Investigators”
12.08.01
12.08.13
Wilson: That Friday night before the Monday the series was to begin, the fax
machine spit out a letter from this very high priced lawyer in New York that
Monsanto had hired.
It contained a lot of things that were just off the wall false. Just demonstrably
false, but if you didn’t know the story and you didn’t know how we’d gone about
producing it would have scared you as a broadcaster, or as a manager.
12.08.26 “…of great
concern to Monsanto…”
12.08.26 Akre: And they decided that they would pull the story, and they would just check
it one more time.
12.08.30 Wilson: But the bottom line was that there was no factual errors in that story.
Both sides had been heard from, both sides had had an opportunity to speak
12.08.38
12.08.51
Akre: One week later, Monsanto sent the second letter and this was even more
strongly worded. And it said “there will be dire consequences for Fox News if the
story airs in Florida.
And this time they freaked.
12.08.43 “…dire
consequences for Fox
News…”
12.08.53
12.09.05
Akre: They were afraid of being sued and they were also afraid of losing
advertising dollars, at all of the stations owned by Rupert Murdoch. And he
owned more television stations than any other group in America.
That’s twenty-two television stations, that’s a lot of advertising dollars for
Roundup, Aspertame, NutraSweet, and other products.
12.09.12 Wilson: So we got into a battle. And, uh, the first deal was the new general
manager…
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 4
12.09.17 Akre: And his name’s Dave, and Dave is a salesman. And you know he’d pump
your hand, “how ya doin’, how ya doin’?”
12.09.22
12.09.27
12.08.40
12.09.46
Wilson: Called us upstairs to his office and he said, “what would you say if I
killed this piece?
What if it never ran?” And we said, “well you know, we wouldn’t be very happy
about that. And he said “well I could kill it you know” and we said “yes of course
you’re the manager you could kill it, it would never air.”
And he’s hemming, and he’s hawing, he’s back, and he’s forth. And we couldn’t
figure out what is this all about and finally he blurted out “Look,
would you tell anybody?” You know, I said I’m not going to lie for you.
12.09.50 Wilson: About a week later, he calls us back to the office and says okay, we’d
like you to make these changes. In fact you will make these changes.
12.09.58
12.10.07
12.10.18
Wilson: We said, “well look, let us show you the research that we have that
shows that this information you want us to broadcast isn’t true.” To which he
replies. “I don’t care about that.”
I said, “pardon me?” And he said, “well that’s what I have lawyers for. Just write
it the way the lawyers want it written.” I said, “you know this is news, this is
important. This is stuff people need to know.”
And I’ll never forget he didn’t pause a beat and he said, “We just paid three billion
dollars for these television stations. We’ll tell you what the news is. The news is
what we say it is.”
12.10.31
12.10.40
12.10.52
Wilson: I said “I’m not doing that.” And he said, “well, he said if you refuse to
present this story the way we think it should be presented you’ll be fired for
insubordination.
” I said I will go to the Federal Communications Commission and I will report that
I was fired from my job by you the licensee of these public air waves because I
refused to lie to people on the air.
And its thank you very much you’ll hear from us right away. Well 24 hours came
and went and we didn’t hear a thing. And about a week later he calls us back and
now we’ve changed strategies.
12.11.03
12.11.09
Wilson: “How about if we pay you some money and you just go away?”
And I said, “How much money?” Because you know when somebody offers to
bribe you like that I always want to know if it might be worth it.
12.11.17
12.11.27
12.11.36
12.11.42
Akre: He was going to offer us the rest of our year’s salary if we agreed not to
talk about what Monsanto had done.
To not talk about the Fox corporate response in suppressing the story. And, to
not talk about the story.
Not talk about BGH again anywhere. Not take this story to another news
organization.
Zip up.
12.11.21“…confidentialit
y…
12.11.22 Dear Ms. Akre
12.11.25 …Monsanto’s
objections to
12.11.28 response to
Monsanto’s objections
12.11.34 not to
disclose…”
12.11.43 Wilson: I said you mean if I want to go to my daughter’s PTA meetings and
explain what’s in the school milk at the school lunch program I, I can’t? “No. You
can never speak about this anywhere.”
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 5
12.11.54
12.12.10
Akre: Steve says, “Okay write it up.” And I’m like what are you talking about
‘write it up?’ And I didn’t say anything. And Dave, he wrote it up and he FedExed
it to us a couple of days later.
And he said, “Are you going to sign?” And we said “Nah Dave, we’re not going to
sign that.” And he said, “Well send it back okay?” We said, “No Dave, we’re not
going to send that back.”
12.12.20 Wilson: It was “okay we can’t buy you out we can’t shut you up. Let’s get the
story on the air in a way that we can all agree it will go on the air.” And we
started rewriting and editing with their lawyers.
12.12.32
12.12.45
Akre: Well, during this eight month re-review process, I say jokingly, they did
things like for example they wanted to take out the word “cancer”. You don’t
have to identify what the potential problem is.
Just say “human health implications.” Any criticism of Monsanto or its product
they either removed it or minimized it. And it was very, very clear I would say,
almost every edit they made to the piece, that was the aim.
Control
12.12.45 “human health
implications”
12.13.00 Wilson: And we changed this and this and this. And then, that wasn’t good
enough, okay now change this and this and this Now change this and this.
Version after version after version. 83 times.
12.13.13 Akre: Eighty-three times is unheard of, it doesn’t happen, you shouldn’t have to
rewrite something 83 times. Obviously they didn’t want to put the thing on the air
and they were trying to drive us crazy and get us to quit or wait until the first
window in our contract so that they could fire us.
12.13.27
12.13.32
Wilson: They in effect announced that they were going to fire us for no cause.
Well this was a little much.
12.13.34 Akre: And Steve wrote a letter to the lawyer in Atlanta, whose name is Caroline
Forest, the FOX corporate lawyer.
12.13.41 Wilson: And I said you know this isn’t about being fired for no cause. You’re
firing us because we refused to put on the air something that we knew and
demonstrated to be false and misleading. That’s what this is about. And because
we put up a fight, because we stood up to this big corporation and we stood up to
your editors and we stood up to your lawyers. And we said to you, “look, there
ought to be a principle higher than just making money.”
12.14.04
12.14.11
Akre: And she wrote a letter back and said “You are right that’s exactly what it
was. You stood up to us on this story and that’s why we’re letting you go.”
Big mistake. Big mistake. That says retaliation. You can’t retaliate against
employees if they’re standing up for something that they believe is illegal, that
they don’t want to participate in. So that gave us the whistle blower status that we
needed in the state of Florida to file a whistle blower claim against our employer.
12.14.33 Wilson: Two or three years later we got the trial. Five weeks of testimony led to a
jury verdict of $425,000 in which the jury determined that the story they pressured
us to broadcast, the story we resisted telling, was in fact false, distorted or
slanted.
12.14.53 Narration:
Fox News appealed the verdict. Five major news media corporations filed
briefs with the court in support of Fox’s appeal.
12.14.53 New World
Communications of
Tampa, Inc., d/b/a
WTVT-TV,
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 6
Appellant/Cross-
Appellee, vs. Jane Akre,
Appellee/Cross-
Appellant.
Belo
Corp.,/Cox/Gannett/Medi
a General/Post-
Newsweek;”… in
support…”
12.15.06 TV Announcer: You may recall that Jane Akre, a former reporter here sued Fox
13 in a whistle blower lawsuit claiming that she was fired for refusing to distort
her report; The appeals court today threw that case out, saying Ms. Akre had no
whistle blower claim against the station based on news distortion. Fox 13 Vice-
President and General Manager Bob Linger says the station has been completely
vindicated by the ruling…”
12.15.04 Three years
later…
12.15.29
12.15.40
12.15.56
Narration:
What Fox neglected to report is this:
Jane sued Fox under Florida’s whistleblower statute, which protects those
who try to prevent others from breaking the law.
But her appeal court judges found that falsifying news isn’t actually
against the law. So they denied Jane her whistleblower status, overturned
the case, and withdrew her $425,000 award.
Canada and Europe have upheld the ban on rBGH. Yet it remains hidden in
much of the milk supply of the United States.
12.16.07 EXPANSION PLAN
12.16.11
12.16.25
12.16.34
Narration:
The prospect that two thirds of the worlds population will have no access
to fresh drinking water by 2025, has provoked the initial confrontations in a
world wide battle for control over the planet’s most basic resource.
When Bolivia sought to refinance the public water service of its third
largest city, the World Bank required that it be privatized.
Which is how The Bechtel Corporation of San Francisco gained control
over all of Cochabamba’s water, even that which fell from the sky.
12.16.43
12.16.53
12.17.20
Olivera: And these laws and contract also prohibited people from gathering
rainwater. So rainwater was also privatized.
Unpaid bills gave the company rights to repossess debtor’s homes and to auction
them off. People had to make choices, from eating less and paying for water and
basic services, to not sending children to school, or not going to the hospital and
treating illnesses at home;
or, in the case of retired people who have very low incomes, they had to go out
and work on the streets.
12.16.53 Oscar Olivera,
Coalition in Defense of
Water and Life
12.17.36 Olivera: Then, with the slogan: The Water is Ours, Damn it! People took to the
streets to protest.
12.17.49 Narration:
The price this beleaguered country paid for World Bank loans was the
privatization of the state oil industry, and its airline, railroad, electric and
phone companies. But the government failed to convince Bolivians that
water is a commodity like any other.
12.18.07 Protestors: “…the people, united, will never be defeated…”
12.18.09 Olivera: Then we witnessed how the government defended the transnational
interests of Bechtel. People wanted water not teargas! People wanted justice not
bullets!
12.18.32 Female newscaster v.o. :
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 7
“…These images definitely show what the city of Cochabamba experienced
during this Friday. The city was near a state of siege…”
12.18.41
12.18.51
Narration:
Bolivia was determined to defend the Corporation’s right to charge families
living on two dollars a day as much as 1/4 of their income for water.
The greater the popular resistance to the water privatization scheme , the
more violent became the standoff.
12.19.01 Olivera: There were hundreds of young people, 16 or 17-year olds, who lost their
arms or legs; or who were left handicapped for life by brain injuries and Victor
Hugo Daza was killed.
12.19.43
12.19.50
Narration:
Transnational corporations have a long and dark history of condoning
tyrannical governments.
Is it narcissism that compels them to seek their reflection in the regimented
structures of fascist regimes?
12.20.13 Zinn: There was an interesting connection between the rise of fascism in Europe
and the consciousness of politically radical people about corporate power.
Because there was a recognition that fascism rose in Europe with the help of
enormous corporations.
12.20.27 Howard Zinn,
Author, A People’s
History of the United
States
12.20.35 Chomsky: Mussolini was greatly admired all across the spectrum. Business
loved him, investment shot up. Incidentally, when Hitler came in, in Germany the
same thing happened there, investment shot up in Germany. He had the work
force under control. He was getting rid of dangerous left wing elements.
Investment opportunities were improving. There was no problems. These are
wonderful countries.
12.20.39 Noam
Chomsky, Institute
Professor, MIT
12.20.59
12.21.26
Moore: I think one of the greatest untold stories of the twentieth century is the
collusion between corporations—especially in America—and Nazi Germany. First
in terms of how the corporations from America, helped to essentially rebuild
Germany and support the early Nazi regime. And then, when the war broke out,
figured out a way to keep everything going.
So General Motors was able to keep Opal going, Ford was able to keep their
thing going, and companies like Coca-Cola, they couldn’t keep the Coca-Cola
going, so what they did was they invented Fanta Orange for the Germans, and
that’s how Coke was able to keep their profits coming in, to Coca-Cola. So when
you drink Fanta Orange, that’s the Nazi drink that was created so that Coke could
continue making money while millions of people died.
12.20.59 Michael Moore,
Filmmaker, author
Coke ad: “Howdy, friend”
12.21.54
12.22.20
12.23.00
12.23.25
Black: When Hitler came to power in 1933 his goal was to dismantle and destroy
the Jewish community. This was an enterprise so vast that it required the
resources of a computer. But in 1933 there was no computer. What there was,
was the IBM punch card system, which controlled and stored information based
upon the holes that were punched in various rows and columns. Naturally there
was no off-the-shelf software as there is today. Each application was custom
designed and an engineer had to personally configure it. Millions of people of all
religions and nationalities and characteristics went through the concentration
camp system. That’s an extraordinary traffic management program that required
an IBM system in every railroad direction and an IBM system in every
concentration camp.
Now this is a typical prisoner card. There are little boxes where all the
information is to be punched in. We compare this information to the code sheet
for concentration camps. And here you see Auschwitz is one, Buchenwald two,
Dachau is three. Now what kinds of prisoners were they? They could be a
Jehovah’s Witness for two, a homosexual for three. A communist for six, or a
Jew would be eight.
Now what was their status? One was released, two was transferred, four was
executed, five was suicide, and six. Code six, Sonderbahandlung: Special
treatment meant the gas chamber or sometimes a bullet. They would punch that
number in. The material was tabulated. The machines were set. And of course
the punch cards by the millions had to be printed. And they were printed
exclusively by IBM and the profits were recovered just after the war.
12.22.01 Edwin Black,
Author, IBM and the
Holocaust
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 8
12.24.00
12.24.26
Wladawsky-Berger: I really do believe that that particular accusation has been
fairly discredited as a serious accusation. That is, the fact that they had used
equipment, you know, that is a fact. But how they got it, how much co-operation
they got, and any kind of collusion, trying to connect dots that are not connected,
I think that’s the part that is discredited.
Generally, you sell computers and they are used in a variety of ways, and you
always hope they are used in the more positive ways possible. If you ever found
out they’re used in ways that are not positive, then you would hope that you stop
supporting that. But, do you always know? Can you always tell? Can you always
find out?
12.24.09 Irving
Wladawski-Berger,
Vice President, IBM
Technology and
Strategy Group
12.24.43 Headline: NAZIS HINT
‘PURGE’ OF JEWS IN
POLAND/’Special
Report’ From Invaded
Region Discusses
Possible Solution of
Problem/Group Europe’s
Largest/3,000,000
Population Involved –
‘Removal’ From Europe
Viewed as Benefit
12.24.52 New York Times Sept
13, 1939
12.24.56
12.25.20
Black: IBM would of course say that it had no control over its German subsidiary
but here in October 9th of 1941 a letter is being written directly to Thomas J.
Watson with all sorts of detail about the activities of the German subsidiary. None
of these machines were sold, they were all leased by IBM. And they had to be
serviced on site once a month. Even if that was at a concentration camp such as
Dachau Buchenwald.
This is a typical contract with IBM and the Third Reich, which was instituted in
1942. It’s not with the Dutch subsidiary. It’s not with the German subsidiary. It is
with the IBM corporation in New York.
12.25.35 Drucker : You know, as it happens I know that story. I discussed it more than
once with old Mr. Watson and I was around at the time. I’m not saying that
Watson didn’t know that the German government used punch cards. He
probably did know. After all, he had very few customers. Watson didn’t want to do
it. Was not because he thought it was immoral or not, but because Watson, with
a very keen sense of public relations, thought it was risky.
12.25.35 Peter Drucker,
Founder, Drucker
School of Management
12.25.46 July 12, 1937
Berlin
12.26.10 Narration:
It should not surprise us that corporate allegiance to profits will trump their
allegiance to any flag. A recent US Treasury Department report revealed
that in one week alone 57 US corporations were fined for trading with
official enemies of the United States, including terrorists, tyrants and
despotic regimes.
12.26.09 United States
Department of the
Treasury
12.26.10 Office of
Foreign Assets Control
12.26.13 Sanctions
Program and Country
Summaries
12.26.16 Amazon.com
12.26.18 Caterpillar, Inc.
12.26.21
Chevron/Texaco
12.26.23 Citibank, N.A.
12.26.25 Exxon Mobil
Corp.
12.26.27 Wal-Mart
Stores, Inc.
12.26.30 Wells Fargo
Bank
12.26.36
12.26.50
Archive Narrator: “…You can roughly locate any community somewhere along a
scale running all the way from democracy to despotism. This man makes it his
job to study these things..”
Man: “…Well, for one thing, avoid the comfortable idea that the mere form of
government can of itself safeguard a nation against despotism…”.
12.26.40 Democracy
12.26.42 Despotism
12.27.01 HOSTILE TAKEOVER
12.27.03
Narration:
For big business, despotism was often a useful tool for securing foreign
markets and pursuing profits.
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 9
12.27.10
12.27.35
One of the U.S. Marine Corps’ most highly decorated Generals, Smedley
Darlington Butler, by his own account, helped pacify Mexico for American
oil companies, Haiti and Cuba for National City Bank, Nicaragua for the
Brown Brothers Brokerage, the Dominican Republic for sugar interests,
Honduras for U.S. fruit companies, and China for Standard Oil.
General Butler’s services were also in demand in the United States itself in
the 1930s, as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sought to relieve the
misery of the depression through public enterprise and tougher
regulations on corporate exploitation and misdeeds.
12.27.51 Archive Narrator: “…More power to you President Roosevelt. The entire
country’s behind you. Thrilled with hope and patriotism…”
12.28.00
12.28.08
Narration:
But the country was not entirely behind the populist President. Large parts
of the corporate elite despised what Roosevelt’s “new deal” stood for.
And so, in 1934, a group of conspirators sought to involve General Butler
in a treasonous plan.
12.28.15 Archival: “…The plan as outlined to me was to form an organization of veterans
to use as a bluff, or as a club at least, to intimidate the government…”
12.28.24 Narration:
But the corporate cabal had picked the wrong man. Butler was fed up
being, what he called, a “gangster for Capitalism.”
12.28.32 Headline:
Universal
Newsreel/GEN. BUTLER
BARES “PLOT” BY
FASCISTS/Newtown
Square, PA.
12.28.35 Archive footage:
“… I appear before the congressional committee, the highest representation of
the American people, under subpoena to tell what I knew of activities which I
believed might lead to an attempt to set up a fascist dictatorship. The upshot of
the whole thing was that I was supposed to lead an organization of 500,000 men,
which would be able to take over the functions of Government…”
12.28.59
12.29.19
Narration:
A congressional committee ultimately found evidence of a plot to
overthrow Roosevelt. According to Butler, the conspiracy included
representatives of some of America’s top corporations, including
JP Morgan, Dupont and Goodyear Tire.
As today’s Chairman of Goodyear Tire knows, for corporations to dominate
government, a coup is no longer necessary.
12.29.17 Logo:
Goodyear #1 in tires
12.29.27 Gibara: Corporations have gone global. And by going global, the governments
have lost some control over corporations. Regardless of whether the corporation
can be trusted or cannot be trusted, governments today do not have over the
corporations the power that they had, and the leverage that they had 50 or 60
years ago. And that’s a major change. So, governments have become powerless
compared to what they were before.
12.29.37 Sam Gibara,
Chairman, Former
CEO, Goodyear,
world’s largest tire
corporation
12.29.58 Jackson: Capitalism today commands the towering heights, and has displaced
politics and politicians as the new high priests, and reigning oligarchs of our
system. So, capitalism and its principle protagonists and players, corporate
CEOs, have been accorded unusual power and access. This is not to deny the
significance of government and politicians but these are the new high priests.
12.29.59 Ira Jackson,
Director, Center for
Business and
Government/Kennedy
School, Harvard
12.30.27 Barry: In 1998 I was invited to Washington DC to attend this meeting that was
being put together by the national security agency called the Critical Thinking
Consortium. I remember standing there in this room and looking over on one side
of the room and we had CIA, NSA, DIA, FBI, Customs, Secret Service, and then
on the other side of the room we had Coca Cola, Mobile Oil, GTE and Kodak.
And I remember thinking, I am in the epicenter of the intelligence industry right
now. I mean, the line is not just blurring it’s just not there anymore. And to me it
spoke volumes as to how industry and government were consulting with each
other and working with each other.
12.30.45 Marc Barry,
Author, Spooked:
Espionage in
Corporate America
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 10
12.31.22
12.31.32
12.31.48
Archival footage: Quebec City protests 2001
Narration:
As 34 nations of the western hemisphere gathered to draft a far reaching
trade agreement, one that would lay the ground work to privatize every
resource and service imaginable, thousands of people from hundreds of
grassroots organizations joined to oppose it.
Canada’s top business lobbyists and its chief trade representative
discount the dissent in the streets. For them, the Americas’ 800 million
citizens speak with one voice.
WELCOME SUMMIT OF
THE AMERICAS
12.32.00
12.32.44
INT. QUEBEC CITY FTAA SUMMIT
D’Aquino: Nice to see you. Well done on your strong advocacy of truth, justice,
wisdom and all those things, eh?
Pettigrew: I was looking yesterday at the statements at the inauguration, and the
opening ceremony. What an extraordinary progress over the last 15 years. When
you heard such open…
D’Aquino: A common language.
Pettigrew: A common language. Yes, and from the most developed to the
least… It was extraordinary that now that we see the benefits of trade more and
more people want to buy in.
D’Aquino: Absolutely.
Pettigrew: Because we do realize that it helps everyone. From the poorer to the
better off. So…
Keyes: A lot of these countries are not saying they want to get off they want to
get on.
Pettigrew: Exactly. No one wants out. Everyone wants in.
D’Aquino: Anyway, well done.
Pettigrew: Thank you. So far so good.
12.32.08 Thomas
D’Aquino, President,
Business Council on
National Issues
12.32.11 Pierre
Pettigrew, Minister of
Trade, Canada
12.32.53 Robert Keyes,
President and CEO
Canadian Council for
International Business
12.33.06 Signage:
“bow your heads: the
corporations will now
lead us in prayer”
“everything in the store
is for sale”
“I am a trade barrier”
“Truth. Democracy.
Human Rights. Earth.”
“what corporation are
you from?”
12.33.27 Keyes: I’m inside, and this is all outside, so …that’s, uh, that’s the way it is. But,
uh…
Mark: What do you think when you look at all this?
Keyes: Well, it’s uh, I mean I think that it’s too bad that this has, that this has
erupted…
12.34.19 DEMOCRACY LTD
12.34.20 Keyes: Does there need to be some measure of accountability? Yes. And I think
the business community recognizes that. But that accountability is in the
marketplace. It’s with their shareholders. It’s with the public perception and the
public image that they are projecting. That’s…if, if companies don’t do what they
should be doing, they’re going to be punished in the marketplace, and that’s not
what any company wants.
12.34.47
Jackson: There’s a new market. These guys and gals aren’t out there because
government’s putting a gun to their head. Or because they’ve suddenly read a
book about transcendental meditation and global morality.
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 11
12.35.01
12.35.09
Wendy’s TV ad:
Man: My inner voice says honour my inner child.
Woman: Mine says love everyone.
Wendy’s CEO: My inner voice says I’d like a Wendy’s bacon mushroom melt.
Jackson: They’re there because they understand the market requires them to be
there. That there’s competitive advantage to be there.
12.35.16 Moody-Stuart: I’m listening to your concerns, I worry about climate, I worry
about pollution, I do not have all the answers to this. But we are prepared to work
with you, with society, with NGOs, with governments to address it. So you rebuild
the trust, so that you come back to a new kind of trust, and then the ultimate goal
is then to become the corporation of choice.
12.35.16 Sir Mark
Moody-Stuart, Former
Chairman, Royal Dutch
Shell
12.35.35 Shell
advertisement
12.35.42 Narrator: He believes that almost half our energy can one day come from
renewable sources. He’s been called a dreamer. And a crank.
Damian Miller: And I’ve been called a hippie.
Narrator: And more recently, a Project Manager for Shell.
12.36.00 Anderson: I ask myself oftentimes why so many companies subscribe to
corporate social responsibility. I’m not sure it’s because they necessarily want to
be responsible in an ultimate way, but because they want to be identified and
seen to be responsible. But who am I to judge? Who am I to judge? It’s better
they belong than not belong. It’s better that they make some public profession
than the opposite.
12.35.58 Everyone Has
Potential. Sometimes
People Just Need The
Resources To Realize
It./Kellogg’s Special
Responsibility/
Corporate Social
Responsibility/
Corporate
Responsibility/ Youth
Smoking Prevention –
Get practical information
and advice to help you
talk to your kids about
not smoking/
12.36.16 Ray Anderson,
CEO Interface, world’s
largest commercial
carpet manufacturer
12.36.36 Bernard: Social responsibility isn’t a deep shift because it’s a voluntary tactic. A
tactic, a reaction to a certain market at this point. And as the corporation reads
the market differently, it can go back. One day you see Bambi, next day you see
Godzilla.
12.36.36 Elaine
Bernard, Executive
Director, Trade Union
Program, Harvard
12.36.02 Friedman: How do you define socially responsible? What business is it of the
corporation to decide what’s socially responsible. That isn’t their expertise, that
isn’t what their stockholders ask them to do. So I think they’re going out of their
range and it certainly is not democratic.
12.36.04 Milton
Friedman, Nobel Prizewinning
economist
12.37.22 Monks: I don’t really care what the Chairman of General Motors thinks is an
appropriate level of emissions to come out the tailpipe of General Motors
automobiles. He may have a lot of scientists, he may be a very good person, but
I didn’t elect him to anything, he doesn’t have any power to speak for me. These
are decisions that must be made by government and not by corporations.
12.37.24 Robert
Monks, Shareholder
Activist
12.37.45 Klein: You take this to its logical conclusion one would have an image that we
are in fact at this, the end of the world is nigh. And we are all completely
brainwashed and there is no space left. And I don’t believe we’re there yet.
12.37.46 Naomi Klein,
Author NO LOGO
12.38.02 PSYCHO
THERAPIES
12.38.04 Klein: And I think it’s really important that we don’t overstate the case, and that
we admit that there are cracks and fissures in all of these corporate structures.
And sometimes when a corporation is concentrating on one particular project
they look the other way and all kinds of interesting things happen in the corner.
12.38.20 Shiva: It is the case in every period of history where injustice based on
falsehoods, based on taking away the right and freedoms of people to live and
survive with dignity, that eventually when you call a bluff, the tables turn.
12.38.22 Dr. Vandana
Shiva, Physicist,
ecologist, seed activist
12.38.35 Signage:
“votes for women”
12.38.38 “we shall
overcome”
12.38.51 Bernard: Ultimately capital puts its foot down somewhere. And anywhere it puts
its foot down it can be held accountable.
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 12
12.39.03 Kernaghan: Originally Wal-Mart and Kathy Lee Gifford had said, “why should we
believe you that children work in this factory?” What we didn’t tell them was that
Wendy Diaz, in the centre of the picture, was on a plane to the United States.
This is Wendy Dias. She comes to the United States. She’s unstoppable.
12.39.18 Archive Announcer:
“…Congress heard testimony today from children who testified they were
exploited by sweatshops overseas…”
12.39.25
12.39.43
12.39.51
Kernaghan: Kathy Lee Gifford apologized to Wendy Diaz. It was the most
amazing thing I’d seen. This powerful celebrity leans over and says, “Wendy,
please believe me, I didn’t know these conditions existed. And now that I do, I’m
going to work with you, I’m going to work with these other people and it’ll never
happen again.” And that night we signed an agreement with Kathy Lee Gifford.
Archival footage:
“… I thought it would be a relatively easy process, and it isn’t. As for every
question I have, there seem to be five questions that come back at me…”
Kernighan: As far as Wal-Mart goes and Kathy Lee, pretty much everything
returned to sweatshop conditions. But because this was fought out on television
for weeks, this incident with Kathy Lee Gifford actually took the sweatshop issue
took every single part of the country. And so, frankly, after that, there’s hardly a
single person in this country who doesn’t know about child labour, or
sweatshops, or starvation wages.
12.40.16
12.40.25
TITLE CARD:
Several years after the Walmart controversy, Kathy Lee handbags were still
being made in China by workers paid three cents per hour.
TITLE CARD:
Under pressure from the National Labor Committee, Gap Inc. allowed
independent monitoring of its El Salvador factories, becoming the first
transnational corporation ever to do so anywhere.
12.40.31 Bernard: So what we need to do is to look at the very roots of the legal form that
created this beast, and we need to think who can hold them accountable.
12.40.45 Chomsky: They’re not graven in stone. They can be dismantled. And in fact
most states have laws which require that they be dismantled.
12.40.58
Lafferty: For too long now, giant corporations have been allowed to undermine
democracy here in the United States and all over the world. But today, the
National Lawyers Guild and 29 other groups and individuals are fighting back.
We are calling upon State Attorney General Dan Lungren to comply with
California law and to revoke the Corporate charter of the Union Oil Company of
California for its repeated and grievous offences.
12.40.58 Jim Lafferty,
National Lawyers Guild
12.41.24 Benson: This is a statute that is well known. It has been used. It can be used.
What this will mean is the dissolution of the Union Oil Company of California and
the sale of its assets under careful court orders to others who will carry on the
public interest.
12.41.30 Robert Benson,
Professor of Law, UCLA
12.41.41
12.42.00
Archival Narration:
Robinson: This is nothing more than just a smear campaign. This company has
been part of California’s economy for over a hundred years, thousands of jobs.
Doesn’t mean it’s never made any mistakes — paid for those mistakes. But this
demonizing of a company. I think I’m in a time warp or something. That I fell
asleep and I woke up 50 years ago when we heard that kind of rhetoric.
Benson: Well we have a very, very broad set of people angry, very angry at this
corporation—
Robinson: —Well it’s a broad set of people from the left of the spectrum who
don’t produce anything except hot air.
12.41.40 Week in
Review
12.41.46 Jim Robinson/
Senior Vice
President/U.S. Chamber
of Commerce
12.42.10 Lafferty: From its complicity in unspeakable human rights violations overseas
against women, gays, labourers and indigenous peoples, to its efforts to subvert
US foreign policy and deceive the courts, the public and its own stockholders,
Unocal is emblematic of corporate abuse and corporate power run amok.
Signage:
“Allegation One:
Ecocide: Environmental
Devastation”
“Allegation Two: Unfair
and Unethical Treatment
of Workers”
“Allegation Three:
Complicity in Crimes
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 13
Against Humanity:
Aiding Oppression of
Women”
“Allegation Four:
Complicity in Crimes
Against Humanity:
Aiding Oppression of
Homosexuals”
“Allegation Five:
Complicity in Crimes
Against Humanity:
Enslavement and Forced
Labour”
12.42.30 Xziang: Extending a business deal with Burma Army is immoral. Unocal cannot
do business in Burma without supporting that hopeless regime. It cannot justify…
12.42.31 Don Xui
Xziang, Burmese
Refugee
12.42.47
TITLE CARD:
The Attorney General of California refused to revoke the corporate charter
of Unocal but did acknowledge his office had the power to do so.
12.42.53
12.43.05
Moore: The curse for me has been the fact that in making these, you know,
documentary films, I’ve seen that they actually can impact change, so I’m just
compelled to just keep making them.
Moore: Yep, that’s me, doing what I do. All year long I give big companies a hard
time, but at Christmas time I like to set aside my differences and reach out to big
business like cigarette companies.
“…Deck the halls with boughs of holly…
12.43.18 Philip Morris
Headquarters/Maker of
Marlboro Cigarettes”
12.43.30
12.44.00
12.44.33
Moore: I went to Littleton Colorado, where the Columbine shooting took place,
and I didn’t know this, but when I arrived, I learned what the primary job is of the
parents of the kids who go to Columbine High School. The number one job in
Littleton Colorado: they work for Lockheed Martin, building weapons of mass
destruction. But they don’t see the connect between what they do for a living and
what their kids do at school. Or did at school. And so I’m kind of, you know, up on
my, you know, high horse, thinking about this, and I thought, you know, I said to
my wife, we both are sons and daughters of auto workers in Flint Michigan.
There isn’t a single one of us, back in Flint—any of us, including us—who ever
stopped to think, this thing we do for a living, the building of automobiles, is
probably the single biggest reason why the polar ice caps are going to melt and
end civilization as we know it.
There’s no connect between, “I’m just an assembler on an assembly line,
building a car, which is good for people, and society, it moves them around.” But
never stop to think about the larger picture, and the larger responsibility, of what
we’re doing.
If the question is what
do people mean by
weapons of mass
destruction? Is it really
true that many parents
really work at
Lockheed Martin?
12.44.48 Moore: Ultimately, we have to, as individuals, accept responsibility for our
collective action and the larger harm that it causes, you know, in our world.
12.45.00 Archive Newscaster:
“…Today the first of two historic town-hall meetings will get under way in Arcata,
California. 61% of Arcatans voted in favour of publicly discussing whether
democracy is even possible when large corporations wield so much wealth and
power under law. They also voted to form a committee to ensure democratic
control over corporations in Arcata…”
12.45.02 Arcata,
California Pop. 15,000
12.45.12 Signage:
“Yes to Democracy Yes
on Measure F”
12.45.21 Field: Corporations are not accountable to the democratic process. That’s what
this is about. I don’t want to make decisions about everything that goes on in their
corporation, but I do have a strong belief that they need to be held accountable to
us.
12.45.23 Amy Field,
Social worker
12.45.37 Kim: If we don’t like certain products, if you don’t like Pepsi-Cola, Bank of
America, well, if you don’t like what they do, don’t use ‘em. That’s the way I see
the people’s power is.
12.45.41 Suk Choo Kim,
Business owner
12.45.49 DeMontigny: You have a lot more money than me. You have more votes than I
do. If we use the model of boycott and voting with your dollars. That’s an
undemocratic situation.
12.45.50 Solomon
DeMontigny, Baker
12.46.00 Barchilon: What are we afraid of? I mean are all the businesses going to leave
Arcata? I don’t think so, and if they did, we’d deal with it, or we’d figure it out, or
we’d do something different. We’re creative people (cheers) I just don’t see why
we’re afraid.
12.46.00 Nicole
Barchilon Frank, Office
manager
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 14
12.46.13 Hamilton: If you think it’s tough making a decision where to buy your stuff today,
how tough to you think it is when there’s only one provider, and it’s the State. And
by the way, you don’t get to have this little democracy forum in those
communities either.
12.46.14 Bruce
Hamilton, Business
owner
12.46.22 Gaydos: People that say that they fear their government, I really hope that they
understand that they’re allowed to participate in their government, they’re not
allowed to participate in anything the corporations do. So, don’t fear the
government. Help it be the government that you won’t fear. [cheers, applause]
12.46.25 Susan Gaydos,
Environmental
technician
12.46.37 Collins: If this many people around the country would do this instead of watching
Superbowl Sunday, our nation would be controlled by the people, not by the
corporations. [applause]
12.46.37 Ed Collins,
Counselor
12.46.45
12.46.49
12.46.58
Archive: Newscaster [Arcata TV]
“…No more chain restaurants in Arcata after a long awaited decision by the…”
TITLE CARD:
A bylaw was ultimately passed, capping the number of chain restaurants at
their present number (nine).
TITLE CARD:
Licking and Porter Townships in Pennsylvania, however, made history –by
adopting ordinances that eliminate a corporation’s ability to claim any
constitutional rights as a “person”.
12.47.07
12.47.36
12.47.55
Shiva: Over the past decade we have been gaining ground. And when I say we, I
mean ordinary people committed to the welfare of all humanity. All people
irrespective of gender and class and race and religion. All species on the planet.
We managed to take the biggest government and one of the largest chemical
companies to court on the case of neem. And win a case against them.
W R Grace and the US government’s patent on neem was revoked by a case we
brought along with the Greens of European Parliament and the International
Organic Agriculture Movement. We won because we worked together.
We have overturned nearly 99% of the basmati patent of RiceTek. Again,
because we worked as a world wide coalition, old women in Texas, scientists in
India, activists sitting in Vancouver, a little basmati action group
Signage:
12.47.09 “no patents on
theft!”12.47.14
“Biotechnology/giving
pollution a life of its’ own”
12.47.20 Dr. Vandana
Shiva, Physicist,
ecologist, seed activist
12.47.29 United States
Patent/Locke et al./
Hydrophobic Extracted
Neem Oil – A Novel
Insecticide
12.47.40 Subtitles:
“Long live farmers’
struggle!/Power to the
Green
Revolutionaries!/Neem
tree patent is our right!”
12.48.04 Signage:
“no to biopiracy! Hands
off basmati rice
12.48.12 Shiva: We stopped the Third World being viewed as the pirate and we showed
the corporations were the pirate.
12.48.23
12.48.47
Shiva: Look how little it took for Gandhi to work against the salt laws of the
British where the British decided the way they would make their armies and
police forces bigger is just tax the salt. And all that Gandhi did was walk to the
beach, pick up the salt and say nature gives it for free, we need it, we’ve always
made it. We will violate your laws. We will continue to make salt. We’ve had a
similar commitment for the last decade in India, that any law that makes it illegal
to save seed is a law not worth following. We will violate it because saving seed
is a duty to the earth and to future generations.
12.49.04
Shiva: We thought it would really be symbolic. It is more than symbolic. It is
becoming a survival option. Farmers who grow their own seeds, save their own
seeds, don’t buy pesticides, have three fold more incomes than farmers who are
locked into the chemical treadmill, depending on Monsanto and Cargill.
12.49.24 Shiva: We have managed to create alternatives that work for people.
12.29.28 Rifkin: There are many tools for bringing back community. But the importance is
not the tools. I mean there’s litigation, there’s legislation, there’s direct action,
there’s education, boycotts, social investment… There’s many, many ways to
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 15
address issues of corporate power. But in the final analysis, what’s really
important is the vision. You have to have a better story.
12.49.50 Anderson: (during live speech): Do I know you well enough to call you fellow
plunderers? There is not an industrial company on earth, not an institution of any
kind, not mine, not yours, not anyone’s that is sustainable. I stand convicted by
me myself alone, not by anyone else, as a plunderer of the earth, but not by our
civilization’s definition. By our civilization’s definition, I’m a captain of industry. In
the eyes of many a kind of modern day hero. But really, really, the first industrial
revolution is flawed, it is not working. It is unsustainable. It is the mistake, and we
must move on to another and better industrial revolution, and get it right this time.
12.50.03 Ray
Anderson, Addressing
civic and business
leaders, North Carolina
State U.
12.50.50 Anderson: When I think of what could be I visualise an organisation of people
committed to a purpose, and the purpose is doing no harm. I see a company that
has severed the umbilical cord to earth for its raw materials, taking raw materials
that have already been extracted and using them over and over again, driving
that process with renewable energy.
12.51.25 Anderson: It is our plan, it remains our plan to climb Mount Sustainability. That
mountain that is higher than Everest. Infinitely higher than Everest, far more
difficult to scale. That point at the top symbolizing zero footprint.
12.51.44
12.51.48
TITLE CARD:
Since 1995, Interface has reduced its ecological footprint by one third.
TITLE CARD:
Its stated goal is to be sustainable by 2020.
12.51.53 Grossman: So we got to undo a lot of things in order to be smart enough to do
this really dangerous and risky and difficult work, you know, in the best way that
we possibly can and that means people coming together and learning and a
whole lot of stuff that we just don’t know that has been driven out of the culture,
driven out of the society, driven out of our minds. That to me is the most exciting
thing. That is happening. It’s happening all over the world now.
12.51.53 Richard
Grossman, Cofounder,
Program on
Corporations, Law and
Democracy
12.52.15 Olivera: At the climax of the struggle, the army stayed in their barracks; the
police also remained in their stations; the members of Congress became
invisible; the Governor went into hiding; and afterwards, he resigned. There
wasn’t any authority left.
12.52.39 Olivera: The only legitimate authority was the people gathered at the city square
making decisions in large assemblies. And, at the end, they made the decisions
about the water. I think people, all of us, young and old, were able to taste,…
12.53.02 Olivera: …to quench our thirst for democracy.
12.53.06 Protestor: “…brothers and sisters, we’ve done it!”
12.53.13 Olivera: We’ve inherited a state company with technical problems and with
financial and legal problems, with administrative problems. We are dealing with
all of them. If we could prove that ordinary working people are able to resolve
their own problems, we could be facing the possibility that all which was
privatized, all that was sold, all that is in the hands of the corporations,…
12.53.47 Olivera: be returned to the people’s hands. So, I learned, at that time, a very
important lesson, that one should never underestimate the power of the people.
12.53.58 Olivera: Seeing the slogan that I always repeated in the demonstrations: The
people, united, will never be defeated! Become a reality, was just incredible for
me.
12.54.12
12.54.20
TITLE CARD:
Cochabamba’s victory cost 6 dead and 175 injured, including two children
blinded by tear gas.
TITLE CARD:
Inspired by Cochabomba’s example, popular movements around the world
continue to successfully resist water privatization schemes.
12.54.29 PROGNOSIS
12.54.31 Kernaghan: Sometimes it surprises me how effective you can actually be. After
we beat the Gap I walked past these Gap stores and I looked at them and I think
my god there’s like 2000 of these stores across the country. Look at all that
concrete, look at the glass, look at all the staff people, look at all the clothing.
Look at that power. You can still reach these companies. You can still have an
effect.
12.54.37 Signage:
“Is the GAP nice to child
laborers? Ask the real
GAPKids of South
America”
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 16
12.54.54 Olivera: Small battles are being won around the world, but, I think people are
losing. I do see the present and the future of our children as very dark.
12.55.14 Olivera: But I trust the people’s capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion.
12.55.20 Grossman: We can change the government. That’s the only way we’re going to
redesign, rethink, reconstitute what capital and property can do.
12.55.32
12.55.40
Shiva: Fifteen corporations would like to control the conditions of our life, and
millions of people are saying not only do we not need you
we can do it better. We are going to create systems that nourish the earth and
nourish human beings. And these are not marginal experiments they are the
mainstay of large numbers of communities across the world. That is where the
future lies.
12.55.55
12.56.16
12.56.35
12.57.03
Moore: You know, I’ve often thought it’s very ironic that I’m able to do all this and
yet what am I on? I’m on networks, I’m distributed by studios that are owned by
large corporate entities. Now why would they put me out there when I am
opposed to everything that they stand for? And I spend my time on their dime
opposing what they believe in.
Okay? Well, it’s because they don’t believe in anything. They put me on there
because they know that there’s millions of people that want to see my film, or
watch the TV show, and so they’re going to make money. And I’ve been able to
get my stuff out there because I’m driving my truck through this incredible flaw in
capitalism. The greed flaw.
The thing that says the rich man will sell you the rope to hang himself with if he
thinks he can make a buck off it. Well, I’m the rope. I hope. I’m part of the rope.
And they also believe that when people watch my stuff, or maybe watch this film,
or whatever, they think that, you know, well, you know, well you know what, they’ll
watch this and they won’t do anything, because we’ve done such a good job of
numbing their minds and dumbing them down, you know, they’ll never affect,
people aren’t going to leave the couch and go and do something political.
They’re convinced of that. I’m convinced of the opposite. I’m convinced that a few
people are going to leave this movie theatre, or get up off the couch and go and
do something, anything and get this world back in our hands.
CREDITS
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 2 PAGE 17

]]> http://dgmoen.net/blog/2008/09/28/the-corporation-transcript-part-two/feed/ The Corporation (transcript part one) http://dgmoen.net/blog/2008/09/28/the-corporation-transcript-part-one/ http://dgmoen.net/blog/2008/09/28/the-corporation-transcript-part-one/#comments Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:55:36 +0000 DGM Mark Oseland transcript http://dgmoen.net/blog/2008/09/28/the-corporation-transcript-part-one/ FEATURE TRANSCRIPT: PART 1 TEXT
10.00.08
10.00.16
10.00.35
Narration:
150 years ago, the business corporation was a relatively insignificant
institution.
Today, it is all-pervasive.
Like the Church, the Monarchy, and the Communist Party in other times and
places, the corporation is today’s dominant institution.
This documentary examines the nature, evolution, impacts, & possible futures
of the modern business corporation.
Initially given a narrow legal mandate, what has allowed today’s corporation to
achieve such extraordinary power and influence over our lives?
We begin our inquiry as scandals threaten to trigger a wide debate about the
lack of public control over big corporations.
10.00.51 News clip: George Bush:
“I do think there is an overhang over the market of distrust. Listen 95%, or some
percent, huge percentage of the business community are honest, and uh, reveal all
their assets, got compensation programs that are balanced. But there are some bad
apples…”
10.01.13 Narration:
The media debate about the basic operating principles of the corporate world
was quickly reduced to a game of “follow the leader”.
10.01.20 I still happen to think the United States is the greatest place in the world to invest. We
have some shakeups that are going on because of a few bad apples.
10.01.27 ACCOUNTING FOR GREED
10.01.29 PROTECTING YOUR MONEY
FOCUS: CORPORATE CRACKDOWN
10.01.32 Lyrics to “Bad Apple”:
“…Some people call me a bad apple, well I may be bruised, but I still taste sweet.
Some people call me a bad apple, but I may be the sweetest apple on the tree…”
Crosshair graphic on Worldcom, Martha Stuart Living, Enron, Arthur Anderson,
Merrill Lynch
Worldcom Arrests / split screen w/ B&W disenchanted youth eating apple
Arrest of older man with white hair
CU B&W rotten apple
Martha Stuart (“Covering Crooked CEOS)
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 1 PAGE 1
Ken Lay straightens his tie
Man arrested
Same man being sworn in / split screen w/ B&W disenchanted youth looking at his
apple
B&W disenchanted youth throws his apple / split screen w/ Worldcom CEO &
financial advisor Grubman (?) swearing in. Graphic: Hardball Bush’s Corporate
Crackdown
10.01.52 Man with white hair: These are not just a bunch of bad apples.
10.01.55 CNBC host: This is just a few bad apples.
10.01.57 Sarbanes: It’s not just a few bad apples
10.01.59 Rep. Scott McInnis: We’ve gotta get rid of the bad apples… you can start with Tyco.
Lou Dobbs: Bad apples
10.02.03 Rep. Scott McInnis: We know all about Worldcom.
10.02.04 Woman announcer: Bad apples
10.02.05 Rep. Scott McInnis: Xerox corporation
10.02.06 Greta Van Sustern: Bad apples
10.02.07 Rep. Scott McInnis: Arthur Anderson
10.02.08 Chris Mathews: Bad apples
10.02.09 Rep. Scott McInnis: Enron, obviously
10.02.10 Ari Fleischer: Bad apples
10.02.11 Rep. Scott McInnis: Kmart Corporation
10.02.12 Red haired guy (in three panel screen): The fruit cart is getting a little more full.
10.02.15 Charles Lewis: I don’t think it’s just a few apples, unfortunately. I think this is the
worst crisis of confidence in business
10.02.
21
Narration:
What’s wrong with this picture? Can’t we pick a better metaphor to describe
the dominant institution of our time?
Through the voices of CEOs, whistleblowers, brokers, gurus and spies—
insiders and outsiders—we present the corporation as a paradox, an
institution that creates great wealth, but causes enormous, and often hidden
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 1 PAGE 2
harms.
10.02.51 THE
CORPORATION
10.02.55 A
DOCUMENTARY
BY:
MARK ACHBAR
JENNIFER
ABBOTT
JOEL BAKAN
10.03.01 Sir Mark Moody-Stuart: I see the corporation as part of a jigsaw in society as a
whole, which if you remove it, the picture’s incomplete. But equally, if it’s the only
part, it’s not going to work.
10.03.16 Hank Mckinnell: A sports team. Some of us are blocking and tackling. Some of us
are running the ball. Some of us are throwing the ball. But we all have a common
purpose, which is to succeed as an organization.
10.03.28 Wigand: A corporation’s like a family unit. People in a corporation work together for a
common end.
10.03.37 Badaracco: like the telephone system it reaches almost everywhere. Its
extraordinarily powerful, its pretty hard to avoid. And it transforms the lives of people,
I think on balance, for the better.
10.03.52
Ira Jackson (V/O): The eagle. Soaring, clear eyed, competitive, prepared to strike,
but not a vulture. Noble, visionary, majestic, that people can believe in, and be
inspired by, that creates such a lift that it soars..
10.01.15 I can see that being a good logo for the principled company… Okay guys, enough
bullshit
Ira Jackson,
Director, Center
for Business and
Government,
Kennedy School,
Harvard
University
10.04.25 Archival footage:
B&w / business transaction
10.04.29 Howard Zinn (V/O): Corporations are artificial creations. You might say they’re
monsters trying to devour as much profit as possible at anyone’s expense.
10.04.33 THE
BIGGEST THING
SINCE CREATION
10.04.42 Michael Moore (V/O): I think of a whale. A gentle, big fish, which could swallow you
in an instant.
10.04.51 Mary Zepernick (V/O): Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, his creation, has overwhelmed
and overpowered him, as the corporate form has done with us.
10.05.12
10.05.34
Keyes: The word “corporate” gets attached in almost, you know, in a pejorative
sense to— and gets married with— the word “a-gen-da.” And one hears a lot about
the corporate a-gen-da. As though it is evil. As though it is an agenda which is trying
to take over the world.
Personally, I don’t use the word “corporation” I use the word “business.” I will use
the word use the word “company.” I will use the words “business community.” Cause
I think that is a much fairer representation than zeroing in on just this word
“corporation.”
10.05.15 Robert
Keys, President
and CEO,
Canadian Council
for International
Business
Protesters signage: 10.05.25 Protect the environment not corporate profit
10.05.30 Fight corporate fascism stop WTO
10.05.30 Corporate Share / Your Share
10.05.54 ARCHIVAL: “…What is a corporation?…” What is a
corporation
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 1 PAGE 3
10.06.00
10.06.08
10.06.13
Badaracco: Its funny that I’ve taught in a business school for as long as I have
without ever having been asked so pointedly to say what I think a corporation is.
Archival:”…it is one form of business ownership…”
Badaracco: It’s a group of individuals working together to serve a variety of
objectives the principal one of which is earning large, growing, sustained, legal
returns for the people who own the business.
Joe Badaracco,
Professor of
Business Ethics,
Harvard Business
School
10.06.28 BIRTH
10.06.33
10.06.56
Anderson: The modern Corporation has grown out of the industrial age. The
industrial age began in 1712 when an Englishman named Thomas Newcumen
invented a steam driven pump to pump water out of the English coalmine, so the
English coalminers could get more coal to mine, rather than hauling buckets of water
out of the mine.
It was all about productivity, more coal per man-hour. That was the dawn of the
industrial age. And then it became more steel per man hour, more textiles per man
hour, more automobiles per man hour, and today, it’s more chips per man hour, more
gizmos per man hour, the system is basically the same, producing more
sophisticated products today.
10.06.39 Ray
Anderson, CEO
Interface, world’s
largest
commercial carpet
manufacturer
10.07.23
10.07.31
Chomsky: The dominant role of corporations in our lives is essentially a product of
the, roughly the past century.
Corporations were originally associations of people who were chartered by a state to
perform some particular function. Like a group of people want to build a bridge over
the Charles River, or something like that.
10.07.23 Noam
Chomsky,
Institute
Professor, MIT
10.07.31 text: “An
Act to incorporate a
Mechanic bank in
the City of New
York, Passed
March 23rd, 1810
10.07.44
10.08.00
Zepernick: There were very few chartered corporations in early United States
history. And the ones that existed had clear stipulations in their state issued charters.
How long they could operate? The amount of capitalization.
What they made or did or maintained, a turnpike whatever—was in their charter and
they didn’t do anything else. They didn’t own or couldn’t own another corporation.
Their shareholders were liable. And so on.
10.07.49 Mary
Zepernick,
Coordinator,
Program on
Corporations, Law
and Democracy
10.08.02 text: “An
Act: For supplying
the City of New
York with pure and
wholesome water…
passed 2d April
1799}
10.08.14
10.08.27
Grossman: In both law and the culture, the corporation was considered a
subordinate entity that was a gift from the people in order to serve the public good.
So, you have that history, and we shouldn’t be misled by it, it’s not as if those were
the halcyon days, when all corporations served the public trust, but there’s a lot to
learn from that.
10.08.16 Richard
Grossman, Cofounder,
Program
on Corporations,
Law and
Democracy
10.08.20: “…prayed
for the privilege of
being
incorporated…”
10.09.40 Zepernick: The Civil War and the Industrial Revolution created enormous growth in
corporations. And so there was an explosion of railroads who got large federal
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 1 PAGE 4
subsidies of land. Banking, heavy manufacturing. And corporate lawyers, a century
and a half ago, realized that they needed more power to operate, and wanted to
remove some of the constraints that had historically been placed on the corporate
form.
10.09.21
10.09.27
Zinn: The 14th Amendment was passed at the end of the Civil War to give equal
rights to black people. And therefore it said, “no State can deprive any person of life,
liberty or property without due process of law.”
And that was intended to prevent the States from taking away life, liberty or property
from black people as they had done for so much of our history. And what happens is
the corporations come into court and corporation lawyers are very clever., and they
say, “oh you can’t deprive a person of life, liberty or property. We are a person, a
corporation is a person.” And so Supreme Court goes along with that.
10.09.21 Howard
Zinn, Historian;
Author, A
People’s History
of the United
States
10.09.54 Zepernick: And what was particularly grotesque about this was that the 14th
amendment was passed to protect newly freed slaves. So, for instance, between
1890 and 1910, there were 307 cases brought before the court under the 14th
amendment. 288 of these brought by corporations, 19 by African Americans.
10.09.55 “…be
persons in law…”
10.10.26 Grossman: Six hundred thousand people were killed to get rights for people, and
then with strokes of the pen over the next thirty years, judges applied those rights to
capital and property while stripping them from people.
10.10.39 book bind:
United States
Supreme Court
Reports
10.10.43 State
statue requiring
separate
accommodations
for white and
colored persons in
coaches on
railroads – 15th and
14th Constitutional
Amendments 0
interstate
commerce – police
power denying
compensation
10.10.45
COLORED
10.10.52 A LEGAL “PERSON”
10.10.56
10.11.06
10.11.11
10.11.28
Archive footage:
Man 1: “Every body makes a mistake once in awhile. But I just can’t be personally
responsible. That’s one of the weaknesses of a partnership. Isn’t it, Sid?”
Man 2: “Well, maybe you’d better incorporate the store.”
Man 1: “Incorporate?!”
Man 2: “Yes. Incorporating would give you the big advantage of what you want right
now - limited liability. You start with a group of people, who want to invest their money
in a company. Then these people apply for a charter as a corporation.
This government issues a charter to that corporation. Now that corporation operates
legally as an individual person. It is not a group of people. It is under the law, a legal
person.”
10.11.28
Government
10.11.32 Fairview
Clothing Store
Incorporated
10.11.42 ARCHIVE NARRATOR: Imperial Steel Incorporated has many of the legal rights of a
person. It can buy and sell property. It can borrow money. It can sue in court, and be
sued. It carries on a business. Imperial Steel, along with thousands of other legal
persons, is a part of our daily living. It is a member of our society.
Imperial Steel Co.
Inc; Employees
Entrance
10.12.09 Narration:
Having acquired the legal rights and protections of a “person”, the question
arises: “What kind of person is the corporation?”
10.12.20
10.12.31
Chomsky: Corporations were given the rights, of immortal persons. But then special
kinds of persons. Persons who had no moral conscience.
These are a special kind of persons which are designed by law, to be concerned only
for their stockholders. And not, say, what are sometimes called their stakeholders,
like the community or the work force or whatever.
10.12.46 Monks: The great problem of having corporate citizens is that they aren’t like the rest
of us. As Baron Thurlow in England is supposed to have said “they have no soul to
save, and they have no body to incarcerate.”
10.12.47 Robert
Monks, Corporate
governance
advisor
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 1 PAGE 5
10.13.01 Moore: I believe the mistake that a lot of people make when they think about
corporations, is they think you know, corporations are like us…
10.13.02 Michael
Moore, Filmmaker,
author
10.13.08
10.13.14
10.13.18
10.13.20
10.13.24
10.13.29
10.13.31
10.13.34
Streeters:
Woman in jean jacket: General Electric - is a kind, old man with lots of stories
Black couple: Nike – young, energetic
Black dude w/sunglasses: Microsoft – aggressive
White dude w/glasses: McDonald’s – young, outgoing, enthusiastic
White dude: Monsanto - immaculately dressed
Woman w/sunglasses: Disney – goofy
Woman on bike: The Body Shop – um, deceptive
Black couple:
man – very lovely
woman – (laughter) do you know what The Body Shop is?
man – nope (laughter)
10.13.40 Moore: They think they have feelings, they have politics, they have belief systems,
they really only have one thing: the bottom line. How to make as much money as they
can in any given quarter. That’s it.
10.13.51 Archival footage: b&w students around a table
Boy: Of course they make a profit, and it’s a good thing. That’s the incentive that
makes capitalism work. To give us more of the things that we need. That’s the
incentive that other economic systems lack.
10.14.04 Moody-Stuart: People accuse us of only paying attention to the economic leg,
because they think that’s what a business person’s mindset is, it’s just money. And
it’s not so, because we as business people know that we need to certainly address
the environment, but also we need to be seen as constructive members of society.
10.14.04 Sir Mark
Moody-Stuart,
Former Chairman,
Royal Dutch Shell
10.14.29 Moore: There are companies that do good for the communities. They produce
services and goods that are of value to all of us, that make our lives better, and that’s
a good thing. The problem comes in, in the profit motivation here, because these
people, there’s no such thing as enough.
10.14.49
10.15.00
Moody-Stuart: And I always counter-point out, there’s no organization on this planet,
that can neglect it’s economic foundation.
Even someone living under a banyan tree is dependent on support from someone.
Economic lack has to be addressed by everyone – it’s not just a business issue.
10.15.14
10.15.26
Narration:
But, unlike someone under a banyan tree, all publicly traded corporation have
been structured — through a series of legal decisions — to have a peculiar and
disturbing characteristic.
They are required — by law —- to place the financial interests of their owners
above competing interests.
In fact, the corporation is legally bound to put its bottom line ahead of
everything else, even the public good.
10.15.43 Chomsky: That’s not a law of nature that’s a very specific decision, in fact a judicial
decision. So they’re concerned only for the short term profit of their, stockholders who
are very highly concentrated.
10.15.43 Noam
Chomsky,
Institute
Professor, MIT
10.15.58
10.16.15
Monks: To whom do these companies owe loyalty? What does loyalty mean? Well,
it turns out that that was a rather naïve concept anyway as corporations are always
owed obligation to themselves to get large and to get profitable.
In doing this, it tends to be more profitable to the extent it can make other people pay
the bills for its impact on society. There ‘s a terrible word that economists use for this
called “externalities”.
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 1 PAGE 6
10.16.30 Friedman: An externality is the effect of a transaction between two individuals on a
third party who has not consented to, or played any role in, the carrying out of that
transaction. And there are real problems in that area there’s no doubt about it.
10.16.30 Milton
Friedman, Nobel
Prize-winning
Economist
10.16.50
10.17.09
Anderson: Running a business is a tough proposition, there are costs to be
minimized at every turn, and at some point the corporation says, you know, let
somebody else deal with that. Let’s let somebody else supply the military power to
the Middle East to protect the oil at its source,
let’s let somebody else build the roads that we can drive these automobiles on, let’s
let somebody else have those problems, and that is where externalities come from,
that notion of, let somebody else deal with that – I got all I can handle myself
10.17.27 Monks: A corporation is an externalizing machine in the same way that a shark is a
killing machine. Each one is designed in a very efficient way, to accomplish particular
objectives. In the achievement of those objectives, there isn’t any question of
malevolence or of will, the enterprise has within it, and the shark has within it, those
characteristics that enable it to do that for which it was designed.
10.17.55 Anderson: So, the pressure’s on the corporation to deliver results now, and to
externalize any cost that this unwary or uncaring public will allow it to externalize.
10.18.09 CASE
HISTORIES
10.18.18 Narration:
To determine the kind of personality that drives the corporation to behave like
an externalizing machine, we can analyze it, like a psychiatrist would a patient.
We can even formulate a diagnosis, on the basis of typical case histories of
harm it has inflicted on others selected from a universe of corporate activity.
Story of Stories:
10.18.39 Harm to workers: Layoffs [Termination Notice]
10.18.45 Harm to workers: Union Busting
10.18.49 Harm to workers: Factory Fires
10.18.54 Harm to workers: Sweatshops
10.18.55 Kernaghan: (enters office) Well, this is the office of the National Labor Committee
here in the garment area of New York City. It’s a little bit disheveled. These are all
from different campaigns. To make this stuff concrete as possible, we purchased all
of the products from the factories that we’re talking about.
10.18.57 Charles
Kernaghan,
Director of
National Labor
Committee
10.19.16 This shirt sells for 14 dollars and 99 cents. And the women who made this shirt got
paid 3 cents. Liz Claiborne jackets, made in El Salvador. The jackets are 178 dollars,
and the workers were paid 74 cents for every jacket they made. Alpine car stereos,
31 cents an hour. It’s not just sneakers. It’s not just apparel. It’s everything.
10.19.43 We were in Honduras and some workers – they knew the kind of work we did - and
they approached us, these young workers. And they said, conditions in our factory
are horrible. Will you please meet with us? And we said we would. But you can’t
meet in the developing world, you can’t walk up to a factory with your notebook and
workers come out and interview them. I mean, there’s goons, there’s spies, the
military police. So you do everything in a clandestine manner.
10.20.08
10.20.17
We’re about to start the meeting, and in walk three guys. Very tough looking guys.
The company had found out about our meeting and sent these spies.
Obviously, we didn’t have the meeting.
But these young girls were really bright. And as they were leaving, away from the
eyesight of the spies, they started to put their hands underneath the table. And I put
my palm under there, put my hand under there and they put into my hand their pay
stubs so we’d know who they were, what they were paid and the labels that they
made in the factory so we’d know who they worked for. And I took my hand out after
everyone had left and in the palm of my hand was the face of Kathy Lee Gifford.
10.20.43 But the bottom of it is the interesting part “A portion of the proceeds from the sale of
this garment will be donated to various children’s charities.” It’s very touching. Gets
you right here. Wal-Mart is telling you if you purchase these pants, and Kathy Lee is
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 1 PAGE 7
telling you, purchase these pants, you’re going to help children. The problem was the
people who handed us the label were 13 years of age.
10.21.05
10.21.17
Kernighan: Do many people in her family work
Girl: just me.
Kernighan: How many people do you support?
Girl: Eight people?
Kernighan: Eight people, and how do you do it with that salary, is it enough?
Girl: No.
10.21.19
10.21.55
Walker: Let’s look at it from a different point of view. Let’s look at it from the point of
view of the, the people in Bangladesh who are starving to death, the people in China
who are starving to death and the only thing that they have to offer to anybody that is
worth anything is their low cost labour. And in effect what they’re saying to the world
is they have this big flag that says “come over and hire us, we will work for ten cents
an hour.
Because ten cents an hour will buy us the rice that we need not to starve. And come
and rescue us from our circumstance.” And so when Nike comes in they are
regarded by everybody in the community as an enormous godsend.
10.21.22
Michael Walker,
Fraser Institute, a
“market
solutions” think
tank
10.22.13
10.22.22
10.22.30
10.22.30
10.22.40
Kernighan: Hey wait!
Man: You are not permitted to be here!
Kernighan: The door was wide open.
Man: No no no no no no
Kernighan: That’s my clothes. Those are my clothes.
Man: This is not your clothes. Why your camera!?
Kernighan: Don’t touch the woman.
Man: Why!?
In office:
Man: This is a private company. Without permission how can you come here?
Kernighan: . well, the door was wide open. And uh..
Man: The door’s for employees, not for you.
10.22.44
10.22.55
10.23.13
Kernighan: We went through the garbage dump in the Dominican Republic. We
always do this kind of stuff, we dig around. One day we found a big pile of Nike’s
internal pricing documents.
Nike assigns a time frame to each operation. They don’t talk about minutes. They
break the time frame into ten thousandths of a second. You get to the bottom of all
22 operations, they give the workers 6.6 minutes to make the shirt. It’s seventy cents
an hour in the Dominican Republic. That’s 6.6 minutes, equals eight cents.
These are Nike’s documents. That means the wages come to three tenths of one
percent of retail price. This is the reality. It’s the science of exploitation.
10.23.22
10.23.26
PERSONALITY DIAGNOSTIC CHECKLIST:
- World Health Organization ICD-10
- Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV
[ ] Callous unconcern for the feelings of others
10.23.33
10.23.48
Walker: What happens in the areas where these corporations go in and are
successful? They soon find that they can’t do anymore in that country because the
wages are too high now. And what’s that another way of saying— well the people are
no longer desperate.
So okay we’ve used up all the desperate people there they’re all plump and healthy
and wealthy. Let’s move on to the next desperate lot and employ them and raise
their level up.
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 1 PAGE 8
10.24.03
10.24.04
PERSONALITY DIAGNOSTIC CHECKLIST:
- World Health Organization ICD-10
- Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV
[ ] Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
10.24.11
10.24.30
Klein: Well the whole idea of the export processing zone is that it will be the first step
towards this wonderful new development. Through the investment that’s attracted to
these countries there will be a trickle down effect into the communities. But because
so many countries are now in the game of creating these free trade enclaves they
have to keep providing more and more incentives for companies to come to their little
denationalized pocket. And the tax holidays get longer. So the workers rarely make
enough money to buy three meals a days let alone feed their local economy.
10.24.30 Naomi
Klein, Author, NO
LOGO
10.24.54
10.24.54
10.24.58
10.25.03
10.25.07
Story of Stories
Harm to human health: Dangerous Products
Harms to human health: Toxic Waste
Harms to human health: Pollution
Harms to human health: Synthetic Chemicals
10.25.10 “Shell Presents”
“The Dow chemical Company Presents”
“A Presentation of Monsanto Chemical Company”
10.25.16
Epstein: Something happened in 1940 which marked the beginning of a new era. The
era of the ability to synthesize and create, on an unlimited scale, new chemicals that
had never existed before in the world.
10.25.24 Samuel
Epstein, M.D.
Professor
Emeritus of
Environmental
Medicine, U. of
Illinois
10.25.34 Archive: “…And using the magic of research, oil companies compete with each other
in taking the petroleum molecule apart and rearranging it into, well, you name it…”
10.25.45 Epstein: So, suddenly it became possible to produce any new chemical, synthetic
chemicals, the likes of which had never existed before in the world, for any purpose
and at virtually no cost.
10.25.57 Archival Narrator: “…Fabrics, toothbrushes, tires insecticides, cosmetics, weed
killers. A whole galaxy of things to make a better life on Earth…”
10.26.12 Epstein: For instance if you wanted to go to a chemist and say, look I want to have a
chemical, say a pesticide which will persist throughout the food chain, and I don’t
want it to, have to renew it very often, I’d like it to be relatively non-destructible and
then he’d put 2 benzene molecules on the blackboard and add a chlorine here, and a
chlorine there – that was DDT!
10.26.36 Archival footage:
“…When the 8th army needed jap civilians to help them out in our occupation, they
called on native doctors to administer DDT under the supervision of our men to stem
a potential typhus epidemic. Dusting like this goes a long way in checking disease,
and the laugh’s on them. Pardon our dust…”
10.27.04
10.27.17
10.27.33
Epstein: As the petrochemical era grew and grew, warning signs emerged that some
of these chemicals, could pose hazards.
The data initially were trivial, anecdotal, but gradually, a body of data started
accumulating to the extent that we now know that the synthetic chemicals which have
permeated
our workplace, our consumer products, our air, our water, produced cancer, and also
birth defects and some other toxic effects.
Headlines:
10.27.57 “…was
exposed to DuPont
Co.’s fungicide..”
10.28.02 “…son
was born without
eyes…”
10.28.09 Epstein: Furthermore, industry has known about this—at least most industries have
known about this—and have attempted to trivialize these risks.
10.28.17
GRAPHIC:
PERSONALITY DIAGNOSTIC CHECKLIST:
- World Health Organization ICD-10
THE CORPORATION –11/13/2006 PART 1 PAGE 9
10.28.19
- Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV
[ ] Reckless disregard for the safety of others
10.28.24
10.28.34
Epstein: If I take a gun and shoot you, that’s criminal. If I expose you to some
chemicals, which knowingly are going to kill you, what difference is there?
The difference is, that it takes longer to kill you.
10.28.38 Epstein: we are now in the midst of a major cancer epidemic—and I have no doubt
and I have documented the basis for this, that industry is largely responsible for this
overwhelming epidemic of cancer, in which one in every 2 men get cancer in their
lifetimes, and one in every 3 women get cancer in their lifetimes.
10.29.05
10.29.07
10.29.11
10.29.15
10.29.20
Story of stories:
Harms to Animals: Habitat Destruction
Harms to Animals: Factory Farming
Harms to Animals: Experimentation
Harms to Animals: rBGH/rBST Posilac
10.29.19 Epstein: Towards the end of 1989, a great box of documents arrived at my office,
without any indication where they came from. And I opened them, and found in it a
complete set of Monsanto files, particularly a set of files dealing with toxicological
testing, the testing of cows who’d been giv