Well, having seen the film, I subsequently came across the book by the same name. The content & flow of the subject matters is much the same as in the film, but you get the added detail that print allows over film. Not only that, but for those interested in some of the background material, there is an extensive appendix of notes & bibliography references. In one area in particular the book clarifies something that didn’t really come across very well in the film – the balance of control & authority the government holds wrt to the corporation vs the citizens of the state. In the film there is a sequence covering law professor, Robert Benson’s attempt to get California’s state attorney to dissolve the Union Oil Company of California, by revoking its corporate charter. The film focused a little on the spectacle of such an attempt – the book shows, however, that Benson never really expected the motion to succeed. Rather he was interested in using the publicity to raise public awareness of the fact that, despite outward appearances, citizens & governments do still have potential for absolute control over corporations should they have the will to use them. It is summed up quite well in the few paragraphs towards the end of the book
The state is the only institution i nthe world that can bring a corporation to life. It alone grants corporations their essential rights, such as legal personhood and limited liability, and it compels them always to put profits first.
…
And only the state, in conjunction with other states, can enter into international trade deals and create global institutions, such as the World Trade Organization, that in turn, limit its ability to regulate the corporations and property rights it has created.
With the state, the corporation is nothing. Litterally nothing.
It is therefore a mistake to believe that because corporations are now strong, the state has become weak. Economic globalization and deregulation have diminished the state’s capacity to protect the public interest (…) and have strengthened its power to promote corporations’ interests and facilitate their profit-seeking missions. Overall, however, the state’s power has not been reduced. It has been redistributed, more tightly connected to the needs & interests of corporations and less so to the public interest.
The question is never whether the state regulates corporations – it always does – but how, and in whose interests, it does so.
Following on from my post about The Coporation, here’s a collection of links for sites providing views on corporations, the future for them, and activism for change
I can’t really take credit for assembling these, they were scrolled along the bottom of screen during the closing credits for the film. For the complete list visit their site
I stopped off at the Curzon on the way home the other evening, to watch The Coporation, a documentary film based on a book by the same name, written by Joel Bakan. The running is split into a number of chapters each considering a different aspect of the corporation, with topics including environment impact, fraud, politic influence, worker exploitation, distortion of news, brainwashing through marketing / branding, and many more. While most people will already have a general awareness of most of issue covered, what was enlightening (and somewhat depressing) to me were some of the real world examples.
One such example was the case of two reporters for Fox News in Florida whose documentary on synthetic growth hormone marketed to boost milk production was buried by corporation executives in fear of antagonizing Monsanto & their lawyers. Never mind the fact that there is gross overproduction of milk, to the extent that many countries (in Europe in particular) pay farmers to not produce milk. The growth hormone resulted in udder infections, in turn requiring antibiotics, which subsequently make their way into the milk and ultimately the people drinking it. But lets not worry about that either, since, to quote the Fox executive, “We Paid $3 Billion For These Stations. We’ll Decide What the News Is.”.
Another even more depressing example, was how the World Bank provided loans to Bolivia on the condition that it privitise the water supply to Chochabamba. In one of the poorest countries of the world, this resulted in an increase in price for water, the most fundamental substance required for life & existance, of as much as 40%, while at the same time laws forbid people from setting up systems to collect rainwater. Eventually the town revolted and in the ensuing riots 6 people died, while government troops and riot police defended the premises of Bechtel. After eventually having their contract terminated, Bechtel is now sueing the Bolivian governement for 25 millions USD. To quote:
The case is being heard by a secret trade court operated by the World Bank….
The process is so secret that members of the public and the media are neither permitted to attend, nor even to know when meetings are held, where, who testifies and what they say. If the Bank’s panel grants Bechtel’s demand, those costs will fall directly on Cochabamba water users and will force a dramatic increase in water prices once again.
While it can be said the film is preaching to the already converted, it comes across as much more balanced than other documentary films in a similar genre, such as Michael Moore’s Fahrenhite 9/11. The narrow focus no doubt helps, allowing the film makers to consider all angles of the subject, and take views from both sides. There’s also refreshingly serious commentry from Michael Moore himself, and other notable figures such as Noam Chomsky. In short, it is your duty to go see this film. You will not be disappointed.
I’ve just finished reading John Steinbeck‘s novel A Russian Journal, an account of travels around Russia with photographer Robert Capa shortly after the second world war. It provides a fascinating view of Russia, its people and their views towards the US shortly before the Cold War began in earnest. Slightly disturbing are the parallels in US immigration policy towards the Russians then, and those towards un-favoured countries in today’s world.
And as we sat with cigars and liqueur, the talk turned to relations with the United Stats. Korneichuk had been part of a cultural delegation to the United States. On their arrival in New York he and his delgation had been fingerprinted and made to register as agents of a foreign power. The fingerprinting had outraged them, and they had returned home without carrying out the visit. For, as Korneichuk said, ‘With us, fingerprinting is only for criminals. We did not fingerprint you. You have not been photographed or forced to register”
We tried to explain then that according to our rule the people of a communist or a socialist state are all employees of the government, and that all employees of foreign governments are required to register.
And he answered, “England has a socialist government, and you don’t make every Englishman register, nor do you fingerprint them”
Another theme that stuck in my head was the comparison of Russian and American/British views on the operation of government
It seems to us that one of the deepest divisions between the Russians and the Americans or British, is in their feeling toward their governments. The Russians are taught, and trained, and encouraged to believe that their government is good, that every part of it is good, and that their job is to carry it forward, to back it up in all ways. On the other hand, the deep emotional feeling among Americans and British is that all government is somehow dangerous, that there should be as little government as possible, that any increase in the power of government is bad, and that existing government must be watched constantly, watched and criticized to keep it sharp and on its toes. And later, on the farms, when we sat at table with farming men, and they asked us how our government operated, we would try to explain that such was our fear of power invested in one man, or in one group of men, that our government was made up of a series of checks and balances, designed to keep power from falling into any one person’s hands. We tried to explain that the people who made our government, and those who continue it, are so in fear of power that they would willingly cut off a good leader rather than premit a precedent of leadershp. I do not think we were thoroughly understood in this, since the training of the people of the Soviet Union is that the leader is good and the leadership is good. There is no successful argument here, it is just the failure of two systems to communicate one with the other.
While we may have avoided the trap of letting too much power fall into the hands of any one person, as so often befell Russia, the capitalist economic model is neatly sidestepping the traditional checks and balances of government. Large (multi-national) corporations are now so powerful that they can exert terrific influence over large groups of people (even entire political parties), to influence government policy, regulation and laws in their own favour. Ironically, it is groups such as the Open Source software community, whose views would typically be described as socialist (or even communist), which are attempting to push back against the power
of large corporations
Referring of course to GWB winning the Presidency, Senate, House and the majority of the popular vote. Holy crap, how did this happen. The topics of the Red Hat IRC channels say it all really
- Doomed!
- Don’t forget to vote properly next time. Or Puff Daddy will kill you!
- Release the dogs of easement
- Help Hugh find a new country
- No taxation without representation
- They misunderestimated me!
- Americans have let down the rest of the world
- Dr Strangelove, or how I learned to stop worrying and love George Bush.
Next time, perhaps the Democrats should choose a campaign leader who’s actually won a campaign before…. I’ll just leave you with link to Sorry Everybody.