By Zuerrnnovahh-Starr Livingstone
http://educate-yourself.org/zsl/corporationmovie04mar04.shtml
March 4, 2004

Last night, the word of mouth regarding "The Corporation" filled a 500 seat theatre in Salmon Arm. The same producers who had filmed the documentary regarding Noam Chomsky's book "Manufacturing Consent", took five years to make this 135 minute critique of corporate culture.

Of course it has a left wing slant, but two of the biggest critics were ex CEOs who see the multinationals as dangerous to the well-being of humanity and the planet itself.

The lawyers who took the Anti Slavery definition of "person" from the 14th Amendment and applied it to a corporation, created a monster. The impetus for this change of law came from J. P. Morgan and his well heeled compadres. They wanted to limit their liability and at the same time have corporations entirely obliged to make money for the shareholders. These changes came about as a result of wealthy men trying to hide the extent of their monopolistic practises behind legal firewalls. (Not mentioned in the documentary: Rockefeller did not like being forced to break up Standard Oil in 1909. Under the Taft Hartley Act it was broken into seven smaller oil companies and six were sold to anyone else except Rockefeller. But are we sure that Rockefeller did not own parts of the six baby oil companies by proxy via changes in corporate law? Even in 1911?)

The film makers go into the definition of "psychopath". They interviewed a FBI expert and over a forty minute portion of the movie determine that corporations as they exist today fit all qualifications with respect to the definition of "psychopath". The imbalance is the law that corporations are entirely beholding to their shareholders; clients/customers and workers are not included. Also management is not included in the law, but CEOs and others in the upper echelons have been able to fatten their wallets at the expense of their customers and workers- not the shareholders! Corporations are not democratic yet they are called the institutions which makes democracies work? This is a non sequitor in definition and in practise. Multinationals are destroying democracies, including America, in the pursuit of profit.

The movie advocates the revoking of corporate charters on the basis of criminal behaviour. The case of the attempt to revoke the charter of Union Oil of California in the State of California is documented. The company's record show repeated criminal acts yet the State of California refused to break up the offender's incorporation act. But the State admitted that it did have the power to do so. A veiled warning?

The end of the movie shows that popular uprising in the third largest city in Colombia. The World Bank forced the bankrupt nation to privatize some of its public utilities. Bechtel bought a water utility and then had residents paying one quarter of their income for water. Already starving people were forced to pay for even the rain they collected! Some were sued and lost their meagre homes. The military and the police were called out to stop the first riots, but soon sided with their fellow Colombians and refused to exit their barracks and stations. The Colombians have won this round. Bechtel is behaving like a poorly. In previous decades the US Marines would have been sent in to Latin American countries who did not obey American corporations. In this situation, thirty million Colombians are angry and sending in the Marines would not work. The insanity here shows that the corporate "right" to profits supercede the rights of people to live.

Why are corporate laws are so awry? Because the ones who designed them are psychopaths. The scaly ones behind the multinationals, the ones who seek to control the planet made corporations as their instruments of control. That is why they are feudal in design, not democratic.

Ian Fleming wrote James Bond. Fleming worked for British MI6. In the majority, Bond's enemies were corporations run by evil men. Did Fleming know who the real enemies of freedom were?

Zuerrnnovahh-Starr Livingstone

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Related:

Corporation Psychopaths (Mar. 4, 2004)
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/Corporation Psychopaths04mar04.shtml

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Reader Comments

Starwalker <starwlkr@redshift.bc.ca> wrote:
From: "Starwalker"
To:
Subject: THE Corporation - A MUST SEE DOCUMENTARY FILM
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 22:41:56 -0700

Hi Folks..
If you see this film coming to your area......do see it. It is another important documentary film ( I believe CANADIAN) addressing key issues of these times. Many remarkable people dedicated to looking at the global picture and the role corporations have been and are playing, offer understanding and a wake up Call..This film will certainly make clear why most major corporations function as they do. Please pass this information along . We were just able to view part 1 on Ontario TVO

Maude Barlowe (Council of Canadians) encouraged us all to see the series when she was here last month speaking... I have been attending various lectures at the university here in Thunder Bay and one group there has been showing this series each Sun. nite followed by discussions.

Last week they followed up with a powerful and very encouraging film on what a US architectural team are doing with some of the big corporations in assisting them to develop eco-effective products and an environment wheret the workers and nature are respected. It sure gives one hope when you see companies as Ciba Dyes, a large Ford Motors plant, Nike....coming on board.. This film was The Next Industrial Revolution www.mbdc.com.

Do watch for it or check out the book Cradle to Cradle.

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