The Corporation Page #13

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

using the more

positive ways possible.

If you ever found out

they're used in ways

that are not positive

then you would hope you

would stop supporting that

but you know do

you always know?

Can you always tell?

Can you always find out?

IBM would

of course say

they had no control over

its German subsidiaries.

But here on

October 9th 1941

a letter is being

written directly

to Thomas J. Watson

with all sorts of detail

of the activity of

the German subsidiary

none of these

machines were sold

they were all

leased by IBM.

They had to be serviced

on site once a month

even if that was

at a concentration camp.

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 IBM

corporation in New York.

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.

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.

It should not surprise us that

corporate allegiance

to profits will trump their

allegiance to any flag.

A recent U.S. Treasury

Department report

revealed in one

week alone

57 U.S. Corporations

were fined

for trading with official

enemies of the United States

including terrorists tyrants

and despotic regimes.

...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...

Well for one thing

avoid the comfortable idea

that the mere form of

government can of itself

safeguard a nation

against despotism.

For big business despotism

was often a useful tool

for securing foreign markets

and pursuing profits.

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 Butlers services

were also in demand

in the United States

in the 1930s

as president

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

sought to relieve

the misery

of the depression through

public enterprise

and to offer regulation

on corporate exploitation

and misdeeds.

More power to you

President Roosevelt

The entire country's

behind you.

Thrilled with hope

and patriotism...

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.

...The plan as outlined tome

was to form an organization

of veterans to use as a bluff

or as a club at least

to intimidate

the government...

but the corporate cabal

had picked the wrong man.

Butler was fed up

being what he called

a gangster for capitalism.

...I appeared 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

500000 men which would

be able to take over

the functions of government...

A Congressional Committee

ultimately found evidence

of a plot to overthrow

Roosevelt.

According to Butler

the conspiracy included

representatives of some

of Americas top corporations

including J.P. Morgan

Dupont and Goodyear tire.

As today's chairman

of Goodyear knows

for corporations

to dominate government

a coup is no

longer necessary.

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 can not be trusted

governments

today do not have

over the corporations

the power that they had

and the leverage they

had 50 or 60 years ago.

And that's a major change.

So governments have

become powerless

compared to what

they were before.

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.

I was invited to

Washington D.C. 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

the 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 epicentre

of the intelligence

industry right now.

I mean the line

is not just blurring

it just not

there any more.

And tome it

it spoke volumes

as to how

industry and government were

consulting with each other

and working

with each other.

As 34 nations of the western

hemisphere gathered

to draft a far reaching

trade agreement

one that would lay

the groundwork

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.

I'm inside and

this is all outside.

That's the way it is.

What do you think when

you look at this?

Well I mean I think

that it's too bad

that this has

this has erupted.

Does the ranted 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.

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.

There's a new market.

These guys and

gals aren't out there

because governments

putting gun to their head.

Or because they've

suddenly read a book

about transcendental meditation

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