I think Cecil was remiss in not mentioning the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita Brands). The term “banana republic” is directly attributable to their efforts (mostly successful) to affect Central American governments - notably Guatemala.
A lot will depend upon your definition of a corporation, but I should imagine an Iron and Fuel company counts; check out the Ludlow Massacre.
Plus in that, Mr. Tikas, the unionist was escorted away as live as you or me, and his body later found dead; which many people would define as assassination. But using automatic weapons and random shooting against women and children is something more than accidental manslaughter. Anti-Union Violence.
The Cuyamel Fruit Company engineered the first banana revolution in Honduras in 1910. Though much smaller, it was the biggest competitor to United Fruit and employed the same tactics. It ran Honduras and United Fruit ran Guatemala, and even had a kind of border war. Interestingly, the president of Cuyamel eventually took over United Fruit and ran it for 20 years, retiring just after the 1954 coup.
A history of corporate violence against unions would run to about a million pages.
Wasn’t ITT involved in murderous doings back in the '60s or '70s? I’m sure I’ve seen mention of this before, and Wikipedia (at least) says the company was involved in the coups in Brazil back in the '60s and Chile in 1973. (The Chile coup certainly led to murders/assassinations, not the least of which involved Chilean President Salvador Allende.) I’m surprised Cecil did not address any of that in his column, since it seems to speak directly to the question at hand.
That’s true, but I think corporations (such as United Fruit Company and Cuyamel) effecting regime changes are another animal, and were more worthy of Cecil’s mention, even if still not quite what the question was asking.
This is probably wrongful death but the 1983 case of Film Recovery Systems Inc. merits attention. The boss had a number of vats he wanted to handle without any OSHA regulatory nonsense. So he hired a bunch of illegal aliens and told them to deal with it.
Steven J. O`Neil, l, the former president of the firm, Charles Kirschbaum, the plant manager; and Daniel Rodriguez, the plant foreman were all found guilty of murder. http://www.inc.com/magazine/19851101/8925.html
ETA: Film Recovery Systems does not have its own wiki page. It should.
There were always accusation that the Rothschild family could have prevented wars, eg England vs France in the 1800’s and WW I . eg by agreeing to withdraw from Deutchland and Austria they may have discouraged those countries from war.
They are known to be jewish. its probable that the did disengage from the Axis countries during WW II , but by then they didnt present as a single ultra wealthy bank and family.
Oh boy! Recent join date, Jews, and the Rothschilds, all rolled into one! Please tell us more!
I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions, Isilder, but that is usually a recipe for a full-blown Conspiracy Theory. If you were to reply with a well-reasoned and documented explanation supporting your statements, with no YouTube links or mention of the Illuminati, I would be interested, but frankly disappointed, since there’s not much I like better than a good CT.
Agree about the list of actual cases of anti-union violence. Frankly, it’s long enough that Hollywood probably has some catching up to do.
Also, Bhopal stands out – both for the scale of suffering:
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]
Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259. The government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release.[3] Others estimate 8,000 died within two weeks and another 8,000 or more have since died from gas-related diseases.[4][5] A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries
[/QUOTE]
TL;DR version: 2,300 to 16,000 deaths and 558,000 injuries.
…and for the culpability of the company. While Wikipedia for some reason seems uncertain whether a cyanide compound (probably hydrogen cyanide) was involved, the reports I’ve read were not in any doubt…after all, the tank contained Methyl Isocyanate.
But when medical personnel at the scene called Union Carbide officials and asked if cyanide could be involved, as their early examinations indicated, the company stonewalled for fear of admitting to anything. This may have prevented many victims from receiving an antidote:
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]
The non-toxic antidote sodium thiosulfate (Na2S2O3) in intravenous injections increases the rate of conversion from cyanide to non-toxic thiocyanate.
[/QUOTE]
Essentially the corporation withheld the antidote to protect stockholders from possible liability.
