Enough Should Be Enough
Recently, I watched a program on Link television titled "Corporation". Link is a channel that is not controlled, regulated, or otherwise under the influence of corporations. The program included a brief discussion of Unocal and its encounter with the legal system. This provoked a number of thoughts that I have decided to share with you in this months article.
Corporate Evolution
Earlier generations of Americans were quite clear that a corporation was an artificial, subordinate entity with no inherent rights of its own, and that incorporation was a privilege bestowed by the sovereign people. For example, in 1834 the Pennsylvania Legislature declared: "A corporation in law is just what the incorporation act makes it. It is the creature of the law and may be molded to any shape or for any purpose that the Legislature may deem most conducive to the common good."
You may have heard some recent discussion about corportations and how they are considered a "person". Here is how it got started.
A 112 years ago in 1886, the Supreme Court began the long process, which climaxed in the 1970's with the Bellotti case which declared that corporations are people, and gave them the constitutional rights of people, including free speech. Since 1886 a mass of corporate lawyers have developed new theories of the corporation that define he corporations as Super persons, and you and I as their sub persons. Over time the corporations we created as servants of our public interest have freed themselves of our democratic control and evolved into international "persons" of unlimited greed that now dominates the world.
Regulation of corporations has almost been abandoned by government. Antitrust laws are falling by the wayside. The corporate share of taxes has dropped in the last 50 years from 33% to less than 15% while the people's share of taxes has gone from 44% to 73% resulting in corporations being 51 of the 100 largest economies in the world.
The Corporate Death Penalty
The citizens of every state, acting through their attorney general, have the legal authority to go to court to revoke the charters of corporations that violate the law. This means that lawbreaking corporations can be dissolved, put out of business, their assets sold to others under a judge's order that will protect jobs, the environment and the public interest.
In our democracy, corporations have no inherent right to exist. They exist by our permission acting through the legislature, the attorney general and the courts. We attach strings to the privilege of doing business in the corporate form (for example we expect corporations to actually obey the law!), when those conditions are violated we have the right to pull the put them out of business.
Attorneys general have used the legal tool of corporate charter revocation . Recently, it has been less common but it remains on the books in every state and is occasionally invoked. In California, in 1976 the attorney general used it to force a private water company out of business for delivering contaminated water to its customers. The attorney general of New York state used this legal power together with other tobacco litigation to put the Council for Tobacco Research, a New York corporation, out of business and order its assets donated to state education and health institutions.
Unocal an Example
Unocal's a 100 year old company's history reads like a who's who of bad behavior. Unocal is a dangerous scofflaw.
Union Oil Company of California (Unocal) is a defunct company that was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headquartered in El Segundo, California. In 2005, Unocal merged with Chevron Corporation and became a wholly owned subsidiary. Unocal has now ceased operations as an independent company, but continues to conduct many operations as Union Oil Company of California, a Chevron company.
Unocal Corporation ranks as one of the world's largest independent energy exploration and production companies. Its principal oil and gas exploration and production sites are in Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, and Vietnam) and North America (the United States, the Gulf of Mexico, and Canada) as well as the Netherlands and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Petition
In 1998 one of the harshest attacks on a corporation in recent memory occurred, human rights groups launched a legal assault against Unocal Corp., citing business arrangements conducted between Unocal and dictatorships and outlaw military regimes in Myanmar and Taliban militia in Afghanistan. The petition to revoke Union Oil's corporate charter (the parent company, Unocal, is chartered separately in Delaware) listed 10 causes of action alleging, among other things, complicity in "crimes against humanity"; its treatment of U.S. workers; and various oil spills and chemical leaks.
The coalition called upon California Attorney General Dan Lungren to revoke Unocal's charter. The coalition delivered its 127 page petition to the attorney general's Los Angeles office where an attorney general's office spokeswoman, said the document would be reviewed.
The Union Oil Company of California encountered a public relations catastrophe when a coalition of 19 environmental, women's rights, human rights and consumer advocate groups petitioned California's Attorney General to revoke the company's licence to operate in that state. The petition accused Unocal, which had revenues of more than $ 6 billion in the year the petition was filed, of worker rights and environmental misconduct.
The petitioners were particularly concerned with the construction of a gas pipeline through Burma to Thailand. "The building of the pipeline in Burma was done with forced labor and caused the forced relocation of villagers, even of children and the elderly, in the area.
Unocal dismissed the allegations as "ludicrous". "I admit we've made some mistakes," said Barry Lane, a spokesman for the group. "But we've always taken responsibility for our actions." The company has admitted to numerous Occupations Safety and Health Act violations; in its annual report, the group said it may bear some of the liability for 82 toxic waste sites. Lane blasted the coalition's petition as "an attempt to organize anti-business pressure and further the political agenda of activists."
Rejection
In 1999 Dan Lungren, California's Attorney General and a candidate for Governor, rejected the petition with no explanation. While the petition was being considered Unocal withdrew from its business dealings with the repressive Taliban regime in Afghanistan, a regime that, among other human rights abuses, deprives that nation's women and girls of all civil rights and liberties. The coalition's charter revocation petition was credited in the press as a significant factor prompting UNOCAL's decision
Even with the preponderance of evidence some of "us" felt that Lungren was unfairly attacked for his lack of action. Many comments were along the lines of "the fact that Attorney General Lungren wisely rejected a petition submitted by an assortment of leftist activists to revoke Unocal's corporate charter based on allegations of "crimes against humanity" and other similarly nutty charges only demonstrates his good judgment."
They won't quit - they are what they are
Three corporations have incomes as large as countries:
2002 sales
Wal-Mart (#19)
$246.5
General Motors (#25)
$186.8
ExxonMobil (#26)
$184.5 |
2002 GDP
Belgium (#18)
$247.6
Poland (#24)
$187.7
Turkey (#27)
$182.8 |
Corporations prey ruthlessly on others using charm, deceit, violence or other methods that allow them to get with they want. They can be defined as showing:
- Lack of a conscience or sense of guilt
- Lack of empathy
- Egocentricity
- Pathological lying
- Repeated violations of social norms
- Disregard for the law, shallow emotions
- History of victimizing others
The rage over corporate greed is growing and Unocal was not a one off example of action by "us". We can join in the world wide effort to bring these monsters under control. Take some time and find some aspect of corporate abuse that offends you and look for groups to support to make it stop. Corporations will back off and respond to any action that could diminish the bottom line.
TAKE ACTION If you're one of "us" the 90 million Americans who own shares in a mutual fund, you can have an impact. To find out how your fund voted on Sierra Club resolutions and learn how you can challenge it to be more socially and environmentally responsible, go to sierraclub.org/cac/shareholder.
Field Trips
The rise of the corporate state
Background on Unocal's case
History of control of corporations
Examples of corporate bullies
Settling human rights claims in Myanmar
Happy Trails,
B.S.
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