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X-Sender: believers/pop.earthlink.net@pop3.norton.antivirus
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Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 15:17:02 -0600
To: audreymlj@bigvalley.net
From: Audrey  (by way of believers@earthlink.net)
Subject: [AM] Inside a Corporation


AUDREY’S MISSILES 
A weekly newsletter dedicated to the peaceful 
reform of the United States government. 

                                     INSIDE A CORPORATION 

        The bigger they are, the harder they fall.  The big news this week is the Chapter 11 
bankruptcy filing of K Mart, and the public is wondering what will come next.  Employees 
are also wondering how they can transfer money held in 401K funds that are controlled by 
their employers. While there is much sympathy for the people who have lost their life savings, 
little sympathy is being expressed for the managers.  In publications not owned or controlled 
by corporations, some are telling the real story of the economic pillaging and amoral conduct 
that is rampant among the multinational giants. 

        The Multinational Monitor  has published a list of the worst corporations of 2001.  
They list Abbott Laboratories, Argenbright, Bayer, Coca-Cola, Enron, Exxon-Mobil, 
Philip Morris, Sara Lee, Southern Co., and Wal-Mart.  This is why:  

ABBOTT LABORATORIES paid a  $875 million dollar fine for,  among other things, encouraging 
the billing of Medicare for free samples of Lupron (cancer drug) and providing lavish entertainment 
and trips for doctors who were willing to prescribe Lupron in significant quantities. 

ARGENBRIGHT, owned by the British firm Securicor, pled guilty in May of 2000 to two counts of 
making false statements to federal regulators and paid $l.55 million in fines in connection with 
charges that it failed on a massive scale to do background checks on security screeners employed 
at Philadelphia International Airport.  

BAYER has been charged with unlawfully paying three of its competitors a total of $200 million 
to abandon efforts to bring cheaper generic versions of Cipro (Anthrax remedy) to the market. 
Some have changed that tainted blood-clotting medicines sold to hemophiliacs by Bayer caused 
many to contract AIDS.  

The most serious charge against COCOA-COLA is complicity in  the murders of trade union leaders 
at the bottling plants of its affiliate in Colombia,  Panamerican Beverages, Inc.  

The American public is well aware of the executive rip-off by ENRON.  

There is a long list of problems with EXXON-MOBIL. An Australian jury convicted 
Essco (Australian unit of Exxon) in connection with a 1998 gas explosion which killed 
two people.  The company has also been charged with contracting with the Indonesian 
military to provide security for its Arun natural gas project, security measures which have 
resulted in gross violations of the human rights of native people.  

PHILIP MORRIS is cited for their public pronouncements on the health risks of tobacco 
smoking while continuing their aggressive marketing to young people.  

SARA LEE paid only a $200,000 fine for causing the deaths of 21 people.  

SOUTHERN is on the list for  “the swirl of campaign cash and toxic ash surrounding the company.” 

WAL-MART ...“identifies [labor] leaders in the organizing drive and....seeks to bribe them with 
pay raises or promotions, or moves to fire them.”  The full text of the article in the 
December, 2001, issue is well worth reading. 

        Why do corporations act as they do?  Corporations are managed and run for profit, 
and social, moral, or environmental considerations are seldom discussed in the boardrooms.  

In a typical meeting questions of policy are resolved by setting forth various possible courses 
of action and then carefully examining the consequences.  If it is a question of murder of a 
union leader, as it obviously has been in Colombia,  managers know they will not be caught 
in the lawless anarchy in that country and that a  hit man is so much cheaper than having to 
pay union wages.   If it is a question of shredding documents, it is likely that the penalty for 
obstruction of justice is seen as less than the penalty for fraud.  Risky behavior is weighed 
in terms of dollars and cents and legal penalties, with some time given to public relations 
considerations.  The company must make a profit to stay in business.  How to deal with 
these giants?  The answer is to make bad behavior very unprofitable, but that can’t happen 
unless or until the United States Congress frees itself from its corporate master. 

Read why they are the worst. Click Here.