|
January
3, 2002
Shahid
Alam
Is
There an Islamic Problem?
January
2, 2002
Ross Regnart
Patriot
Act Redefines the Mob as "Terrorist Associates"
John Chuckman
The
Republicans' Secret Plan X
David
Vest
Turn,
Turn, Turn
January
1, 2002
Kathy
Kelly
Iraq's
New Year
December
31, 2001
John Absood
An
Alternative to War in Iraq
Ramzi
Kysia
Iraq
Goes Radioactive
December
28, 2001
John Chuckman
Observing
George Bush
Suren
Pillay
Civilian
Bodies
Aaron
Lehmer
Inviting
Future Terrorism
December
27, 2001
Patrick
McNamara
Palestinian
Children Bear Brunt of Mideast Violence
Nelson
Valdés
A
Possible Scenario on the Location of bin Laden
Jensen
and Mahajan
Remember
the Afghan Dead
Philip
Farruggio
A
New Year's Resolution
Ramzi
Kysia
The
People of the Valley
December 26, 2001
John Chuckman
In
Praise of the Unspeakable
Sam Bahour
2002:
Year of the Twos
December 25, 2001
Jennifer Loewenstein
Israel's
Human Rights Record
December 24, 2001
Sam Bahour
It
Happened One Morning
Yair Khilou
Why I Resisted
Being Drafted into the Israeli Army
Michael
Chisari
War
as Diversionary Tactic
Cockburn/St. Clair
Enron
and the Green Seal
December 21, 2001
Tom Turnipseed
War
Good for Bush
John Chuckman
The
First Victim in the
War on Terror
December 20, 2001
Lawrence
McGuire
Killing
Other People's Children
Miriam Rozen
Foundation
Without Representation?
Kenneth
Roth
A
Letter to Rumsfeld on
Military Tribunals
William Blum
Casualties:
Theirs and Ours
December 19, 2001
Marjorie
Cohn
Don't
Pre-Judge John Walker
Sam Bahour
Palestine
and You
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
|
January
3, 2002
The Ten Worst Corporations
of 2001
by Russell Mokhiber and
Robert Weissman
In a year marked not only by the now-standard
forms of corporate marauding but also by brazen wartime profiteering,
it was no easy chore to identify Multinational Monitor's 10
corporations of 2001.
The competition was even tougher than
usual. But choices had to be made. And now decisions have been
reached.
Multinational Monitor has named Abbott
Laboratories, Argenbright, Bayer, Coke, Enron, Exxon Mobil,
Philip Morris, Sara Lee, Southern Co. and Wal-Mart as the 10
worst corporations of 2001
Appearing in alphabetical order, the
10 worst are:
Abbott Laboratories, for its TAP Pharmaceuticals,
a joint venture with Japanese Takeda Pharmaceuticals. TAP was
forced to pay $875 million to resolve criminal charges and civil
liability in connection with allegations of major Medicare
reimbursement fraud. Among other alleged fraudulent activities,
as a way of hooking doctors on prescribing Lupron, its prostate
cancer drug, TAP gave doctors free samples and then encouraged
doctors to bill Medicare for the free samples.
Argenbright, the security company, for
repeat violations of regulations for airport security. Argenbright's
appalling record -- including violations of security rules it
had been caught breaking just a year earlier -- helped convince
Congress to federalize U.S. airport security operations.
Bayer, for its overcharge of the government
and public for the anti-anthrax drug Cipro, based on a patent
monopoly that may well be improperly maintained by virtue of
a collusive arrangement with a generic manufacturer. Bayer also
secured a place on the 10 worst list for its dangerous peddling
of antibiotics for poultry (contributing to antibiotic resistance
among humans) and its harassment of a German watchdog group,
Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, for maintaining a BayerWatch.com
website.
Coca Cola, for its sponsorship of the
first Harry Potter movie and possible sequels, using a children's
favorite to hawks its unhealthy product, and for alleged complicity
with death squads in Colombia targeting union leaders there.
Enron, for costing many of its employees
their life savings by refusing to let them dump company stock
from their pension plans, as Enron plunged toward bankruptcy.
ExxonMobil, for leading the global warming
denial campaign (even O'Dwyer's a leading rag of the public
relations industry, has chastised the company for its "stubborn
refusal to acknowledge the fact that burning fossil fuels has
a role in global warming") and blocking efforts at appropriate
remedial action, plus a host of other reckless activities.
Philip Morris, for its "we've changed"
marketing campaign -- revealed to be a hoax by a Czech study
it commissioned alleging cost savings from smoking-related premature
deaths, as well as the company's ongoing efforts to addict millions
of new smokers.
Sara Lee, for a scandal involving its
Ball Park Franks hot dogs. Listeria-contaminated Ball Park Franks
killed 21 and seriously injured 100 in 1998. In 2001, with civil
and criminal litigation around the case heating up, the Detroit
Free Press reported that Sara Lee stopped performing tests
for bacteria after it started recording too many positives.
The U.S. attorney, which handled prosecution of the criminal
case, insists Sara Lee did not know about the presence of listeria
in its hot dogs. In an extraordinary move, the U.S. attorney
issued a joint press release with Sara Lee announcing settlement
of the case. The final tally: 21 dead. A misdemeanor plea. A
$200,000 fine.
Southern Co., the largest electric utility
in the United States, for its efforts to defeat sensible air
pollution regulations. Southern is a heavy user of coal, and
leads the fight to maintain a ridiculous "grandfather"
clause in the U.S. Clean Air Act, which exempts power plants
built before 1970 from Clean Air Act standards.
Wal-Mart, for continuing to source products
from overseas sweatshops, for viciously battling efforts to
unionize any fraction of its workforce (the largest in the United
States, among private employers), and for contributing to the
sprawl that blights the U.S. landscape.
For a complete version of Multinational
Monitor's article naming the 10 worst corporations of 2001,
see http://www.essential.org/monitor.
Russell Mokhiber
is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter.
Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate
Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy.
|