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The authors quote Julianna, a Lowell, Massachusetts, factory (a depression period when Populists demanded regulation of rail- worker, who wrote: "Incarcerated within the walls of a factory, road rates, heavy taxation of land held only for speculation, and while as yet mere children, drilled there from five till seven _an increase in the money supply), and the 1930s (when a profound o'clock, year after year...what, we would ask, are we to expect, crisis of capitalism led hundreds of thousands of workers and the same system of labor prevailing, will be the mental and intel- armies of the unemployed to demand government regulation of lectual character of future generations...a race fit only for corpo- the economy and to win a 40-hour week, a minimum-wage law, ration tools and time-serving slaves?... Shall we not hear the __ the right to organise, and the outlawing of child labour). But in response from every hill and vale: ‘Equal rights, or death to the both cases, corporate capitalism emerged intact. corporations'?" In the words of historian Howard Zinn: "The rich still con- Industrialists and bankers hired private armies to keep workers trolled the nation's wealth, as well as its laws, courts, police, in line, bought newspapers and (quoting Grossman and Adams newspapers, churches, colleges. Enough help had been given to again): "...painted politicians as villains and businessmen as enough people to make Roosevelt a hero to millions, but the same heroes. Bribing state legislators, they then announced legislators system that had brought depression and crisis...remained."* were corrupt, that they used too much of the public's resources World War II, like previous wars, brought huge profits to cor- and time to scrutinise every charter application and corporate —_ porations via government contracts. But following this war, mili- operation. Corporate advocates campaigned to replace existing tary spending was institutionalised, ostensibly to fight the "Cold chartering laws with general incorporation laws that set up simple | War". Despite occasional regulatory setbacks, corporations administrative procedures, claiming this would be more efficient. seized ever more power, and increasingly transcended national What they really wanted was the end of legislative authority over _ boundaries, loyalties and sovereignties altogether. charters." During the Civil War, government GLOBAL PILLAGE spending brought corporations In the 1970s, capitalism faced yet unprecedented wealth. "Corporate another challenge as postwar growth managers developed the techniques If . " " subsided and profits fell. The US was and the ability to organise production corporations are persons , losing its dominant position in world onan ever graders scoring | they are persons with = ff eri. the rodcton of oom i corporations used their wealth to take qualities and powers that ning to fall, thus making ‘America advange of war and Reconstruction | ng flesh-and-blood human ff irsssinely dependent upon oi railroad, Tabor, an public ands could ever possess... Vietnam War had weakened the in 1886, the US Supreme Court countries. were, demanding a declared that corporations were hence- "North-South dialogue" leading forth to be considered "persons" under towards greater self-reliance for poorer the law, with all of the constitutional rights that designation countries. President Nixon responded by doing away with fixed implies. currency exchange rates and devaluing the dollar, largely erasing The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, passed to give US war debts to other countries. Later, newly elected President former slaves equal rights, has been invoked approximately ten = Reagan, at the 1981 Canctin, Mexico, meeting of 22 heads of times more frequently on behalf of corporations than on behalf of state, refused to discuss new financial arrangements with the African Americans. Likewise the First Amendment, guaranteeing Third World, thus effectively endorsing their further exploitation free speech, has been invoked to guarantee corporations the _ by corporations. "right" to influence the political process through campaign contri- Meanwhile, the corporations themselves also responded with a butions, which the courts have equated with "speech". new strategy. Increased capital mobility (made possible by If corporations are "persons", they are persons with qualities floating exchange rates and new transportation, communication and powers that no flesh-and-blood human could ever possess— _ and production technologies) allowed US corporations to move immortality, the ability to be in many places at once, and (increas- production offshore to "export processing zones" in poorer ingly) the ability to avoid liability. They are also "persons" with — countries. Corporations also undertook a restructuring process, no sense of moral responsibility, since their only legal mandate is moving toward "networked production"—in which big firms, to produce profits for their investors. while retaining and consolidating power, hired smaller firms to Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, corporations take over aspects of supply, manufacture, accounting and reshaped every aspect of life in America and much of the rest of | transport. (Economist Bennett Harrison defined networked the world. The factory system turned self-sufficient small farmers production as "concentration of control combined with into wage-earners and transformed the family from an decentralization of production".) This restructuring process is interdependent economic production unit to a consumption- also known as "downsizing", because it results in the shedding of oriented collection of individuals with separate jobs. Advertising higher-paid employees by large corporations and the hiring of turned productive citizens into "consumers". Business leaders low-wage contingent workers by smaller subcontractors. campaigned to create public schools to train children in factory- Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello write in Global Village or system obedience to schedules and in the performance of isolated, Global Pillage that: “As the economic crisis deepened, there meaningless tasks. Meanwhile, corporations came to own and __ gradually evolved...a ‘supra-national policy arena’ which included dominate sources of information and entertainment, and to control new organizations like the Group of Seven (G7) industrial nations politicians and judges. and NAFTA and new roles for established international During two periods, corporations faced a challenge: the 1890s organisations like EU, IMF, World Bank, and GATT. The (a depression period when Populists demanded regulation of rail- road rates, heavy taxation of land held only for speculation, and an increase in the money supply), and the 1930s (when a profound crisis of capitalism led hundreds of thousands of workers and armies of the unemployed to demand government regulation of the economy and to win a 40-hour week, a minimum-wage law, the right to organise, and the outlawing of child labour). But in both cases, corporate capitalism emerged intact. In the words of historian Howard Zinn: "The rich still con- trolled the nation's wealth, as well as its laws, courts, police, newspapers, churches, colleges. Enough help had been given to enough people to make Roosevelt a hero to millions, but the same system that had brought depression and crisis...remained."* World War II, like previous wars, brought huge profits to cor- porations via government contracts. But following this war, mili- tary spending was institutionalised, ostensibly to fight the "Cold War". Despite occasional regulatory setbacks, corporations seized ever more power, and increasingly transcended national boundaries, loyalties and sovereignties altogether. If corporations are "persons', they are persons with qualities and powers that no flesh-and-blood human 12 ¢ NEXUS could ever possess... www.nexusmagazine.com OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2002