All the mega-corporations on the planet make their obscene profits off the labour and suffering of others, with complete disregard for the effects on the workers, environment, and future generations. As with the banking sector, they play games with the lives of millions, hysterically reject any kind of government intervention when the profits are rolling in, but are quick to pass the bill for the cleanup and the far-reaching consequences of these avoidable tragedies to the public when things go wrong. We have a straightforward proposal: if they want public money, we want public control. It's that simple. Michael Hureaux-Perez
If a person has no conscience, it’s called being a sociopath. If a corporation has no conscience, it’s called capitalism. Quentin R Bufogle
The real difficulty is with the vast wealth and power in the hands of the few and the unscrupulous who represent or control capital. Hundreds of laws of Congress and the state legislatures are in the interest of these men and against the interests of workingmen. These need to be exposed and repealed. All laws on corporations, on taxation, on trusts, wills, descent, and the like, need examination and extensive change. This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations. (Capitalism & Corporations) Rutherford B Hayes, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes: Nineteenth President of the United States
Fascism should rightly be called corporatism, as it is the merger of state and corporate power. Benito Mussolini
The modern transnational corporation is an immortal, soulless collusion of greed that reduces everything it touches to a dollar value. In law a corporation is a person, able to own property and resources just as a person can only, it seems, not responsible for the deaths it causes. Tony Gosling, website introduction
To expose a fifteen trillion dollar rip-off of the American people by the stockholders of the thousand largest corporations over the last hundred years will be a tall order of business. Buckminster Fuller
Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned; they therefore do as they like. Edward Lord Thurlow, 1731-1806
[US] domestic policy ... has focused on creating a massive welfare state for corporations even as the minimal welfare state benefiting the majority of the people was dismantled. Lawrence Shoup
The corporations don’t have to lobby the government any more. They are the government. Jim Hightower
The men and women who enlist in this country’s military [should] be told the truth that they are not protecting the United States, they are and always have been protecting corporate interests. Chante Wolf
Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible. Milton Friedman
Quite simply, there can be no popular sovereignty without a real belief in the value of government. If government does not assume and carry out public responsibilities, less accountable institutions such as the corporation will do the job in their own self-interest. Charles Derber, Corporation Nation
A long time ago there was a company that made lots of money selling bits of meat between two bits of bread. Many people were employed to put the meat between the bread and many animals were killed to be the meat. A friendly clown persuaded children to love the company. Some decades passed and all was well. The company became very very rich. Richer even than many countries. And then some people wrote in their newspapers that eating lots of meat and bread could make people ill. Other people said on television that too many trees had been cut down and that the workers were unhappy. This made the company very angry. The company looked around the world and saw that in England there existed a special law that could stop people saying things the company didn’t like. And make them say sorry. McLibel (Two People Who Wouldn’t Say Sorry) ***** 1997 starring Helen Steel & David Morris & Eric Schlosser & Morgan Spurlock & Oliver Ford Davies, directors Franny Armstrong & Ken Loach, opening credits
19th June 1997: the Royal Courts of Justice. ibid.
One of the spies ... stole letters, broke into the office to take photographs, followed people home; we were infiltrated for about eighteen months by seven different spies. ibid. Dave Morris
At some meetings there were as many spies as campaigners. ibid. Dave Morris
Five of us in the group have received libel writs over the What’s Wrong With McDonald’s leaflets. ibid.
The world’s largest fast food business McDonald’s has begun a libel action at the high court against two environmental campaigners. ibid. BBC News 28th June 1994
We were defending ourselves. ibid. Helen Steel
Their own expert was saying, It’s a very reasonable thing to say. ibid.
The entire ad campaign ... was intrinsically deceptive. ibid. Stephen Gardner, Assistant US Attorney General
McDonald’s to try to justify themselves have had to bring all their big guns into the witness box. ibid. Dave Morris
One of the biggest battles we had throughout the trial was getting McDonald’s to hand over the relevant documents. ibid. Helen Steel
They flew over to have secret talks with me and Helen. ibid. Dave Morris
They just couldn’t bear to accept any of our demands really, and so it was back to court. ibid.
They would not be allowed to carry out any overt union activity on McDonald’s premises. ibid. trial judge
Key practices that they’ve pioneered over the last fifty years are spreading throughout society. ibid. Dave Morris
McLibel is now the longest trial ever in English history. ibid. Helen Steel
Libel laws are being used in this country as a draconian form of mass censorship. ibid. Dave Morris, day 309
Judgment Day: It has not been proved that a diet high in fat and animal products and low in fibre leads to a very real risk of cancer. ibid. trial judge
McDonald’s are culpably responsible for cruel practices in the rearing and slaughter of some of the animals which are used in their food. ibid.
Two days later: 21st June 1997: today is mass defiance day. There’s going to be protests outside five hundred of McDonald’s UK store, and lots around the world too. They haven’t seen the last of the leaflet. ibid. Helen Steel
Most so-called anti-social behaviour is actually people fighting over the crumbs that are thrown from the table. The real people who are behaving anti-socially are those who control all of the resources. ibid.
Having largely beaten McDonald’s ... we have now exposed the notoriously oppressive and unfair UK laws. As a result of the ... ruling today, the government may be forced to amend or scrap some of the existing UK laws. We hope that this will result in greater public scrutiny and criticism of powerful organisations whose practices have a detrimental effect on society and the environment. The McLibel campaign has already proved that determined and widespread grass-roots protests and defiance can undermine those who try to silence their critics, and also render oppressive laws unworkable. The continually growing opposition to McDonald’s and all it stands for is a vindication of all the efforts of those around the world who have been exposing and challenging the corporation’s business practices. Steel & Morris press release
150 years ago the business corporation was a relatively insignificant institution; today it is all-pervasive. The Corporation 2003
They are monsters trying to devour as much profit as possible. ibid.
‘The modern corporation has grown out of the industrial age.’ ibid. Ray Anderson
‘The dominant role of corporations in our lives is essentially the product roughly of the last century.’ ibid. Noam Chomsky
Judges apply those rights to capital and property. ibid.
‘Special kinds of persons which are designed by law to be concerned only for their stockholders.’ ibid. Noam Chomsky
They are required by law to place a financial interest of their owners above competing interests. ibid.
‘An externality is the effect of a transaction between two individuals.’ ibid. Milton Freedman
We can analyse it like a psychiatrist would a patient. ibid.
Harm to workers: layoffs, union busting, factory fires, sweatshops ... harm to human health, dangerous products, toxic waste, pollution, synthetic chemicals. ibid. captions
‘In their institutional roles they are monsters.’ ibid. Noam Chomsky
‘I’ve never been to Indonesia’. ibid. CEO Nike to Michael Moore
‘The way I’d been running Interface was the way of the plunderer.’ ibid. Ray Anderson CEO carpet company
‘In devastation there is opportunity.’ ibid. commodities trader
Privatisation: ‘You take a public institution and you give it to an unaccountable tyranny.’ ibid. Noam Chomsky
You have to create wants … a philosophy of futility. ibid.
Bolivia was determined to defend the corporation’s right to charge families … one quarter of their income for water. ibid.