A-Infos (en) Corporate Globalization Factsheet

[CAP *Erie-Lincoln* <MAI-SUX@bigfoot.com>]

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It always helps to put things into perspective:


IN A TIME OF UNIVERSAL DECEIT - TELLING THE TRUTH IS A REVOLUTIONARY ACT
- George Orwell

Britain's William Pitt said 200 years ago,
" 'Necessity' is the plea for every infringement of human rights.  It is
the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."

"The Final Act of the Uruguay Round (of GATT), marking the conclusion of
the most ambitious trade negotiation of our century, will give birth in
Morocco - to the World Trade Organization, the third pillar of the New
World Order, along with the United Nations and the International
Monetary Fund."
-- part of full-page advertisement by the government of Morocco in the
New York Times (April 1994)

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nurev@kreative.net wrote:
 
 /* ---------- "Corporate Globalization Factsheet" ---------- */
 
 Edited/Distributed by HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 ## author     : corpwatch@igc.org
 ## date       : 03.12.97
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Facts From the Corporate Planet: Ecology and Politics in the Age of
Globalization
 
Fact Sheet Number One -- Corporate Globalization
 
Transnational corporations--companies which operate in more than one
country at a time--have become some of the most powerful economic and
political entities in the world today.

Corporations and Governments

Many corporations have more power than the nation-states across whose 
borders they operate. For instance:

The combined revenues of just General Motors and Ford--the two largest
automobile corporations in the world--exceed the combined Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) for all of sub-Saharan Africa.

The combined sales of Mitsubishi, Mitsui, ITOCHU, Sumitomo, Marubeni,
and Nissho Iwai, Japan's top six Sogo Sosha or trading companies, are
nearly equivalent to the combined GDP of all of South America.

Overall, fifty-one of the largest one-hundred economies in the world are
corporations.

The revenues of the top 500 corporations in the U.S. equal about 60
percent of the country's GDP.

Transnational corporations hold ninety percent of all technology and
product patents worldwide.

Transnational corporations are involved in 70 percent of world trade. 
More than thirty percent of this trade is "intra- firm"; in other words,
it occurs between units of the same corporation.

How Many Are There?

The number of transnational corporations in the world has jumped from
7,000 in 1970 to 40,000 in 1995.

While ever-more global in reach, these corporations' home bases are
concentrated in the Northern industrialized countries, where ninety
percent of all transnationals are based.

More than half come from just five nations--France, Germany, the
Netherlands, Japan and the United States.

Despite their growing numbers, power is concentrated at the top. For
instance, the three hundred largest corporations account for one-quarter
of the world's productive assets.

What Do They Do All Day?

Described by the United Nations as "the productive core of the
globalizing world economy," these corporations and their 250,000 foreign
affiliates account for most of the world's industrial capacity,
technological knowledge and international financial transactions.

They mine, refine and distribute most of the world's oil, gasoline,
diesel and jet fuel.

 They build most of the world's oil, coal, gas, hydroelectric and
nuclear power  plants.

They extract most of the world's minerals from the ground.

They manufacture and sell most of the world's automobiles, airplanes,
communications satellites, computers, home electronics, chemicals,
medicines and biotechnology products.

They harvest much of the world's wood and make most of its paper.

They grow many of the world's agricultural crops, while processing and
distributing much of its food.

Given their dominance of politics, economics and technology, it is not
surprising to find the big transnationals deeply involved in most of the
world's serious environmental crises (see Fact Sheet #2).

Corporations and the Politics of Globalization

Transnational corporations exert significant influence over the domestic
and foreign policies of the Northern industrialized government that host
them. Indeed, the interests of the most powerful governments in the
world are often intimately intertwined with the expanding pursuits of
the transnationals that they charter.

At the same time, transnational corporations are moving to circumvent
national governments. The borders and regulatory agencies of most
governments are caving in to the New World Order of globalization,
allowing corporations to assume an ever more stateless quality, leaving
them less and less accountable to any government anywhere.

These corporations, together with their host governments, are
reorganizing world economic structures--and thus the balance of
political power--through a series of intergovernmental trade and
investment accords.  These treaties serve as the frameworks within which
globalization is  evolving--allowing international corporate investment
and trade to flourish across the Earth. They include:

The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

The World Trade Organization, which was created to enforce the GATT's 
rules.

The proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment.

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The European Union (EU).

These international trade and investment agreements allow corporations
to circumvent the power and authority of national governments and local 
communities, thus endangering workers' rights, the environment and
democratic political processes.

 ------------------------------------------------------------- source:
Joshua Karliner, The Corporate Planet: Ecology and Politics in the Age
of Globalization (Sierra Club Books, 1997)

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