Transnational Corporations: The Ones To Rule Them All

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The Ones To Rule Them All
Corporations are large companies around the world that are legally recognized as people. Because corporations are legally people, we can consider them to be like the modern plantation owners; the plantation consisting of the planet, and the workers being synonymous to slaves. We citizens, as consumers, are indentured to corporations; we “need” the goods they provide in order to meet our basic, and not-so-basic, needs. Everything we own has been tainted by a corporation - the food is imported, the goods are shipped internationally, the energy that is used to drive cars, and so forth; it is all provided by a corporation. According to the source, workers are 'insecure' and live in a constant state of fear from their …show more content…

Large transnational corporations, such as Chiquita, Del Monte, and Dole, ship them around the world; the ones mentioned are based in America. The bananas they ship are largely produced in Latin America, namely Ecuador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Columbia; however, they all export to the United States, Canada, and Europe. Lasker notes that bananas come from questionable workspaces, as these businesses often violate human rights. Chiquita's workers, for example, were violently repressed from forming unions by paying the United Self-Defence Forces of Columbia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary group in Columbia, to intensify violence against union leaders. Lasker mentions that the AUC has also been linked to rich landowners, petroleum companies and the Colombian military. Chiquita admitted to the bribing, claiming that they were paying the AUC to protect the workers. Hundreds of civilians were killed, in addition to the union leaders. Only a 'master' with a complete disregard for human 'slave' lives would regard protection to be akin to massacre. The US State Department, after 9/11, designated the AUC as a terrorist group. According to American law, if one were to offer a terrorist group any material assistance, they would be sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Yet when Chiquita supplied the AUC with 3400 assault rifles, the behemoth got away with a fine. Independent researchers have exposed an inglorious past showing Chiquita’s intimidation and violence against union leaders is not a well-kept secret. According to Lasker, the pattern of repression goes back to the 1920s. Columbia now has a free trade agreement with the United States, which has lessened their notoriously high assassination rate of union leaders. Many international companies and organizations continue to advocate for worker's rights; however, some have a "track record of failing to uphold

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