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CorpWatch: Non-profit investigative research and journalism to expose
corporate malfeasance and to advocate for multinational corporate
accountability and transparency. We work to foster global justice,
independent media activism and democratic control over corporations.
We seek to expose multinational corporations that profit from war,
fraud, environmental, human rights and other abuses, and to provide
critical information to foster a more informed public and an effective
democracy.
Our guiding vision is to promote human, environmental, social and worker rights at the
local, national and global levels by making corporate practices more
transparent and holding corporations accountable for their actions.
As
independent investigative researchers and journalists, we provide critical information
to foster a more informed public and an effective democracy.
We believe the actions, decisions, and policies undertaken and
pursued by private corporations have very real impact on public life –
from individuals to communities around the world. Yet few mechanisms
currently exist to hold them accountable for those actions. As a result,
it falls to the public sphere to protect the public interest.
In many cases, corporate power and influence eclipses even the democratic political
process itself as they exert disproportional influence on public policy
they deem detrimental to their narrow self-interests. In less developed
nations, they usurp authority altogether, often purchasing government
complicity for unfair practices at the expense of economic,
environmental, human, labor and social rights.
Yet despite the
very public impact of their actions and decisions, corporations remain
bound to be accountable solely to their own private financial
considerations and the interests of their shareholders. They have little
incentive, nor requirement, for public transparency regarding their
decisions and practices, let alone concrete accountability for their
ultimate impact.
SHARE Monday, August 8, 2016 General Atomics Funded U.S. Think Tank That Promoted Increased Drone Exports
The donations by General Atomics pale in comparison to the checks written by Boeing and Lockheed Martin who have together donated over $77 million to over 20 think tanks in the last five years or so, including CSIS. Both companies have major contracts to support the U.S. military drones.
SHARE Wednesday, December 30, 2015 China Cracks Down On Guangdong Labor Activists
Seven activists in Guangdong province, a key manufacturing hub in China, have been detained in a major crackdown on labor rights organizers. The arrests follow a steep rise in protests and strikes at factories that have long exploited migrant workers from rural areas with low pay and working conditions.
SHARE Friday, December 18, 2015 U.S. Air Force Hires Private Companies To Fly Drones In War Zones
U.S. Air Force officials has begun to hire private companies to fly drone aircraft operating over Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The unprecedented move is in response to demands from the Obama administration to dramatically expand the drone war just as the Pentagon faces a critical shortage of military pilots.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, August 21, 2015 "Project Omega" Reveals Secrets Of Dark Pools Stock Trading
Most traders buy and sell stocks on public stock exchanges -- but "dark pools" are essentially private stock markets located inside big banks that allow clients to place secret orders. Such systems have been in existence for 30 years and have become increasingly popular among institutional buyers who want to hide their identity or ensure that a large order does not cause the price to fluctuate.
SHARE Monday, April 13, 2015 UNIQLO, Japanese Fast Fashion Label, Accused of Labor Violations
Chinese factories in Dongguan and Guangzhou that supply UNIQLO - a "fast fashion" label owned by Fast Retailing Co. from Japan - have been accused of endangering their workers' lives, according to a new report from Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), a Hong-Kong based labor rights group.
SHARE Monday, March 9, 2015 Coca-Cola Forced To Shut Bottling Plant in India
Coca-Cola, the world's largest beverage producer, has been ordered to shut down its bottling plant in Varanasi, India following local complaints that the company was drawing excessive amounts of groundwater. After an investigation, government authorities ruled that the company had violated its operating license.
SHARE Sunday, March 1, 2015 Apple Agrees To Chinese Government Security Audits, Worrying Activists
Apple has agreed to allow the Chinese government run security audits on the new iPhone to prove that there is no back door access for the U.S. government. However, activists say that this agreement could have the opposite effect, allowing China to broaden spying on its own people.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, February 27, 2015 CorpWatch : U.S. Government Buys Surveillance Technology To Track Drivers in Real Time
Local government officials have the ability to track individual drivers in the U.S. in real time and take pictures of the occupants of their vehicles, with new "truly Orwellian" technology purchased from companies like Vigilant Solutions, according to new documents uncovered by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
SHARE Wednesday, January 7, 2015 Subsidizing Contractor Misconduct
Last summer, to help put an end to these kinds of mistreatment, President Barack Obama signed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order.
Here's why the executive order could help workers: Every year, the federal government awards a fortune in contracts for everything from defense systems to administrative services to companies that employ an estimated one in five American workers.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 12, 2014 Uruguay Presents Defense Against Philip Morris Tobacco Lawsuit
Expect many more such lawsuits if TPP passes: "Uruguay has presented a 500 page document to defend itself against an international lawsuit challenging the country's tough tobacco packaging regulations. The claim was brought by Philip Morris, the global tobacco giant, at the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington DC."
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, November 1, 2014 Major Banks Prepare to Pay Billions For Foreign Exchange Manipulation
Multinational banks are preparing to pay out billions of dollars in fines to settle charges of foreign exchange manipulation. Some 19 investigations in ten different legal jurisdictions are now winding their way to completion and analysts says the final tally may hit $41 billion.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 28, 2014 Hedge Fund Managers Still Making Billions
All told, in 2013, the highest paid 25 hedge fund managers collectively earned $21.5 billion, also a big leap from $14.14 billion the previous year, according to the annual list compiled by Institutional Investor magazine.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, February 13, 2014 CorpWatch: Anglo Irish Bankers On Trial For Scheme That Led to National Collapse
Three top executives at Anglo Irish bank are on trial for a secret scheme to buy their own bank's shares that eventually triggered the 2008 collapse of the Irish economy. The bankers allegedly hatched the plan to cover up bets made by Sean Quinn, once Ireland's richest man.
SHARE Monday, February 3, 2014 Shell Arctic Drilling Plans Blocked
CorpWatch:Â Shell Arctic Drilling Plans Blocked By Courts.
Shell's plans to drill for oil in the Arctic's Chukchi Sea have been handed a major setback by a U.S appeals court which ruled that the Department of the Interior had underestimated the potential environment impact. The courts ordered the federal government to do a new assessment.
SHARE Thursday, December 5, 2013 CorpWatch : The Jason Bourne Strategy: CIA Contractors Do Hollywood
CorpWatch: The Jason Bourne Strategy: CIA Contractors Do Hollywood.
The first group of undercover agents were recruited by private companies from the Army Special Forces and the Navy SEALs and then repurposed to the CIA at handsome salaries averaging around $140,000 a year; the second crew was recruited from the prison cells at Guantanamo Bay and paid out of a secret multimillion dollar slush fund called "the Pledge."
SHARE Tuesday, August 20, 2013 ACLU Reveals FBI Hacking Contractors
CorpWatch: ACLU Reveals FBI Hacking Contractors. James Bimen Associates of Virginia and Harris Corporation of Florida have contracts with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to hack into computers and phones of surveillance targets, according to Chris Soghoian, principal technologist at American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project.
SHARE Wednesday, July 24, 2013 CorpWatch : Commodity Scams: Barclays, Goldman & JP Morgan Under Fire
JP Morgan Chase is expected to announce over $600 million in penalties and repayments for allegedly cheating customers in energy markets in California and Michigan. This just after Barclays bank paid out $470 million for manipulating electricity rates. Now Goldman Sachs is under scrutiny for possibly manipulating aluminum prices.
SHARE Thursday, July 4, 2013 Surveillance Contractor Bug In Ecuador Embassy Fails to Stop Wikileaks
Spy equipment from the Surveillance Group Limited, a British private detective agency based in Worcester, England, has been found in the Ecuadorean embassy in London where Julian Assange, editor of Wikileaks, has taken refuge.