Corporations involved in war

[Subversive Pessimist]

United Fruit Company gave the exile Cubans the boats in order to invade Cuba. Why did UFC do this? What did they make out of it?

Anyways, this thread is about corporations involved in war. Post a story. ;)

[Invader Zim]

Certain corporations have always been involved in war, and always supported it. Take for example any weapons producer, they obviously have been funding and using influence to start wars, as it is a major profitable exersise.

[Subversive Pessimist]

True. However, I was thinking more of a direct involvement.

[Daymare17]

The most famous case is probably IG Farben.

http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/PHARMAC...al_industry.htm (http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/PHARMACEUTICAL_BUSINESS/history_of_the_pharmaceutical_industry.htm)

"The Nuremberg War Criminal Tribunal convicted 24 IG Farben board members and executives on the basis of mass murder, slavery and other crimes against humanity. Amazingly however, by 1951 all of them had already been released, continuing to consult with German corporations. The Nuremberg Tribunal dissolved the IG Farben into Bayer, Hoechst, and BASF.

Today each of the three daughters of the IG Farben is 20 times as big as the IG Farben mother was at its height in 1944, the last year of the Second World War.

More importantly, for almost three decades after the Second World War, BASF, Bayer and Hoechst (now Aventis) each filled its highest position, chairman of the board, with former members of the Nazi, NSDAP:

Carl Wurster, chairman of the board of BASF until 1974 was, during the war, on the board of the company manufacturing Zyklon-B gas
Carl Winnacker, chairman of the board of Hoechst until the late 70's, was a member of the Sturm Abteilung (SA) and was a member of the board of IG Farben
Curt Hansen, chairman of the board of Bayer until the late 70's, was co-organizer of the conquest of Europe in the department of "acquisition of raw materials." Under this leadership the IG Farben daughters, BASF, Bayer, and Hoechst, continued to support politicians representing their interests.
During the 50's and 60's they invested in the political career of a young representative from a suburb of the BASF town of Ludwigshafen, his name: Helmut Kohl.

From 1957 to 1967 the young Helmut Kohl was a paid lobbyist of the "Verband Chemischer Industrie," the central lobby organization of the German pharmaceutical and chemical cartel. Thus, the German chemical and pharmaceutical industry built up one of its own as a political representative, leaving the German people with only the choice of final approval.

The result is well known: Helmut Kohl was chancellor of Germany for 16 years and the German pharmaceutical and chemical industry became the world’s leading exporter of chemical products, with subsidiaries in over 150 countries, more than IG Farben ever had. Several billion people will now die prematurely, if the pharmaceutical industry gets its way. Germany is the only country in the entire world in which a former paid lobbyist for the chemical and pharmaceutical cartel was head of the government. In summary, the support of German politics for the global expansion plans of the German pharmaceutical and chemical companies has a 100-year-old tradition.

It is with this background that we understand the support of Bonn for the unethical plans of the Codex Commission.

The U.S. lead prosecutor in the Nuremberg War Criminal Tribunal against the IG Farben anticipated this development when he said, "these IG Farben criminals, not the lunatic Nazi fanatics, are the main war criminals. If the guilt of these criminals is not brought to daylight and if they are not punished, they will represent a much greater threat to the future peace of the world than Hitler if he were still alive."

[Guerrilla22]

Originally posted by [email protected] 20 2004, 03:25 PM
United Fruit Company gave the exile Cubans the boats in order to invade Cuba. Why did UFC do this? What did they make out of it?

Anyways, this thread is about corporations involved in war. Post a story. ;)
This isn't true, the "Fidelistas" came over from Mexico on 1 boat, the Granma and it was purchased with funds raised by the M-26-7, which were solicictated from various symphathizers around Latin Americ and the US.

[Subversive Pessimist]

I was talking about the Bay of Pigs. You were thinking of Fidel and the others, right?

[Guerrilla22]

whoops, my bad. In that case, yeah they did provide boats for the failed invasion, however why wouldn't the UFC want to fund this project? It was in their best interest, since under Batista, they were allowed to monopolize Cuba's farm land, and exploit its workers and on top of that, after the revolution, the Cuban government nationalized everything, thus taking away all UFC property in Cuba.

It was the same thing when the UFC got involved in the coup in Guatemala, well before the Bay of Pigs incident, in '54.

[CubanFox]

Ah, the United Fruit Company. Neocolonialism at its worst. This is Central America, 1951, with regard to the UFC:
http://img46.exs.cx/img46/3999/UnitedFruitCompanyinCentralAmerica1951.jpg

The company was set up in 1899 to rape the Third World and make sure they produced enough pineapples etc to keep the rich in Europe and the USA happy.

As the 20th century progressed, they bought up enormous tracts of land in Central America, as can be seen in the map. They didn't call it el pulpo, the octopus, for nothing.

he UFC was one of several hands jammed firmly up the US government's arse during the 20th century, and Jacobo Arbenz was ousted by the US government at the UFC's insistence. Arbenz wanted to nationalise UFC land in Guatemala and give it to landless peasants. But we couldn't have that, could we? Arbenz was gotten rid of and the peasants stayed slaves.

Hell, even as early as 1910, they were pulling this sort of shit. They took over Honduras when the government failed to make the UFC tax exempt.

They even helped retard the development of the countries they effectively owned. For a long time, they stopped the construction of highways in Guatemala, because that would lessen the value of the UFC's railway monopoly.

Needless to say, they had a good grip on the Cuban sugar fields, and Fidel garnered much support on the fact that he was committed to throwing the UFC out.

Thankfully, by 1970, the company was beginning to financially run itself into the ground, the Del Monte Corporation bought up their land and the UFC dissolved. Del Monte, thankfully, don't seek to control the countries they invest in as the UFC did.

[Guerrilla22]

However, the Guatemalan people suffered for years due to the over throw of Arbenz in '54 and still are suffering from the affects to this very day.

[praxis1966]

Aside from the obvious, i.e. the above stated, heavy corporate involvement was at the root of the Opium Wars in China, specifically the British East India Company.

http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/botany/bota...article_17.html (http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/botany/botany_map/articles/article_17.html)

The Dutch East India Company was probably the grossest example of corporate involvement in war, however. Founded in 1602, it was charged with the dual purpose of discovery, maintenance, and use of trade routes, and prosecuting war. Probably the best example of how this company affected the modern world, despite the company's dissolution in 1798, was the existance of apartheid in South Africa. The Dutch presence in Southern Africa was initially nothing more than a trading post at the Cape of Good Hope, which was established by the Company. Eventually it ballooned into a full scale colony and the Boers, several wars and alot of exploitation later, controlled the area until 1991.

Although there were alot of corporations in and out of South Africa, DeBeers (another company based in The Netherlands) was probably the largest influence in the 20th century. On the back of what was a de facto slave state, they became the largest dealer of diamonds in the world. This was especially important during the Cold War, as South Africa was their single largest source. Most of the rest of the world's diamond supply was contained within Soviet satellite states. It was not until the fracture of the Soviet Union that George Bush, Sr. began to put pressure on S. Africa for humanitarian reform. More recently, DeBeers caught alot of flack for the purchase and sale of "blood diamonds." During the civil war/genocide in Sierra-Lione, they bought diamonds from the various factions. The proceeds from which were then used by the involved parties used to buy weapons.

Aside from that, you could probably make the case for Bell Helicopter and McDonnell-Douglas being the real impetus behind the Vietnam War.

[refuse_resist]

Ford Motor Company was another corporation that was involved in war. Henry Ford's book "The International Jew" was greatly admired by Hitler and the Nazis, and Hitler kept a copy of it at his desk at all times. Ford also provided them with automobiles and made everything for them. Slave labor was used in the Ford plants in Germany at this time, which Ford profited from greatly.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/fordnazi.jpg
Henry Ford receiving the Nazi medal of honor.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/fordnazi.htm

[j.guevara]

Today General Electric owns NBC and the news channel MSNBC. They are also one of the worlds largest weapons manufacturer. Just the people we want handling war coverage!