The Many Sins of General Electric

international | anti-capitalism | other press

Thursday June 30, 2005 15:28

by redjade

(...or what I could find on short notice)

The Basics...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric

MUST Reading
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=16

General Electric
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.asp?ID=D000000125&Name=General+Electric
''...it manufactures aircraft engines, locomotives, household
appliances, light bulbs and plastics. It builds and operates nuclear
reactors, while its consumer finance arm ranks as one of the biggest
financial services companies in the nation. GE is also the parent
company of the NBC television network. With so many subsidiaries
offering so many different products and services, it's no surprise
that GE keeps close watch over everything Congress does, from defense
appropriations to campaign finance legislation and its effects on
broadcasters.''

GE Company Organization Information
http://www.publicintegrity.org/telecom/analysis/CompanyProfile.aspx?HOID=8031

USA Political Contributions
$3,832,000 total to US Repubs
57.49% of total to US Repubs

41 US TV stations
plus NBC/CNBC/MSNBC etc

War....

Giving the Gift of War
December 13, 2004
'General Electric the 8th largest Dept of Defense contractor'
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1213-21.htm

Military Aircraft Engines
http://www.geae.com/engines/military/index.html

GE *used* to make Nuclear Weapons - stopped in 1993 after an Academy
Award winning Documentary (1992) exposed its investments.
http://www.infact.org/aboutinf.html#ANCHOR2
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=7851

Nazi Germany
American Corporations and Hitler
By Jacques R. Pauwels
''By the early 1930s, an élite of about twenty of the largest American
corporations had a German connection including Du Pont, Union Carbide,
Westinghouse, General Electric....'
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/51/pauwels.html#FOOT58

Martin A. Lee says (good author)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_01/02.01E.Cheney.Hussein.htm
'...General Electric secretly kept trading with the Nazi enemy while
American soldiers fought and died during World War II.'

Environmental Concerns

'By its own admission, GE from 1947-1977, discharged over a million
pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River from its two manufacturing plants
in upstate New York. Contrary to GE's campaign of misinformation, PCBs
have been shown to cause cancer in humans.'
http://www.cleanupge.org/toddresponse.html
http://www.cleanupge.org/

'GE has designed 91 nuclear power plants in 11 countries'

'GE's history with nuclear power is an ugly one. In the 1940s-1960s
the company ran experiments on humans with radiation, including
irradiating the reproductive organs of prison inmates in Walla Walla,
Washington, without warning them of the risk of cancer. Other tests
were run on the elderly and hospital patients.'

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=16

Labour Concerns

'GE was run until 2001 by "Neutron" Jack Welch, who made it a matter
of principle to lay off 10% of his workers per year.'
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=16

More about 10% Rule
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/24/60II/main682830.shtml

More Labour...
Also see
http://www.innercitypress.org/ge.html

GE Workers
http://geworkersunited.org/

'A General Electric wholly-owned subsidiary has been charged with
violating federal law in the firing of two union supporters during an
IUE-CWA organizing campaign.'
http://geworkersunited.org/news/index.asp?ID=298