Show 5: Christmas for Corporations

Every day looks a lot like Christmas for corporations looking for subsidy handouts from local governments. Author and activist Greg Leroy describes the "Great American Jobs Scam" in which corporations seek subsidies from state and local governments, giving little in return.

Then, an update on the saga of fisherwoman Diane Wilson. She's recently been arrested at a Tom Delay fundraiser and sent to jail for at least four months. Her crime: calling attention to Dow Chemical's responsibility for cleaning up the enormous environmental,health and economic mess its subsidiary Union Carbide has left behind in Bhopal, India.

Finally, a holiday reflection from Dr. Jody, in the Corner Office at Corporate Watchdog Radio.

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Links, References

Book: The Great American Jobs Scam



Addresses for Potential Holiday Correspondence
regarding Bhopal and Diane Wilson

Dow Chemical CEO
Andrew Liveris
CEO
Dow Chemical
2030 Dow Center
Midland, MI 48674


Political Prisoner Diane Wilson
Sylvia Dianne Wilson (CR# 65510)
Victoria County Jail (Calhoun County inmate)
101 North Glass
Victoria, TX 77901

Note: All mail to Diane Wilson
is read by prison security.

Show 4: Human Rights and Environment: Chevron in Ecuador

Chevron's accountability for the legacy of environmental destruction and health impacts from oil exploitation by subsidiary Texaco in the Oriente region of Ecuador from 1964-1992. We speak with Cristobal Bonifaz, lead attorney in the Maria Aguinda Salazar v. ChevronTexaco class-action lawsuit filed in Lago Agrio, Ecuador (after navigating US courts for a decade) in May 2003 by 88 Ecuadorians representing 30,000 indigenous community members and settlers, and currently in the inspection phase visiting the 627 unlined pits where toxic "formation waters" (which accompany oil when extracted) were dumped.

We also speak with Leslie Lowe, director of the Energy and Environment program for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors with more than $110 billion in assets whose members filed 3 shareholder resolutions this year at Chevron related directly or indirectly to the Ecuador environmental and human rights problems. Ms. Lowe visited the affected regions in March of this year as a member of a delegation of Chevron shareholders--including the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS--the largest US pension fund) on a fact-finding mission.

Finally, Corporate Watchdog Radio correspondent David Poritz, who runs a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in Ecuador called Esperanza that brings shoes to the affected communities as well as bringing students to the region to give them a first hand experience seeing the contamination, speaks with ethnobiologist Dr. Estella de la Torre in the Secoya community of San Pablo, where she does research.


Listen


Links:

Oil Spread Upon the Waters of Ecuador May Return Harm for ChevronTexaco Shareholders (pic) (part 1 of 3-part article)

Asphalt Jungle: Did Oil Drilling by Texaco Create Environmental and Social Harm in Ecuador? (part 2 of 3-part article)

Ecuadorian Attorney General Tells ChevronTexaco Shareholders Remediation Agreement May Be Invalid (part 3 of 3-part article)

New Document Alleges Tie Between Chevron and Human Rights Abuses in Nigeria
(part 1 of 2-part article)

Lack of Human Rights Policy Concerns Chevron Shareowners in Light of Unocal Merger
(part 2 of 2-part article)