4 ms·

Has a corporation ever tried to commit genocide?

bradchris 3y ago
Well, there’s the entire history of Dole and also the United Fruit Company in South America. In more recent history, Exxon has a checkered past when it comes to using force against sovereign citizens, often employing paramilitary organizations to guard oil fields [1] to more recently abusing international court systems to disbar and jail the lawyer which successfully secured judgements against them [2] And at this very moment, right now, is the ongoing genocide in the Congo due to rare earth mineral mining [3] Everything I link here is quite frankly the tip of the iceberg, not the end-all-be-all, but meant to provide a jumping off point should you want to research how often private capital and genocide go hand in hand. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accusations_of_ExxonMobil_human_rights_violations_in_Aceh https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accusations_of_ExxonMobil_hu... [2] https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/28/chevron-lawyer-steven-donziger-ecuador-house-arrest https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/28/chevron-lawy... [3] https://republic.com.ng/october-november-2023/congo-cobalt-genocide/ https://republic.com.ng/october-november-2023/congo-cobalt-g...
CBarkleyU 3y ago
The Dutch East India Company definitely did things that are well in the genocide category, the British East India company did things that - while not on that level of evil - can only be described as ruthlessly atrocious. Pretty much all leading heads of IG Farben were in one way or another dinked (but not procecuted bc of political reasons) for their part in the Holocaust. Then we have the Kiobel vs Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. case, where a number of petroleum companies ("allegedly") instigated the Nigarian government to crush protests. It all depends on your definition of "trying to commit [atrocity]", to me personally, instigating and happily lending a hand are both morally deplorable. So in the context of this thread, I'd much rather have the instigater have that power than a helper. At least I have some say in what the government does... I hope?
btbuildem 3y ago
The first chartered corps were created in order to streamline genocide - East India for example. This new form combined the merchants' wealth and the royalty's military power into an entity that was accountable to no one but those who stood to profit from it.
meroes 3y ago
Yes? United Fruit Company now known as Chiquita.
- genman 3y ago
  Their practices have not changed much. For example they are using death squads against farmers.
pajko 3y ago
Think Weyland-Yutani.
checkyoursudo 3y ago
A more pressing reformulation might be, has a corporation ever explicitly tried not to commit genocide? Google, maybe, until they dropped the "don't be evil" catchphrase? Many, maybe even most, governments could commit genocide and don't. How many corporations that could commit genocide wouldn't? I don't know the answer to this, but I am less confident about the answer than I would prefer. I don't think most corporations are inherently more evil than most governments, but I would choose a democratic government or consortium to shepherd AGI over any corporation, but also of course over any non-democratic government as well.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
_heimdall 3y ago
Modern chemical and pharmaceutical companies largely came out of WW1 and WW2 weapons manufacturing and research (including human trials). It may be hard to directly peg weapons manufacturers with genocide though Nazi-era chemical research absolutely played a role in the Holocaust. For a more recent example, there are companies that play the role of mercenary armies. They have committed various atrocities, war crimes, and at least played a role in genocide.
Pat_Murph 3y ago
Corporations participated in genocide yes. Here's a list of corporations who profited from the holocaust in various ways. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_involved_in_the_Holocaust https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_involved_i...
Pat_Murph 3y ago
There are initiatives to have international criminal courts to recognise that corporations are responsable for participating in genocides. They are not part of the international coûts mandaté at the moment so they are used to shield people behind them. Here's a paper exploring this possibility https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2151510 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2151510
_ugfj 3y ago
How close do they need to be? China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) has, for all intents and purposes, financed the genocide in Darfur. See for example https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2006/03/statement-on-sinopec-divestment/ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2006/03/statement-on-... on this.

Well, there’s the entire history of Dole and also the United Fruit Company in South America. In more recent history, Exxon has a checkered past when it comes to using force against sovereign citizens, often employing paramilitary organizations to guard oil fields [1] to more recently abusing international court systems to disbar and jail the lawyer which successfully secured judgements against them [2] And at this very moment, right now, is the ongoing genocide in the Congo due to rare earth mineral mining [3] Everything I link here is quite frankly the tip of the iceberg, not the end-all-be-all, but meant to provide a jumping off point should you want to research how often private capital and genocide go hand in hand. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accusations_of_ExxonMobil_human_rights_violations_in_Aceh https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accusations_of_ExxonMobil_hu... [2] https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/28/chevron-lawyer-steven-donziger-ecuador-house-arrest https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/28/chevron-lawy... [3] https://republic.com.ng/october-november-2023/congo-cobalt-genocide/ https://republic.com.ng/october-november-2023/congo-cobalt-g...

CBarkleyU 3y ago

The Dutch East India Company definitely did things that are well in the genocide category, the British East India company did things that - while not on that level of evil - can only be described as ruthlessly atrocious. Pretty much all leading heads of IG Farben were in one way or another dinked (but not procecuted bc of political reasons) for their part in the Holocaust. Then we have the Kiobel vs Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. case, where a number of petroleum companies ("allegedly") instigated the Nigarian government to crush protests. It all depends on your definition of "trying to commit [atrocity]", to me personally, instigating and happily lending a hand are both morally deplorable. So in the context of this thread, I'd much rather have the instigater have that power than a helper. At least I have some say in what the government does... I hope?

btbuildem 3y ago

The first chartered corps were created in order to streamline genocide - East India for example. This new form combined the merchants' wealth and the royalty's military power into an entity that was accountable to no one but those who stood to profit from it.

meroes 3y ago

Yes? United Fruit Company now known as Chiquita.

genman 3y ago
Their practices have not changed much. For example they are using death squads against farmers.

pajko 3y ago

Think Weyland-Yutani.

checkyoursudo 3y ago

A more pressing reformulation might be, has a corporation ever explicitly tried not to commit genocide? Google, maybe, until they dropped the "don't be evil" catchphrase? Many, maybe even most, governments could commit genocide and don't. How many corporations that could commit genocide wouldn't? I don't know the answer to this, but I am less confident about the answer than I would prefer. I don't think most corporations are inherently more evil than most governments, but I would choose a democratic government or consortium to shepherd AGI over any corporation, but also of course over any non-democratic government as well.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

_heimdall 3y ago

Modern chemical and pharmaceutical companies largely came out of WW1 and WW2 weapons manufacturing and research (including human trials). It may be hard to directly peg weapons manufacturers with genocide though Nazi-era chemical research absolutely played a role in the Holocaust. For a more recent example, there are companies that play the role of mercenary armies. They have committed various atrocities, war crimes, and at least played a role in genocide.

Pat_Murph 3y ago

Corporations participated in genocide yes. Here's a list of corporations who profited from the holocaust in various ways. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_involved_in_the_Holocaust https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_involved_i...

Pat_Murph 3y ago

There are initiatives to have international criminal courts to recognise that corporations are responsable for participating in genocides. They are not part of the international coûts mandaté at the moment so they are used to shield people behind them. Here's a paper exploring this possibility https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2151510 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2151510

_ugfj 3y ago

How close do they need to be? China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) has, for all intents and purposes, financed the genocide in Darfur. See for example https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2006/03/statement-on-sinopec-divestment/ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2006/03/statement-on-... on this.