Connecting WTO, Bush, Hurwitz, MAXXAM, Halliburton, war and oil

WTO, Bush, Hurwitz, MAXXAM, Halliburton and war -->

MAXXAM corporation; Holding company that now owns Pacific Lumber after a hostile takeover a decade ago. Before the Maxxam takeover, PL practiced somewhat sustainable logging by leaving at least 50% of the tress standing. Maxxam practices unsustainable logging and is still causing much damage by clearcutting old growth redwoods in the North Coast region. Maxxam also owns Kaiser aluminum/steel, which became bankrupt after stealing pensions and polluting rivers in Ghana. Maxxam CEO Charles Hurwitz is a longtime friend of George Bush since their days together at Yale’s Order of Skull and Bones.

Halliburton is an oil export company that rushed into Kuwait after Bush Sr’s first Gulf War, and after Bush Jr’s invasion of Iraq before the bloody bodies of Iraqi civilians were carried off the streets of Baghdad. Vice pResident Dick Cheney is the former CEO and currently receiving 1 Mil dollars in “deffered compensation” yearly from this oil export company. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Iran are all countries on the Arabian tectonic plate, and due to subsurface strata gradients, oil migrates and accumulates, and is trapped in pools for easier extraction than anywhere else. Remember Bush spoke of Syria and Iran as potential problem areas soon after Iraq was invaded.
Second after the Middle East for petroleum extraction is Venezuala and Columbia offshore deposits; also Nigeria in Africa (Niger River delta). Nigeria is where Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were hung by the Nigerian government for trying to protect their lands near the Niger River delta from Shell Oil. World Bank gave both Shell and Nigerian govn't millions to continue petroleum activities, despite the fact that oil spills and gas flaring decimated the river's fish and ecosystem. The Ogoni people depend of the river for their survival, Shell destroyed their river and the Nigerian government killed the most committed Ogoni activists. Now Chevron-Texaco is in Nigeria copycatting Shell..

(Nigeria Indymedia)

WTO – The World Trade Organization formed to ease trade restrictions on multinational corporations like Halliburton, Maxxam, Exxon, Shell, Monsanto, Dupont, etc.. WTO removes trade barriers like environmental regulations and worker rights in favor of corporations making maximum profit at expense of local environment and working people.

Mexico – Chiapas and Cancun both come to mind when discussing the effects of WTO on Mexico. Chiapas is the southernmost state in Mexico, Cancun is the tourist town where the WTO conference is being held. Under Plan Puebla Panama, a WTO offshoot covering Central America, biotech corporations like Monsanto or Grupo Pulsar will engage in biopiracy, the theft and “patent” of medicinal plants and their DNA structure from the rainforest. Multinational timber corporations like Boise Cascade and International Paper would be given funding and free reign in the Lacandon rainforest of Chiapas. Under PPP, the indigenous people of Chiapas would be forced off their land and relocated into cities while their rainforest was clear cut. The people of Chiapas are struggling there to save their tropical rainforest as people here in the North Coast struggle to save our temperate redwood rainforest. This shows the similarity between both local populations and their environments, the oppressive governments (ex. Mexico and USA) assisting the logging corporations in extracting timber despite the objections and resistance of the local populations. Crouched on top of the governments is the WTO and the multinational corporations that are given the ok to plunder resources and environments under free trade. After the resources have been extracted, the people are left with little that a deforested region eroding into the sea.

For these and many other reasons, we stand in solidarity against the WTO and multinational corporate domination!!