Approved Old Growth Logging in Elk River. revised

Usually criminal behavior on the part of multinational corporations follows a pattern. Corporate criminals like Maxxam's CEO Charles Hurwitz don't confine their methods of exploitation to only one ecosystem. The following is a list of article segments detailing Maxxam's overseas corporate raider adventures with Kaiser (subsidiary Valco) and their operation of the Akosombo hydroelectric dam on the Volta River. Maxxam took over Kaiser using a similar method as when they took over Pacific Lumber. Worker's pensions were stolen, and many people were laid off. In addition, the environmental practices of both Kaiser & Pacific Lumber worsened considerably following the Maxxam takeover..

The energy generated from the Akosombo dam is monopolized by Kaiser for smelting aluminum. The farmers who were flooded out by the dam's construction have recieved little if any compensation. Instead residents around the dam are provided with stagnant water (malaria) and lack of fisheries. Maxxam alone profits from the production of aluminum with stolen electricity..

"Charles Hurwitz, the man who critics say has made a fortune by pillaging old growth redwoods, busting unions, and engaging in shadowy stock market and savings and loan deals [See “Ravaging the Redwoods: Charles Hurwitz, Michael Milken and the Costs of Greed,” Multinational Monitor, September 1994], can add another title to his infamous resume: power robber baron.

Hurwitz's Maxxam company controls Kaiser Aluminum, which has limited production at two smelters in Washington state since January 1999. Initially, Kaiser shut down its Washington aluminum smelters as part of the company's nationwide lockout of workers who belong to the United Steelworkers of America. The lockout ended last September, shortly after the federal government threatened to charge Kaiser with violating labor laws.

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Like aluminum giants Alcoa and Alcan, Kaiser is slowly but surely moving out of the United States. As energy resources and environmental and labor regulations are tightening, primary aluminum production is shifting to the Third World. Powerful rivers in South America and Africa, coal mines in eastern India, and oil and gas fields of the Middle East are beginning to fuel the global aluminum market.

Ironically, U.S. governmental funding is helping to finance the shift. Kaiser's largest smelter, the 200,000 ton-per-year Valco operation in Ghana, owes its existence to a dam backed by the World Bank and the U.S. government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). The Akosombo dam, according to the International Rivers Network, "flooded more land than any other dam in the world — 8,500 square kilometers." Valco consumes most of Akosombo's power. Drought and rising demand have led international financial institutions to back new sources of power for Kaiser's Ghanaian smelter, including a new oil-fired power plant in Takorade.

Hurwitz has focused Kaiser's investments in overseas locations since 1988, when he bought out the corporation with the assistance of fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich. Rich earned the nickname "Aluminum Finger" for his investments in Russia, Iran, and Jamaica, and his stubborn battle against the Steelworkers union at a smelter in Ravenswood, West Virginia.

Under Hurwitz's control, Kaiser has invested in one of the world's largest smelters (Aluminium Bahrain), sold equipment to Russia's notoriously corrupt primary aluminum industry, and has contemplated or made bids to invest in smelters in Guinea, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

Labor activists say that Kaiser's Pacific Northwest power grab represents a final swindling of the United States before Hurwitz waves goodbye. In April, the president of Steelworkers Local No. 329, Dan Russell, lamented, "I see guys every day that are resigned to the fact that Kaiser is done here. A good number of them are just getting on with their lives ... washing their hands of the whole thing."

— Jim Vallette"

more info on Maxxam @;

http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2001/01june/june01corp3.html

While Maxxam/Kaiser is paying for their electricity at below market rates, the civilain population of Ghana lacks adequate eletric power..

"Ghana no longer has sufficient hydroelectric power to meet rising industrial and consumer demand and must generate electricity from thermal plants that burn petroleum, a more expensive process. In addition, Ghana has to import power from Cote d'Ivoire, Nduom said. The water level in Volta Lake has dropped to an unsustainably low level, and the lake needs healing, he said.

One concern on the Ghanaian side is the fact that Kaiser Aluminum has been in bankruptcy for more than a year. According to Jones Day, the company's law firm, the action was caused by an "unusually weak aluminum market," as well as the cost of asbestos litigation and rising retiree pension and medical obligations. Kaiser has said the bankruptcy plays no role in the dispute with Ghana and will not affect its future in the country. The company's largest shareholder is Maxxam, a Houston holding company controlled by financier Charles Hurwitz."

http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200305271005.html

Instead of regulating the electric taken for nearly free by Maxxam/Kaiser/Valco, the Ghanaian government is coerced via globalization pacts to build another dam in their national park. The architect? None other than Halliburton..

"There are also other more controversial projects afoot. The Volta River Authority signed a memorandum of understanding this month with a construction consortium led by British company Brown and Root [subsidiary or division of Halliburton Company (US)], for a second 400MW hydro-electric dam at Bui, up the Black Volta river from Akosombo.

http://www.worldtwitch.com/ghana_bui.htm

International River's Network details the ecology before and after the dam's construction..

"Before the construction of the Akosombo Dam the cycle of farming was structured around the rise and fall of the river. Fertile flood plains provided a significant part of agricultural output, cattle grazed on these plains, people fished in the river and collected clams from its bed.

No more. The damming has put an end to a cycle which deposited silt on the flood plains, resulting in a drastic curtailment of agricultural output and herding. Communities have appealed unsuccessfully to VRA to time its spillage to coincide with the traditional flooding season to facilitate economic activity. Creeks have dried up, and salinization due to the penetration of sea water has destroyed the clam beds and lowered the quality of the drinking water.

As a result of slower flow and elimination of annual floods to flush the river, the incidence of stomach and intestinal diseases have increased. The stagnant waters of the reservoir also dramatically increased breeding conditions for vectors of three waterborne diseases: schistosomiasis (transmitted by snails) and malaria (by mosquitoes). Before the filling of the reservoir, schistosomiasis afflicted 1-5% of the population. By 1979 it had become the most prevalent disease in the area, and average infection rates in lakeside villages grew to 75%."

http://www.irn.org/programs/lesotho/index.php?id=/pubs/wrr/9511wrr.html#anchor368629



Corporate Profiles compiled by George Draffan:

VOLTA ALUMINUM COMPANY LTD. (VALCO)

Ghana

"VALCO is a joint aluminum smelting operation formed between Kaiser and Reynolds Metals, powered by the Akosombo dam on the Volta River in Ghana. Financed by the World Bank, which took the lead in the project in the 1950s and 1960s. VALCO receives energy below-cost. VALCO uses Jamaican bauxite smelted in Louisiana. The area inundated by the dam covers five percent of the country, and displaced 80,000 people (one percent of the population of Ghana) when the reservoir was filled in the 1960s. Seventy thousand of the 100,000 people who have contracted onchocerciasis (river blindness) have been blinded; 80,000 people have been permanently disabled by the parasite schistosomiasis (Hancock, pp. 140-141; and Earth Island Institute's International Dams Newsletter, v.2, n.1, 1987).

"VALCO (Volta Aluminum Company Ltd.) is owned 78 percent by Maxxam [CEO - the notorious Charles Hurwitz], 10 percent by Reynolds [since acquired by Alcoa], and 12 percent by private interests; 80,000 people were relocated from 740 villages; the dam flooded 8,500 square kilometers; Ghana gave Valco low electric rates and numerous tax breaks; (Yao Graham, Drought Dims Ghana's Hydroelectric Power, World Rivers Review, Nov. 1995, p. 6-7; contact African Agenda, PO Box 94154, Yeoville 2198, Johannesburg, South Africa, afagenda [at] iaccess.za)."

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation is a U.S. government agency that has subsidized destructive projects all over the world for the benefit of U.S. corporations, including Enron's gas pipeline from Bolivia to Brazil. From their "OPIC in Ghana, March 1999" webpage on what they have done in Ghana: "OPIC also insured the Volta Aluminum Company, Africa's largest aluminum smelter developed to use power generated by the Akosombo Dam."

http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?p=4994&sid=cc30ee5f7ddf14506bb80a64da371331

corporate profile from endgame;

"MAXXAM

10880 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1600, Los Angeles CA 90024
telephone 213-474-6264

Run by Houston corporate raider Charles E. Hurwitz. Maxxam acquired Pacific Lumber in 1985 and Kaiser Aluminum in 1988. Scotia Pacific Holdings Company is a subsidiary (Wild Forest Review, Oct-Nov. 1995, p. 10).

In 1985, Maxxam took over Pacific Lumber for about $900 million. The takeover was partially financed with junk bonds through Drexel, Burnham, Lambert (Drexel Burnham's methods, and their employment of racketeer Michael Milken, led to DB's bankruptcy in 1990, and Milken's imprisonment). A New York Stock Exchange investigation of the takeover suggested insider trading, but no charges were filed. Maxxam avoids bankruptcy by liquidating the assets of the companies it buys -- in this case, 196,000 acres of the last of the redwood forests, owned by Pacific Lumber. Maxxam's CEO, Charles Hurwitz, also controlled the failed United Financial Group and United Savings Association of Texas; the FDIC has a $548 million outstanding claim against UFG. Hurwitz has proposed selling 4,500 acres of redwoods to the federal government for $600 million (Daly, Ned, "Ravaging the Redwoods: Charles Hurwitz, Michael Milken and the Cost of Greed," Multinational Monitor, Sept. 1994, p. 11-14). In August 1995, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation filed suit against Charles Hurwitz for $250 million in connection with the failure of the United Savings Association of Texas, which cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion. According to the suit, Hurwitz liquidated funds from USAT, laundered them through Michael Milkin's firm Drexel Burnham Lambert, and used the money to finance the takeover of Pacific Lumber with junk bonds. Logging rates were tripled, assets were sold off, and the pension fund was liquidated to service the $750 million debt the takeover incurred. Deceptive financial reporting and corporate subsidiary shell games were played in order to cover up the arrangements (TAP-Resources, Aug. 10, 1995; Taxpayer Assets Project, PO Box 19367, Washington D.C. 20036). The Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment was inspired by the struggle against Maxxam, the owner of Pacific Lumber, which is cutting redwood trees, and Kaiser Aluminum, which replaced union Steelworkers with scabs (http://www.asje.org). December 1999 was the second anniversary of Julia Butterfly Hill's sitting 180 feet off the ground in a redwood tree in a grove which was not included in the $480 million state and federal government buyout of redwood trees held by Maxxam. For more information contact the Circle of Life Foundation, telephone (707)923-9522 or http://www.lunatree.org

Maxxam was on the Council on Economic Priorities' 1992 short list of worst environmental offenders, for its responsibility for 19 Superfund sites, its willful violations of occupational safety and health laws, and its releases of toxic chemicals (Mother Jones, Jan/Feb 1993; and the Earth Island Journal, Winter 1993, p. 20), and on its 1995 Worst Polluters List.

Maxxam's Largest Investor Scolds Hurwitz. Earth First! Mar-Apr. 1997, p. 15.

(California Public Employees' Retirement System (CALPERS), a $108 billion pension fund, owns $15 million in MAXXAM stock. Patricia Macht, spokewoman for CALPERS, warned MAXXAM of the public outcry and potential legislative backlash from failure to save the Headwaters redwood forest. Three school employee unions -- California School Employees Association, California Federation of Teachers, and Faculty Association of California Community Colleges -- have gone on record in suuport of the Clinton administration proposal to acquire 60,000 acres of mostly cutover MAXXAM timberland -- nearly ten times the proposed 7,500 acre Headwaters preserve)."

more Maxxam info @;

http://www.endgame.org/dtc/m.html