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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Cincinnati--Will the real criminals please stand up! |
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by Dee LeComte
Email: seahorse (nospam) odyssee.net (unverified!) |
02 Jun 2001
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June 2, 2001 - Will the real criminals please stand up!
Billionaire Carl Lindner,* is the Chairman and CEO of Chiquita Brands International, Inc. (1) He is also the Chairman and CEO of the American Financial Group, Inc., which, through its subsidiaries, is engaged primarily in property and casualty insurance businesses and in the sale of annuities and life insurance. |
Lindner and his family own about 40% of Chiquita through American Financial Group and the Lindner family also owns about 36% of AFG.(2) In fact his hand is in many different enterprises and banks, too long to list here.
Chiquita\'s products are distributed in more than 60 countries. (3) Chiquita is a global company, with their headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. They have 40,000 employees and operations on six continents. They own approximately 90,000 acres (36,400 hectares) and lease about 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares) of land, primarily in Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia and Honduras. They also own power plants, warehouses, irrigation systems, wharves and a railroad. (4) Chiquita was not content being the world\'s largest banana export company, and lobbied for some years to get into the EU market, which had given small nations special access and also denounced Chiquita\'s unfair labor practices, illegal pesticide use, etc. During the heat of the riots in Cincinnati and while the police were protecting Chiquita\'s headquarters,(5) Chiquita sent out a press release on April 11th, 2001, announcing the agreement \"between the U.S. Government and the European Commission\"(6) in regards to this trade dispute. In real Orwellian fashion, Chiquita referred to the EU as a regime, because of the fact that they imported bananas principally from previous European colonies, excluding the banana giant from further increasing its profits. Chiquita is a great example of what capitalist globalization is.
Many people know of the history of the United Fruit Company, known today as Chiquita Brands International, Inc. For decades, union leaders and other workers have tried to organize against this giant, ending up with few if any gains. Instead, these struggles have merely left behind a long trail of murdered and/or disappeared throughout many countries in Central America.
Chiquita continues its exploitation even outside the banana belt, being involved in national politics in Washington DC as well as at the local level in Cincinnati. On April 12, 1997, billionaire Lindner, not satisfied as he couldn\'t profit from every banana on earth, went to Washington screaming \"unfair trade\" to the Democrats because of the \"special agreements\" that the EU made with small countries such as Grenada, Dominica, St. Lucia and other tiny Caribbean nations that depended on the banana trade. Europe had given them special access to its markets, (7) shutting the doors to Chiquita. Lindner, while in Washington, asked the Clinton administration to take his case before the World Trade Organization, demanding that Europe be prevented from favoring the small suppliers. Never mind that no American jobs were at stake (Chiquita grows its bananas primarily in Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia and Ecuador). Clinton\'s trade officials agreed to side with Lindner, writing a formal letter of complaint to the WTO on April 12, 1997. The very next day—surprise, surprise—Lindner and other Chiquita officials began shipping money to the Democrats! Carl even got a night in the Lincoln bedroom! (8)
The ties between Chiquita banana C.E.O Carl Lindner and the Cincinnati political and business elite are strong. Until 1979 Lindner was the controlling shareholder of the company that owned The Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper.(9) The Enquirer is now owned by Gannett, which also owns USA Today and other publications. On May 3, 1998, Michael Gallagher, the top investigative reporter at the Enquirer, acting, at least at the time, with the backing of the newspaper, wrote a 18 page investigative article that exposed a broad array of illegal practices by Chiquita Brands International Inc. in Central America and the Caribbean.(10) Chiquita answered back by taking The Cincinnati Enquirer to court. \"Then, less than two months after the story was published, the Enquirer fired Gallagher, printed a bold-faced apology on its front page and agreed to pay Chiquita close to 15 million dollars and to refuse to answer questions regarding the accuracy of the stories themselves. Gannett, removed the stories from all of its newspapers\' libraries.\"(11) Proof once again that the mass media are scum.
In court Gallagher did plead guilty to intercepting some 2000 internal company voice mail communications. After Chiquita\'s lawyers discovered that Gallagher had accessed the company\'s voice mail, they sent out the word that one reporter\'s wiretap \"violation\" was more \"heinous\" than anything the company could have done to some peasants down in rural Honduras. Such is the contempt of the rich for the poor, their wage-slaves. At the time, the case created a major sensation among journalists, if only because of the spectacular way in which the Cincinnati Enquirer repudiated a story in which it had invested tens of thousands of dollars, as well as the talents and experience of its top investigative reporter.(12) The articles were also vetted by lawyers from both the newspaper and the giant Gannett newspaper chain before publication. Chiquita also sued Gallagher for libel, trespass and illegal wiretapping in an apparent drive to force him to return the taped messages. However, journalist Michael Gallagher refused to end his silence about the case, which had badly embarrassed Chiquita, as well as his back-stabbing former employer, the Cincinnati Enquirer.(13) Another reason to always hate your boss!
Here are a couple of other things to take into account in this affair. Firstly, Lindner is a regular contributor to both the Democratic and Republican parties and, after failing in a bid to take control of the company, remained Gannett\'s second-largest shareholder and The Cincinnati Enquirer\'s owner until 1985. This had prompted speculation that his leverage in negotiating a settlement may have been especially compelling. Secondly, during the lawsuit, Chiquita never denounced the uncovered facts that Gallagher wrote about. \"Among the illegal Chiquita practices uncovered by the Enquirer\'s investigation: Chiquita secretly controls dozens of supposedly independent banana companies. It also suppresses union activity on the farms it controls. Despite its pact with environmental groups to abide by pesticide safety standards, Chiquita subsidiaries have used pesticides in Central America that are banned in the U.S., Canada, and the European Union. Chiquita also released harmful toxic chemicals into farms, according to a coroner\'s report killing at least one worker in Costa Rica. Chiquita\'s fruit transport ships have been used to smuggle cocaine into Europe. More than a ton of cocaine was seized from 7 Chiquita ships in 1997. (The Enquirer story says the illegal shipment was traced to lax Colombian security rather than to Chiquita) Chiquita executives bribed Colombian officials. Chiquita called in the Honduran military to evict residents of a farm village; the soldiers forced the farmers out at gunpoint, and the village was bulldozed. An employee of a competitor filed a federal lawsuit charging that armed men hired by Chiquita tried to kidnap him in Honduras.\"(14) Thirdly, the Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters, whose office was driving the investigation into Gallagher and who was responsible for appointing a special prosecutor, had received campaign donations from Chiquita.(15)
The FBI was \"…investigating possible wrongdoing in connection with the series [the article by Gallagher]. The Cincinnati Post reported Thursday [July 2, 1998] that agents are focusing on whether anyone violated wiretapping laws in obtaining Chiquita employees\' voice-mail messages.\" Not surprisingly, the FBI didn\'t bother doing an investigation into Chiquita, and its not-unknown history of illegal activities. But the pigs are always on the side of oppressor.(16)
In June 1999, lawyer George Ventura, who gave journalist Michael Gallagher the access code to Chiquita\'s voice mail ended his battle against the banana giant and was sentenced to two years\' probation and 40 hours of community service.(17)
Besides running the show with the local and national newspapers and paying off a prosecutor with campaign donations, what else does Carl Lindner and his family do in Cincinnati? Well, during the last City Council campaign Chiquita gave $20,000 to each of council member of the City as a donation towards their campaigns.(18) Where there is money, there is power. On Monday, April 9, two days after the murder(19) of Timothy Thomas by officer Stephen Roach, the victim’s mother as well his loved ones and members from his community went to the City Council meeting to demand answers in regards to his death. The protesters were of course ignored. The oppressed are no fools; they know who wields power in Cincinnati. When the rioting began in the early morning hours of April 10, it didn\'t take rioters long to go to Chiquita\'s headquarters to trash at least the outside of the building. Shortly thereafter Chiquita had the pigs protecting its private property around the clock.(20) Everyone in the poorest neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine seems to know about the horrible human rights records of the Chiquita corporation in numerous countries and they also know how this wealth wields power in their own neighborhoods. Over-the-Rhine itself, as well as other poor neighborhoods in Cincinnati, have been under attack for decades by capitalists who buy up property and hold it in the hope of making future large profits. Some of these property pimps are other Carl Lindners. When journalist Jenka from Indymedia was interviewing a local resident, she asked her if people there had problems making the connection between the multinational corporations and the poverty that they are experiencing. The resident answered with a definite: \"I have no doubt about that! People look downtown and know that is where the money\'s at. And that is where the people that run this city [are located]\" (21)
The Cincinnati Council has a vested interest in maintaining law and order for those who are making exuberant profits. That is what law and order is for. Not only is Lindner the world-wide Banana King, but Cincinnati is somewhat his kingdom, although he does have some other rivals such as Kroger. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kroger is one of the nation\'s largest retail grocery chains. The Company operates 2,354 supermarkets and multi-department stores in 31 states under nearly two dozen different names. Kroger also operates 789 convenience stores, 398 fine jewelry stores, 77 supermarket fuel centers and 42 food processing plants.(22) Yet another example of capitalist globalization.
Also during Jenka\'s interview, the resident stated that it seemed like everyone from the poor Black community was saying \"If they keep killing our people we\'ll just hit them where it hurts, in their pocket books\"(23) Although the damage that the rioters did to the headquarters of Chiquita are a drop in the bucket in comparison of the atrocities, abuses and day-to-day exploitation done by Carl Lindner, his family, Chiquita, etc. it would seem impossible not to admire these brave persons as examples of warriors waging class war against the capitalist enemies. A lot of people were actually speaking about the rioting as \"[…] having a lot to do with economics and class and not so much with race.\"(24) And that people were saying that \"We got to stop beating each other up,\" and \"That we got to start righting who the real enemy is.\"(25) Unfortunately, State repression being what it is, many of these courageous men and women have been captured. But the people there and elsewhere know who are the real criminals in Cincinnati: Carl Lindner, his four sons, the other fat cats running the show at Chiquita, and other such corporations like the above mentioned Kroger. These people deserve more than just property damage, they need their life expectancies shortened!
Written on April 27, 2001 By Dee LeComte
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*This article, mostly about Carl Lindner and Chiquita, is not in-depth. There has been much more reporting on Chiquita, Lindner, and the censorship at the Cincinnati Enquirer. Lindner is a ruthless capitalist who has an enormous amount of political clout because of his capital.
1. The largest banana export company in the world. Chiquita is the direct descendant of United Fruit Co., whose control over Central American governments earlier this century gave rise to the term \'\'banana republic.\'\'
2. www.FORTUNE.com - Fortune 500 list.
3. Page 8 of Chiquita\'s 1999 annual report found at http://www.chiquita.com/bottomline/annual.pdf.
4. http://www.chiquita.com/ There are in fact many more workers unaccounted for. Workers and their families that work on a contract basis for example.
5. www.clevelandindymedia.org audio interview on April 12, 2001 with a resident of the neighborhood Over-the-Rhine, in Cincinnati, where the rioting first took place.
6. http://www.chiquita.com/.
7. http://mai.flora.org/forum/938 \"Clinton Goes Bananas\" and \"Grenada\'s Economy ruined by multinational taking case to WTO.\"
8. http://mai.flora.org/forum/938.
9. From the radio show Democracy Now produced by Pacifica Radio.
10. MEDIA-US: Journalist in Chiquita Banana Exposé Pleads Guilty, by Jim Lobe, Sept 24, 1998.
11. Ibid. Note: Most other news sources state that the Cincinnati Enquirer paid $10 million as a settlement. The author believes that this amount is more accurate.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. From the radio show Democracy Now, produced by Pacifica Radio.
15. Ibid.
16. Chiquita sues former Enquirer reporter Gallagher; Company alleges theft, defamation, Friday, July 3, 1998, by John Nolan.; The Associated Press, July 11th, 1998 : In 1986, while Gallagher was working at the Lansing newspaper he was also investigated for an article where he quoted an assistant-U.S. attorney who asked to remain unnamed in regards to drug smuggling in a Michigan prison who predicted that guards and supervisors would be indicted.
17. Ex-Chiquita lawyer\'s plea deal results in probation, By Dan Horn, July 1, 1999 The Cincinnati Enquirer.
18. www.clevelandindymedia.com audio interview with a resident on April 12, 2001.
19. Let\'s start calling these killings what they are: murders which are part and parcel of the unwritten plan of genocide against Black folks in the US.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. http://www.kroger.com/.
23. www.clevelandindymedia.com Note: Reporter Jenka\'s audio interview of April 12, 2001, is 45 minutes long and well worth the listen. At times you can hear the pigs’ helicopters overhead.
24. Ibid
25. Ibid
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See also:
http://ohiovalleyimc.org/cgi-bin/imc.pl?where=display&article=452
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