new erd responsibility. the
and many other prominent US politicians the downfalls of Enron and World Com have laid the basis for a
of corporate Il events.
Tighter federal legislation is now in the pipeline seeking to curtail the forms of creative' accounting which led to the Enron/World Com collapse and the possibility of other corporations following in their wake.
This conversion to the creed of 'corporate responsibility is really about calming
of restrictions have seen their investments If the new era of US 'cordiminished by the bursting of porate responsibility will not the dotcom bubble and by extend to the domestic the more recent economic labour force it will extend uncertainty which was exac- even less to workers and erbated by the September communities worldwide. At
present foreign nationals can sue US corporations in the consoldie federal courts for their responsibility though alleged corporate crimes will not extend the and malpractise abroad. US labour market. The labour market will remain highly deregulated with piti- under Alien Tort fully low rates of unionisa- Claims Act passed tion especially in the private way back in 1789 and the sector. US Trade Unions more recent remain shackled by the Victims Protection Act. Two
of the Taft leading US corporations. Exxon and Coca Cola have current lawsuits currentiy pending against them in the federal courts. viewpoint Last year the Intermational Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and currently the site of armed conflict between Indonesian state and local guerillas fighting for determination for province.
The lawsuit alleges that Indonesian soldiers paid by Exxon to protect an Exxon owned natural gas plant in Aceh were responsible for the murder, torture and intidone madation of local villagers and that Exxon was fully complicit in this.
The alarming twist is that Torture the judge presiding over the case asked the US State Department to submit a report stating whether or not it believed the lawsuit would harm US interests abroad if the case went against Exxon.
etc if the case proceeded the and went against Exxon.
Already a previous case self has been dismissed in the the federal court concerning
corporate malpractise in Papua New Guinea on the grounds that proceeding would harm 'US interests' here is therefore a real possibility that the case against Exxon could be dismissed which Exxon is now itself arguing for No one with the most rudimentary understanding of the nature of imperialism will be surprised of the inherent bias in the US or legal system in favour of its own ruling class. What though is surprising is the completely open and