CONFLICTS OF INTEREST - UNITED STATES SENATE

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By Audry Johnson

Dubbed the "Millionaires Club",  the Senate of the United States is indeed
not an association of poor people - or even middle class people!  Looking
further into the records provided by the Center for Responsive Politics at
http://www.crp.org/pfd.htm,1 some very interesting facts emerge.   Those
Senators who have not put their assets in a blind trust are frequently
heavily invested in the major corporations that are doing business overseas.
 Below is a partial listing of multinational corporations known to be doing
business in China and other foreign countries together with the United States
Senators who own stock in those very same corporations according to the May,
1997,  filing with the Clerk of the Senate:
 
AT&T stock is owned by at least five senators.  Senator Specter
(Pennsylvania) owns stock in American Express and America On Line.  Senator
Coates (Indiana) owns stock in Amway and in Amway-Japan.  Senator Kerry
(Mass) owns stock in Boeing, a company which is a part owner of an aircraft
maintenance factory in Xiamen, China. (It remains to be seen if China's 50
billion dollar order for aircraft will really benefit the United States or if
most of the work will be done in China.)  The oil companies, such as Atlantic
Richfield and Exxon are all over the world; six  Senators show as having
stock in oil companies.  Dianne Feinstein (California) holds Bank of America
stock.  Senator Kerry (Mass) owns stock in British Areos, British Gas, and
British Petroleum.  Senator Murkowski (Alaska) owns stock in Chrysler
Corporation, a company which has just recently opened an office in Argentina.
 Senators Graham (Florida) Brownback (Kansas) Lott (Mississippi) Conrad (N.
Dakota) Specter (Pennsylvania) hold and Chafee (Rhode Island) hold stock in
Cocoa Cola.  Seven senators own stock in Disney.  Three senators have stock
in Ford Motor Company, another three have stock in General Motors, and six
hold stock in General Electric.  Five senators have stock in Hewlitt Packard,
one holds Hitachi, seven own IBM, two own Israel Bonds, one has an interest
in a Mexico Fund, six own Motorola, six hold Pepsico, three hold tobacco
stock - U.S. Tobacco and R.J.R. Nabisco.  The list is too long to be
reproduced in full.
 
These multinational corporations are a very big threat to Americans.  Why?
 Simply because they are now almost in complete control of our government.
 They control Clinton and the Senate and are fighting for control of the
House.  To see just how much influence that they have watch the progress for
approval on fast-track trade agreements.  These agreements are evidence of
the fact that the multinationals owe no allegiance to anyone, and they are
raping the environments of many counties and trampling on the rights of
workers.  In Brazil, for instance,  European, U.S. and Asian investment banks
and multinational agencies are financing dozens of mega-projects that "will
rip open the heart of the Amazon Basin."2   In Asia, if Nikki finds that
workers are organizing and asking for more money, they simply move to another
country where labor is cheaper.  All this in the name of free trade.  Their
CEO's (executive officers) do not care about our trade deficit or the welfare
of workers; they care only about profits. How great is this concentration of
wealth?  They are said to have a turnover of $7,850 trillion dollars which
equaled 30% of the world's GNP in l995 or, to put it another way, the annual
income of 358 of the world's billionaires  exceeded the combined annual
income of countries with 45% of the world's people.3  If nothing is done in
this country to stop the exploitation, our freedom and all we hold dear is
destined to disappear into the feed troughs of the multinational pigs.
 
 
 
 
 
 
1Photo copies of the records from the office of the Clerk of the United
States Senate.
2B. J. Kkowalski, "Brazil, Road to Ruin", World Press Review, Nov. 1997, p.
22f
3Mediavialla, Luis, Le Monde Diplomatique.  April, 1997.