Submitted by IWW.org Editor on Thu, 05/16/2013 - 1:23pm
By x363464 - May 16, 2013
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.
In 1950, Chevron, General Motors, and Firestone were charged and convicted of criminal conspiracy for their part in the General Motors streetcar conspiracy [1]. In this scandal they purchased streetcar systems all over the United States in order to disassemble the industry and create bus lines. They did this to increase the demand for petroleum, automobiles and tires so that they could directly receive business and profits from their scheme. Later Chevron began investing in alternative industries such as lithium car batteries. Chevron began to be limiting access to large NiMH batteries through its control of patent licenses. Many suspect they did this to remove a competitor to gasoline and suspicions were affirmed when Chevron began a lawsuit against Panasonic [2] and Toyota [3] because they started producing EV-95 batteries for electric cars.
More recently under the name of “Chevron Energy Solutions” they began investing in renewable industries such as solar, geothermal, and wind power but it has been shown that they use their minimal investments in sustainable industries in an attempt to “greenwash” their company. While spending an average of millions of dollars a year on environmental law violations, they claim they are ”Delivering Clean, Efficient and Reliable Energy and with $71 billion dollars of profits made in 2012 along side their “deep knowledge of the market and energy technologies available. They can certainly use their power and wealth rapidly transition America to renewable and clean energy.
It is my belief that to hold them accountable for thousands of injustices we must take direct action to demand the best labor and environmental standards. If labor and environmentalists build solidarity with one another we can unite as one to halt the destruction of our planet and secure a future for the workers, the community, and the Earth.
