April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

ecocide in the Niger Delta. If manslaughter charges are pressed against
officials of BP, then the days of companies only being fined and the
directors avoiding the dock will soon become history.
Obviously, BP and other corporations will not take kindly to this move.
Their arsenal is loaded with tools with which to frustrate legal procedures.
Some of them have batteries of lawyers with whom they harass hapless
victims and keep the wheels of legal suits spinning.
There is no need to wonder how come corporations have got away with
murder all the time. One fact is that governments have over the years
become largely privatised in the sense that they depend on corporations
for revenue and for monetised solutions to virtually every problem.
While suing directors of companies may be a daunting prospect,
considering their propensity to keep cases dragging endlessly, it is
nevertheless a necessary step towards giving companies a truly human face
and maybe a human heart.
We cannot avoid reaching the conclusion that companies behave in a
heartless manner because they are fashioned to be unaccountable and can
carry out inhuman acts without blinking an eyelid.
Are you not struck by the fact that oil company leaders are ordinarily nice
and personable persons, but that this genial nature changes once they put
on their corporate toga?
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Workers' struggles continue in 'post-revolution' Egypt
LibCom 18 April 2011
As the reshuffling of leaders continues, Egyptian workers are still trying to
push forward their own agenda.
Textile workers
Last week (7th April) workers of Shebin El-Kom Textile Company in
Menoufiya, north of Cairo, resumed their strike after suspending it for two
days following an agreement between the workers and company
management.
"We have proof that the agreement will not be fulfilled," says Ali
Mohamed, one of the factory workers. "One of our main demands was that
the sacked workers return to their jobs, or at least equivalent positions,
and this did not happen."
Workers accuse the company of trying to manipulate dismissed workers,
forcing them to sign resignation letters, saying that this will grant their
colleagues a return to work.
Management called the armed forces into the plant as workers approached
it to resume their sit-in. "The army is in the factory right now, but they are