Private security firms hired by major corporations or corporations themselves have spied on environmental and labor groups, according to recent news investigations. A number of the groups targeted -- as well as the companies that targeted them -- are in the South.

In an article published Friday at MotherJones.com, reporter James Ridgeway documents how a private security firm called Beckett Brown International, later S2i, spied on a number of environmental organizations from the late 1990s through at least 2000. Among the corporations that used the services of the Maryland-based security outfit, which was founded and managed by former Secret Service officers, were Wal-Mart of Bentonville, Ark.; Monsanto, which has locations across the South; and Halliburton, the Texas firm formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. BBI also worked for public-relations firms representing clients embroiled in environmental controversies.

Among BBI's primary tactics were snooping through the trash of its targets and hiring paid operatives to infiltrate groups. One of the groups it infiltrated in the late 1990s was Louisiana's Calcasieu League for Environmental Action Now (CLEAN), which at the time was working with Greenpeace in the heavily polluted part of the state known as "Cancer Alley":

In 1998, according to BBI emails, correspondence, and records, BBI retained Mary Lou Sapone, a self-described "research consultant," who recruited a paid operative in Louisiana to infiltrate an environmental group called CLEAN. Sapone had something of a talent for infiltrating activist groups. In the late 1980s, working for a security firm called Perceptions International, which was, in turn, working for the U.S. Surgical Corporation, she penetrated a Connecticut-based animal-rights group, gathering evidence on an activist who would later serve jail time for planting a pipe bomb near the parking space of the company's CEO. The activist would eventually accused Sapone of coaxing her into the plot.

Sapone's operative in Louisiana relayed to her information on what the local enviros were planning, provided gossip on the internal rivalries, and identified the scientists aiding the groups. She passed the intelligence to BBI. In an August 20, 1998 "client briefing," BBI boasted that "our operative is being nominated to the citizen action panels for local industries" and it asked which local industry Condea Vista, the chemical manufacturing firm, would prefer the operative to focus on. (The previous year, Condea Vista had lost a lawsuit brought by the residents of Lake Charles, Louisiana, against the company for the 1994 ethylene dichloride leak and had been slapped with a $7 million judgment.) Another BBI document noted, "The operative has been trained to be inquiring, but not participatory. Operatives are not allowed to offer suggestions or 'help' targets in any way. They are trained to seek documents, ID friends and foe legislators and regulators, follow money trails, ID informants, discover future targets."

CLEAN, which has since disbanded, was a member of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network. Marylee Orr, LEAN's executive director, says she wasn't surprised to learn of the infiltration efforts, since her group's office burned to the ground soon after it opened and third-party taps have been detected on its phones. Wilma Subra, a chemist who works with LEAN, had her office broken into repeatedly and her hard drive stolen.

"I'm sorry to say I don't think any of this sounds unusual to me," Orr says. "A lot of our folks feel very paranoid, and you can see why."

BBI disbanded in 2001, but its principals are still operating. One of them now runs a security firm called Chesapeake Strategies, which has protected research facilities from animal-rights activists and in 2005 appeared on a list of Defense Department contractors.

The day after Ridgeway's article about BBI was published, the Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press reported that the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Student/Farmworker Alliance were targets of an infiltration effort and a series of blog attacks traced to the headquarters of Burger King. The groups have been pressuring fast food firms to pay more for produce in an effort to improve conditions for farmworkers, whose plight is the topic of a Senate Labor Committee hearing scheduled for tomorrow.

The security firm involved in the CIW spying case is Diplomatic Tactical Services of Pembroke Pines, Fla. The company's Web site advertises services include "covert surveillance," "undercover operations" and "investigative activities during strikes."

For more details from the newspaper reporter who broke the story and the Student/Farmworker Alliance coordinator, check out today's interview by the Democracy Now! radio show.

Labels: activist espionage, Beckett Brown International, CLEAN, coalition of immokalee workers, Halliburton, LEAN, Monsanto, Student/Farmworker Alliance, wal-mart

A prominent corporate watchdog group has released its nominees for worst corporation of the year -- and the majority of those that made the list are based in or have ties to the South.

Corporate Accountability International has nominated eight companies for the ignominious award and invited the public to cast their vote for the three worst, or to write in another candidate. The eight companies on CAI's list of nominees are:

* Archer Daniels Midland of Decatur, Ill. for helping make Indonesia the world's third-worst contributor to global warming through its clearing of endangered forests and wildlife habitat for palm oil plantations.

* Moyock, N.C.-based private security firm Blackwater Worldwide for killing unarmed Iraqi civilians, hiring paramilitaries trained under military dictatorships, and using its close political and financial ties with the Bush administration to secure lucrative contracts.

* Countrywide Financial of Calabasas, Calif. for predatory mortgage lending to elderly and non-English-speaking borrowers and for gouging minority borrowers with discriminatory rates and fees.

* Mattel of El Segundo, Calif. for producing tens of millions of lead-contaminated children's toys and aggressively lobbying against bans on other highly toxic chemicals.

* Switzerland-based Nestlé for labor violations including child exploitation, contributing to the obesity epidemic, and threatening community water supplies with its bottled water brands. The world's largest food company's North American operations include Alcon Laboratories in Fort Worth, Texas.

* Toyota for aggressively lobbying against increased fuel economy standards and state measures to reduce global warming gas emissions while spending millions to advertise its environmental "leadership" and popular Prius hybrids. The Japanese company's North American manufacturing headquarters are located in Erlanger, Ky.

* Retail giant Wal-Mart of Bentonville, Ark. for displacing local businesses, failing to cover employees under the corporation’s health plan, and opposing legislation that would increase homeland security.

* Wendy's, a fast-food chain based in Dublin, Ohio for contributing to the growing childhood obesity and diabetes epidemics and refusing to meet nutritional labeling regulations.

Formerly known as Infact, CAI was the force behind the Nestlé infant formula boycott as well as the General Electric nuclear weapons boycott. For more information about Corporate Hall of Shame campaign and to cast your vote, click here.

Labels: blackwater, Corporate Accountability International, Corporate Hall of Shame, Nestle, Toyota, wal-mart

Some good news for tax justice out of North Carolina: A Wake County court has rejected retail giant Wal-Mart's efforts to get a $30 million tax refund from the state. In a ruling made public Friday, Judge Clarence Horton Jr. agreed with the state Department of Revenue that the company was using tax shelters to hide its actual earnings.

"This isn't just a victory for the Department of Revenue, it is really a victory for every North Carolina taxpayer," department spokesperson Kim Brooks told the Raleigh News & Observer.

Wal-Mart filed suit against North Carolina in March 2006 after the state refused to let it get away with a scheme involving a real estate investment trust and a REIT holding company. Wal-Mart used the complex corporate structure to pay rent to itself, and then deducted the rent from its state taxes. Last year the Wall Street Journal reported that the so-called "captive REIT" strategy cut the company’s state taxes by about 20 percent over a four-year period.

For more on the case and its implications, check out the WSJ's Law Blog and The Street. To read Judge Horton's findings, click here [PDF].

Labels: economic justice, wal-mart

This year, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart ranked #1 in Fortune's list of the 500 biggest corporations in the United States, bringing in $351 billion in annual revenues.

But the retail giant doesn't believe it should have to pay much in the way of property taxes where it locates its stores, according to a new report by Good Jobs First. Their study finds that Wal-Mart "systematically seeks to minimize its payment of taxes that support public schools and other vital government services" by challenging property tax assessments.

"Wal-Mart ... drains vitally needed funds from communities by regularly challenging the valuation put on its properties by public officials," said Philip Mattera, research director of Good Jobs First and principal author of the report. "When the company succeeds in one of these challenges, it diminishes the funds available to pay for education, police and fire protection, and other essential services provided by local governments."

Based on a large national sample of Wal-Mart stores and a review of all of its distribution centers open as of the beginning of 2005, Good Jobs First concludes that Wal-Mart has filed assessment challenges at more than one-third of its facilities around the country. At many facilities there have been appeals in multiple years. Overall, Good Jobs First estimates that the company has filed more than 2,100 property tax challenges nationwide.

The findings challenge Wal-Mart's attempts to portray itself as a "good neighbor" whose stores will boost the tax base of an area. As Good Jobs First notes, Wal-Mart's challenges often mean an area's tax revenue will go down, starving needed public services.

The challenges to income tax are on top of the over $1 billion in tax breaks and economic development incentives Wal-Mart takes in from state and local governments. To find out how many deals Wal-Mart has received in your state, visit here.

Labels: wal-mart, Work and Community

Wal-Mart's shareholders meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas today may have featured JLo singing her heart out, but the overall tone was subdued and cautious, reports Arkansas Business.

After months of stagnant stock prices, the retail Goliath announced it would be scaling back plans for new "Supercenters" to 190-200 in 2008. Granted, that's still one new Supercenter every two days. But the cut-back marked a further retreat from last September, when they had told Wall Street analysts they were only going to shoot for 260-275 new Supercenters in 2008.

Shareholders at the meeting also lashed out at the Wal-Mart execs on environmental and racial diversity grounds -- not for doing too little, but for doing too much:

Proposals to improve performance ranged from tying executive pay to performance to scaling back its public relations efforts in areas of environmentalism, health care and diversity.

During the session when shareholders presented their proposals, Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center, said company founder Sam Walton had "a disdain for high-priced PR firms," and ripped Scott for embracing "environmental alarmism" and meeting with Al Gore. He also called board member Chris Williams a "Jesse Jackson crony" and closed by saying "people shop at Wal-Mart for low prices, not because it is politically correct."

Labels: wal-mart, Work and Community