Nike decided it did not want to spend its time and money on such messy things like labor and producing products. So it decided to outsource the actual making of their products to overseas subcontractors while the company could focus on “branding” themselves back home. As one of the most recognizable logos on the planet, it would seem their economic model has succeeded. On many levels it has, but in the process Nike has become the poster child for everything that is wrong with capitalism.

GAP has been engaged in a massive “cause marketing” campaign called “RED.” The company has promised profits from their RED products going to help those in Africa dying of AIDS. While it can be acknowledged that this is a worthy cause and should not be diminished, many problems with people in third world countries could be solved if companies like the GAP would pay their garment workers a living wage and provide health care for them. With a “cause marketing” campaign like RED, GAP can seem like the good guy in a sea of apparel choices for the consumer. It costs them some profits, but by getting the buyer into the store with a campaign like this, the company can more than make up for the loss.

GAP has a long way to go, however, as well as most garment companies. Wages are still, in most places, below a living wage and workers do not receive health care. Yes GAP is RED, but they are really very much in the BLACK with profits, while their garments workers continue to live in the RED.

Why go after Starbucks? They have some Fair Trade coffee. They have invested in some sustainable growing practices. They have built a school for plantation worker children. They pay over the market value for coffee. Then why? The reason is Starbucks talks bigger than they walk. Only about 2% of their coffee is fair trade and even though they claim to pay over the market value for coffee, the reality is that there is an over production of coffee and the market is flooded. Thus, prices for coffee are quite low. So paying over the market value does help, but couldn’t they just open less locations and buy more Fair Trade shade-grown coffee? There are independent coffee houses where all of there coffee is 100% Fair Trade, shade-grown, and organic. If an independent can make it, why can’t the incredibly rich Starbucks make it? Beyond the poverty prices for coffee, Starbucks can be perceived as starving culture. Starbucks has put out of business many independent coffee houses. They have saturated our cities like McDonalds and Coca-Cola. Starbucks is even found, with much controversy, being sold in China’s Forbidden City. Is the Taj Majal next?

Starbucks has maintained an aggressive expansion campaign that has put independent coffee houses out of business and placed its baristas in every corner of our public spaces. It’s time to reclaim those public spaces with downloadable Starvebucks Highfee posters. Place them up outside your nearest Starbucks and let people see what the mermaid is really all about before they decide to take a swim in their latte.

This cup is inspired by Starbucks’ “The Way I See It” cup design. On every Starbucks cup there is a quote. Some of the statements are quite lovely and inspiring. They put a nice sheen onto the Starbucks experience so you can feel really good while you drink your $5 cup of latte.

The writing on these pieces explains best the dark secret of the chocolate industry. Click on the Slavers Icon and you can read about the slave labor what goes into cocoa bean picking. While the fact that illegal slave labor is used to pick some of the beans that companies like Nestle, Mars, and Hershey’s uses is appalling, even the beans that use paid labor are paid for at poverty prices. Cocoa farmers are barley making ends meet, and thus, even when they do pay their workers, it is well below a living wage. By purchasing Fair Trade chocolate, you can support cocoa bean farmers and workers with wages that allow them with the monetary compensation they deserve. Please see the links below for information on the chocolate slave trade and Fair Trade.

The term “Military Industrial Complex” was coined by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. A five star general from World War II, Eisenhower had seen the grim side of war and felt strongly that it should be avoided at all costs. However, the president does not have as much sway on the military industry as one may think. Under him and around him, he saw the establishment of a permanent and very rich military in the US. He warned of the Military Industrial Complex during his farewell address to the nation.

Lockheed-Martin is the world’s largest weapons manufacturer. It receives billions in tax-payer money to build missiles, bombs, and nuclear warheads. The corporation exports $2 – 3 billion in arms to foreign governments with atrocious human rights records including Egypt, Israel, and Indonesia.

Halliburton has received much press lately and with good reason. There is a website dedicated solely for the purpose of monitoring the company. Dick Cheney’s former company, the Military Industrial Complex lined up things just right for itself by getting him in office. Halliburton has received billions in no-bid contracts from the US government to take over oil production in Iraq and to rebuild the post-hurricane US South. As Cheney has championed this Iraq War, his former company has raked in billions of taxpayer dollars that could be spent on developing alternative energy sources for our country instead of blood and oil. However, with so much chaos in Iraq, Halliburton is having trouble getting to the oil. They are definitely getting the blood, though (and our tax dollars).

General Electric is one of the biggest corporations in the world. It has a bigger economy than most countries on the planet and is invested in everything from the US defense department to the media, owning the monster network NBC. The company gives millions to cancer research organizations to keep them from looking into non-genetic causes of cancer. Some of the medical equipment that GE makes has been known to cause cancer. GE is heavily invested in designing nuclear power plants, another known cause of cancer. The company pays millions to save itself billions in lawsuit costs that might materialize if these research organizations were actually to discover GE is causing cancer.

By downloading the PDF you can read the text of this art to get the big picture on Unocal.

British Petroleum, under the guidance of Lord Browne, the CEO of the company, has set itself apart from the oil industry by embracing the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that many countries signed onto to reduce greenhouse gases. It has called itself Beyond Petroleum to further foster its image as a corporation committed to other things besides oil. Much of this is a public relations scheme that appears to promise more than it delivers. There term for this is: “greenwashing.” This is when a company promotes itself as an environmentally friendly, but in reality the majority of its operations are business as usual.

Shell has been a big target for environmentalists and human rights activists alike and with good reason. Shell has been entangled in many humanitarian atrocities, one the biggest being the attack on the Ogoni people of Nigeria. Shell has extracted $30 billion out of the Ogoni people’s region yet many in the area are without running water or electricity. The Ogoni people have tried to fight for their rights to some of the profits made from the oil, but the Nigerian government targeted these people for their uprising and killed and tortured thousands. Nine leaders of the protest, including Noble Prize nominee Ken Saor-Wima, were captured and executed. They became known as the Ogoni Nine. The link has many articles about Shell’s abuses.