NPR, National Public Radio, boasts daily that
itreceives funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- no excuses offered. Back in the day,
Sloan, chairman of General Motors, was known far and
wide as a homegrown fascist, a supporter of the
National Socialist Party to such an extent that he
covertly but actively collaborated in the
militarization of Germany and supported Hitler's war.
Trotting out the name A.P. Sloan, as NPR does, without
a peep of repudiation from listeners, is only possible
if the public is criminally complacent and has no clue
as to who is steering the ship.
- Alex Constantine
---
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/53/sloan.html
Sloan - Facing the Corporate Roots of American Fascism
Alfred Pritchard Sloan, Jr. (1875-1966)
By Richard Sanders, Editor, Press for Conversion!
Sloan was a member, Advisory Council of the American
Liberty League.
Son of a coffee and tea importer, Alfred Sloan, became
America’s first great corporate celebrity. His
greatest contributions to his class included the
destruction of mass transit, the crushing of labour
strikes at du Pont's General Motors (GM), arming
Hitler before and during WWII and promoting President
Wilson’s slogan that “What’s good for General Motors
is good for the U.S.” (That’s GM president Charles
Wilson, 1941-1953).
Armed with an MIT electrical engineering degree in
1895, Sloan was a machine shop president in 1899. His
company merged with two others to form GM in 1918.
Sloan was vice-president and then president (1923) and
GM’s chairman (1937-1956). Under Sloan’s leadership,
GM systematically bought up and destroyed America’s
highly-efficient electric train, streetcar and tram
infrastructure, and literally burnt the vehicles.
Knowing the public preferred streetcars over
fume-belching buses, GM bought up America’s largest
bus operator (Omnibus) and largest bus manufacturer
(Yellow Coach). Manhattan was their symbolic starting
point. GM acquired controlling interest in its rail
system and then dismantled it (1926-1936). Bus
services were decreased and mass PR campaigns were
launched selling the notion that what people really
wanted was cars. Thus, Sloan “motorized” America for
GM.
Sloan unceasingly propagated the myth that
corporations are central to public happiness and
prosperity. This helped cover up the fact that
corporations will quickly sacrifice public interest in
their selfish drive towards greater profits. David
Farber, author of Sloan Rules: Alfred P. Sloan and the
Triumph of General Motors (2002) said:
"There’s a lot I don’t like about Mr. Sloan. His
steady opposition to making safer automobiles, his
dismissal of workers’ rights, his inability to see
Adolf Hitler as evil and dangerous..., and his general
disregard for social justice and the common good make
him a not very lovable figure. Those failings are
usually not weaknesses in a corporate manager, even as
they make Sloan less than a model of good citizenship.
But good citizenship has little to do with maximizing
corporate profits. Which makes it pretty obvious to me
that putting corporate leaders in charge of our public
good is ill-advised."
Farber also notes that GM destroyed Sloan’s files to
protect itself from lawsuits regarding antitrust
issues, the neglect of automobile safety and its
investments in Nazi Germany.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, established in 1934,
had assets worth over $1.3 billion in 2002.
GM is the world’s largest company. With operations in
104 countries and sales of $125 billion a year, GMs
revenues are the equivalent of the world’s 6th largest
country.
References:
Jill Rapaport and Scott Butek, General Motors and You:
An Appreciation of James Klein and Martha Olson's
"Taken for a Ride"
Google cache:
http://www.interactivist.net/transportation/ride.html
An interview with David Farber, author of Sloan Rules:
Alfred P. Sloan and the Triumph of General Motors,
2002.
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/238040in.html
Source: Press for Conversion! magazine, Issue # 53,
"Facing the Corporate Roots of American Fascism,"
March 2004. Published by the Coalition to Oppose the
Arms Trade.
Order a Copy: Order a hard copy of this 54-page issue
of Press for Conversion! on the fascist plot to
overthrow President F.D.Roosevelt and the corporate
leaders who planned and financed this failed coup.
