Reed International
Profile of a Transnational Corporation

Publisher:  Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG), Canada
Year Published:  1977
Pages:  8pp   Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX377

This profile is offered in the interest of assisting native people, church groups, public interest organizations, and individual citizens who have been organizing to resist Reed's private corporate activities.

Abstract: 
This profile is offered in the interest of assisting native people, church groups, public interest organizations, and individual citizens who have been organizing to resist Reed's private corporate activities. The profile is a case study of a transnational and the contradiction between its goals and the welfare of the people it dominates. The corporation is Reed's International Ltd., a British based transnational that has been particularly active in Canada. Reed is not singled out because it is more objectionable than other corporations but because its activities are representative of the social impact of a typical transnational corporation. The paper contains 6 sections: "Reed International" recounts the history and growth of the corporation; "Profits from Apartheid" describes Reed's profiteering on the slave-labour conditions in South Africa; "Reed in Canada" serves as an introduction to Reed's investment in this country; the "Corporate Map" spanning the centrefold provides a visual representation of the company's international holdings. The final two sections "Reed and Mercury" and "Reed Expansion" document two examples of the negative impact which Reed's pulp & paper operations have produced in Ontario.
In conclusion the paper states: "The negative impact of corporate dominance over economic development (with open assistance from government) demands new forms of public control over major economic institutions. Since the community must live with the effects of corporate activity, the community should define the goals corporate polices are designed to achieve. Political democracy cannot exist along side economic dictatorship. New structures and mechanisms guaranteeing democratic control of all social institutions must therefore be developed. Challenges to the corporate prerogative are building momentum in Canada and around the world. Recent organized resistance to Reed's schemes is an example of this emerging opposition. In the long run, however, the creation of effective solutions will depend upon our willingness to experiment with new forms of participatory political and economic organizations.