War Profiteer of the Month: Sodexho

"Sodexho is committed to Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and in developing Public Private Partnerships (PPP), both as a Facilities Management (FM) service provider and as an equity investor" Sodexho UK website.

Without British and American government policies over the last twenty years encouraging the privatisation of public services known as Public Private Partnership, Sodexho would probably have stayed an inoffensive medium-sized catering company. 'Privatisation' and the lucrative contracts that go with it have turned Sodexho into a multinational giant

The Military

Apart from helping Multinationals exploit natural resources, Sodexho's Remote Site Management also help pave the way for the military, In this area, the U.S. Military are their biggest customer. The Center for Public Integrity reveals that Sodexho won a US$324,000 contract to provide food and equipment in Afghanistan.

In 2001, the US Marine Corps also awarded Sodexho Inc. an US$850 million contract to serve meals at 55 Marines Corps mess halls.

They also support t the French army and UN's KFOR in Kosovo, NATO in Kabul, and the US forces in South Korea, as well as supplying the 379th Expeditionary Contracting Squadron in Qatar.

Enviromental destruction

Sodexho has contracts with numerous natural resource exploiting companies such as BP Amoco, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, Shell, Texaco, Bechtel, Daewoo, Hyundai, Caspian Drilling, Rio Tinto and Halliburton. One of Sodexho notably un-environmental projects includes collaborating with the destruction of mangrove swamps on Bonny Kingdom, at the southern edge of River State, in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.

Prisons

The prison industry accounts for 1% of Sodexho's total revenue. In addition to providing ancillary services (food, grounds keeping, etc.) to a number of prisons throughout continental Europe, Sodexho Alliance owns for profit private prison companies in the U.K. and Australia. Overall, Sodexho have some involvement with ninety one prison facilities in the U.K., Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands.

Anti-Unionist

At http://www.workersliberty.org/node/2719yo can find information about the anti-unionist policy of Sodexho.

So war, prisons, anti-unionism and oil. All this and so much more!!

For more information http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=347