deutsch
english
francais
espanol
italiano
Spenden
Photo
Portrait

Coalition against BAYER Dangers (CBG)

For environmental protection and secure jobs at BAYER - worldwide!

The Coalition won a six year court battle when Bayer tried to silence us legally (see the full text of the German Supreme Court´s decision).

FROM ASPIRIN TO FORCED LABOR
When most of us hear the brand name “BAYER” we think of Aspirin. But BAYER, based in Leverkusen, Germany is a major producer of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and plastics. The company has 120,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of some 28 billion Euro. BAYER has a long history of giving profits precedence over human rights and a sound environment. During the first World War the company invented Chemical Warfare ("moisture gas"). BAYER was part of IG FARBEN, which cooperated closely with the nazis.
IG FARBEN´s subsidiary DEGESCH manufactured Zyklon B, the poison gas used in the gas chambers. In the late 30´s organophosphates (sarine, tabun) were introduced, after the war marketed by BAYER as pesticides (E 605). Today BAYER is the second largest pesticide manufacturer worldwide. IG FARBEN was broken up into BASF, BAYER and Hoechst (now called Aventis), but the three firms still cooperate closely and exert a large influence on German and European politics.

USELESS & HAZARDOUS
BAYER is best known for Aspirin and for the antibiotic Cipro, but it has also provided many useless and dangerous medicines. In 1898 BAYER introduced Heroine as a cough medicine "without side-effects" and marketed the drug for decades inspite of the well-known dangers of addiction. Ten years ago the company admitted foreknowledge in selling HIV-tainted blood clotting products which infected thousands of hemophiliacs. Last year BAYER was forced to withdraw one of its leading pharmaceutical products, the anti-cholesterol drug Baycol or Lipobay, which was linked to over 100 deaths. Even BAYER´s flagship product, Aspirin, which is marketed as preventing heart attacks and strokes, has its problems: in Western countries more people die from side-effects of acetyl salicylic acid than of AIDS.

CORPORATE LOBBYING
BAYER leverages its economic clout in the political arena. The company is a member of hundreds of lobby groups tackling 'trade barriers' like environmental or health & safety laws. The European Round Table of Industrialists effectively writes big chunks of EU corporate legislation. BAYER also helped set up the Transatlantic Business Dialogue, where European and US multinationals work together to influence policy in the direction of greater liberalisation and deregulation. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, another corporate coterie of which BAYER is part, helped 'hijack' the UN Earth Summits in Rio and Johannesburg, and continues to promote the idea that issues like climate change are safest left in the hands of multinational corporations. Other lobby groups in which BAYER takes an active role are the International Chamber of Commerce and the Global Crop Protection Federation.

BIOTECHNOLOGY
BAYER is among the leading genetically modified (GM) crop companies in Europe, with more than half of the GM crop varieties up for approval for commercial use. If the European moratorium on the commercial growing of GM crops is lifted, BAYER will be set to flood Europe´s fields with GM oilseed rape and maize. In most European countries BAYER will be responsible for the majority of GM field trials over the next year. BAYER is also linked with PPL Therapeutics, the leading company in cloning.

SOLIDARITY AGAINST CORPORATE POWER
Multinational companies are decisively responsible for ecological, social, and political problems all over the world. BAYER is one of the trendsetters in the Chemical Industries and an example of multinational company policy. The Coalition against BAYER-Dangers fights against hazards caused by BAYER and the all-pervading power of this company. Our group unites people and organizations from all over the world. We fight against corporate power and for humane living and working conditions. Almost Thirty years of confronting this influential company have shown us that big corporations put profits before people - even when human lives and the environment are endangered. In our opinion multinational companies need to be controlled independently. Our strength results from international solidarity and cooperation.

Please help us

Our international campaigns are expensive to run. We receive no public support and depend entirely on your donations.

Please send checks to:
CBG, Postfach 15 04 18, 40081 Duesseldorf, Germany

or by bank transfer to bank account number 8016 533 000 at GLS Bank, Germany
sort code: 430 609 67

BIC/SWIFT Code: GENODEM1GLS
(Bank Identifier Code)

IBAN: DE88 4306 0967 8016 5330 00
(International Bank Account Number)

Please note that bank transfers within Europe are usually no more costly than within your own country, if you quote the BIC and IBAN numbers

Something must be done against the power of large companies. We are - with success:

1982: Spectacular exposure of BAYER's involvement in the development and production of chemical weapon VX for the US Army

1983: Participated in organizing of the International Water Tribunal in Rotterdam and drawing up of the suit against BAYER. A prominent jury of international experts found the BAYER group guilty on all points.

1984: The Critical Shareholders first address the shareholders at the BAYER general meeting. This action became an example for many similar actions - also against other large companies and banks. We were involved in the founding of the "Association of Critical Shareholders in Germany" in 1986.

1985: Exposure of the BAYER group's responsibility for the "salad oil scandal" in Spain, which cost thousands of people their lives or their health.

1986: Participated in the "Diluted Acid Blockade" at the BAYER factory in Antwerp. As a result of the blockade, the legislation was changed and BAYER "voluntarily" stopped dumping highly toxic diluted acid in the North Sea.

1987: Protests against building a BAYER factory in the middle of the Australian mud flats. The factory was not built.

1988: Campaign against exploitation and the deprivation of rights of Latin American workers with motto "Repression instead of Wages." BAYER had to rehire fired union workers.

1990: Campaign against the BAYER pesticide LEBAYCID in Greece. The mayor of the island Paxos thanked the CBG for their support in the fight against BAYER. The CBG is a founding member of the Pesticide Action Network (PAN).

1991: Sensational CBG victory in the German Federal Constitutional Court. The CBG achieved a victory that went beyond the conflict with BAYER for freedom of speech and democracy. BAYER failed miserably in their attempt to dismantle democratic rights.

1992: Exposure of deadly work conditions at the BAYER subsidiary CHROME CHEMICALS in South Africa.

1993: Colombian flower harvesters spoke out at the BAYER shareholders meeting against BAYER pesticides.

1994: Actions started against BAYER for the scientific and deadly infection of many thousand hemophiliacs throughout the world with the AIDS virus through contaminated BAYER blood products.

1995: Initiation of the campaign "Never again!" for BAYER and other companies to financially compensate former IG FARBEN forced laborers

1996: The CBG was able to force an ecologically oriented items on the shareholders meeting agenda for the first time in history. A large number of the shareholders that were present sided with the CBG. That was a bitter defeat for BAYER.

The list of our successes is incomplete and contains only a few examples of our work.