Fred Lee Crisman

[Linda Minor]

What is fascinating to me about the following is that Karl Rove's stepfather, Louis Rove, worked many years for AMAX or Climax Molybdenum and retired in Palm Springs, the setting for some high-powered Republican golfers.
Also, Margaret Thatcher came from Grantham in the UK, which was the town where Sir Denis Kendall had his weapons manufacturing company, BMARC. Kendall's wife grew up in Columbus, Ohio (Prescott Bush's hometown), where she ran a dance school before she met him on an international tour. Her brother was an actor in California, where he knew Ronald Reagan. She and Kendall divorced before he became a U.S. citizen and moved permanently to California.

Ian MacGregor
Part 2: AMAX and armaments
See also Part 1 in Lobster 5 [previous post]
Ian Macgregor and AMAX

We have followed one of Macgregor's leads into the British Establishment; now we return to the man himself. He was born in 1912 in Kinlochleven and graduated from Glasgow University with a BSc in metallurgical engineering. He was a trainee manager at the British Aluminium Co., worked for William Beardmore Co. in Glasgow, and participated in the Mission of the Ministry of Supply to North America in 1940, where it seems likely that he met Brand and/or Marris. After his wartime service he went on to pursue a business career in the US and became a US citizen. By 1957 he had become Vice President of the Climax Molybdenum Co., which later merged with the American Metal Co. to form AMAX Inc. MacGregor held top positions in AMAX during the 1960s and was Chairman from 1969 to 1977, and honorary chairman from 1977 to 1982.(1)

AMAX (we shall examine its ownership later) is a gigantic mining conglomerate, involved in the extraction and refining of molybdenum, coal (3rd largest producer in the US with a bad reputation for its open-cast mining operations and labour relations), tungsten (2nd largest producer in the US), and copper. It is a major nickel producer in the US and mines/refines lead, silver, cadmium and zinc in Africa (including Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and South Africa), and iron ore in Australia. In the latter the company earned itself a very bad reputation for its involvement in destroying the communal lands occupied by the Aboriginals - this involved a massive police presence to prevent opposition from the Aboriginals and trade unionists. (2)

In its 1982 report AMAX claims to be the western world's largest producer of tungsten and this includes major prospects for future mine developments when needed in the Canadian northwest and Great Britain. It has large silver holdings in Honduras and is getting into gold in a big way. It is the 2nd largest magnesium producer in the US and the 3rd largest in the western world. Also, AMAX owns the only nickel refinery in the US.

AMAX is interlocked with the other big multinational mining companies. For example, in Botswana it jointly owns nickel and copper mines together with Anglo-American Corp. (the South African Oppenheimer monopoly), and Charter Consolidated (a big British mining finance company active in South Africa also). AMAX owns 11% of the French Rothschild mining conglomerate Imetal. which has extensive interests in Africa and elsewhere.

The ownership of AMAX is complex and seems to have changed over the years. During the 1930s American Metal Co. became a large copper miner, refiner and smelter. Although it was an independent group it was linked to Morgan, and Morgan was a powerful influence on the major copper producer Kennecott, which was owned by the Guggenheim family. At that time big copper mines had just opened up in what was then called Rhodesia. Two big interconnected groups dominated there. Morgan was well represented in one and the other was controlled by Rhodesian Selection Trust. Since then things have changed several times (3) During the 1960s Selection Trust (described as a British company) owned 11.5% of American Metal Climax and had 4 representatives on the board.(4) By the end of the 1970s Selection Trust had only 8% of AMAX and Standard Oil of California owned 21.7% of the stock. SOCAL tried to take over AMAX completely (offering $4 billion) but were beaten off. (5) By 1983 SOCAL's share of AMAX had fallen to 19.7% but Selection Trust had been taken over by B.P. for $925 million in 1980 and B.P. now owns 6.5% of AMAX. It is also noteworthy that the B.P.-dominated Standard Oil of Ohio (SOHIO) in America successfully took over the formerly Guggenheim/Morgan preserve, the giant Kennecott Corp. in 1981, so that B.P. now owns what is probably the largest copper producer in the world.

Since SOCAL still owns a major stake in AMAX it is worth looking at the ultimate ownership of SOCAL itself. It is thought by some that no external interests control this company.(6) However, others see a major chunk of this part of the original Rockefeller-Standard Oil empire as being in the hands of the Rockefeller family still (or again). (7) The group is, of course, based in California and has long-standing connections with the banks in that part of America. In particular it has interlocks with the Crocker National Bank. The Crocker family is big in America's largest bank, Bank of America, which is based in San Francisco. (According to SOCAL's 1983 annual report Samuel H. Armacost is a director of SOCAL and president of Bank of America.) But the Crocker National Bank was sold to the Midland Bank group a few years ago. A recent publication lists Midland Bank group, Rockefeller interests and Sarofilm (Fayez) and Co. as the three top shareholders, in that order.(8) Midland, one of Britain's big 4 clearing banks, crops up again, later on.

Ian MacGregor moves in this world of takeover and rivalry and since the end of the 1970s the predatory activities of the giant oil, minerals and financial groups has increased. At the same time as being an inter-industrial reorganisation and rivalry, what has been happening involves both British and American firms. I return to the objectives of this movement that is still going on later, but it undoubtedly involves some kind of rationalisation among the extractive industries. In 1983 it was announced that Charter Consolidated, having divested itself of its interests in Selection Trust, was aiming to take over a loss-making Scottish engineering company, Anderson Strathclyde, which specialises in making long-wall mining equipment for the NCB. The movement also indicates a strong inter-penetration of US and UK capital, as seen with the Midland Bank take-over of Crocker and the BP take-over of Kennecott. American companies have also been moving in on British firms - in 1982 it was announced that Aetna Life and Casualty, the US insurance and pensions giant which has old Morgan connections, was to take over Midland's merchant banking subsidiary, Samuel Montagu.(9)
Ian MacGregor and Armaments

Many of the metals mined and refined by AMAX have military applications. Molybdenum, of which AMAX is the world's leading producer, is used in conjunction with other alloying elements in high-speed cutting tools, propeller shafts, turbine rotors and armour - piercing projectiles etc. Nickel (AMAX is a major producer), which is used to increase steel's toughness, ductility and strength, is used for armour plating and the cycles for its demand follow the fluctuations in demand for armaments - thus demand for nickel rose during World Wars 1 and 2, and during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, falling after these.(10)

International Who's Who lists MacGregor as a director of the Brunswick Corporation which manufactures marine power and recreational equipment (including sports equipment with the 'MacGregor' label), and technical products for various industries, including the defence department of the USA. [This would seemingly connect him to Robert Booth Nichols.] In the latter it is listed as producing aircraft radomes, rocket motor cases, missile and rocket tubes, pressure vessels, transportable shelters, camouflage materials, and other products for defensive systems against chemical/biological warfare etc. I can only speculate here that some of the metals it must use are bought from AMAX. It would be interesting to know if Brunswick Corporation makes parts used in the construction of Cruise missiles. The informed reader will have noted already that Lazards in New York has a directoral interlock with the firm which constructs the Cruise missile, General Dynamics. (11)

MacGregor's connections with the armaments business do not end here. He is listed as having been, among other things, a director of the giant conglomerate LTV which, in 1979, was the 26th largest supplier to the US Dept. of Defence. (12) He is also a director of Atlantic Assets Trust an investment trust which, like many British investment trusts, is based in Scotland and is heavily into US companies. While Atlantic Assets is not big - in 1979 the capital employed totalled £147 million - and most of its holdings are in relatively small companies, and are minority stakes only, it aims at representation on the boards of the companies in which it invests and at some control over their corporate plans for future growth.

About 50% of Atlantic Asset's investments are in the US, 40% in the UK and 5.5% in Canada. (13) In America it has a large share in Shared Medical Systems which is involved in the computer-aided financial management of private hospitals in the US. In the UK it owns about one third of the issued share capital of United Scientific Holdings, an armaments firm manufacturing armoured vehicles, optical and electronic equipment. In August 1981 USH acquired Alvis Ltd., manufacturers of armoured vehicles, from British Leyland. USH is a young company competing with older, larger and more established firms like GKN-Sankey. It seems likely that it is being helped along in some way.

One thing which is interesting here is that MacGregor's career through the British State-owned sector did not begin with his appointment at BSC but with his directorship at British Leyland back in 1975. Under Michael Edwardes, he was Deputy Chairman of BL too, from 1977 till 1980.

BL is, of course, not only a commercial automobile manufacturer but is also involved in the manufacture of military vehicles, though with the loss of Alvis to United Scientific this has probably been reduced a bit. It is also interesting that the chairman of United Scientific, Peter Levene, who has stated that his company is "run like a dictatorship ... I'm the dictator" (14), was appointed in January this year to work as an unpaid adviser to Michael Heseltine, the Defence Secretary, for 6 months to help improve the management of the Defence Ministry.(15) Many of Atlantic Assets' other investments are in high-tech firms (including Cable and Wireless), but it also has shares in Pennzoil, which as well as owning oil and mining interests owns molybdenum mines, and Teck Corporation, based in Canada, which owns a copper-molybdenum mine and mines silver, gold and other minerals, as well as oil and gas. (16)

Before we finish with MacGregor's armaments connections we can note one other interesting fact which further indicates the social milieu in which he moves. We have noted the Midland Bank connection via Socal with AMAX. One of the directors of Midland, Sir John Cuckney, was a director of Lazards from 1964-70. With an impressive set of connections both within business and in the service of the State, Cuckney is currently chairman of the Thomas Cooke group and of Brook Bond, and also of the engineering group John Brown. He has been a director of the Midland Bank since 1978 and of the Royal Insurance since 1979. His most interesting State appointment is as chairman of the International Military Services - the government's undercover arms sales organisation, the sole overseas representative for the weapons manufactured at Royal Ordnance factories - where he has been since 1974. He has also been governor for the Centre for International Briefing at Farnham Castle since 1974. (17)
Ian MacGregor - a man of prudence and principles?

Since Ian MacGregor came to Britain he has made it clear that the giant firms he has been put in control of must be made to "balance their books". The implication, forcefully promoted by the 'monetarist' Thatcher, is that the nationalised industries don't work and privatisation is necessary. But, as we have seen, a massive rationalisation movement has been going throughout the capitalist economies affecting firms whether they be private or State-controlled. Multinational monsters like IT and T have been divided up; indeed, it was Lazards of New York which enabled IT and T to grow big in the 1960s and after - this is an aspect of Lazards in New York we have not covered, though IT and T's involvement in the coup in Chile is well known. (18) Ideological arguments are spouted to justify the large-scale plunder that is taking place, but monetarism is merely a facade behind which the giant firms and the financial empires of which they are a part seize the remaining profitable areas of an economy which is sinking deeper into depression.

The effect of the recession is felt nowhere more deeply among the business community than in the minerals sector. According to one publication produced by Lloyds Bank:

"The full impact of the recession hit the minerals sector in early 1982. The metals sector, being the most sensitive to business cycles, moved into a deep trough. With key industries such as housing, construction and motors depressed, production cutbacks were necessary through temporary and some permanent mine closures." (19)

During the 1960s the metals firms were operating at full tilt. AMAX grew tremendously in the 1970s under MacGregor. He transformed the firm from one that was primarily concerned with copper and molybdenum into the mining conglomerate that it is today. Replying to critics who accused him of over-borrowing, MacGregor is said to have replied:

"I don't care what the balance sheet looks like, I'm going to acquire natural resources and someday they'll be valuable." (20)

MacGregor is, therefore, a man of the times. In the boom he is a big spender, speculating on the possibility that demand will exist in the future; in the depression he calls for cuts and pretends to be a paragon of prudence. At the same time, he and his colleagues search for ways in which to increase the demand for metals. The new technologies involving microprocessors are, however, not big enough to satisfy the enormous capacity set up at great cost by the minerals moguls in the post-war years. It has become increasingly clear to them that their only salvation is an increased demand for armaments. This demand is presently being supplied by Western governments. Civilisation rests of metals, but society's capacity to produce metals has outgrown ordinary consumer needs and they have become inextricably bound up with the production of arms.

AMAX in 1982 was operating the molybdenum end of its empire at less than half capacity. At the beginning of this year it agreed to form a joint venture with Britoil PLC to explore and develop offshore and onshore oil in the US. While this further underlines the close connections which this company has with British business it also shows how badly in the red AMAX is, since it has been argued that the deal was done merely as a means of raising cash to cover its short-term debt. (21)

MacGregor has no qualms about whom he deals with. In April 1983 while chairman of BSC and chairman elect of the NCB, MacGregor flew out to Moscow. His visit to the "evil empire" was "aimed to boost exports of steel and steel products to the Soviet Union." (22) His recent expressions of outrage at the National Union of Mineworkers' contacts with Libya should be viewed in this light.

There is a lot more to say about MacGregor and his connections (23) but it seems clear from all this that he is part of a shadowy network of highly-placed people, allied with other groups (some of which have not been mentioned here) which together dominate the British economy and aim to squeeze the last dregs out of it for themselves. In the process they are intent on building a more authoritarian regime in Britain, a regime which will allow them to push Britain into a more aggressive and war-like stance, one that would secure vast profits for the arms manufacturers and the banks, investment trusts and suppliers which surround them.

E. H.

AMAX personnel

Looking at the board of AMAX (Standard and Poor's 1984 and Who's Who in Finance and Industry) we find that at least 4 of its directorate are Republicans and none of them claim to be Democrats. Of these 4, one is none other than Gerald Ford, ex-President. Ford is also a director of the Twentieth Century Fund (since 1981) and American Express (since 1982) He also sits on the board of Shearson, Loeb, Roades Inc. A former partner of this firm, which is now merged under American Express and called Shearson/American Express, is C.M. Loeb who was on AMAX from 1932 and held several important positions in the firm. C.M. Loeb Jnr. is listed as a director of AMAX.

Pierre Gousseland, currently chairman and president of AMAX, is French by birth and education and arrived in America in 1948, 8 years after MacGregor. He joined AMAX a year later. He is also a director of American International Gp Inc and French American Banking Corporation (in which the Banque International de Paris appears to dominate). He is also a member of the British Iron and Steel Institute.

Another AMAX director, J.D. Bonney, was born in Blackpool in 1930 and joined AMAX in the sixties. Between 1959 and 1960 he worked for Iraq Petroleum Co, owned by Shell, B.P. and other oil companies. More significantly for us he has been vice president of SOCAL since 1972 (SOCAL Europe, that is.) Since SOCAL owns about 20% of AMAX it is not surprising that two other names listed in AMAX reports show interlocks with SOCAL - till 1983, Perrin Fay, V.P. of SOCAL and, till 1984, Sellers Stough, another SOCAL vice president.

NOTES

1. International Who's Who 1983/4
2. Information on AMAX is from Everybody's Business 1980 edited by Moskowitz, Katz and Levering. Information on AMAX in Australia from the magazine Natural Peoples' News, No 5 Spring 1981

AMAX is also involved in gold and silver extraction in Mexico and Central America and in many other mineral resources including phosphates and sulphuric acid.
3. See Anna Rochester Rulers of America pp166 -169. Rhodesian Selection Trust was owned by the American Metal Co.
4. D.M. Kotz Bank Control of Large Corporations in the US (1978)
5. Everybody's Business (above note 2)
6. For example, see Kotz, above.
7. Everybody's Business (above)
8. Berry, Wood and Preusch: Dollars and Dictators: A Guide to Central America Zed Press, 1983
9. Times 19 January 1983 'Take-over battle that rocked the City'
10. McDivitt and Manners Minerals and Men (1974) This work was sponsored by Resources for the Future, of which MacGregor is a director.
11. Details on Brunswick are from Standard and Poor's. Information on Cruise builders from Guardian 12 July 1980, by Michael Getler.
12. Everybody's Business (above)
13. See Hambro Company Guide and Extel Investment Trust Yearbook 1983
14. See Extel and McCarthy cards. Levene quote from Guardian 1 May 1984. Note that as MacGregor came to work in Britain in 1975 he was, like De Lorean, brought over by a Labour government.
15. Financial Times 22 November 1983
16. Penzoil information from Standard and Poor's. Teck information from Rowe and Pitman Qrtly Report, Base Metal and Coal, January 1982
17. Who's Who 1983, also War Lords (CIS Report)
18. On ITT see Sampson's The Sovereign State (1973)
19. Lloyd's Bank Group, Canada Economic Report 1984
20. Everybody's Business (above) p 547
21. Guardian 7 February 1984 and 6 February 1984
22. Guardian 26 April 1983
23. I want to mention only one other here. Who's Who In Finance in Industry lists MacGregor as a director of Resources for the Future. This is a group set up to tackle the problems arising from economic growth - eg pollution, urban expansion and so on. Opposing itself to the 'Limits to Growth' school, it promotes what it calls 'technological optimism' which boils down to finding arguments to justify fast-breeder reactors and so on. The organisation is financed and was set up by the Ford Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Board. It also receives substantial grants from the Rockefeller Foundation.