Know Your Enemy: Smurfit Westrock

CEO of Smurfit Westrock, Tony Smurfit, wouldn’t comment on Trump’s invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of President Maduro. You see, the South American country seized Smurfit Westrock’s production plants in Caracas, as well as paper mills, a forestry unit and other facilities.

The company took a court case against the Venezuelan government over the seizure of their operations. In August 2018, the Venezuelan government issued an “Occupation Order” when the state price control agency accused the company of price speculation and smuggling.

The World Bank found this was an “unlawful expropriation” and ordered Venezuela to pay millions in compensation.

The Venezuelan government has asked for a stop on the case. But it’s not the first time this Irish multinational has been caught fixing prices and acting as a cartel. Smurfit Westrock was sued in a Milan court by 363 Italian businesses seeking €400 million in damages.

The case alleged overcharging resulting from long-term conspiracies in the cardboard market. This followed a €124 million fine imposed by Italian authorities in 2019 for anti-competitive practices and for forming a cartel to push up prices.

They were also up in court in the USA for conspiring with other cardboard manufacturers to coordinate price increases. It was claimed this conspiracy led to a 30% increase in packaging costs over 5 years. They acted as a cartel and the price of all goods that required packaging would increase as a result.

So maybe the company’s claim that Venezuela acted unfairly should be taken with a pinch of salt considering the amount of cases taken against this multinational acting like a cartel?

Irish company Smurfit Kappa dates back to the protectionist period and was set up in 1934 as a small box-making factory in Rathmines, Dublin. It was set up by Tony Smurfit’s grandfather Jefferson Smurfit. The company became listed on the Irish Stock Exchange in 1964 and expanded into the United States, merging with Stone Container Corporation in 1998.

Sir Michael Smurfit took over as CEO of his father’s company in 1977. They formed Smurfit Kappa in 2002 before finally merging with Westrock in 2024 to form one of the world’s largest packaging companies. Michael Smurfit was a prominent donor to Fianna Fáil during the Haughey era.

Michael Smurfit testified to the Moriarty Tribunal about a 1989 £60,000 donation to former Toiseach Charles Haughey that he routed through offshore accounts. He was also chairman of the state owned Telecom Éireann.

In 1990, Telecom Éireann purchased the former Johnston Mooney & O’Brien bakery site in Ballsbridge Dublin for £9.4 million. The site had been bought 18 months earlier for only £4 million by a company called UPH. Who owned UPH? Sir Michael Smurfit held a 10–15% stake in UPH. They sold the land to Telecom Éireann for over twice what they’d bought it for and Smurfit was running Telecom Éireann.

Smurfit had to resign from the state company after the scandal broke. Billionaire Dermot Desmond also made a killing from the deal. Michael Smurfit had a fortune of €400 million. He owned several superyachts, including the £45 million, five-deck Lady Ann Magee. His art collection alone was worth €50 million.

Tony Smurfit became CEO of Smurfit in 2015, leading the merger with Westrock. Now called “Smurfit Westrock” they’ve over 100,000 workers in 40 countries. They’ve more than 500 locations and operate 60 paper mills. In September 2025, the company reported a whopping net income for the year of $748 million.

Since the merger, the company laid off over 4,600 plant workers across the globe, including in California USA and Quebec Canada, they claim they want to achieve “synergies” and “optimization”.

Around 60 members of Teamsters Local union in Massachusetts USA launched an “unfair labor practice” strike against the company in March 2026. Workers are demanding decent wages, affordable healthcare and the preservation of retirement contributions.

Workers in Mayo won a 10.2% pay deal in 2024. While entry level workers in Smurfit Westrock plants earn around €14 an hour CEO Tony Smurfit was paid €14 million in 2025. He’s getting paid over €7,000 an hour from a pool of profit that’s extracted from workers all over the world. He’s worth over €70 million.

From the Italian court case to the strikes in the USA it all shows that the Irish bourgeoisie are somebody else’s evil multinational. To workers in Italy this Irish company is an evil multinational. Workers at their factories in Peru had to strike to get the right to join a union. The Unite Union in Britain had to fight the company for paying workers below the legal minimum wage.

The company is expanding into countries like Ecuador. In March 2026, the company completed the acquisition of Cartomanabí, a major corrugated packaging firm based in Montecristi. The country remains in a state of internal war, with the military deployed to maintain order in all major cities.

Current decrees (like Executive Decree 134) suspend the right to gather in public spaces. This prevents workers and unions from holding mass meetings, protests, or strikes. The military is empowered to “prevent and disperse” any gatherings. The Thatcherite government promises to rule with an “iron fist” and offers Smurfit Westrock tax breaks and authoritarian suppression of the workforce.

This company sucks profit out of 100,000 workers all over the world. The idea that the Irish capitalists are some kind of “comprador” class that merely sucks profit out of Irish workers on behalf of foreign capital is a joke. They are part and parcel of the multinational imperialist ruling class. They suck profit out of workers all over the world. They exploit us and them.

They support the Empires because they want capitalist stability whether it’s imposed by a future EU army or by the US military. That’s why they want to destroy neutrality. The Irish rich are willing to hand over our sons and daughters for future wars if those wars guarantee the global profit extraction of the Irish and their partners, the international rich.

The Irish state is their machine. It takes funds extracted from other multinationals and uses them to build up the Irish capitalist class. They are integrated into the global game of exploitation and abuse.

When asked about Trump’s raid on Venezuela Tony Smurfit said the company couldn’t comment. But he must have smiled at the prospect of US boots on the ground in Venezuela protecting his profits. For Irish workers the enemy is at home. We need to rise up and overthrow a system that only works for the likes of Tony Smurfit and not for workers.