Moving Against the Corporations
"Kick the Ass of the Ruling Class!" Slightly more than three years ago, some of us marched through San Francisco's financial district, then demonstrated in the streets at the foot of the...
...radio programs...
...846 New York, New York 10027 focus on Church investments in war-related industries...
...also on population control...
...putting out packet Chicago, Illinois 60640 on those corporations, and helped work on computerized study of Chicago power structure, both projects designed to provide information to Chicago organizing groups CALUMET ENVIRONMENTAL AND OCCUPATIONAL organizing, especially for steel workers, in East HEALTH COMMITTEE (CEOHC) Chicago, with focus on industrial health issues 5305 Hohman Ave., Rm...
...PROJECT ON CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY research and action (esp...
...While studies of U.S...
...Did Not Say in its Annual Report focus on Bendix Corporation as a case study in the economic and human costs of the transfer of multinational corporate resources abroad (to Latin America), especially its role in the Mexican Border Industrialization Program, its war contracts, its treatment of workers...
...NAAIC now has project on ITT (research and boycott of ITT subsidiaries such as Wonder Bread), being coordinated by: CALA, 731 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703 CENTER FOR STUDY OF RESPONSIVE LAW numerous research projects and lawsuits, including: (Ralph Nader's group) campaign G.M...
...research on Detroit power struc% Pat Korth ture and on 41 Detroit-based firms...
...published 1000 Wisconsin Ave., N.W...
...What are possible strategies for the anticorporate movement...
...Rather than relying on their individual good judgment and experimenting with new methods of e integrating the legal profession with oppressed groups, they should join the new meritocracy, the public interest organization...
...war-related...
...rather, viewing the entire globe as their field of operations, they plan their strategy multinationally...
...Box 5909 Bethesda, Maryland 20014 G.E...
...and Consolidated Coal Co., and the one done by a Los Angeles group on the Bank of America) - employee "underground newspapers" (e.g., at Standard Oil and at AT&T) - confrontation and bloc voting at stockholders' meetings - consumer boycotts - lawsuits and class actions - Congressional hearings - research and pressure through the mass media - exposure and delegitimization of corporate executives...
...Elitism is not good: seizure of power for its wn A aC i ilO yuui...
...20009 representation on Boards, on General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, AT&T, and several drug companies CHURCH PROJECT ON U.S...
...has published "Center briefs" on such corporations as: Honeywell, G.E., Gulf 011...
...and General Motors- 24 - NATIONAL ACTION/RESEARCH on the MILITARY- research on military industrial complex, defense INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX (NARMIC) contractors, etc...
...1609 Connecticut Ave., N.W...
...20036 try...
...organizing at stockhold1609 Connecticut Ave., N.W...
...In several instances, unions in different countries have begun to coordinate their activities against the corporations -- as in the case of the International Federation of Chemical and General Workers' Unions, which created a permanent world council to "coordinate support and solidarity action" on behalf of workers striking against the Dunlop Pirelli rubber combine (New York Times, 23 June 1972...
...For the moment, we do not feel ready to write a detailed political analysis of the corporate challenge movement, so we're merely reprinting the Hernandez column...
...ment must not be overlooked...
...publish newsletter, Energy and Resource Control- 25 - HONEYWELL PROJECT research ad organizing against Honeywell, esp...
...Bb Hernandez is a econd-year law tIdent at Harvard...
...Our tactics have changed considerably since then, but our basic dilemma remains the same: how can we move beyond the antiwar movement, to mobilize and organize Americans against U.S...
...When the Allende government in Chile nationalized the holdings of Anaconda Copper in 1971, the workers in Anaconda's Wisconsin plants had to fight against being denied their wage raises...
...J Q- 21 - As a corollary of the above, those who organize and struggle against the multinational corporations must adopt a multinational focus...
...S. its war-related activities...
...Slightly more than three years ago, some of us marched through San Francisco's financial district, then demonstrated in the streets at the foot of the imposing Fairmont Hotel, picketing and shouting slogans...
...A prolonged strike by International Nickel's Canadian employees in 1969 was a crucial influence in the Company's negotiations for a S250 million investment in Guatemala, and thus affected the entire Guatemalan economy...
...f students push his Massar~ chusetts Public Interest Research r Group, he told them, there will be fifty job openings for graduating law students...
...As a power trip, it is a menace to us all...
...The forms of action have been varied...
...forced manageBoston, Massachusetts 02114 ment to respond publicly CORPORATE INTELLIGENCE ALLIANCE research and organizing against Chicago-based cor4652 North Kenmore porations, esp...
...Of course, we will welcome any additions to our list which you, the project participants, may know about...
...Congressional Committees (e.g., the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is beginning a year-long investigation of the multinational corporations...
...lems...
...These corporations do not map out their Latin American operations in a vacuum...
...Although he spoke of distribution of power, wealth and lawyers, he was clearly not speaking of a redistribution of wealth, of equality of all individuals, or of response to the specific needs of the most oppressed as defined by the most oppressed...
...East Palo Alto, California 94303 focus on electronics and war-related industries on San Francisco peninsula, esp...
...The plans of the parent company in the U.S...
...731 State Street article in Wisconsin Patriot, publication of the Madison, Wisconsin 53703 Wisconsin Alliance RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS GROUP research on Detroit-based auto industry, tied into Motor City Labor League plant organizing...
...anti-imperialism, etc...
...pollution prob1156 19 St., N.W...
...Finally, Naderism stands opposed to the countercuture...
...will work with Bendix employees and relevant labor unions...
...publishes anti-corpNew York, New York 10027 orate research in its bulletin, American Report NORTH AMERICAN CONGRESS ON LATIN AMERICA research on operations of U.S.-based multinational P.O...
...Naderism stifles creativity and sellassertion by providing easy compro mises between desire for power or financial security on the one hand and conscience on the other, ultimately ignoring that only selflessness and pure dedication to people can bring change...
...Clemens, Michigan 48043 INTERLINK P.O...
...What can be accomplished by anti-corporate organizing, and what are its inherent limitations...
...slide show on women and advertising COUNCIL FOR ECONOMIC PRIORITIES studies of: hiring of minorities and women...
...in order to put it in perspective, however, we are reprinting Bob Hernandez' critique of Naderism...
...Fourth...
...has Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404 published "A Practical Guide to the Honeywell Business World" POLAROID REVOLUTIONARY WORKERS MOVEMENT organizing (boycott, etc...
...The demonstration had been billed as one of our first "anti-imperialist" actions...
...Mark Green...
...529 Cedar Ave...
...In addition, we hoped to provide specific information to groups in struggle against those corporations, both in Latin America and in the U.S...
...third world area research groups (e.g., ARG, CAGLA), unless they also do specifically anti-corporate research...
...In order to inform and aid these constituencies, we must develop a more precise understanding of and information about corporate strategy...
...The occasion was the meeting of the International Industrial Conference (we called it the "Festival of the Thieves") -- a get-together of the world's 700 biggest industrialists and bankers, to plan their strategy for the next five years (behind the rhetorical veil of the official theme, "Closint the World's ncome Gap...
...sacrifice...
...Not bad, for protectIng the public interest, although for some there must be great persoral "It stifles creativity and self-assertion by providing easy compromises between desire for power and conscience...
...A few words of explanation will make clearer our purpose in publishing this list...
...For example, we have included the Nader group because of the scope and importance of its work...
...As a humanity trip, Naderism is fine...
...160 North 15th St...
...During the past year, the Yanqui Dollar pamphlet and the Yanqul Dollar project have reflected our attempts to contribute to the creation of such a movement...
...Third, he was clearly directing himself to the feelings of inadequacy suffered by most students, who have found law school to be oppressive...
...Nader's message was a political one...
...First, he Was advocating a corporate state...
...with salaries starting from 6,000 to $9,000...
...Washington D.C...
...aircraft % Steve Graham co...
...Finally, we saw Yanqui Dollar as an opportunity to organize our research around specific projects...
...In the future, however, we hope to write such an analysis, which will deal with such questions as: - What should be the demands (consumerism vs...
...20036 organizing and research on the Detroit-based auto industry research focus on Westinghouse Electric, and G.E...
...But the ' meek lawyers shall inherit the count try...
...The public interest system is to be a power base through which young, dedicated lawyers may combat and eventually control the corporate system Second, Nader was preaching a new elitism...
...Clearly we cannot and do not intend to provide here a comprehensive catalogue of all groups engaged in anti-corporate activity...
...We are beginning to work more closely with labor and community organizers, to use our information, skills, and resources to support their activities, as well as to build new constituencies through political education...
...But they must not lose sight of the dangers inherent in that movement or of the thin line between : service to people and service to selr...
...Kennecott, in Wisconsin, and in Chile...
...a new "find" in one colony might affect the lives of thousands in another...
...We cannot criticize, indeed we must encourage thoee who work for Nader because they feel strongly that change must come...
...We find these constituencies everywhere -- in universities, communities, churches, unions, consumer groups, and even at corporate stockholders' meetings...
...Louis, Missouri 63108 GULF OIL PROJECT focus on Gulf Oil, especially its operations in United Church of Christ Portuguese colonies in Africa Council for Christian Social Action 815 2nd Ave...
...have written a counter-annual report, Behind the Corporate Image: What G.E...
...Power and Land in California...
...i, mjri...
...In the Introduction to the pamphlet, we focused on the need for alternative sources of public information about the principal agents of imperialism, the multinational corporations, to counter the propaganda offensive by those corporations...
...ecurity, when It erects barriers between lawyers and other social groups, Is not good...
...20036 research on domestic and foreign operations of major oil and gas companies...
...especially its war- and military-related 5122 Waterman Blvd...
...His vision was very different and very disturbing for several reasons...
...505 Hammond, Indiana 46320 WISCONSIN PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP research and community organizing on copper com% Al Gedicks, CALA panies, esp...
...he played on genuine fears X of financial insecurity among the stui dents...
...publishes Corporate Examiner (monthly), dealing with such issues as military production, corporate responsibility, consumer and environmental issues, foreign operations of corporations, labor, minority policies, etc...
...Box 226 corporations in Latin America and in the U.S...
...This is a partial listing, which reflects (unavoidably) our particular political approach and interests...
...Nevertheless, we recognize that the political line between these categories is not clear, and we have made some exceptions...
...The types of issues being raised include (among others): environment, military and war-related production, foreign exploitation and investment in places like South Africa, minority and female hiring practices, minority and female participation on Boards, consumerism and health, and secrecy and failure to disclose information to the public...
...the replacement of one set of corporate barons by another instead of vesting economic power in all the people as a community is not good...
...are preparing an Energy Crisis action guide on electrical industry manufacturers, utility companies, and their relation to the public, to each other, and to the Federal regulatory agencies...
...One result of this process is the following list of anticorporate organizing and research groups in the U.S...
...Giant coal and steel companies have plundered Appalachia and rendered that region a colony no less than Venezuela...
...e.g., Honeywell) % A.F.S.C...
...during the past year, and our changing awareness about those conditions, have helped clarify those questions...
...the coal mining areas) McDONNELL PROJECT organizing at McDonnell Douglas Corp...
...Berkeley, California 94701 especially through Yanqui Dollar Project or P.O...
...close ties with 8015 3rd labor and other anti-corporate action groups Detroit, Michigan 48202 DETROIT ORGANIZING COMMITTEE % Jim Jacobs 219 South Gratiot Mt...
...No less important is our growing attempt to tailor our research priorities to the needs of anti-corporate organizers, both in the U.S...
...and other electrical utilities corporations...
...By sheer force of numbers, Nader, ites will govern political power...
...What should be our immediate, intermediate, and long-range objectives (public education vs...
...and we must recognize how particular corporations organize the daily lives and social relations of Latin and North Americans at the level of families, communities, nations, and social groups...
...Nevertheless, changing conditions within the U.S...
...Episcopal Church) Kennecott, American Metal Climax) 815 2nd Ave...
...It typifies the Consciousness II bureaucrat rather than the Consciousness II revolutionary...
...For these reasons, we have come to feel that part of our task, as coordinators of the Yanqui Dollar Project, is to provide information to proJect participants (and ourselves) about the types of anti-corporate research and organizing activity which already exist...
...Most of them have not made the law review, that "irrelevant" symbol of exclusiveness open only to Harvard's :L brightest Nader made clear that he r had not been on the review...
...Nader spoke of less hierarchical rather than nonhierarchical systems to replace the present power structure...
...and in Latin America, and our growing sensitivity to the particular events and struggles going on around us...
...20007 COUNCIL FOR CORPORATE REVIEW focus on military contracting related to air war 212 W. Franklin in Indochina: boycotts, organizing at stockholdMinneapolis, Minnesota 55404 ers' meetings against: Honeywell, ITT, FMC, Control Data, Sperry Rand, G.E., Standard Oil of N.J...
...New York, New York 10017 CENTER FOR NEW CORPORATE PRIORITIES Bank of America boycott and propaganda, and org304 South Ardmore anizing for stockholders' meeting...
...In this sense, "internationalism" has ceased to be an abstraction, and takes on concrete meaning for our work...
...activities St...
...What are the problems of cooptation in reformist or "corporate responsibility" movements such as Naderism...
...regulatory agencies...
...also working on: California Water Project and California Agribusiness BANK OF AMERICA BOYCOTT boycott against Bank of America, on issues of: Box 2933 war financing, agribusiness, pollution, minority San Francisco, California 94126 hiring AGRIBUSINESS ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT research on agribusiness in California...
...20009 COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL CRITERIA FOR INVESTMENT focus on copper mining in Puerto Rico (esp...
...The new elite sat in the audience before him...
...also exploring the current energy shortage and the corporate "solution" focus on General Electric and its role in the multinational corporate system, especially its military involvement, racism and sexism in hiring, overseas export of American jobs, control in communities where it has factories, etc...
...CLERGY AND LAYMEN CONCERNED does work similar to (and together with) Council 475 Riverside Drive on Corporate Review (above...
...For a more comprehensive listing of groups, see: Corporate Information Center, Corporate Responsibility and Religious Institutions: Information and Action Papers (Corporate Information Center, % National Council of Churches, 475 Riverside Dr., New York, New York 10027...
...they include, for example: - counter annual reports (such as the one done by a Nader consultant on Continental Oil Co...
...We have excluded groups in the following categories: labor unions per se...
...against South Box 8487 African investment of Polaroid...
...456 Greenwich pollution control...
...ai O R1 The revolution works methodically (Karl Marx...
...For groups like NACLA and the Yanqui Dollar Project staff, the implications are equally clear...
...public accountability vs...
...groups concerned exclusively with ecology or consumer issues, and the "clean stock" movement...
...First, we have come to understand more clearly and precisely the meaning and implications of "multinational corporations...
...investment in Chile or any specific country remain useful, there is an increasing demand for studies of the domestic and overseas operations of particular corporations...
...pesticides...
...For the most part, we are focusing on groups that define themselves as anti-imperialist, or that are part of the anti-corporate or corporate challenge movement -- as opposed to groups interested in "corporate responsibility" or corporate reform...
...General Motors...
...airlines and aviation, civil aeronautics and in fluence of banks...
...ers' meetings) on issues of consumer and minority Washington D.C...
...Thus Naderism rejects those who would build a new value system in which people are members of a corn munity rather than slots in a social hierarchy...
...both shape and are shaped by their operations on several other continents...
...Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102 NORTH AMERICAN ANTI-IMPERIALIST COALITION Committee of Returned Volunteers (CRV), which or2546 North Halsted ganized NAAIC, did case study f Gulf Oil (includChicago, Illinois 60614 ing suggestions for action...
...Washington D.C...
...anti-personnel weapons (pubNew York, New York 10013 lished Efficiency in Death...
...What is most lacking In today's law students is a sense of self-confidence, a belief that in their own goodness they possess the answers and that they are individually capable of transforming their good sense into action...
...First National City Bank BRAIN MISTRUST anti-corporate radio programs and research Ann Arbor, Michigan (most of the research appeared in articles in (now defunct) American Report, published by Clergy and Laymen Concerned) PACIFIC RIM PROJECT research on U.S., Japanese, and European corporaBox 26415 tions in the Pacific region, focusing on such isSan Francisco, California 94126 sues as minerals and oil investment, runaway shops WOMEN'S RESEARCH PROJECT research on implications of multinational corporaBox 404-A, Yale Station tion strategy for women in the U.S...
...Only with such an understanding will organizers be able to develop an adequate counter-strategy...
...In short, corporations are replacing -- or at least supplementing -- nations as the basic units of study...
...This article la ' l.alted from the Harvard Law Record- 23 - NAME AND ADDRESS Selected Anti-Corporate Projects PROJECT CORPORATE INFORMATION CENTER x National Council of Churches 475 Riverside Dr., Rn...
...investment in South Africa INSTITUTE FOR SOUTHERN STUDIES research on military industrial complex and war88 Walton St., N.W...
...He spoke of lawyers throwing out corrupt governments, of individual sacrifice and of commitment to the public interest But he was not speaking of "power to the people...
...related industries in the South, such as: Lockheed, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Coca Cola, and Gulf Oil IIOUNTAIN PEOPLE'S RIGHTS organizing against strip mining companies and other 10 College Lane coal companies in Appalachia Prestonsburg, Kentucky 41653 PEOPLE'S APPALACHIA RESEARCH COLLECTIVE publishes People's Appalachia regularly, which Route 3, Box 355B documents corporate imperialism in Appalachia Morgantown, West Virginia 26505 (esp...
...Dupont...
...also Dillingham Corp...
...503 Washington D.C...
...Over 500 law students gthered recently to hear Ralph Nader (class of '58) on a cold...
...While I respect Nader too much to believe that he is even remotely a conscious fascist, the fascistic overtones of his move...
...New York, New York 10017 ENERGY AND RESOURCES PROJECT % Institute for Policy Studies 1520 New Hampshire Ave., N.W...
...and third New Haven, Connecticut 06520 world...
...auto indusWashington, D.C...
...economic imperialism all over the world -- and ultimately against capitalism in the U.S...
...class of '70, who also spoke and who has been close to Nader for several years, recently blasted "legal yippies" in a piece for New York magazine...
...In many respects they still are...
...wet, snowy Saturday night...
...since many of his early raiders came from upper middle class backgrounds (one even became the President's son-in-law...
...A~~~~~~~~_ At the time, however, our ideas as o how to make our research relevant to existing and new constituencies were rather vague...
...On these questions, too, we hope you will share your ideas with us...
...The tone of Nader's message and the group to which it is directed brings historical example to mind...
...Hard Tomatoes, Hard Times Washington D.C...
...PROJECT % American Friends Service Committee 48 Inman Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 BENDIX PROJECT Student Advisory Committee on International Affairs x Rick Cohen, Grif Lesher 1717 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Rm...
...Moreover, there is great interest in such broader issues as runaway shops, the export of new forms of sexism by the corporations, etc...
...published Los Angeles, California 90020 pamphlet on B of A, "We Merely Make Loans...
...Box 57, Cathedral Station New York, New York 10025 PACIFIC STUDIES CENTER 1963 University Ave...
...Yanqui Dollar Project Staff: Susanne Jonas Bodenheimer, Fred Goff, Marc HeroldThe Lurking anger of Naderism By OB HERNANDEZ CAMBRIDGE, Mass...
...economic pressure on the corporations, etc...
...INVESTMENT IN action (particularly at stockholders' meetings) SOUTHERN AFRICA exposing operations of General Motors and Goodyear and in South Africa, and of Gulf Oil in Angola TASK FORCE ON SOUTHERN AFRICA OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, U.S.A...
Vol. 6 • November 1972 • No. 9
