[pjnews] Hijacked
Info about subscribing or unsubscribing from this list is at the bottom of this message. http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2005/000220.html HIJACKED By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman We've just returned from the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) conference being held here in Washington, D.C. We picked up maybe five pounds of propaganda being handed out by the sponsors -- ExxonMobil, Chevron, AstraZeneca, Walt Disney, Pfizer, General Electric, Altria/Philip Morris (remember: altriameanstobacco.com), McDonald's, Edison International, Starbucks, Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola, Abbott Labs, Microsoft, Monsanto, KPMG, Chiquita -- among others. The news -- what these giant multinationals don't want you to know -- is that they hijacked Business for Social Responsibility from its founders. In 1991, the founders, a group of small businesses, wanted to counter the voices of the giant multinationals -- the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable -- in the public policy arena. Enter Robert Dunn, stage right. Dunn is now chairman of Business for Social Responsibility. At the time, Dunn was a vice president at Levi Strauss, one of the large corporate members of the group. Dunn said to his colleagues -- the only way we are going to change large multinational corporations is to bring them into this organization. And the only way they will come into this organization is if we vow never to engage in the public policy arena. Dunn said that the focus of the organization would be on changing big corporations from within. Translation: No talk about government regulation. No talk about national health insurance. No talk about a living wage. No talk about war and peace. No talk about law and order -- for corporate criminals. In 1994, Monsanto, purveyor of genetically engineered foods, wanted into the group. One member, Gary Hirschberg, chairman of Stoneyfield Farms, said -- wait a second. Do we want a company that makes pesticides and herbicides and genetically engineered crops to be a member of a socially responsible business organization? Yes, came back the answer -- how else are they going to get better? Well what about tobacco companies? How else are they going to get better? What about oil and chemical companies? How else are they going to get better? What about nuclear companies? What about military companies? The reality is that Business for Social Responsibility has become a public relations organization for big corporations. The only criteria for membership -- you have to be big and loaded. The hijacking is now complete. Laury Hammel knows what happened. He was present at the creation. Business for Social Responsibility was his idea in the late 1980s. Hammel owns a string of health clubs in Boston. Hammel wanted BSR to help business become more socially responsible, but also to engage in the public policy debate. We were sick and tired of having the Chamber of Commerce being the voice for business, Hammel said. So, he started the group, and brought in such luminaries as Arnold Hiatt, former CEO of Stride Rite. But at a board meeting of Business for Social Responsibility in 1993 in Cape Code, there was a showdown between those who wanted the group to remain a voice in the public policy debate and those who wanted to stay out. Dunn told the board that he would become president of BSR if the group stopped taking public policy positions. Dunn didn't want anything to do with influencing government policy, Hammel said. Dunn believed that we would never change the world if we didn't get big corporations behind us. And we would never get them on board if we kept our foot in the public policy arena. Hammel lost the battle with Dunn over allowing big corporations into the organization. Dunn then asked Hammel to resign from the board. Hammel refused. So he was forced out. Dunn said he wasn't going to renominate me to the board because I didn't have money or stature -- I wasn't a big corporation, Hammel said. Hammel is very fond of Arnold Hiatt, the former CEO of Stride-Rite, and a founding member of BSR. Hiatt is still a member of the board of Business for Social Responsibility. He's an icon, one of my heroes, Hammel said. But he's not in charge. It's Robert Dunn who is the driving force. Hammel believes that Dunn's strategy of trying to change large corporations from within is bound to fail. Dunn has an incorrect analysis, Hammel said. Take Wal-Mart for example. Wal-Mart is a member of BSR. The only thing you can do to Wal-Mart is to do what they did with Standard Oil and take it apart, Hammel said. There is an inherent flaw in the way they operate. When you make a change in Wal-Mart, you make a difference. But ultimately, you are going to fail because the business plan is flawed. After being forced out of BSR, Hammel continued to organize local BSR chapters around the country. Back then, the local chapters still had a voice
[pjnews] Project Censored Alerts
Info about subscribing or unsubscribing from this list is at the bottom of this message. http://www.projectcensored.org Project Censored Alerts Edited by Tina Tambornini Teflon: Potential Health Risks Perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, is being found in the drinking water around the United States and it could potentially cause health risks. PFOA is a chemical that is used in the manufacturing of Dupont's Teflon. Teflon is a type of plastic that is used to make fire resistant cables, the thin white tape used in plumbing, Gor-Tex and other waterproofing membranes, as well as non-stick coatings for pots and pans. The problem with this chemical is that it easily dissolves in water, allowing for easier consumption by the public. This chemical has been in use in industry for fifty some years, and Dupont-lead studies have found no PFOA in pots or pans. However, current research has shown that this Teflon Chemical is found in people's blood (in the parts per billion range), around the nation as well as around the globe. The risk is that the chemical is potentially dangerous, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now showing a greater concern with the chemical than before. Recent government studies have shown that PFOA can cause developmental effects in laboratory animals at low levels. Other research has shown that PFOA may be linked to cancer as well as pose risk for birth defects. Researchers suspect that most of the PFOA in our blood may come from the breakdown of telomers, which are produced when Teflon is dissolved in water. The Plastics industry is completely denying that PFOA causes cancer and/or birth defects, maintaining additionally that the manufacturing of this chemical does not account for the widespread human exposure to PFOA. Source: Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) Journal Teflon Chemical: It's in Your Pots and Pans and it's probably in you by Cheryl Hogue Synopsis by Brent Kidder Corporations Granted Relief from Pollution Regulations The thirty companies that own most of the dirtiest power plants in the country have raised 6.6 million for President Bush and the Republican National Committee since 1999, and were given relief from pollution regulations that would have cost them billions of dollars. This is because these companies hired at least sixteen lobbying firms, which met with Dick Cheney's energy task force to help formulate the country's energy and pollution policies. In addition, some plant industry executives were given key positions at the Environmental Protection Agency, which has attempted to exempt many of these corporations from the pollution control requirements by relaxing the rules. Some of the emissions that these companies release include sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, which pose higher risks to Americans in terms of asthma attacks, lung ailments, and premature death. Source: Asheville Global Report No. 278, May 13-19, 2004 By Finn Finneran Synopsis by Deanna Murrell Computer Chips in your Drivers License The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Oct. 6th urged Virginia not to become the first state in the nation to place radio frequency identification chips in its driver's licenses. RFID tags are computer chips attached to tiny antennae that are capable of broadcasting their data wirelessly to anyone with an RFID reader. They are currently used for contactless applications such as tollbooth speed passes. Almost everyone carries a driver's license, and RFID chops allow people to be tracked. This proposal would allow anyone to set up a reader and capture the identities and personal information of every person who comes within range. FBI agents, for example, could sweep up identities of everyone at a political meeting, protest march, gun show or Islamic prater service. Source: Asheville Global Report ACLU against Chips in VA Driver's: Licenses Credit ACLU October 14-20 No. 300 Synopsis by Allison Lewis Women's situation much worse than before the fall of Hussein. Since the fall of the Ba'ath regime women have been under siege. They now live in constant fear of abduction, assault and death. Abductions are now so common that daughters are being kept home from school and women cannot leave the house without the accompaniment of male relative. Women who have been abducted are often quietly killed by their families to clear the shame. There are also no statistics because reporting to the police would often times mean death. Those who are not released after abduction are often sold into the flourishing business of prostitution. The poverty that has been afflicted upon these women has left them no other options but prostitution, but those who are thought to be prostitutes are often beheaded. Women in Iraq once were much better off, and held an enviable status in the Middle East. The Iraq constitution declared the equality of women in 1979, and in the early 80's women were 40% of the work force. Equal pay and benefits were
