Monday, June 16, 2003

Corporateering QUOTE OF THE DAY "There are felons who've gone to jail for life for stealing a slice of pizza--and there are corporations that lie and cheat and steel and are never penalized." - - Jamie Court JUNE 16th IN HISTORY: 1976 -- South Africa: Student uprising in Soweto, South Africa's biggest black "township": 10,000 students demonstrate (protesting requirement to learn Afrikaans language in their schools, rather than English). Spreads to 7 other black townships: 128 die; 1,112 injured. By year's end, thousands die in demonstrations throughout the country including 700 black children. RHINO HERE: I've featured some of the work of Jamie Court and the Foundation For Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR)  here on Rhino's Blog in the past.  Today I direct your attention to several new efforts by Court and to the release of his new book , "Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Personal Freedom And What To Do About It" (Tarcher/Putnam). One recent effort by Court & FTCR has been to put pressure on the California Chamber of Commerce to act in behalf of consumers rather than manipulating politics, academia, the courts, the media, and the marketplace of ideas, in favor of corporations. His work on this is not just relevant to California as most of the 50 state Chambers have all morphed into PR departments for big business. Specifically, Court has published a 10 Commandments For Chamber Of Commerce: 1. Thou shall not buy judges. 2. Thou shall not hold jobs hostage. 3. Thou shall respect dissent. 4. Thou shall not assume false identities. 5. Thou shall not make justice frivolous and markets unfair. 6. Thou shall not kill three times. 7. Thou shall not conceal. 8. Thou shall not covet corporate secrecy, but disregard personal privacy. 9. Thou shall not cheat the taxpayer. 10. Thou shall not steal the worker's vote. For details on each of these commandments and more about the sleazy record of The Chamber of Commerce, check out: NEWS RELEASE, Jun 12, 2003 Author Proposes 10 Commandments For Chamber Of Commerce To Follow; http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/corporate/pr/pr003400.php3 Jamie Court has also been pushing for a new 3 strikes law in California, but this one would apply to  any corporation convicted of three felonies within a ten-year period.  A great idea, again, not only for California but something that  would be appropriate nationally. Check out coverage of this story in the London Times: 'Three Strikes' for Firms in California by Chris Ayres, The London Times (UK), 5/6/03, Companies doing business in California may soon get the same warning as drug dealers in South Central Los Angeles: three strikes and you are out.  The proposed law, a response to more than a year of multibillion-dollar scandals on Wall Street, would ban a company from operating in the Golden State indefinitely if it were convicted of three felonies within a ten-year period. It is modeled on the "three strikes" law for individuals, which can see criminals put away for 25 years-to-life on their third felony, no matter how trivial... READ IT ALL AT: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/corporate/nw/nw003299.php3 Here's not only an informative Op-Ed by by Court on the issue of consumer privacy, but a wonderful example of how to provide a hook for the media to cover a story that  might otherwise get ignored from a boredom factor. He bought the Governor's Social Security number off the internet. Everything Has a Price, Including Your Private Information by Jamie Court - Op-Ed,  The Los Angeles Times, 6/2/03 I bought Gov. Gray Davis' Social Security number on the Internet for $26. His home address and telephone number cost a little more. For $295, another Internet service will reveal his bank account balance. Until Davis signs strong privacy protection legislation, his and all Californians' private information will be available for sale because corporations believe that only their commercial freedoms matter. The California Constitution articulates the inalienable right to privacy, but corporations can buy and sell an individual's private medical and financial information without the person's permission... READ IT ALL AT: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/corporate/nw/nw003362.php3 RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is an interview with Jamie Court of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights from Publishers Weekly on the release of his new book Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Personal Freedom... And What You Can Do About It.  Court's previous book, Making a Killing: HMOs and the Threat to Your Health is a basic reference for anyone working to overhaul the nation's health care system. 7:04:39 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Corporateering: Jamie Court on Commerce, Culture, and 'the Good Life' RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE Corporateering: Jamie Court on Commerce, Culture, and 'the Good Life' Publishers Weekly Daily, 6/10/03 This month, Ralph Nader, Michael Moore, Arianna Huffington and a host of others will start uttering the term "corporateering." The term signifies prioritizing commerce over culture; it was coined by consumer activist Jamie Court, author of Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Personal Freedom... And What You Can Do About It, published this week by Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam (www.corporateering.org). PW Forecasts said: "His book should resonate with consumer rights groups and fans of [Michael] Moore's brand of activism." Court, executive director of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights [FTCR], is co-author of Making a Killing: HMOs and the Threat to Your Health. He spoke to PW Daily contributor Norman Oder by phone from his office in Santa Monica, Calif. PWD: Why did you write this book? JC: Our group has been engaged in a lot of battles to reform insurance companies, energy traders, banks. I'd never seen a book that exposed the hidden hand of the corporations, their assumptions, tactics, and strategies for cultural power. PWD: Strategies? Really? JC: I can point to a memo that showed how corporations moved beyond having merely a commercial role and started trying to change the culture. In 1971, [lawyer and later Supreme Court Justice] Lewis Powell wrote to the Chamber of Commerce about how the corporation is being kicked around on the campus and in Washington, D.C., and about how it was time to unite to take back cultural power. Powell, in a remarkable prefiguring of the next 30 years, said they had to start using their powers as sponsors of the media, to start influencing academia, by getting pro-business faculty and creating think tanks. PWD: Aren't there people on the other side, like Ralph Nader and Michael Moore? JC: The corporation spends a trillion dollars a year marketing across the globe. Marketing isn't just about products; it's attitudes, assumptions that have cultural resonance. Corporations market products and issues to suggest that they are human organizations rather than institutions that have one goal, a commercial goal, of maximizing profit... READ IT ALL AT: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/corporate/nw/nw003390.php3 "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. 6:31:12 AM    comment

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