| Hijacks and counterattacks against corporate reform (4/11/2005) | |
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excerpts from: COMMENT Note how Monsanto and trade groups and lobbyists closely associated with it run like a dark thread through these pieces, eg: *v-Fluence is the firm of Jay Byrne, Monsanto's former Director of Public Affairs and widely seen as the the chief architect of the notorious Monsanto-Bivings "fake persuaders" PR campaign 1. EXCERPTS from Hijacked: Business for Social Responsibility 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. 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... ...The last BSR conference that Hammel attended was in 2001 in Seattle. This was 10 years after he founded BSR as his dream. "I sat down at a table and noticed three guys with name tags that said Philip Morris and Company," Hammel said. "I asked these guys -- you are not with the cigarette company, are you? And they said -- 'yes, we are with the holding company.'" "I said to myself -- these guys are members of BSR? They make products that kill people. What is this?" That was the last conference he attended. 2.EXCERPT from A Question for Journalists: How Do We Cover Penguins and the Politics of Denial? |
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