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March 23, 2002
T.W. Croft
Enron's
Attack on Our
Economic Security
March 22, 2002
Robert Jensen
Corporate Power is a
Threat to Democracy
Tommy
Ates
The
Future of Black Academia
Rep. Ron Paul
Why are We in Ukraine?
March 21, 2002
McQuinn,
Munson, & Wheeler
Stars
and Stripes:
Killing for the Flag?
John Chuckman
How Change is Wrought
David
Vest
Hail
to the Chaff
March 20, 2002
Kay Lee
Censorship at Angelfire
Robert
Jensen
The
Politics of Pain
and Pleasure
Sheperd Bliss
Notes from Hawai'i:
Trouble in Paradise
Rick Giambetti
Prozac
and Suicide:
an Interview with
Dr. David Healy
Philip Farruggio
Bullies
Lori Allen
Live
from Ramallah:
The Madness of Occupation
March
19, 2002
Tariq
Ali
Nuke
Iraq?
Phyllis
Pollack
Roger
Daltrey's LA Surprise
Amir Ahmadi
War-Mongering
Academics:
The New Tartuffe
Ben White
Bomber
Blair
Fran Shor
Child-Murderers
and Madmen
March
18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Crazy
is Cool
Dave Marsh
DeskScan:
What's Playing At My House
Armen
Khanbabyan
The
Pentagon in the Caucasus:
Georgia Is Only the Beginning
Gabriel
Ash
Abdullah
v. Osama
Bernard
Weiner
Middle
East for Dummies
Alexander
Cockburn
Tipping
in America
March
17, 2002
David
Vest
The
Politics of Packaging
Tariq
Ali
The
Left's New Empire Loyalists
March
16, 2002
Chris
Floyd
Ashcroft's
Secret Snatches
March 15, 2002
Doron Rosenblum
Israel's Settler Warlords
Alex Lynch
Rhetorical
Attacks On Iraq
Norman Madarasz
Neo-Con Propaganda
and the National Review
Paul-Marie
de La Gorce
Making
Enemies
March
14, 2002
Dr. Susan
Block
RIP
Danny Pearl
Francis
Boyle
Bush
Nuke Plan Violates International Law, Again
Wayne
Saunders
Memo
to Paul McCartney:
There Are Two Kinds
of Freedom, Sir
H.P. Albarelli
Anthrax
Cover-up?
March
13, 2002
Amira
Hass
Are
the Occupied Protecting the Occupier?
CounterPunch
Wire
National
Review Editors Suggest Nuking Mecca
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Personal
Responsibility
for Corporate Elites?
Robert
Fisk
Arabs
Don't Want US
to Strike Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
When
Billy Graham Wanted
to Kill One Million People
March
12, 2002
Kay Lee
Dangerous
Changes in
California's Prisons
John Patrick
Leary
The
Return of Otto Reich
Wole Akande
US
is Being Discredited
in the Eyes of Africa
March
11, 2002
Hani Shukrallah
This
is the Way the World Ends
Tommy
Ates
Bush's
New Nuke Policy:
Target Allies and Enemies
Lidia Andrusenko
The Great
Chicken War:
Bush v. Putin
Dave Marsh
10
CDs Playing On My Desk
John Chuckman
Footprints
in the Dust
Norman
Madarasz
Max
Steel in a Time of Chaos
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The New Crusade:
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March 23, 2002
A Corporate Lawyer Speaks Out
By Russell Mokhiber and
Robert Weissman
Look at the law in each of the fifty U.S. states.
All have a provision similar to that
of Maine's section 716: "The directors and officers of
a corporation shall exercise their powers and discharge their
duties with a view to the interest of the corporation and of
the shareholders."
These laws make it the legal duty of
corporate directors and executives to maximize profits for shareholders.
Robert Hinkley would add a simply amendment:
"... but not at the expense of the environment, human rights,
the public  safety, the communities in
which the corporation operates, or the dignity of employees."
The provision would be enforced by those
who suffer at the hands of corporation wrongdoing. And in the
case of intentional wrongdoing, by criminal sanction.
For 20 years, Hinkley worked as a corporate
securities law expert, many of them as a partner at Skadden
Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, one of the world's largest corporate
law firms.
He wants to spend the next few years
campaigning for his amendment.
Now Robert, wouldn't your little amendment,
if it were enforced aggressively, for starters drive the internal
combustion engine off the market?
"To the extent that auto companies
can't find a way to make the internal combustion engine work
without emitting pollutants into the air, yes, it would,"
he says. "I prefer to think that it would spur the auto
industry to find a way to make money for its shareholders that
doesn't poison their air at the same time. It can be done."
Hinkley wants zero pollution.
He would phase in his amendment over
10 or 15 years.
"We say -- we are going to move
from where we are today to no pollution in 10 or 15 years,"
he says. "And we expect corporations to make progress all
the way through."
Isn't your amendment way too broad, and
vague -- "Not at the expense of the environment, the dignity
of employees, the public safety?" Your former colleagues
at Skadden Arps are going to have a field day with this.
Not at all, he says.
The securities laws operate largely on
the basis of companies being prohibited from making "false
and misleading statements."
"By not spelling this out in greater
detail, companies are generally more cautious," he says.
"When it comes to the public interest, whether its the
integrity of the securities markets or the environment, this
is a good thing. I would expect the same results for my amendment."
"The language of the amendment is
quite clear," he says. "It says we no longer want
corporations to pollute, engage in unsustainable development,
violate human rights, put dangerous products into the marketplace
-- or leave them there once their danger is understood -- leave
our communities in economic ruin by closing down plants and
simply moving away, pay employees less than a living wage."
"Like the Bill of Rights, the language
of the code is such that it can change with the culture over
time."
Wait a second, Robert.
A corporation is not allowed to profit
at the expense of "the dignity of employees"?
The Wall Street Journal editorial writers
are going to have a field day. Some employee is going to say
-- you are making profits and that's undignified.
"I think a court would tell that
employee that maybe he should do something else with his life,"
Hinkley responds. "There is an old maxim that the law does
not deal with trivialities. I think that maxim would be applied
in this case. Dignity is one of those words like pornography.
In the words of the Supreme Court 'I know it when I see it.'
An employee's dignity is violated when she isn't paid a living
wage, when her right to bargain collectively is not recognized,
when she is forced to work overtime against her will, and when
she is forced to work in unsafe conditions. I am sure there
are others. The amendment will give employees a different status
in the corporation from the one they now have. In addition to
being the 'company's most important assets,' they will have
to start being treated that way."
But Robert, if you pass this law in Maine,
then every major corporation will move to Delaware.
"I once sat next to a republican
Delaware legislator at a dinner in New York and he said to me
-- 'Bob, that's a great idea. You get it passed in the other
49 states and I'll get it done in Delaware.'"
Hinkley says that in Maine, there are
about 40,000 corporations on the books -- "39,950 of them
are small local corporations which don't pollute the environment,
which don't violate human rights, which don't endanger the public
safety, which treat all five to 10 of their employees with
dignity."
"They are good corporate citizens,"
he says. "It is the big corporations that create the problem.
That is where the system takes over. The local guy in downtown
Ellsworth, Maine has to walk through the town everyday. If he
messes with the public interest, the local people will not do
business with his company and he will be out of business. It
is the large public corporations that are creating the problem.
If this law is passed, will these other 50 companies pack up
and leave Maine? I don't think so. They will see it is the trend."
Hinkley says that his former colleagues
would for the most part be opposed to his amendment.
"Corporate lawyers are a peculiar
lot," he explains. "We make our living by representing
clients that are dedicated solely to the pursuit of their own
interests. You have to be careful when you are talking to a
group of people whose job it is to speak for someone else. Usually
they are responding to only what they see to be in their clients'
interests, not what is in the public's interest."
But he cites a Business Week/Harris poll
which finds that 95 percent of Americans agree with him.
In that poll, 1,100 Americans were asked
-- which statement do you agree with more strongly?
The first is -- corporations should only
be concerned with maximizing profits for shareholders, and if
they do, everything will be right with the American economy.
The second is -- in addition to being
concerned about shareholders, corporations should be concerned
about their employees, the communities in which they operate,
and sometimes they should sacrifice the interests of shareholders
for the benefit of employees and the communities in which they
operate.
Ninety-five percent choose the second.
Russell Mokhiber
is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter.
Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
Multinational Monitor.
They are co-authors of Corporate
Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy
(Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1999.
(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
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