AUGUST 1980 - VOLUME 1 - NUMBER 7
G L O B A L S I G H T I N G S
AUGUST 1980 - VOLUME 1 - NUMBER 7
They Said It(An occasional Global Sightings column featuring musings from the establishment press.)"The Corporation Haters" This article ridicules the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a National Council of Churches organization comprised of nearly 200 Protestant and Catholic denominations and orders, and a consistent sponsor of shareholder resolutions. Fortune scoffs at ICCR's blend of religious and social concern: "Above all, the religious connection provides respectability and legitimacy. What better way to challenge the existing system than to brand it as an offense to the will of God?" Washington Post September 1, 1980 "In their conceit, the poor nations are attributing their poverty to the imagined exploitations of the North rather than to their own economic systems," Post columnist R. Emmet Tyrell, Jr. observed, writing of the North-South Dialogue for a New International Economic Order. As to the substantive question of resource transfers, Tyrell made these helpful observations. "There has already been a rather massive transfer of resources from North to South. Wherever the orators of the Third World. gather, you will always see an abundance of Rolex watches, Monte Blanc fountain pens, Italian silks, Seville Row tailoring, Mercedes Benzes and so forth." New York Times July 13, 1980 "The hearings, organized by the United Nations Council for Namibia . . . had an obvious ideological axe to grind, with most witnesses sounding as--if they found capitalism and colonialism equally repugnant." noted this Times news story on the recent U.N. inquiry on uranium mining in the South African-occupied territory The Times neglected to mention until more than half-way through its article that multinational mining in Namibia was prohibited by the l'.1. in 1974. Nowhere does it state that many of the Western countries "hose corporations mine and market Namibian uranium have repeatedly supported World Court and U.N. Security Council rulings outlawing all foreign investment in Namibia. Instead, the Times focused on how mining was booming, and left the indictment to those with the ideological axe: "As filtered through the political prism of the Council for Namibia this week, the statistics on uranium mining took on a diabolical glow." |