NOVEMBER 1997 · VOLUME 18 · NUMBER 11
B E H I N D T H E L I N E S
NOVEMBER 1997 · VOLUME 18 · NUMBER 11
B E H I N D T H E L I N E S
MONEY FOLLOWS POWER. That age-old axiom has been illustrated once again, now by a new study from the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Responsive Politics. The study, "The Big Picture: Money Follows Power Shift on Capitol Hill," shows that individual and political action campaign (PAC) contributions from business shifted dramatically to Republican members of Congress following the Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994.
When Democrats controlled Congress during the 1993 to 1994 election cycle, 51 percent of all individual and PAC contributions went to Democrats, with the remainder 49 percent going to Republicans.
With Republicans in control, from 1995 to 1996, 63 percent of all business PAC and individual money went to the GOP.
"The abrupt flip-flop of business contributions is clear proof that money follows power," says Kent Cooper, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. "Had ideology or philosophy been the primary motive for earlier business contributions, we would not have seen this sudden shift."
"We now know that at least 20 percent of the earlier business contributions to Democrats were pragmatic business decisions -- not financial support motivated by sympathy for the candidates' political views," he adds. "Business contributors understand that those in power control the agenda for setting the policies that impact their bottom lines."
The Center for Responsive Politics study also put a final price tag of approximately $2.2 billion on the 1996 elections. Business interests made $653.4 million in soft money, PAC and individual contributions -- more than 11 times the $58.1 million that labor contributed, the study found.
DENMARK IS CONSIDERING A TOTAL PESTICIDE BAN. In response to calls from members of parliament to make the country totally organic by 2010, the Danish government is initiating an assessment of the impacts of a total pesticide ban in the country, reports the Pesticide Action Network North America Update Service (Panups). A government-convened committee of experts will study how a pesticide phase-out would affect Denmark's economy, environment and health. The committee will include representatives from government, the food and chemical industry, labor and environment, consumer and health organizations.
"I hope the committee will recommend a total pesticide phaseout within a couple of years, and we are looking for the rest of the European Union to do the same eventually," Panups quotes Jesper Lund-Larsen, an official with the Danish General Workers Union, as saying.
THE THAI AND LATINO WORKERS who worked in virtual slavery in Los Angeles have won $2 million in back wages. In August 1995, federal and state law enforcement agents raided the compounds in El Monte, California where the workers were held in bondage, freeing them from a regime in which they were forced to work up to 20 hours a day for less than $1 an hour.
In a settlement reached in October, five clothing designers and retailers agreed to pay the 80 Thais and 70 Latinos. B.U.M. International. L.F.Sportswear, Mervyn's, Montgomery Ward and an unnamed fifth company denied knowledge of the sweatshop conditions.
The sweatshop was run by seven Thai nationals; all pled guilty last year to federal charges of conspiracy, indentured servitude and harboring illegal aliens, and are serving three to seven years in prison.
The Thai workers, who entered the United States illegally, have been granted work permits and are now employed in legitimate factories, according to Julie Su, of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, which represented the workers. Su says she believes the Latinos also remain in the United States.
SHAREHOLDER RESOLUTIONS may remain part of corporate accountability activists' toolbox. In November, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission retreated from its efforts to impose new rules that would make it much harder for shareholders to file resolutions intended to promote corporate social responsibility.
Under current regulations, shareholder resolutions can only be reintroduced from one year to the next if they obtain 3 percent support in their first year, 6 percent in the second and 10 percent in the third. Under the SEC proposals, the thresholds would have been raised to 6, 15 and 30 percent, extremely difficult levels to reach.
In the face of environmentalist, labor and shareholder denunciations, the SEC announced it will extend the comment period on the proposed regulations until early 1998, and asked two corporate governance lawyers to work on a compromise.
Corporate accountability activists now hope the proposed rules will be rescinded altogether.
The issue is "so compelling from an investor rights-social responsibility point of view" that the public will inevitably oppose the proposed rules in overwhelming numbers, Michelle Chan-Fishel of Friends of the Earth told Greenwire.