Doug Henwood wrote:
> The Nation - January 31, 2000
> [SNIP]
> Beyond immediate battles, this new movement will sustain itself and
> grow powerful only if it goes on the offensive--that is, if it can
> tell a positive story about how the world will look if its values
> prevail. It can do this with hard facts about the present realities,
> [SNIP]
> What follows is a rough draft of what this national legislation might
> look like (based on conversations with some leading activists and my
> own reflections). The central principle is that Americans have the
> sovereign power to impose rules on the behavior of their own
> American-based multinational corporations (notwithstanding the WTO's
> pretensions). Congress did so in 1977 with the Foreign Corrupt
> Practices Act, which prohibits corporate bribery in overseas
> projects. That law was passed in response to public outrage over
> repeated scandals revealing that major US companies were buying
> foreign governments. Human abuses present in the global system are
> far more grave than business bribes.
Now here's a conspiracy theory for you. General Dynamics bribes a Korean politician so Congress can pass a law against it so 30 years later some asshole in the Nation can use it as a model for diverting new political activity into the Democratic Party. It's positively providential.
Carrol