At 12:48 PM 11/14/2013, Wojtek S wrote:
>[WS:] Many companies have the so called "matching grants" policy - they
>will match donations that their employees make to nonprofits. So if the
>employees donate to right wing causes - which is hardly surprising for many
>IT employees - the company would match those donations. The rather trivial
>amounts from the IT companies seem to be consistent with this hypothesis.
>
>wojtek
>
>
>On Thu, Nov 14, 2013 at 12:24 PM, Jim Farmelant <farmelantj at juno.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/14/facebook-microsoft-rightwing-lobby-network-spn
> >
> >
> > Facebook and Microsoft help fund rightwing lobby network, report finds
> > State Policy Network rejects climate change, opposes workers' rights and
> > is backed by some top US tech and telecoms firms
> >
> > Ed Pilkington in New York
> > theguardian.com, Thursday 14 November 2013 09.33 EST
> >
> >
> > Microsoft, Facebook and Time Warner each sponsored SPN's most recent
> > annual meeting in Oklahoma City. Photograph: Dado Ruvic/Reuters
> > Some of America's largest technology and telecoms companies, including
> > Facebook, Microsoft and AT&T, are backing a network of self-styled
> > "free-market thinktanks" promoting a radical rightwing agenda in states
> > across the nation, according to a new report by a lobbying watchdog.
> >
> > The Center for Media and Democracy asserts that the State Policy Network
> > (SPN), an umbrella group of 64 thinktanks based in each of the 50 states,
> > is acting as a largely beneath-the-radar lobbying machine for major
> > corporations and rightwing donors.
> >
> > Its policies include cutting taxes, opposing climate change regulations,
> > advocating reductions in labour protections and the minimum wage,
> > privatising education, restricting voter rights and lobbying for the
> > tobacco industry.
> >
> > The network's $83.2m annual warchest comes from major donors. These
> > include the Koch brothers, the energy tycoons who are a mainstay of Tea
> > Party groups and climate change sceptics; the tobacco company Philip Morris
> > and its parent company Altria Group; the food giant Kraft; and the
> > multinational drugs company GlaxoSmithKline.
> >
> > More surprisingly, backers also include Facebook and Microsoft, as well as
> > the telecoms giants AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Verizon.
> >
> > The CMD study uncovered a public document that listed SPN's funders in
> > 2010. They included: AT&T and Microsoft, which each donated up to $99,000;
> > and Time Warner Cable and Verizon, which each contributed up to $24,000. In
> > addition, Facebook, Microsoft and Time Warner each sponsored SPN's most
> > recent annual meeting in Oklahoma City in September.
> >
> > Lisa Graves, the director of the Center for Media and Democracy, said it
> > was "disappointing" that Facebook and the other technology and telecoms
> > companies had "put their hat in the ring, given SPN's extreme agenda that
> > includes climate change denial, making it harder for Americans to vote, and
> > attacking workers' rights." She called on the firms to "reconsider their
> > support, as it is at odds with science and common sense."
> >
> > Tracie Sharp, the president of SPN, rebutted the charge that it operates
> > as a rightwing lobbying network. In a statement, she said that the network
> > was dedicated to providing "state-based, free-market thinktanks with the
> > academic and management resources required to run a non-profit
> > institution". Each of its 64 member thinktanks were "fiercely independent,
> > choosing to manage their staff, pick their own research topics and educate
> > the public on those issues they deem most appropriate for their state."
> >
> > But she added that "every thinktank, however, rallies around a common
> > belief: the power of free markets and free people to create a healthy,
> > prosperous society."
> >
> > The State Policy Network operates a tech/telecom policy exchange in which
> > it campaigns against taxes on internet shopping and against the regulatory
> > activities of the Federal Communications Commission. Though much of that
> > thinking could not reasonably be characterised as what the CMD report calls
> > an "extreme rightwing agenda", the tech and telecoms companies' inclusion
> > on the list of funders puts them alongside some strange bedfellows.
> >
> > The Guardian invited the technology and telecoms companies to respond to
> > the allegation that they have sponsored a network devoted to "extreme"
> > rightwing causes, but most either declined to comment or had not responded
> > by the time of publication.
> >
> > In a statement, a spokesperson for Microsoft said: "As a large company,
> > Microsoft has great interest in the many policy issues discussed across the
> > country. We have a longstanding record of engaging with a broad assortment
> > of groups on a bipartisan basis, both at the national and local level. In
> > regard to State Policy Network, Microsoft has focused our participation on
> > their technology policy work group because it is valuable forum to hear
> > various perspectives about technology challenges and to share potential
> > solutions."
> >
> > SPN works in parallel with the American Legislative Exchange Council,
> > Alec, a forum that brings together largely Republican legislators and
> > corporations to devise model bills that are used to attack workers' rights
> > in various US states.
> >
> > The Koch brothers have donated directly to the network either personally
> > or through corporate funds from Koch Industries and from family
> > foundations. Two closely-related funds, the Donors Trust and Donors Capital
> > Fund, described by Mother Jones as the "dark money ATM of the conservative
> > movement", give at least $1.5m a year channeling money to the network
> > from individual donors whose identity the funds obscure.
> >
> > Several prominent rightwing billionaire donors are also involved,
> > including Art Pope, an ally of the Koch brothers; the Walton family of
> > Walmart, which funds SPN members in Arkansas, California, Massachusetts and
> > Washington state; the foundation of billionaire Republican donor Richard
> > Mellon Scaife; and the Searle Freedom Trust, created out of the fortune of
> > the creator of NutraSweet, which funds a number of conservative causes.
> >
> > Graves said that the individual thinktanks who make up SPN present
> > themselves as "neutral, non-partisan groups, but are in fact part of a
> > national network to project the voices and interests of some of the most
> > powerful corporations and families in the country".
> >
> > Gordon Lafer, a professor at the University of Oregon, said that SPN
> > groups were actively targeting the rights of often non-unionised employees.
> > His research had uncovered attempts to expand the use of child labour, cut
> > the minimum wage, reduce unemployment benefit, make it harder to sue
> > employers for sex or race discrimination, or even to police wage theft
> > where companies refused to pay workers over-time or any wages at all.
> >
> > "These are a very dramatic package of proposals at a time of economic
> > hardship, and they are being rolled out in a cookie-cutter fashion from
> > state to state, and affecting the lives of working people across the
> > country."
> >
> > Lafer added: "This looks like scholarship from local organisations, but in
> > fact it is neither neither scholarship, nor local."
> >
> >
> > ____________________________________________________________
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> >
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>
>
>
>--
>Wojtek
>
>"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."
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