Corporations are getting bigger and bigger, and their influence over our lives continues to grow. America is in an era of corporate ascendancy, the likes of which we haven't seen since the Gilded Age. (the time after the Civil War when Carnegie, Rockfeller, Morgan and others built huge fortunes through the establishment of near monopolies called trusts.)

Charles Derber, a professor of sociology at Boston College, believes that, contrary to the lessons our civics teacher taught us, it is undemocratic corporations, not governments, that are dominating and controlling society.

In his most recent book, Corporation Nation (St. Martin's Press, 1998), Derber argues that the consequence of the growing power of giant corporate multinationals is increased disparity in wealth, rampant downsizing and million dollar CEOs making billion dollar decisions with little regard for average American.

A couple of years ago, Derber wrote The Wilding of America (St. Martin'sPress, 1996) in which he argued that the American Dream had transmuted into a semi-criminal, semi-violent virus that is afflicting large parts of the elites of the country.

That book tried to call attention to the extent to which violent behavior could be understood as a product of oversocialization.

"The problem was not that they had been underexposed to American values, but that they could not buffer themselves from those values," Derber told us. "They had lost the ability to constrain any kind of anti-social behavior -- because of obsessions with success -- the American Dream."

By anti-social behavior, Derber means the epitome of Reaganism -- "a kind of warping of the more healthy forms of individualism in our culture into a hyperindividualism in which people asserted their own interests without regard to its impact on others."

At the time, Derber was interviewed on a Geraldo show about paid assassins -- people who killed for money.

"It was scary to be around young people who confessed to killing for relatively small amounts of money -- a few thousand dollars," Derber said. "They said things like -- 'you have to understand, this is just a business, everybody has to make money.' I pointed out on the show that this was the language that business usually uses."

At the same time, Newsweek ran a cover story titled "Corporate Killers." On the cover, Newsweek ran the mug shots of four CEOs who had downsized in profitable periods and upped their own salaries.

"These corporate executives tended to use the same language as the paid assassins on the Geraldo show, 'I feel fine about this because I'm just doing what the market requires"' Derber explains. "I develop an analogy between paid assassins on the street and those in the suites. In the most general sense, these corporate executives are paid hitmen who use very much the same language and rationalization. I argue that corporations are exemplifying a form of anti-social behavior which is undermining a great deal of the social fabric and civilized values that we would hope to sustain."

With the hitmen parallel fresh in his mind, Derber began writing Corporation Nation. In it, Derber points to the parallels between today and the age of the robber barons 100 years ago -- the wave of corporate mergers, the widening gulf between rich and poor Bill Gates' net worth (well over $50 billion) is more than that of the bottom 100 million Americans), the enormous influence of corporations over democratic institutions, both major parties bought off by big business, and a Democratic President closely aligned with big business (Grover Cleveland then, Bill Clinton today).

One big difference between then and now: back then, a real grassroots populist movement rose up to challenge corporate power, though it did not succeed in attaining its core goals.

Today, while there are many isolated movements challenging individual corporate crimes, there is no mass movement attacking the corporation as the cause of the wealth disparity, destruction of the environment, and all the many other corporate driven ills afflicting society.

Derber, a professor of sociology at Boston College, says that when he asks his students, "Have you ever thought about the question of whether corporations in general have too much power," they uniformly say they have never had that question raised.

Derber says that one good way to again build a populist movement to attack corporate power is to study the language and tactics of the populists of 100 years ago. He has, and he makes clear in his book that the original conception of the corporation was one of a public -- not private -- entity.

We the people created the corporation to build roads, and bridges, and deliver the goods. If the corporation didn't do as we said, we yanked their charter. The corporate lawyers quickly got their hands around that idea, smashed it, and replaced it with the current conception of the corporation, a private person under the law, with the rights and privileges of any other living and breathing citizen.

Thus, a quick transformation from "we decide" to "they decide."

Derber is a bit too modest to say it, so we will: perhaps the best way to rebuild a strong, vibrant and populist movement is to get this book into the hands of people who care about democracy. The corporations have us on the run, but we should pause for a moment or two, find a quiet place, and read this book.

 

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

 

To prevent this kind of sprawl induced water demand from destroying the Potomac, environmental activists, lead by the Audubon Naturalist Society, have introduced the American Heritage River Protection Act . The Act requires the MDE's Secretary to prepare a study of the Potomac River that includes:

The Act would seek to achieve interim protection of the river until the Potomac River Study is complete. The interim protection would including setting a minimum flowby of 450 million gallons per day (mgd). "Minimum flowby" is defined as the minimum daily flow remaining in the river after all water withdrawls. Currently, the Potomac's low-flow agreement sets 100 million gallons as the minimum daily flow (at Little Falls Dam).

In addition, the Act would (1) prohibit the construction of any water intake structure of more than 50 million gallons per day, (2) limit blasting of the Potomac River bed within 50 feet of the shoreline, and (3) mandate the construction of any intake at least 3 feet below the water surface at the river's historic low flow.

To ensure adequate implementation of the Act's intent and provisions, the proposed legislation includes strong provisions for public participation including: (1) the right of a person to commence a civil action against the MDE Secretary "where there is an alleged failure to perform any act or duty", (2) the right of a person to seek injunctive relief against any person including the State who is "alleged to have violated" the Act and (3) standing for any person who uses or enjoys the Potomac River.

This last provision, the guarantee of standing for the general public, represents a giant step forward for the right of Maryland residents to use the courts to enforce adherence to environmental statutes and regulations.

Support the American Heritage River Protection Act

The Potomac River faces many threats including point and non-point pollution, construction within the river, development along its shoreline and tributaries and over allocation of its waters. Public policy makers and the general public need a more thorough understanding of these threats to ensure that the State of Maryland can sustain and protect the ecological and economic functions of the river.

On November 6, 1998, President Clinton designated the Potomac River as an American Heritage River, a designation that "signifies the commitment of the federal government to join with the State of Maryland in achieving natural resource and environmental protection, economic revitalization, historic and cultural preservation."

The American Hertiage River Protection will provide teeth for those noble words and goals, allowing the Potomac River a kind of "time out" while its human users and neighbors figure out how to protect and sustain its critical water resources. For more information call Neal Fitzpatrick of the Audubon Naturalist Society at 301-652-9188 Ext. 3032 Or call Ginny Barnes, Conservation Chair of the Montgomery County Sierra Group at 301-762-9287.

 

The Maryland Chapter enjoyed a similar level of success. All of the endorsed candidates for U.S. Congress won. In addition, the national Sierra Club Political Committee targeted special support for the re-election of Representative Connie Morella and Governor Parris Glendening. For the first time, the national Political Committee mounted an independent expenditure campaign for two state contests: one being the Glendening/Townsend effort in Maryland, the other candidacy of Gray Davis in California. Both candidates won.

The independent expenditure campaign in Maryland paid for the airing of a radio ad critical of Ellen Sauerbrey's environmental record on two major radio stations in Baltimore the week before the election. In addition, the national committee conducted a "get out the vote" phone bank which complemented extensive phone-banking by Sierra groups in Maryland.

The overwhelming majority of our endorsed candidates for General Assembly won with only a few, very disappointing losses. Two setbacks occured in the Baltimore area. In the September 15th Republican primary, Senator Vernon Boozer, a a 20 year veteran with a League of Conservation Voters score of 100%, was defeated by a right wing challenger.

In the general election, a challenger in House of Delegates District 8, J. Joseph "Max" Curran III lost a close race to three incumbents with poor environmental voting records. Curran, son of re-elected Attorney General Curran (also endorsed by the Maryland Sierra Club) held much promise. We hope he'll try again in four years.

But there was lots of good news, too. In House District 11, Sierra endorsed challenger Bobby Zirkin won a close race in the Democratic primary and then joined imcumbent Delegate Dan Morhaim to win strongly in the general election. In the Baltimore County Council race, all three of Sierra endorsed candidates (two incumbents and a challenger) won.

In Anne Arundel County, grassroots environmental activist, Mary Rosso, won election to the House of Delegates by just six votes. Talk about your vote counting. Sierra endorsed candidate for County Executive, Janet Owens, won an upset victory over the pro-development status quo which we hope she will change.

In Montgomery County, group Political Chair, Betsy Johnson exclaimed, "We got our County Council back!", referring to the strong showing by Sierra endorsed candidates. The Montgomery Group made the most endorsements for state and county posts. Betsy and the group Political Committee did a superb job.

In Prince Georges County, Sierra endorsed candidate for County Council, Peter Shapiro, won. Peter is one of a new generation of political activists in the county, representing a change from the current "development at any cost" attitude of most county leaders.

In Howard County, former chapter staffer, Guy Guzzone, was elected to the County Council. Congratulations Guy!. In Washington County, Catoctin Group Conservation Chair, Joe Swope, lost his bid for County Commissioner but made a respectable showing in this his first run for public office.

Thanks go to the Maryland Chapter volunteers who did phoning, put out mailings, passed our leaflets, did literature drops, carried signs and morphed into Pfrank the Pfish in many appearances including the rally before the gubernatorial debate.

Special thanks to our outstanding Chapter Political Committee and our wonderful committee Treasurer, Rebecca Leamon; to Joan Willey and Nancy Davis for their guidance, to our Chapter ExCom, to our Chair and Newsletter Editor Chris Bedford, to Appalachian Region Staff member, Glen Besa, to the Maryland LCV for doing the General Assembly Scorecard. Extra special thanks to Appalachian Regional Director, Joy Oakes, for doing a tremendous job in assisting us. And finally, thanks and a hug to my wife, Erica, who helped in ways too numerous to count and put up with my inattention to my share of work around the house during the campaign.

To those Sierrans who have never been active politically, I say,"Politics is a lot of fun." Get involved next election cycle. You will meet a lot of great people and do something to truly help save our environment. I know I am looking forward to having another go at helping to elect pro-environment candidates. You can contact me at 410-661-7484