The necessity and possibility of corporate reform: Part 2. Reform strategies

Moving a mountain might be easier than moving government back to democracy and away from a corpocracy that has put government in the back seat and corporate America in the driver's seat. Corporate reform, with the exception of trying to reform the merchants of death (discussed at the end of this article), in contrast to government reform, may just be an easier way to slow America's sliding into a state of ruiNation. The introductory article ended by suggesting steps watchdog groups could take in searching for the "scoundrels and saints" among corporate America and its many allies.

Watchdogs that only watch are nothing more than lapdogs. We Americans ought to have had enough of an over fed lazy fed lapdog that lets corporate America exploit and harm us.   Just as obviously, no more effective than lapdogs are proposals that stay stuck to paper. This final article I hope is on "Teflon."  

Are there any instigators of corporate reform?

A few basically isolated and relatively impotent NGOs. At the considerable risk of some omissions and commissions I poured through my list of 100 some NGOs and found a few that were actually confronting corporations and industries in various ways such as sending petitions to corporations to cease particular kinds of wrongdoing; holding protests at corporations' headquarters (some ending in arrests); warning consumers of instances of corporate fraud; lock downs at banks; blockades of shipments; organizing actions to stop corporations' selling of unhealthy products; and exposing the most harmful corporations to a "Hall of Shame."

Activist Bankster USA www.banksterusa.org ; Beyond Talk www.beyondtalk.net ; Center for Corporate Policy www. corporatepolicy . org ; Center for Economic Justice www.econjustice.net ;   The Center for Justice & Democracy www.centerjd.org ; Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund www.celdf.org ; Corporate Accountability International www.stopcorporateabuse.org ; Corporate Ethics International   www.corpethics.org ; The Democracy Center www.democracyctr.org ; Greenpeace USA www.greenpeaceusa.org ; Mobilization for Climate Justice www.actforclimatejustice.org ; National People's Action www.showdowninamerica.org ;     The Peace Alliance www.thepeacealliance.org ; Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy. www.poclad.org ; Rising Tide North America www.risingtidenorthamerica.org ; United Students Against Sweatshops www.usasnet.org .

A few NGOs in supporting roles. As I was going through my bigger list I spotted some NGOs that are carrying out supporting roles like public education, activist skill training, helping to build grassroots movements, helping to organize oppositions to corporations, and helping to expand small and local business alternatives. Here are some of these groups:

Action for a Progressive Future www.rootsaction.org ; American Independent Business Alliance; www.amiba.net ; Brave New Foundation www.bravenewfoundation.org ; Business Alliance for Local Living Economics; www.livingeconomies.org ; Center for Community Change www.communitychange.org ; Center for American Progress www.americanprogress.org ; Citizen Works www.citizenworks.org ; Corporate Campaign, Inc. www.corporatecampaign.org ; Grassroots Leadership www.grassrootsleadership.org ; Liberty Tree Foundation   www.LibertyTreeFoundation.org ; Polaris Institute www.polarisinstitute.org ; Progressive Strategies, LLC www.progressivestrategies.net ; Reclaim Democracy www.reclaimdemocracy.org ; Rootstrikers   www.rootstrikers.org ; Ruckus Society www.ruckus.org ; smartMeme   www.smartmeme.org ; Sprawl-Busters www.sprawl-busters.com ; The US Chamber of Commerce Doesn't Speak for Me www.chamber.350.org .

A few scattered, disconnected and impotent movements. There are so many grassroots movements in America that a person cataloguing them once pleaded for help in recording the new ones sprouting. They usually start out and stay small-scale, limited to specific "back yard" issues that concern local communities or regions. The movement getting the most publicity today seems to be OWS and its offshoots that I lump together into Occupy America. As far as I can tell it's still an inward, process-oriented movement (for a cogent critique of it, see the article in the March 21, 2012 issue of OpEdNews.com by Danny Schechter author of the new book "Occupy: Dissecting Occupy Wall Street" with hands-on experience in civil rights and community organizing.

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