This is interesting — not only did several of them quit the councils, but some of the most effective lobbying on behalf of DACA is coming from CEOs. No rose colored glasses here — there are straight economic reasons to support DACA — but it seems like we have an opportunity to partner with business to oppose the Trump agenda. In my mind that’s building relationships, not selling out. And I do think that some of them are standing up for moral reasons as well as economic.
I think we should build strong relationships between the moral leaders in business and progressives. Access is everything in politics, because direct communication does influence people. I would like to see alternative councils between business leaders and local representatives and community leaders. We have to build up strong grassroots networks in all directions, in case of worst case scenarios coming up. (ok, enough doomsdaying. But even a small chance of worst case scenario is scary)
Link:
I’ve read Joel Bakan’s The Corporation and I agree with his basic premise, that corporations are soulless entities that are explicitly putting profits over people.
But, the people leading the corporations are also people. Most of them see themselves as decent people. Having conversations with them may be important, because if we don’t, they don’t see us as people and aren’t even exposed to other points of view. And also holding individual humans to account long term is possible — one of the fundamental problems with corporations is that they don’t exist in the long term, not really — the people can change. So we should talk to the actual people, even if they run businesses.
