Corporations Are Not Humans : Not Even Close---Episode 24

                             BUILDING BUSINESS LOBBIES

    Business roundtables are national associations of the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the largest transnational corporations. Whereas more inclusive business organizations such as national chambers of commerce and national associations of manufacturers include both large and small firms representing many different interests and perspectives, the members of business roundtables are all large transnational corporations firmly aligned with the economic globalization agenda. 

The first business roundtable was formed in the USA in 1972. Its 200 members include the heads of forty-two of the fifty largest Fortunate 500 U.S. industrial corporations, seven of the 
eight largest commercial banks, seven of the eight largest U.S. transportation companies, and nine of the eleven largest U.S. utilitites. In this forum, the CEO of DuPont chemical company sits with the CEOs of his three major rivals : Dow, Occidental Petroleum, and Monsanto. The head of General Motors sits with the heads of Ford and Chrysler---and so on with each major 
industry. In this forum, the heads of the world's largest U.S.-based corporations put aside their competitive differences to reach a consensus on issues of social and economic policy in America.  The U.S. Business Roundtable describes itself as : 

     an association of chief executive officers who examine public issues that affect the economy and develop positions which seek to reflect sound economic and social principles. Established in 1972, the Roundtable was founded in the belief that business executives should take an increased role in the continuing debates about public policy. { Fuck governments; they're too democratic.} 
   The Roundtable believes that the basic interests of business closely parallel the interests of the American people, who are directly involved as consumers, employees, investors, and suppliers . . . Member selection reflects the goal of having representation varied by category of business and by geographic location. Thus, the members, some 200 chief executive officers of companies in all fields, can present a cross section of thinking on national issues. 

   The Roundtable, surely one of America's most exclusive and least diverse membership organizations, has an unusually narrow notion of what constitutes a "cross section" of thinking on national issues. With few, if any, exceptions, its membership is limited to white males over fifty years of age whose annual compensation averages more than 170 times the U.S. per capita gross national product. Its members head corporations that disavow a commitment to national interests and stand to gain substantially from economic globalization. Once positions are defined, the Roundtable organizes aggressive campaigns to gain their political acceptance, including personal visits by its member CEOs to individual senators and representatives. 
   The Roundtable took an especially active role in campaigning for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Recognizing that the public might see free trade as a special--interest issue if touted by an exclusive club of the country's 200 largest transnationals, the Roundtable created a front organization, USA*NAFTA, that enrolled some 2,300 U.S. corporations and associations as members. Although US*NAFTA claimed to represent a broad constituency, every one of its state captains was a corporate member of the Business Roundtable. All but four Roundtable members enjoyed privileged access to the NAFTA negotiation process through representation on advisory committees to the U.S. trade representative. Roundtable members bombarded Americans with assurances through editorials, op-ed pieces, news releases, and radio and television commentaries that NAFTA would provide them with high-paying jobs, stop immigration from Mexico, and raise environmental standards.
   Nine of the US*NAFTA state captains (Allied Signal, AT&T, General Electric, General Motors, Phelps Dodge, United  Technologies, IBM, ITT, and TRW) were among the U.S. corporations that, according to the Interhemispheric Resource Center, had already shipped up to 180,000 jobs to Mexico during the twelve years prior to the passage of NAFTA. Some among the NAFTA captains were corporations that had been cited for violating worker rights in Mexico and for failing to comply with worker safety standards. Many were leading polluters in the United States and had exported to or produced in Mexico products that were banned in the United States.